Our 8 month old we believe has started her first heat. We have only had males and wanted to ask if there is anything we should watch for. And, any suggestions on how long this will last? We do have an 8 year old male who is neutered but have been told that doesn’t matter and he will take an interest.
How long will your girl's first season last? How long is a piece of string! They are all different and you should watch her carefully, especially if she can be around male dogs, and yes, your neutered [castrated?] dog can and will take an interest in her. Being neutered/castrated does not mean that a dog does not or cannot show interest of try to mate - he will just produce blanks. But he can still do the action, which is not ideal for your girl.
You may find she gets a little agitated with things that normally wouldn’t bother her. She may also have a slight change in character, don’t be surprised if she gets a little clingy and is somewhat quieter. She will be confused and maybe sulky If your older boys starts to pester her you may need to help her get some “ alone “ time Let us know how you all get on. There are always people on this site to give some advice
My girls first heat lasted more than 3 weeks. My 21 month old altered male did show some interest but she wasn’t interested. She was much more affectionate with me while in heat, and still is. She mostly wanted to be near me while in heat, if I was inside, she wanted inside. She has become much easier to train too, just wants to please. My male is stubborn and a bit wild
My dog takes zero interest in females in heat. We have an unspayed female. When she would go into heat, he paid it zero attention. And there was a female at the dog park all the boys were trying to hump but he once again paid no attention at all. So not all neutered males pay attention to females in heat. He WAS a very young juvenile neuter though. He is 6 years old and does not lift his leg to pee ever. I've seen him do it slightly MAYBE twice. Never once properly. He squats like male puppies.
My male was neutered very young, 10 weeks. He had a undescended testicle. I spoke to the breeder and said that I didn’t want a puppy with that issue as I had known someone who’s dog had same thing and surgery was over $1200, 10 years ago. She said she’d have her vet take care of it. I wouldn’t do that to a dog so young ever again, it could still have dropped and is an invasive surgery on such a young pup. He does lift his leg to pee, but not often until he was about a year old.
I don't think much of your breeder or vet. Why have him done at 10 weeks old, it’s not an urgent health issue and at that age and it's entirely possible that the other testicle might have dropped. Plenty of people who have dogs with a retained testicle don't have them neutered until a year or two old.
Honestly I don’t think much of the breeder I got my dogs from at this point either.. I wouldn’t get another dog from her nor would I give her information to anyone. She claims to offer lifetime support but when we’ve set up a day for her to call (thru text) she often doesn’t follow thru. Last time she was supposed to call on a long drive home from a show, to talk with me about her poo eating issue. I was also going to ask her about possibly getting permission to breed Katie Mae, but have since decided that’s something I don’t want to do, will leave to others with more experience. I made a bad call on letting her neuter bandit so young, but I took her word that it would be ok. I wasn’t going to buy a pup that might need a very expensive surgery in the future and she offered to have it done.
Quote ) I wasn’t going to buy a pup that might need a very expensive surgery in the future and she offered to have it done. I am a bit confused as it sounds like you weren’t prepared to wait and see if his testicle dropped, so I gather it was your decision to have him done at 10 weeks, not the breeder. I’m even more astonished that any reputable breeder would agree to it at that age.
I believe it's quite common in the USA to neuter early. In my view it isn't in the best interests of the dog. We are non of us born with knowledge and if a breeder and a vet said it was OK to do, you can't blame the owner for following along.
When I stopped breeding, my last homebred puppy was a Löwchen male which appeared to be a monorchid at his last puppy vacc. (16 weeks). My vet thought that I should find a pet home for him, but I was sure that I could feel the tip of his testicle in the canal. I'm not certain when it did drop - I seem to recall that it yo-yoed for a couple of weeks, and I will confess to a bit of lower abdominal stroking when he was lying on my knee, but he attended his first show as a six month puppy, and was fully entire by then.
But the owner has openly said that he didn’t want to pay for the surgery in the future. Hence the breeder offered to have it done.
