Jealous puppy

[MarjoryWhinfield]

We have a 5 year old terrier cross breed, male who is castrated and a pure jack russell bitch who is 10 months old. She isn't spayed yet, had her first season in December so will be soon.

They usually get along great. However in the last few daysI've noticed she's being very nasty with him. In particular when I'm cuddling or playing with him, even when it's with her as well.

This morning I noticed scratches on his hips/legs and have seen her humping him a lot. He is quite large for a terrier and she is very small. He's getting frightened of her now and will hide behind me when she comes into the room. This evening she has sat growling at him whenever I stroke him/say his name.

I have been trying to encourage her to sit together nicely with him but she just sits on the chair and sulks. I've made sure that if one's on the floor that the other is, and fed them apart and removed their toys and tried giving her a fuss when she's been nice.

We were planning on getting her spayed in the next two months on vets advice, is this hormones or likely to be behavioral?

[daisydotandgertie]

Hormones, I expect.

All bitches go through the entire hormone cycle from their season through to pregnancy regardless of whether they've been mated. The affect these have varies from bitch to bitch but to some extent all of them will have a phantom pregnancy.

Gestation is 9 weeks - when did her season start? Is she producing milk?

[MarjoryWhinfield]

Her first season was during december, not sure of the date but stopped bleeding by christmas.

She hasn't had any milk, and is definitely not actually pregnant but the phantom pregnancy is something I hadn't thought of.

Will it still be safe to have her spayed during march/april?

Many thanks daisydot

[daisydotandgertie]

Well, a season lasts on average for 28 days - of which about 2 weeks of that is marked by bleeding. About 2 weeks in bleeding stops and they ovulate (although some ovulate as early as day 7/8, others as late as day 22/23). Some bitches will bleed again after ovulation, and some don't.

Ovulation is the point at which they are most attractive to males - and will often behave like shameless trollops to get at the boys too.

You can work out roughly where she is in her cycle by guestimating the date of the first day of her bleeding. My guess is that she is struggling with hormones at the moment and could well get worse before she gets better.

Symptoms of a phantom can show from as early as 4 weeks after the season began and can include the full range, from nesting to lactating to carrying toys around as though they were puppies. It can also change their behaviour patterns quite a lot.

It will pass, and it's likely to be gone by late March/April. If she starts lactating or becoming really unhappy take her to the vet and ask for help for her. They often fob off, but if she's really struggling, persist - especially as you want her spayed fairly soon.

I would wait until all symptoms had gone before I spayed her though.

[MarjoryWhinfield]

Thank you so much daisydot that was such a big help. I haven't noticed any of the phantom pregnancy symptoms you mentioned but will keep an eye out because this is such a huge change in her character very suddenly.

I will make sure to mention it to the vet when we get her checked before spaying if it persists, but hopefully it'll settle down. She is still growling at our boy and being very possessive of me today, though.

Thanks again.