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.

It is impossible to control even a well- trained dog when he scents a bitch on heat. My dog howls for the rest of the day/ night when he's encountered a bitch on heat. He becomes obsessed. Please just get her spayed. And please don't breed from her. Rescues are bursting at the seams right now. All dog breeding should be stopped for the foreseeable future IMO.

You walk very early or late. It's really bad manners to do anything else.

If you don't want to do this, spay your dog.

And if you can't spay your dog, then you are having extremely early and late walks on lead if she is walked.

My parents had bitches and we always walked them. In those days neutering was not that common.
I remember my Mother buying a spray which was intended to mask the scent.
My Mother was normally an incredibly intelligent woman but even though the instructions stated spraying at the base of the tail, for some reason she sprayed the tip, which didn’t really work.
Mum has been gone for many years now, but I still smile at that memory.

We did a lot more activity in the garden and used fenced, secure dog walking fields a lot, where we could have sole use of the space.

If you are walking an in-season bitch in the middle of the day, you are asking for trouble really. Dogs will do anything to get to a bitch in heat. You need to protect your dog, and get her spayed before the next season rolls around.

YABU to walk a bitch in heat around others - dogs can smell her for literally miles around and will do anything to get to her. The poor lady, she may well be able to control her dog day-to-day but yours sent her round the bend. If you do take her out you must walk your bitch where no other dogs are, either very early in the morning or late at night. But dogs will still jump/escape gardens if they catch her scent.

When my dog was on heat for the season prior to spaying she stayed at home and played brain games in the garden. Tbh she was quite miserable and tired so she didn't fancy much walking anyway

Our dog is 3 and currently in season. We haven’t been out for a walk, we do training, garden play and brain games for a few weeks. She hasn’t died of boredom yet over the past few years. This is her last season though. We left it this late after a lot of reading around on the pros and cons of late v. Early spaying of this particular breed. We certainly don’t want her to get pregnant, so we make sure that can’t happen by keeping her confined to our property.

I've always walked mine on the lead. Away from others as much as possible.

We walk our unspayed working dogs in season all the time with no problems. We try to avoid people/other dogs all the time anyhow, not just when they're in season! Just be sensible. It's extremely irresponsible for anyone to own a dog so large they can't control it if it scents something irresistible - whether it be food or lust. So the other dog owner is failing her dog. But I would examine your reasons for leaving yours unspayed - unspayed females can have problems, not least of which are those cited by others ie, being attacked by out of control dogs. However your reasons are your business. ☺️

I used to walk my dog a few years ago during season before she was neutered. Other people should be able to control their dogs. Having a highly active and well exercised dog and not being able to walk them for 2-3 weeks, twice a year is ridiculous.
Regardless of the size of the dog, she should have been in control of it.

I was attacked by a male dog (jumped up behind me, dragged claws down by back and knocked me over, before the owners came and stopped it) when I was around 9 years old when I was out playing with friends. The concensus was this happened as I had a female dog in season at home and the male dog could smell it on me 🙄🙈

It's extremely irresponsible for anyone to own a dog so large they can't control it if it scents something irresistible

I really don't think that's fair.

Even the best trained dog can lose their minds around an in-season bitch - and they don't even have to be entire for it to happen either.

My own dog tried to climb out of a 6ft tall window to get to a bitch before we got him fixed!

You mean she'll almost certainly die if she has puppies?

And if any of them survive, they'll also inherit the blood disorder?

Are you absolutely sure you've thought through the consequences of not spaying?

I’m so surprised by some of these responses. IMO you were doing exactly the right thing by walking your dog away from places where dogs are generally off lead. Of course she shouldn’t miss out on walks entirely.

The woman you met should never have been out alone with a dog she couldn’t restrain. It’s not safe for anyone, including the dog.

I agree that dogs in general can do things that are a bit unpredictable - and your case sounds hard to forsee! But what I mean is many people buy or even rescue animals for reasons that can be wholly laudable, but without considering the extreme conditions that can crop up, as dogs can be totally loopy! In the case of someone walking a large dog, I think that's predictable and they should have considered that scenario before buying the dog. I hope your dog was ok. I just think responsible dog ownership is quite hard to do but they are very rewarding animals. 😌

Unless it is a very small dog it’s extremely difficult to control a dog when it smells a bitch on heat, even small dogs will nearly strangle themselves trying to get to the bitch. Get it spayed, I’m sure a vet could deal with the blood issue. You’re putting her at far more risk walking her, with the chance of her getting pregnant.

A bit tangential, but can I ask about the secure dog-walking fields? Is it an informal arrangement with a nearby farmer? Or are they specific facilities, with bookable time-slots and so on? If the latter, would a female in heat not leave enough pheremones to create problems for subsequent male bookings? Never come across them before, sounds interesting!

^This spay your dog.

MN will tell you it’s fine.
It’s not really though is it?

If a dog latches on, your dog will get pregnant. It’s all very saying other people should be able to control their dogs blah, blah, blah (and yes, they should) BUT it won’t change the fact your dog will then be pregnant!

No one here is going to assist you with those costs or rehoming your random breed puppies, are they?

Yesterday I was walking thorough a park- a pretty much empty park and an XL bully (Jesus Christ I’ve never seen such a muscle bound dog in my entire life) came around the corner OFF lead!!!!!! With the owner running behind saying he’s just a puppy, he’s fine! 🥵Trust me, an army wouldn’t have gotten that dog off another.

Sorry my reply here was in response to @mountainsunsets and what sounded like a difficult situation. One day I'll get the hang of this.

I've seen dogs the size of chihuahuas slip their leads to chase in season dogs.

A bitch in heat is practically irresistible to a dog.

You should never walk a dog in season, it’s incredibly selfish and stupid. Even the best trained male dogs lose all self control when they get a scent. My friends (normally amazingly well behaved with perfect recall) dog was run over after a man walked a bitch in season near a park. He got the scent and ran straight across a main road.

We walked ours when she was on heat, just kept her on the lead, and there were no issues. Must have been lucky. However we got her done after one season as per recommendations. If your dog is 3 she must have had a few seasons.....are you planning to get her done?

There is such a thing as laparoscopic spaying I.e keyhole surgery. This should minimise the risk of haemorrhage.

Can I ask what happens in households with more than one dog and a bitch goes into season and they also have male dogs? How do they keep the male dogs from going loopy?

I think OP is being given a very hard time to be honest. I am not a dog owner but the idea that you cannot walk your bitch at all sounds unreasonable to me. Educating others in the risks is fine, being rude about it isn’t. This is something the vets should inform widely about - maybe they do, I honestly don’t know. I’m not getting involved in an argument about it, just came on to support OP and say you’re not the only one who didn’t know about this.

I always find these threads interesting as the onus often seems to be entirely on the owner of the bitch.

Why isn’t there also an onus on the owner of an uncastrated male dog who is productive 365 days a year to have it under control?

We have a bitch and walk her in season. We choose routes where we are very unlikely
to meet other dogs. Never had an issue and on the rare occasion we do still meet another dog, the owner has been happy to put it on a lead and it’s been fine.