Hello to all.  As some of you know, I've been breeding (one of the bichon breeds) for over 25 years and won't be doing so for much longer due to my age.  But surprises never cease, and right now I am observing a heat in my female "Nimue" (age 6) which is, well, different.  My vet did a progesterone test on day 14 and said that the result was "7". I'm not very familiar with the progesterone scala, as I have rarely tested for progesterone, but my vet said that this indicated that the high point was just passing.  However, it was only on day 16 that my two live-in males went crazy for her, and she was mated by the one who is still "in use".  Today is day 22, and they are still carrying on, she flirting and switching her tail, the males still mildly interested, enjoying the flirt.

Nimue showed no color for the first two weeks or so of this heat, but during the third week I saw a bit of light color.  The last two days (days 20-22) she has, however, started to show a little more color, first pink, then a darker version of same, very little in volume, and the vulva seems very soft, softer than before.  I've spoken to my vet, and because Nimue seems absolutely fine, he said we will just keep an eye on her and wait a bit still before assuming that anything might be wrong.

In my long experience, when the heat is over (around day 18 or so), it is OVER.  Always a wonderful moment of relief, considering that I live with both the males and the females (6 dogs in total).  But this time - new to me - it seems like this will never end!  It seems almost like a new heat is following the one we've just been through.  This is, of course, only a way of describing my personal take on the symptoms.  Can any of you experienced breeders tell me anything?

In breeding there's really never a dull moment, always something one's never experienced before, always something to learn! 

Yes Nimue.  I had a Yorkie bitch doing exactly the same.  My vet called it a split season, even though I felt it went on too long to call it that.  It was more than 10 years ago, but I still remember that she whelped 5 pups, no problem at all.

Dear Jean SW,
Thanks so much for your reply.  I know how experienced you are, so I really value it.  Interesting that you should mention a "split seaon", because I wondered about that too and asked my vet about it.  He dismissed the idea on several grounds (not least of which her age: 6 years).  I just checked Nimue (it's early morning, just got up), and I see that there is no more discharge at all. The boys are still attentive, and she seems to really enjoy that and wishes the admiration would continue.  Especially as the boys are no longer pestering her, just courting her a bit.  But the whole thing seems to be petering out, slowly but surely.

Just been through something similarly odd. I have a two year old maiden bitch that we planned to mate to our 2 year old male who has had four previous matings with outside bitches all of which were completely very efficiently if you know what I mean. When our girl came in season we expected everything to go smoothly after all we had the pair of them here and they are really bonded. We started allowing the male out with her on around day ten because we saw her standing quite happily for one of our neutered males. She would appear to be standing for our stud, he would hop on and hump but wouldn't penetrate her. We were allowing them to try for a while morning and evening when it was cool. By day 14 we got a vaginal cytology swab to see if perhaps we had missed it. At home my other entire male was getting more and more frenzied. Swab said she was getting there and hadn't gone over so we carried on with the meet ups between the two young lovers! Got to day 18 still nothing. Had another swab done and still viable. Day 19..... Yep..... Day 20 she's starting to go over so it's now or never!!! Long story short we had an A.I mating. Throughout this bitch was keen to stand for anyone that would listen. She bled "normally", blood turned pink in colour at the end but there was still some blood there at the time of the A.I.
Two days later we had her running around with both dogs again, it was all over. I'm not hopeful of getting any pups even though there are some subtle changes to her behaviour from the day after the A.I. Not troubling changes BTW and not exactly unexpected I suppose. Of course she could have a raging phantom or something but we're monitoring her closely and will get her scanned soon to try and confirm her status.
Over all it was just strange. We thought perhaps it was because they live together, the "home dog" syndrome kind of thing but it kept on looking like it was going to happen!!

The only time I had anything like a split season was with a bitch who was mated on days 10 and 12.  Her discharge had gone the way of all our others - fading to a pale straw colour by the time she went into standing heat.  She returned to quite a blood coloured discharge in her third week however,  which had me thinking maybe there was no pregnancy.  As it happened she had an uneventful pregnancy and produced 9 of what were probably the best puppies we'd ever had.   We did no testing.   Just went by what we saw and how our boys were reacting.  And incidentally in that, although they showed interest through the first 10 days or so, it was only during the end of the seasons that  they were most upset!

Any false pregnancies happened after they'd have given birth, not during the time they'd have been pregnant.