nips has a number of laydee friends but his heart lies with the delectable ruby - another jack russell terrier. unfortunately, his owners would rather like him and ruby to make beautiful puppies together, despite my insistence that he'll be doing no such thing. but today, this reality came a little too close for comfort when we met ruby while both dogs were off lead in the local nature reserve and his owner greeted me with the words "i hope it won't be a problem but she's probably on heat"

fortunately, ruby must have had a thumping headache because, unusually, she greeted nips with a warning bark that suggested he left her more interesting parts well alone but just the thought of how i'd deal with an irresponsible, accidental and extremely public mating chilled my blood! so yet again i remain astonished at how unworried people are about the consequences of wandering around with an off-lead but in season bitch.

Luckily she must ahve been at the not on your nelly early stages of her season, or just finished.

Back on the step on incredulity :rolleyes:

Good grief! and they're the ones who would have the cost, trouble and worry of raising the litter and providing homes for the pups. The mind does boggel doesn't it.

Passes some tiny sheepskins to roz through the monitor

roz, I would change my walk times for the next 3 weeks, incase of an accident! (On purpose:rolleyes: accident!)

I'll never forget once I was walking my bitch and this silly lady had a loose bitch ripely in season and I could hear her shouting at everyone passing with a dog "My dogs in season!!!"  Expecting everyone to lead their dogs and leave hers to run free, amazingly they did???? Without a word I just thought what a cheek, and as I got closer I said "You had better lead your dog as I am not leading mine" (Even though I had a bitch :-D) she looked at me as though I was completely out of order, but she did lead it. I didn't see her again, so hopefully she learnt her lesson or went to walk somewhere else.

*receives small sheepskins gratefully* :D

fortunately this is not a daily walk route and i suspect half-term had a lot to do with meeting at this particular time. however, the mind does boggle and the suspicious side of my nature tells me that the other party doesn't view an "accidental" mating as the potential disaster that i know it is! apart from anything else, if nips sired a litter of pups, i would think that i had a moral (or should that be immoral given the circumstances?) responsibility to do more than walk away from the situation.

if only people would leave breeding to the experts and recognise that you need more than two beautiful dogs of the same breed to do the job responsibly!!!!

I think I've told this story before, but it must have been about 13 -15 years ago (time flies when you're having fun :rolleyes:) my sister left her labrador, Prince, in kennels whilst she was away on holiday.

Prince was hip scored (and had been eye certificated, although whether it was up to date, I can't remember) anyway, the kennel maid apparently failed to lock his kennel after exercising & feeding him and he "must have followed her home" and mated with her family's lab bitch before the family could stop it !

Because the family had asked before to use Prince & sis had refused because the bitch hadn't been hipscored and wasn't a particularly "good" type of lab, she refused to sign any papers for the stud - as she said she didn't witness the mating - and refused a stud fee.  The family told everyone however that the sire was her dog and that because it was an accidental mating no papers would be available - but they sold all the puppies.

Prince was used once more for a planned stud and was then neutered - Sis was really cross and wanted to ensure that it couldn't happen again.

The kennel maid lost her job - apparently kennel owners didn't want to risk it happening again and she was dismissed for lack of care - and the village had something to gossip about for a couple of months!

Margot