Dog in heat won’t go for walks! Is this ‘normal’??

[Snooks1971]

We are fostering (and will be adopting) a 5 year old Am Bulldog cross, I’ve posted before about her diarrhoea issues and it turns out it is very probable that she has Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Syndrome). At least we now know and we can deal with that...
We’ve only been fostering her for 2 weeks and 2 days but she’s settled so well with us.
When we walked her at the rescue every weekend she would put the brakes on if it was raining etc fair enough - a fair weather walker we thought.
Last week she was hugely reluctant to walk and had to be persuaded and cajoled, then she would be fine.
Last weekend it reached a head and the brakes go on as soon as we get outside. She’s so excited when her lead is picked up though!
On Sunday she started spotting blood and now just will not walk at all. She’s exhausted as well.
Are we analysing her behaviour too much? She used to love her walks. Any advice/clues?
We’ve never had a girl in heat before, the rescue centre are so busy with dogs that have huge issues and so I thought I would ask here.

[missbattenburg]

Giving this a little bump for you, OP - mainly because I'm interested in the answers

[MarleyMooChick]

They can get miserable. Mine has had 2 heats & is going to be neutered in December. The first one was in February when she was 9 months, & she was very sleepy & not interested in her toys or playing, but became more lively on her road walks. She basically had her nose on the ground sniffing everything.
The second one was in August when she was 16 months, & again stopped playing with us & wasn't interested in toys. Still happy to go on walks, but was very slow and hanging behind me, again nose to the ground constantly.
Both times she was very clingy.
7 weeks after the 2nd she went into a mild false pregnancy. She's producing milk & keeps digging at her bed nesting. She's in her 3rd week of it at the moment. I didn't notice anything after the first heat.

[spot102]

Don't recall my previous unmetered spot being reluctant to walk, I do remember her peeing every where in an 'i'm here, in season, come and get me ' type manner. She was very driven to walking anyway, though. And she did get terrific phantom pregnancies as well - nesting and lactating. So definitely the hormones do affect them.

[Wibbz]

I would say speak to a vet. Our girl was a bit mopey when she was in heat and needed cuddles. We didn't take her out for a walk while she was in season , as per advice we were given by the rescue we got her from and she managed fine. Good luck!

[Snooks1971]

Oh gosh thank you everyone. I’m so sorry to be ‘that’ OP who posts and runs and doesn’t acknowledge pp kind responses!

So she hasn’t been for a walk for a week now, she’s been actually bleeding/spotting for a week today (well, this evening). Really hope that the reluctance to walk is related to being in heat, although from what pp have said being in heat shouldn’t make her not want to go out?? Also, she’s only been living with us for 3 weeks today, could it be possible she doesn’t want to go out because she doesn’t realise yet that she will be coming home afterwards? She went from a (neglectful) home of 5 years, to approx 6/7 weeks at the Rescue, now to us 3 weeks ago, with several vets visits latterly. Maybe we should just keep trying but not force it. We had some lovely walks during the first couple of weeks!

Here she is fast asleep next to me ❤️

[hairyheadphones]

My dog wasn’t interested in going for a walk when she was in season, happy to stay in forabout 10 days. Prior to that she was a very active puppy (only 8 months old).
Then I just look her for on lead walks until her season was properly over. She then had to build up her stamina again and was soon back to being her very active happy self! She then had her spay so she wouldn’t have to go through that again!

[Snooks1971]

@hairyheadphones thank you that’s interesting. Our girl will be spayed once her health issues are stable (the possible IBD) and she’s put a bit more weight on. Bless her, she’s been through the mill.