Hi everyone. At what point do you say to your self (if its ever happened toyou) " thats it for this year my girl must have had a silent season" ? This would have been her 3rd season. She is 2yr and 3mth old. Her first season she was 9mth old her 2nd season was 8mths later (october 09) and we are still waiting for her 3rd. She hardly swells looks more "puffy" and this is what she did on her last 2. She is pushing her bum into us all when she can, every now and again she is trying to mount my large wooden dog  orniment (same breed !) which is in the living room. Im wiping her everyday but nothing. I have a 6mth old puppy which trys to go behind her and have a smell (girl) and she is also trying to smell the puppy then try and get on her ! I also have a male (same breed) who was all over her last year but ive since had him "snipped" and hes not interested in her like he was last year (which i think is winding my girl up lol ) she also got an infection last time when she was coming to the end of her season and was treated with antibiotics to clear this up by my vet (it did the job). Thanks in advance everyone. jenny.

Hi

They do like to play the guessing game with us don't they.

It might be worth getting her blood tested to see if a season has occurred/occurring.  If its past it will tell you. 

I shall be following replies on this one myself!  :-)

I have a bitch born May 2008 and, after her first season, she has only had slight swelling and no blood loss.  Although the boys have been interested, it hasn't been the same as they would be if it was a "proper" season.  I did want a litter from her, but I'm wondering if she is ever going to come into season properly, and whether I should consider having her spayed.

I have a nearly 4 year old that has had only had  2 seasons in her 4yrs.
My vet said unless I want to breed then it should not be an issue for her....if I did want to breed then we would have to investigate further incase of any problem on the inside....or of course have her spayed.
Well she is very fit and healthy and just recently had the 2nd season of which was very normal.
I have all girls so difficult to tell if she has a silent or not.
So unless you intend to breed and your bitch is healthy then just enjoy the silent seasons.

One of my girls was 2 and 2 months with her first season, she was mated on her 2nd season 12 months later and went on to have a very healthy litter of 9!!  Which is quite big for a cocker.  My vet was certain she hadn't had a season of any sort before because her vulva was so tiny, but even after a litter of 9 and 3 seasons later, her vulva is the size of a puppy.....lol.  She whelped 5 of the 9 naturally, but ended with a section due to the bad position of a big pup.

Hi everyone just thought i would let you know me and my girl are going to the vets 3pm today to find out if she has had a silent one. So i will let you all know when i get back. Fingers crossed she hasnt ! xx

Hi everyone. Well i was meant to take my girl to the vets 2 weeks ago to get a blood test to see if she has had a silent season,but i cancelled the appt as i thought i would give her untill the end of this month to see if she would come in. Well she hasnt so we are going this thur 3pm ! It is 11mths now since her last 1 which was oct 09. Ive been racking my brains reading all my books searching on the internet to see if i can find anything that might give me a clue as to why . Then i started to think about her last 2 seasons i remember on both of these she didnt "swell" just went "puffy" and it took about 2/3 wks before she bled,when she did bleed it was red blood at the start but then went like a rusty brown in the middle then back to red. And on both seasons she stunk the house out with what our vet said was her letting  her "come and get boys " scent out. What i was wondering has anybody experianced this the "rusty brown blood " in the middle ? Is this normal ?I also have read that alot of bitches blood goes pink in the middle or stops which is a sign of ovulation. My girl has  never had pink blood or stopped and then start From what i have read im being told of books/internet that brown blood is old blood and should be at the end.   Do you think it is something i should ask my vet to investigate ? She had a infection at the end of her season but was treated and worked. Thanks everyone. Jenny. xxxx

A uterine infection?? I would think that would definately have an affect on her season and I would watch her very carefully for signs of the infection returning.

Hi everyone. Me again ! Well we went to the vets and we ws given antibiotics as it turned out she did have an infection. So we have taken the meds and she is fine . Well fit and healthy. My vet said that she has probs had a silent season and just to  wait till next time, thats fine we are going to do just that. So how do i estimate her next season ? As like i said before her last 1 was OCT 09 so ive only that to go on. Do i just continue to watch and wipe ? Also our other little girl is due her first season anytime now and Daisy from yesterday is constantly smelling her , chasing her , trying to mount her, then i nearly fell off my chair when i observed this next bit ! Daisy started to go into flirt mode ( Poppy thought she was playing a game ) then Daisy was twitching her "flower" trying to raise it ! Shes not swelled if anything its gone down so is this just a reaction to poppy getting ready to come in or could things be stiring in daisy ?The way daisy is behaving at this moment is not normal behaviour from her unless she is in heat. I do have some pre mate strips do you think its worth using one to see if it  tells me anything ? Thanks in advance . jenny

That's quite normal behaviour from some of my bitches when one of them is coming in season. 

