Re: Heat Cycle

In Reply to: Heat Cycle
Posted by:  Jennifer Cox
Posted on:  June 26, 2001 at 15:20:43

: I have a female Jack Russel, she is 8 months old. When will she come into heat for the first time and how long will she bleed?? Do you leave them in the house during that time or outside? If you leave them inside, how do you keep the blood from getting all over the place?

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Hi, Jennifer,

The first heat can happen from about 6 months to 12 months USUALLY. Sometimes they come later than that.

The amount of blood, and time that she'll bleed is a pretty personalized thing. My terrier, Looise, barely bled and kept herself immaculate. Rosy on the other hand, bled quite a bit for a few days, and rather than cleaning herself, she'd just look at herself like she was saying "what is that, anyway?"

Keeping a bitch in heat outdoors can be a really unwise thing. You could find every stray dog in the area on your front yard, carrying worms and/or disease onto your lawn for your terrier to be contaminated by. I, personally, put blankets all over my furniture and let the terrier live her life as normally as possible, with the exception of my stud dog is kept in another area of the house. My girls are very loving members of the family, and I couldn't just ostracize them to the yard to live their heat out all by themselves. I even put OLD sheets and blankets on the bed so they can sleep in bed with me as usual, and I try to get them to wear a canine sanitary belt which comes off in the middle of some nights, but manages to stay on for most of them.

You pay a price for keeping a terrier intact. This is the price you pay for keeping a female intact, though there may be higher prices you'll have to pay as I have. C-sections and vet attention don't come cheap and I know many people who have lost their terriers to breeding altogether. Scary.