Once again I feel put on the defensive... Akitas are not an inexpensive breed. I was not going to buy a puppy knowing he “might” need an expensive surgery in the future. I was only looking for a pet companion, not a dog for breeding. I was going to have him altered anyways, just not so soon. I fell in love with his photo, and he was of an age that he was ready to go to a new home. Hmm, let me backtrack a little.. I had to put my previous dog of almost 12 years to sleep on October 13, 2016. I was heartbroken. His head was still “in the game” but his body was not. I’d had dogs for almost 25 years and this was the first time in years I’d been on my own. I told myself I’d wait until the spring to replace him, but I was sad and lonely. Well we had this little thing called a presidential election on November 8, 2016, and I was very surprised with how it turned out, who won.. (I know this isn’t a political forum, so excuse me for bringing this up, but it’s relevant to this narrative). I was so upset with the guy who won, that I immediately got very depressed and instantly felt like I needed a new furry 4 legged friend, like as soon as possible. I just needed something good, something positive, something that would make me happy, a new puppy!! I spent the majority of my time from that Tuesday evening thru Friday afternoon searching out Akita breeders, and rescues. A rescue puppy was going to take too long, I really wanted a new dog as fast as possible and the Akita rescues have to check you out, visit your home, etc. Takes time, as it should. I think that over 3 days I’d found most of the available litters in the US. There were no pups ready to go from any breeders near me, except for one, and I looked into him, had multiple bad reviews and appeared he was breeding a lot of dogs, didn’t show his dogs, and pressured me for a quick deposit. So I kept looking. I had a list of breeders, I knew of litters still in their moms, I found dogs that breeder was waiting to see if the mating had worked, I had a list of litters that the pups were to young to leave yet. And then I found bandit. I just thought he was adorable. I spoke with her about him, and it turned out that 3 of the litters I was considering getting a pup from had gotten at least one of the parents from bandits breeder. I took that as a positive. I looked for reviews about her and the only one I found was saying that they didn’t like how religious she was... well I just wanted a pup, so that didn’t faze me. When I became apprehensive about getting bandit due to the testicle (how expensive that surgery can be) she offered to have her vet do it. Also almost everything is cheaper in Missouri than the part of California that I live in.. From what I know now I would never do this again, but I didn’t know. I would not have gotten bandit knowing I might have a huge vet bill coming in the future. And I’m so glad he’s in my life. Turns out he did come with a huge vet bill as 12 hours after picking him up at airport he was at emergency vets with parvoviruses.. that cost way more than it would have cost to neuter him even with a potential undecended testicle.. she paid $500 over his cost towards the vet bill to save his life. He almost died despite the care he was given, but pulled thru, I brought him back home from vet and nursed him (and spoiled, and babied him) back to health!! I ended up also getting Katie Mae from her as she offered me a free pup in the future, my pick of any of her litters, to make up for the ordeal I’d been thru with bandit. I would not get another dog from her in the future but I was happy take her up on her offer. So in my desperation to find a new pup as quick as possible I made decisions that I wouldn’t make now, knowing what I now know.. Please don’t hold that against me.. I’m only human. I’m trying to learn more everyday.. Sorry so long, I’m long winded and felt the need to try and explain my motivations..
Chris B, Thank you for your post. I didn’t know better at the time. And yes it is very common here in the US to alter pets early. Almost all dogs coming from rescue are altered before going to new homes, and they do it very young, in an effort to not have more dogs find their way into rescues. Vets are trained to tell you to alter your pet at 6 months, also to keep more unwanted pets out of rescues. I hadn’t informed myself enough.. I’ve read of some breeders also altering all pets before going to new homes unless they had a contract (and paid more) stating otherwise.
I guess you could say it was my decision, which I made based on the breeder saying it was ok to do. She was a breeder, for over 20 years, I made a stupid assumption that she knew more than me..
I hope I’ve explained myself enough. I was feeling very “judged”. I like this forum and would like to continue being apart of it, learning from those of you who have more experience than I, and just sharing my experiences with my dogs. Thanks