It may well be that the youngsters season will bring the other in.

Watch and wipe.

Lol,  sounds like mine.  It can start weeks before and continue weeks before.  one good advantage of having a tart, she might be easier to mate.

Not in our Jozi's case, she wanted to be a stud dog, not submitting to one.

Thanks Brainless and Sunshine for the advice. I would like  to ask another question. Because its been a yr since her last heat do you know  what are the chances of this happening again ? Thanks Jenny. xxx

My old girl had slowed down on her seasons, when the young ones came along, she went back to a regular cycle again so the little one could well do.  i have three consecutive seasons all starting with a day or two of each other.

My old girl get water infections now when she's in season due to her legs so needs antibiotics.  The vet suggested that the first sign of anything coming in or smelly to put on preventative AB's.  A little hard with your girl maybe but it might be worth keeping a calender of this date, the pups date and watch in 5-7/8 months. 

its possible her season could settle down to a different cycle or this might be hers.  I've seen other posts where the girl has mated and had pups with a yearly cycle.

Forgot to add, when my old girls started slowing down, she would have one 'full' season followed by a 'puffy' season with nothing there.  hope it helps

> I've seen other posts where the girl has mated and had pups with a yearly cycle.
>

A yearly cycle is what is actually normal in the wild and very primitive breeds like the Basenji still have yearly cycles.

many breeds have late starts to seasons and some go longer intervals.  My friends Welsh Springers came in every approximately 10 months. 

I understand it is not unusual in GSD's to have 4 - 5 months cycles.  Individual bitches and breeds vary, so reproductive patterns do seem to be strongly inherited. 

What were her mothers/sisters and other female relatives seasons like.

Hiya to everyone who advised me, just an update. This morning i saw my 2 girls daisy and poppy both smelling and chasing each other ( been going on for weeks ) so just the usual, then i saw daisy licking her paw so ihad a look to see she was ok,there was nothing there,could feel nothing,  so i just thought i will keep an eye on her, anyway as i was messing about in the kitchen, daisy, poppy and freddie all wandered off in to the living room, i followed with first brew of the day, i then thought i would give poppy a wipe to see if anything was happening season wize,i then decided to wipe daisy even though i had given up on her having a season this yr. Well i was right, nothing ! 10 mins later  i had gone back in the kitchen i noticed a drop of blood just outside poppys crate so i thought i would wipe poppy again just to make absolutly sure i hadnt missed anything,so wipped her and nothing, so i thought its got to be coming from daisys paw that she keeps licking so wiped her paw again but nothing ! So i wiped her "flower" just to make absolutly sure and yep you guessed it.... shes bleeding ! Ijust hope my story will lift everyone whos going through what i went through and not to give up or get down. Also i cant believe how  15mins before there was NOTHING and 10mins later she had started to bleed. It is 1 yr since her last season. thanks to everyone for the advice given. xxxxxxxxxxx

That has given me hope lol, its nearly 8 months since Willow,s last season :( Im thinking perhaps take her to vets for a general check-up.

Good luck k9ours,it will happen. xxx

8 months or longer may simply be her cycle. certainly wouldn't' be looking at blood tests unless she hadn't been in season fro over a year.

I am waiting on one of mine who went over 8 months last time and is coming up for the same length of time since last season.

> its nearly 8 months since Willow,s last season

My bitches have always cycled at 8 to 9 months. How many seasons has she had, and what was thegap between them?

One of my girls is always between 12 - 14 months

My girl hasn't had silent seasons, but we suspect she had a split season for her first. That finally took place at 9 months old, so I religiously counted the weeks and the second one came in 9 months later. I was pretty happy with that, thinking it would certainly be easy to remember. No such luck! Her next season (when we hoped to mate her) took place 12 months after the 2nd, ruining our plans, as we wanted her to do Crufts as I'd been unwell and hadn't been able to take her before. Thankfully, she won her (large) class and went on to have her 4th season 8 months after the 3rd, was mated successfully and is currently on D56! Just to add to the excitement, our newest girl seems to be coming into season at nearly 10 months, but we'll wait and see!

Willows first season was July when she was 1 year old, the 2nd season was Feb 17th this year, so she has just gone over the 7 month mark, perhaps I am panicking for nothing:), just have to try and be patient..... knowing my luck she will come in as we start new classes at Ringcraft next week lol.

I have one bitch who has them every 10 months and the other every 11. I think of it as lucky really as at least we only have to go through it once a year per dog and not twice! The longer the better!

