Hi, I thought I'd just make a quick appearance after two weeks leave and just to say I am supposed to be going to the Hound Show at Stafford on Saturday which would be my first ever champ show with my beagle pup. But after picking her up yesterday from kennels after two weeks, we now find she's in season. I know this is something you have to expect when you have a bitch, but I after looking forward to this for weeks it is a huge disappointment. Never mind, I know there's plenty of other shows.

Hi Sarah,i'm sorry you won't be at the Hound show i was looking forward to meeting you and your new baby.....we mated our bitch last week,she came in 2 mths before we calculated....natures a wonderful thing eh ???
Let us know where you will be next and we'll try and meet up.
hang in there !i tell my owners the amount i've wasted on entries just to have them come in season unexpectedly !when they cant decide over a dog or bitch pup.........if it wasn't that we enjoy the occasional litter we breed i'd have all boys !!
good luck with her and hope to meet up soon
regards
Pauline

What a disapointment, but if you are prepared to keep your bitch with you, say in the car if it is not too hot until the bitch classes start, there is nothing to say you can't show her if you want to. But as a dog owner, please don't bench her. The Hound Show is easy as far as keeping the bitch away from the dogs is concerened so if you want, then do.

Deodorant Bitch tablets will help as will a wet-wipe dosed with TCP :). It helps to disguise the smell of the bitch and keep her clean. I know someone who does this if they've been caught out with dates and the dogs ignore the bitch totally. Good Luck.

I've been told BAC to Nature Bitch Spray is the best thing you can get to cover the aroma.

Do you know where you can buy BAC to nature spray? Is it sold in pet shops?

I wouldn't bring her to the show, but I would go to the show anyway as everyone says it's a very good one and well worth attending. Will be my first year there.

Wendy

Now I'm in a real dilemma. Do I or don't I bring her. It seems a 50/50 split on whether people would show a bitch in season. Plus, I don't know how far into her season she is and the kennel staff were no help as they hadn't noticed, expect when they were cleaning her kennel after she'd left. At the moment she is still slightly bloody but doesn't seem as swollen as she was at the weekend, although she is very frisky - especially with our 14year old spayed labrador bitch! Help!

If it were dogs first (as it is normally) and you only have the bitch entered
i would arrive later and take her in her class.
I was also told a bit of vicks vapour rub works wonders on keeping dogs away,though be careful you dont put it on her bits only by the side :-0

I bet that would sting a bit! Dogs are on first, and I was planning on arriving later and, obviously keeping away from the dogs, and not benching her. I think if we do go, which I am now considering, we'll be easily spotted as Willow will smell like a chemists! - TCP, Vicks vapour rub plus all the doggie deodrants!

Good luck Sarah :D

Just remember to take your wet-wipes to keep her clean in the ring (going round the ring always seems to make any blood loss worse :rolleyes: ) and I bet no-one notices she's in season after all the worrying :)

Thanks Dill,
I'll remember to add the wet wipes to the list - and give her the occasional 'dab' in the ring!

Hi Sarah just to add to your medicanal chest bitch just before you enter the ring you can put some vaseline on her to stem the flow try to be one of the first to be gone over and then the judge doesnt end up with messy hands ;). Gillian

Thanks Satincollie - I'll add this as well!!! Must make myself a shopping list then start looking forward to the show!

sarah email or ring bac to nature the bitch spray is great.

Vick vapour rub ??? :( :( that sounds awful

Please be careful about advising these things some people may go too far with that one

Hi Mattie

I have never used it but you dont layer it on
just a little either side of the dog.
If it waslayered on it would make a mess of the dog let alone
it would be sore,just enough to mask the attractive smell of a bitch.

Thanks everyone.

I've ordered some Bac to Nature bitch spray which you've recommended and should be with me tomorrow. Now all I have to do is forget about my nerves!

Sarah I have to admit I am really surprised at the response of people to bring her. Every other time this topic has come up everyone has agreed that it is rude and unfair to bring a bitch in season to a show even though they all know it is done. I think the ultimate decision is down to you - but have a read through some of the old threads on this topic and you'll see why I'm surprised.

I personally wouldn't bring an in-season bitch to a show, and until this thread I didn't believe I was in the minority! I did bring a bitch 3 days after the last day of her season and still felt it was somewhat unfair to have her there.

Wendy

Sorry but I would say to not take her!
I really dont think you will be very popular if you do amoung the dog owners, as a dog owner myself, well if I knew there was an in season bitch near my boy at a show, well I would be livid, very irrisponsible in my opinion! and anyone who has ever seen the effect that an in season bitch has had on a entire male would aggree with me,
Also have you not thought of the risk of infection?
:-(
Vikki

I, too, would not take her. We've been in this position with Loki - who started to show signs of coming into season on the way home from Paignton - so she has missed out on South Wales, East of England and Pastoral & Working!

I know that bitches go in after dogs - but usually, we have to use a ring that has been used previously by another breed (we have Australian Shepherds and it is rare that we are 1st in the Ring). We can all tell if a bitch in season has been in the ring before, - first the puppies jump up and down, and then the dogs mess around. It's bad enough going into a ring where the breed before has been "baited" and bits of bait remain on the ground.........

Margot

I agree with the past three posters, it would be completely unfair on other dog owners at the show to have an in-season bitch there.

Alison

If people didn't exhibit in season bitches the show numbers would dwindle! I wouldn't do it at an open show full stop, BUT, a champ show, where dogs and bitches are not exhibited together and you can keep her out of the way untill her time in the ring, well, do you really think you will be the only one???? I think not!
Dawn.

