Why would a spayed bitch be so attractive to a male dog?!

[reallybadidea]

The mother of a friend of mine passed away recently, leaving a 9 year old terrier cross breed. My friend, although a dog owner, isn't a terrier fan and I offered to have her if she got on OK with our existing dog (a 6 year old intact male terrier).

He brought the female dog over yesterday, who he is certain was spayed as a puppy. She is a lovely dog, although has a few problems with her ears and a cyst/growth on her side, which we were going to get sorted with our vet. I think she's been a bit neglected by her previous owner in all honesty and I was hoping we could give her a loving home in her old age.

Our dog has lots of doggy friends, so I wasn't anticipating any problems, but within about 30 seconds of meeting her he went bonkers. I've never seen him around a bitch on heat before (obviously, as he is intact!) but he acted as I would imagine he would if she was on heat: he wouldn't leave her alone, sniffing and licking her bottom area, following her around, trying to hump her. He was like a crazed thing! We tried to distract him with his favourite treats, toys etc, but he didn't even notice them. He was focused on one thing only - getting his leg over!

After a while I shut him in another room to give her and him a break and he barked and howled continually for over an hour when I finally admitted defeat and asked my friend to take the dog away again. He sniffed where she had been and then stopped and went back to his normal self.

I'm really upset, I was so hoping that this dog would come and live with us and I'd spent a few hours with her already and started to bond with her. She's a gorgeous girl.

I'm going to neuter our dog (we'd planned to do this anyway) and then try again, but I'm unsure whether it will make much difference tbh. He has unspayed female doggy friends who he is semi-interested in but generally leaves them alone once he's had a good sniff. It occurred to me that maybe there was something about this dog in particular. Has anyone else come across anything similar?!

Very often this is due to an ongoing infection of some kind (she may well have one, given the ears etc). I'd get her seen by your vet and take a urine sample with you, as low grade urinary infections often cause this sort of reaction in males.

That's interesting, thanks. She is back with friend - there was no way at all she could stay with us as things stood as both dogs were very distressed. It sounds as though there could still be a possibility we could still take if it's a medical issue which can be sorted out.

Most commonly urinary tract infections and anal gland infections. I have also know ear infections be responsible. In very rare cases you have ovarian remanent syndrome. I have seen tens of UTIs causing this and one ovarian remanent syndrome.

Some bitches just seem to remain attractive to dogs even when there's nothing physically wrong.

DDog2 was spayed at six months old, she's now seven years old and she's always been really attractive to entire dogs. In fact DDog1 (who was castrated but we're not sure when) even managed a couple of slip matings with her

We've also had three male puppies in recent years and as each one has started to reach maturity they've shown excessive interest in her and have had to be castrated to stop it.

She's been checked for UTIs multiple times, her anal glands are fine and she shows no sign of ovarian remnant syndrome. It's really weird but it just seems to be how she is.