How do I know if dog is in season?

[Supervet]

She's a definately more whiny and is cleaning herself more but I haven't seen any blood. She's a 9 month old Whippet. She's booked in day care Friday so I need to know.

I realise it's a dumb question Btw, I've just always had males

her vulva will swell which is the most obvious sign. she will bleed for a few days but will be in season about a week before and a week after bleeding.

The season lasts around 3 weeks in my bitch. The first week, she needs to wee more, and licks herself more, and her vulva swells up. Then in the second week, it swells even more and she bleeds, it isn't that noticeable because she is good at keeping herself clean.
The end of week 2 and week 3, she is catnip to boys. The bleeding tails off into brownish watery discharge. The swelling goes back down towards the end of week 3

A season conventionally lasts about 28 days and day one is taken as the first sight of blood.

The vulva is usually significantly swollen for the entire season and bleeding can continue for the entire 28 days.

I've never known a season as described by AddictedtoGreys, except for the swollen vulva part.

To check whether your bitch is in season put a white sheet into her bed which will show any overnight blood loss, and use a white tissue to blot test her vulva during the day. My girls don't get whiny during their season, but do get very defiant in the two weeks preceding it.

Daisy is bang on day 1 is first day red blood can be seen. There is huge variation in length of season sometimes bleed 7 days and attractive to males after that sometimes bleed for three weeks and attractive to males for three weeks. There is variation between bitches and between an individual bitches consecutive seasons.
In maiden bitches ( first season) the vulva will swell shortly before the season to an adult size. It will never return to the prepubescent size.

My Daisy is a week in to her first season. I had seen signs for 2-3 weeks prior that something was happening - mainly male dogs being extremely interested in her back end (meant that an adult doberman who had not wanted to play before suddenly started playing with her like a puppy!). I had got to the point of wondering whether she was having one of those asymptomatic seasons when we got the first drops of blood.

Her vulva is now swollen and obvious from the back end. The mop and bucket is a permanent fixture in the kitchen at the moment. But the blood was the first sign.

daisydot
Yes, the defiance! Actually the first sign that our bitch is coming into season is that her recall isn't as good!