I have male dogs and showing them after a bitch in season is a nightmare!!!! If your breed is the ONLY breed scheduled for that ring then I suppose its not so bad but otherwise what about the poor people who have dogs in the next breed?We all pay our entries and one reason I chose dogs was because of the inconvenience of having to pull out of shows so IMO its unfair to affect others chances due to your bitch being in season.
Archer

No Dawn, they're not shown together - but you can have another breed following your in-season bitch into the ring!

I mean no disrespect but if you think people don't do it you are living in cloud cuckoo land! most people don't give a monkeys! I know a person who showed her dog at E of E the other week, won her class, then took her straight from the show to be mated!

Now I of course have never done it!
Dawn.

The same happened at SWKA in my breed, a bitch was there who was going straight for mating after the show. I showed my girl who had just finished.

I looked after my friends Dobe bitch when she had her first season, and in that time she went to 3 shows. It would seem to be done quite openly in that breed.

In my own breed it seems to be done on the quiet. If asked every one seems to say it shouldn't be done, but then you find the same people find their bitch come in at the show, lol:D

Yes - at E of E, it was SOO funny (because I wasn't at the other end of the lead) to see one large Leonberger - who is normally so well-behaved - trying to follow a bitch who had just come into season ;) ;) being restrained by his 5'0" nothing, weighing 8 stone owner - her heels were so well dug-in they made craters!! She reckons that her arms grew another 6 inches!!

Seriously though, we know it happens, we've paid our fees, etc, there are only so many Champ shows at which one can qualify, but even so, I do feel that one should "do as you would be done by" - I know that as a "smaller" breed we do follow other dogs into the ring - and I don't appreciate showing a dog that hasn't got his mind on what is going on, because of the scents on the ground - and I won't subject other people to the same inconvenience. JMO!!

Margot

Well,

I thought I'd add my twopenneth worth to this.

I chose a bitch and had interest in showing. But I wouldn't take her to a show when in season in fact I'm missing 3 shows because of this all three Championship shows, both her litter sisters have qualified already for Crufts. But there is plenty of time and why should I ruin someone's day with a dog just because my bitch is in season andI've no paitence, to wait 3 weeks or so.

If I'd have chosen a dog I wouldn't be happy, if someone brought a bitch in season.

I know it's done and people in and out the breed (like ringcraft) told me I'm stupid not to bring her everyone does.

But I wouldn't follow them off a cliff so why do something I disagree with!!!!!

Karen

We all know it happens-doesn't mean its right!!It must be heart braking to have to miss a show you've looked forward to but as the other poster says-do as you would be done by.
Archer

I really think it should be a rule one way or another. In Europe you cannot show a bitch in season.

When at the World show the dogs were vetted in, and our chap at least checked all the bitches vulvas for signs of being in season. All the dogs were walked up a ramp on the way into the show.

Some other people said the vetting was more cursory, but I saw both mine having Their bits tilted up to check.

As it is some people do, somne don't and others frown at the ones who do, or think the ones that object are unreasonable.

It certainly upsets the males in my breed, and even if our own exhibitors are good and don't bring in season bitches, we are bound to find that there are other in season bitches at shows.

Maybe this is one reason why the owners of males find that their males are more on their toes and anti other males at shows, whereas generally at home when going for walks they are not dog aggresive at all.

I handle a dog I bred, and he is quite growly to other males at shows, but at Obedience shows, and at training club etc he is with other entire males all the time?

As a dog owner/shower I would rather, not only that people did not bring an in season bitch to a show, but did not bring kennel mates or themselves either, a dog knows when there is 'THAT' smell about even if it is not first hand. But we have to live and let live so if you can keep your in season bitch off the benching and do not show if you have a following breed in the ring, then you have my best wishes. When the season is over you will have her loosing coat and with a youngster it can be a real disadvantage not to be able to give them the experiance of the ring whilst they are still in puppy.

Own a bitch that used to have PMT for the 8 weeks before her season, a 3 1/2 week season and then spend 10 to 12 weeks changing her coat, used to say she was fit to show for about 12 weeks of the year and she was the reason I changed to dogs. But we would be in a mess if that was what everyone did.

You can't run a Greyhound in season either.
Dawn.

Sorry I still dont think its fair on the dogs,
I went to Windsor Champ show a few weeks ago, we were on Gundog day and I was with a lady who has 6 Welsh Springers 4 of which are boys, there had obviously been a bitch in season in the ring the day before, they behaved terribly! They were growling at other dogs, each other and all the dogs in the ring were the same jumping about etc noses to the ground!
And as for taking your dog to a show then taking it to be mated :rolleyes: !!!!!!!And I notice no one has still mentioned the risk of infection?
Among the general dog owning public you will be very unpopular!
Vikki

Edited to say-
Has no one thought about injuries that could occur from dogs getting edgy because they know there is an in season bitch about, meaning if the dogs fight? What about other bitches? Remeber not everyone has there dogs under control and especially in a large breed, who can honestly say they could keep hold of a Great Dane who wanted to go visit the in season bitch accross the show ground?
And is it really worth it just for a piece of card?

No one said people don't do it, but that doesn't mean it 'should' be done. It's a matter of what your own conscience and ethics will allow you to do. Mine says Nope!

Wendy

Sorry but some of this is getting silly now ;-) Badly behaved dogs are often just that. The infamous 'bitch in season' comment is rolled out time & again by the same people at shows whilst they have little or no control of their dogs, sniffing, pulling & just generally ignoring their owners.... In your own breed take time to see who constantly uses the excuse, against those that calmly get on with the job in hand. If there isn't the 'there must have been a bitch in season' excuse you can bet they use the 'there must have been sheep on this grass before the show' one LOL

Dog showing is also about training & control and sadly this is very often lacking in many showdogs :-)

Yes Sarah, I've heard that excuse also!
Dawn.