The two most common questions asked by dog owners who have a bitch that has not been neutered or desexed, are – Is my bitch coming into season? and – How do I know if my bitch is coming into season?

In fact it appears that even though we live in an information age – there is still some confusion about the whole topic of dog mating and dog breeding.

Firstly – to make identification of a female in heat easier, you’ll first need to know your dogs age, as accurately as possible? This is because a bitch can come into season from the age of 6 months – to as late as 12 months.

You’ll need to start looking at the bitch closely though – at around 6 months of age.

PLEASE NOTE – a bitch is still very immature mentally and physically at their first season – and should NOT be bred from! Professional breeders are obliged by their breed associations to breed ONLY from 12 months onward.

If you’re NOT a professional breeder – but you CARE about dogs; please don’t breed them at first heat! They do much better generally, and when looking after pups etc, from 12 months on!

See the 2 X photos below of the same Staffordshire bitch – the 1st pic is vulva prior to coming into season, the 2nd is in mid-season.

Normal vulva

Enlarged vulva (same bitch)

Early Warning

One of the first signs for the observant owner may be an increase in frequency of urination, this begins a stage of “scenting” an area to let male dogs know of their condition. This can occur around 2 weeks prior to coming into season and may also be accompanied by an increase in the dog licking its vulva in an effort to keep themselves clean.

More Obvious Signs (Pro-oestrus)

Much more obvious, (lasts about 7-9 days) generally the vulva begins to swell first – can go to as large as TRIPLE its original size. Importantly though – you will need to have been observing prior, so that you know the original size – in order to detect the swelling. Also usually the bitch will become more dominant with other females and may begin to “flag” male dogs – ie, putting her tail up and presenting her rear to the nose of the male dog. It should be noted however that the bitch will NOT allow a male to attempt mating at this point!

Oestrus (Standing Heat)

(lasts between 2-21 days – this is when ovulation occurrs) It should be remembered that we are dealing with animals here not machines – so each bitch may differ; some bitches (and one of ours) may go straight into a blood stained discharge, without really swelling at all, and in our case the swelling followed later!

Hopefully you had been paying attention to the size of the vulva – so now dab with a tissue from time to time over the next days – in order to not miss progress. Any discharge though, may vary in intensity from bitch to bitch, however though the discharge may or may not start off brown in colour, it will always progress to red.

At this stage also most dogs appetite will decrease, though this is not always the case.

Needless to say all of this is VERY obvious – if you miss it, I would suggest that you might need to take your pulse and see if you are still alive! LOL

If you are planning to mate your bitch – Dog Breeding or Mating OK to Go for tips on what to do next.

Steve