Hiya . Well i mated my girl and the stud owner used the DRAMANSKI to detect ovulation, they was very confident with it, had alotof success with it then we came along ! Yep my girl missed ! My head is pickled ! This is the second time i have failed, the first time she was mated she was mated on the 9/11/13 day and we used our male with a handler. Then this time i found a stud with an excellant line that would compliment my girl perfectly,the stud owner said he would use the DRAMANSKI to detect ovulation and to fetch her down day 8. Yep so day 8/10/12 she was mated on the advice of the stud owner and the DRAMANSKI,he told us anything over 300 (temp) she was ovulating,so day 8 she was 400 so she was mated stud was very willing also my girl,then day 10 she was 200 then he tried again and she shot up to 400 but this mate was not a very good 1 the stud was not as interested as he was day 8 and i could tell he wasnt that keen when he mounted her  but they did tie. The stud owner said to fetch her back day 12 for last mate but said that he expected her readings to have gone down and be under 300. Day 12 turned up he did the temp and he was very shocked she hadnt gone down but had gone even higher than the last 2 readings she was now at 460 ! So they mated and tied ! Then a few days later i noticed my girl was going up to my boy at home and raising her tail so high i never new my breed could raise it as high as she did! And her "flower" was also raised soooo high,higher than she had been doing the week before ! So my heart sunk ! Iknew i had missed and that she was infact ovulating then and not on the early days ! She also did this on her first mate with my boy ! The thing is a few of my friends think there is something wrong as they dont believe some females do ovulate late, they say all there girls they have mated has always been mated on the day 8-14 day and i have to admit they have got pregnant ! When i rang the stud owner to tell them what my girl was doing at home a few days after the last mate he said " some girls do this but they are not ovulating they are just flirting"! "The Dramanski is rarely wrong" I have read book after book after book researched on the net and tried talking to some of my friends,i have read every post on this forum and from what im reading it does happen some girls do ovulate later than the "rule". Im gonna try 1 more time with my girl and trust what she is telling me from her behaviour towards my male and im gonna mate her when she tells me when shes ready ! Only thing is my confidence has been knocked quite badly ! ! Look forward to your replys any advice would be brilliant thanks in advance. Jenny xxxxxxx

It's sometime since I used my Draminski and I can't even find it to check the directions for use but I believe the idea is to use it every day from early on in the season to get an idea of the pattern. Your girl might have had a 'false peak', so mated too early. I have heard of a bitch's reading being 1200 and still no pups, every bitch is different every time (unfortunately).

One time I started to test on day 6, it said 350 but my dog was keen, had one mating, next day she wasn't interested and had 13 pups. If you go through the posts on here the times when bitches are ready vary wildly. Day 6 was the earliest and day 28 was the latest mating we ever had pups from.

Why don't you use the progesterone blood test next time, that will tell you WHEN your girl has ovulated.

Hi not sure if my border collie (2 years) is having a silent season ? She had first at ten months then full season at seven months later and now it's nearly nine months since last - although other dog showed interest in her and she was weeing a lot on walks and behaviour was awful there has been no swelling or blood. She is extremely fit and muscular as she does fly ball and runs a lot and does obedience - now I wonder if she is too slim for seasons. As I want to breed from her will I need to stop her activity and feed her more ? Rather worried now ??

It can take time for a young bitch's cycle to settle down so in that, other than maybe getting her checked out by a vet (what is he going to be able to do in any case really?) I think you just have to wait.   Assuming there's nothing else going on (always thinking about the possibility of a Pyometra which males would smell!).    I don't think this has anything to do with her being slim/active.   After all bitches in the wild are always trim which is actually better when it comes to breeding.

If her hormones are all over the place, you may find it difficult to get her in whelp in any case - and perhaps in her case, spaying might be a better option.

I also use a draminski but not on its own. I think it is useful to give an idea but my bitches read much higher than yours and the earliest I have ever mated is day 15.
My ( now old ) neutered boy is still a good guide and I jsut watch the behaviour of my bitch with the other girls.
Still last time my girl had 10 and comes from a line of girls with fairly large litters. This time she had just 5 which was still great as all were fine.
As the stud dog was at the other end of the country and I was worried about missing we went up and stayed for 3 days and got 2 good matings.
3 days after getting back she was flirting big time with my neutered boy and to be honest with no other signs I would have taken her to be mated then but it was too late.
She took but  I wondered whether the small litter was as a result of being too early as the Draminski was reading high. The problem with it is inconsistency of readings and whether you are using it right.
I phone the retailer here each time I have mated a bitch LOL

Would the boys still be interested if a bitch was having a silent season?  My girl had her last season 15 months ago. Her last litter (we kept a boy) is now over a year old. Was just wondering if she had a season and we didn't realise.

Mine has one per year if at all. three in just over 4 years. I am not worried and she is fit and well