Should I not be walking a dog in season?

[Salamamca]

My 3 year old dog is in season. I have been walking her on road walks where we’re less likely to encounter off-lead dogs.

Yesterday there was a woman walking this GIANT dog on the other side of the road, it looked like a Newfoundland/St Bernard but with German shepherd colouring - I swear it was the biggest dog I’ve ever seen. Anyway I carried on walking and then this huge dog suddenly dragged its owner across the road to come to us (luckily, no cars on what is normally a pretty busy road), she couldn’t hold it back at all, he dragged her with ease. They get to us and it tried to sniff my dog and my dog snapped at it but we couldn’t get away, when we tried to carry on walking it just dragged it’s owner along with us. She said she couldn’t understand what was wrong with him as he’s never done this before so I told her mine was in season. She said “well why on earth are you out with her then?. In the end a bloke from across the road came and helped her hold her dog whilst we got away. (And even he was struggling!)

Its really shook me up. She will be in season for weeks, surely we’re not expected to not walk her for 3 weeks or more?? I’ve always walked her in the past with no issues.

@PoseyFlump I wish we had some Swedish and Norwegian people to tell us how they manage!

@gnilliwdog it would be good to get their perspective! It's always interesting when you find out different cultures do things differently successfully and then you start to question if we're 'right'. Like I don't drink dairy anymore but I was so scared of stopping because we've been conditioned to believe that you need to drink milk every day or something bad will happen. I'm old enough to remember warm milk at school we were forced to drink 😂

allthingsnordic.eu/swedens-dog-culture-a-story-of-equality-and-lagom/

Found this- they seem more geared towards dogs than us.

There must be a hell of a lot of dogs being pts in the U.K right now. Shelters are full. I began dog walking as a volunteer and the amount of dogs coming in is insane. They’ve started asking for people to foster them. It’s a mixed bunch, some puppies/teenagers- some very old. It really does break my heart, but I can see why someone wouldn’t want to rehome an elderly dog- your basically going to inherit high vet bills (or at least it’s very likely you will) combined with not having the dog for that long.

@mountainsunsets bull shit about dogs jumping out of windows!!

What a lovely article. Hey OP in Sweden your dog has a legal right to a walk every 6 hours, and an intelligence and personality test to make sure she's healthy, agile and mentally well balanced! That is so sad, though, @Suzi888 , that there are so many dogs coming in to the shelters here.

That’s quite shocking tbh.

I saw a rescue advertising for a home for a 22 year old staffie the other day. Apart from being old, he was in perfect health. 22 years old..

@Suzi888 wow that's a fascinating read! Their list of musts for dog owners are common sense but I know a lot of dog owners in the UK who would fall short of some of those. Especially the law to walk a dog every 6 hours!

For the people who are asking what happens if your dog walks past a bitch in heat in her own garden? They break in its how mums dog got caught she let the dog out for a wee and was waiting for the male dog by the gate with a bucket of water (he had been there before) little fucker snuck in the back through the fence got her there lots of puppies later she was spade (and they were all shapes and sizes as they were both mixed with goodness knows what) strangely enough she bumped into one of the male puppies a few years later he apparently was as determined as his father and had got a bitch pregnant under pretty similar circumstances 😉

Not bullshit at all.

My own dog did it - saw it with my own eyes.

He climbed out of the window (one of those top opening ones), jumped five foot to the floor and would have leapt our garden wall if DH hadn't been out there and grabbed him.

Next door neighbours in-season malamute was in the garden whining and pacing - thankfully DH was there as they'd have made an interesting litter 🤣

Interestingly enough, next door was only fostering the malamute for a few weeks as the owners' other dog was male and the owner couldn't keep them separate 🙈

I've also known bitches to scale fences and jump out of windows to get to dogs when they're in season - it's not just owners of entire males who have this issue.

So suddenly the bitches you've know have because me males you've had owned?

Amazing!

*become males you've owned

So suddenly the bitches you've know have because me males you've had owned?

Huh?

I have a male dog. I also work with dogs - both male and female, and live in an area that's hugely popular with dogs.

Yes, my own male dog tried to escape and get to an in-season bitch next door. He's now neutered and has never even attempted to leap out of the window since.

Through my work and also my connections with local rescues, I also know of several un-neutered female dogs who have escaped and taken themselves off in search of a mate.

Is that a bit of clearer for you now? 🙄

Nope, still sounds like bull shit!

HTH!

I have a Lhasa apso male and he gets soooo distressed and totally out of character when he comes across a girl on heat. He’s small so obviously easy to control but it’s so unfair on him how stressed it makes him so from that perspective I’d say it’s selfish to walk her at peak times

My vet advised me last week not to neuter my dog. He said that unless there was a real issue with his behaviour, it's best to leave him intact.

So yeah, the notion that all dogs must be neutered is old fashioned and out of date.

This is exactly what my vet told me last week. And given that my dog's behaviour is fine, he's not humping anything or roaming or overly aggressive - then he was happy to advise leaving him intact.

Neutering dogs doesn’t necessarily stop them humping anyway.

It definitely doesn't. One of my boys neutered used to do a funny little jiggy dance but my other neutered boy would proper hump with his sausage right out he was too afraid of my bitch to consider humping her so he used to try humping my other boy instead. He still wants to do it now he's older but stops with a verbal command. I often wondered if getting them both neutered while very young stopped them maturing properly. Like a puberty blocker almost? Definitely will give it a lot of thought if I get another dog.

Yep. In fact, out of all the dogs I walk, the only ones who hump are either a) neutered or b) female

@mountainsunsets funny you should say that because my female only ever does a humping action in one specific circumstance. Most walks are on foot from our house. Occasionally we go further afield in the car and this is when she gets really excited because we're going somewhere 'special' and she humps my boy. (Who looks at her like she's gone crazy).

Yep, humping is often due to excitement or over-arousal rather than anything sexual, which is why neutering often makes no difference.

I used to walk a little female cairn terrier who liked to hump my beagles leg - he just stood there looking at me like "WTF is she doing mum?"

I ummed and ahhed about getting my dog neutered for all the reasons mentioned on this thread. He can be nervy and is hit and miss with other dogs so I waited until he turned 3yo.

It's now been 3 months ish post castration and I haven't seen any difference in his behaviour at all however there's definitely been less aggression directed towards him from other dogs on walks.

He is also less frantic if he meets a bitch on heat, before castration he would be wound up for the rest of the day.

😂 I can just imagine his expression! Dogs are great. You just need to understand them!