# Bitch in heat driving dogs MAD!



## Elina (Jul 22, 2009)

Hi!
My friend Alice is in the most horrid situation at the moment and she asked me for advice and I have none to give. 

Basically she has 2 male dogs both of them are intact. She is a very responsible owner and the reason they are unaltered is that she was toying with the idea of studding them out as they are both rare breeds. She never walks them off lead so they are not running off mounting other dogs.

Neither dog has been loud before, they are pretty calm boys and they are pretty well behaved. Well, that was until her neighbour's bitch reached maturity and they are now driving her insane! They started to howl and so she got them muzzles and now they sort of squeak through their noses which is also pretty loud and she does not want to put the muzzles on her unless it is night time. (She would really prefer not to use them at all but needs must and all). 

She called me today when she was buying them a DAP diffuser which is meant to calm them and she was wondering if it would work? She has bought some drops for in their water which are also meant to help calm them. 

She has them both booked into the vets to be neutered on November 5th I think it is as she could not book them in sooner as she is getting married and so the dogs have to go into kennels and they can't go in with cones and stitches. 

Her main problem is that her neighbour has been putting basically poison pen letters through her door, calling the RSPCA (who said she is a great owner) and now she has environmental health knocking on her door which worries her as she has no idea what powers they have and she adores her boys. It is the same neighbour as that has the bitch who are complaining too, none of the others!

Is there anything she can do to calm her boys until the neuter? The poor girl has been staying up until 5am as when she is with them they are quiet however this is really taking it's toll on her.

-Elina


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## Kare (Mar 9, 2010)

That is a massively extreme reaction for any male to a dog in heat, especially one that has not actually ever done the deed and been used as a stud, so beyond extreme that I would have to start by questioning if that is the real cause? What makes her think a season is the reason?

How long has it been going on? Those people you say have visited normally take a while to get around to making a visit so surely this has been more than a few weeks that the bitch could possibly be in season for? 

In my experience there is at tops a two week period, normally around the last week of bleeding and the first week after where a dog would become very interested, if he were going to but even then like I say, what she reports is a far beyond normal reaction and if it WAS sexual I cannot see how her presence would have the positive effect she reports either..

I would hate to see them get the chop and her to find out that it does absolutely nothing as the real reason they are upset is some shop with a mosquito alarm to deter teenagers etc.


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## PPVallhunds (May 23, 2010)

you can get an implant that mimicks the effect of being castrated, however both the implant and neutering will take a while to take time for the hormones to fade and her boys may still make a fuss when the girl next door comes into season.

Has she spoken to the nabour to let them know the reason why they are howling?

To be honist i cant think of anything that would realy stop them straight away form being intrested in her. Maby whereing them out in the evening may help, or some sort of herbel suplement to try to calm them.


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## Kare (Mar 9, 2010)

Yes definitely I would try the implant before doing anything that can't be undone. 

Will be interesting to hear if they act differently if they were to stay somewhere else for a night or how they act when in kennels.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I agree with Kare, I've had male dogs (in fact I've never neutered a dog until I got Skye) and have never had them howling or even bothering with bitches in season. S it could be that that might not be the reason for them howling - it could be something else??


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## Elina (Jul 22, 2009)

Well the card that was put through her door says "RE: Continuous dog barking/crying October 16th-present". I don't think it helps Alice's case that whenever anyone knocks on the door they bark but that's normal, or at least I think it is as mine do that too. 

Alice has tried to talk to her neighbour but they just won't listen. Alice is very meek and so they take advantage of that. They seem to think that because she works from home she is unemployed and in the letters they always say how 'they' need to get up for work. . . Basically they hate her but that does not seem to be fixable no matter how polite she is. 

I read your replies to her and she is very grateful. She wondered if because the female dog has been 'flirting' with the boys through the fence this may have made them start to act like this? The only reason she knows the female is in heat is that they have been having another dog round and letting them mate in the garden. 

She lives near a shopping street, not a high street but one with a few shops and so she wondered about the alarm you mentioned? How does this effect dogs? 

The dogs do not totally stop their vocalisations when she is around just she can tell them off right away which seems quiet them down for a min or two. 

She plans to ask the vet about the implant and really hopes that the herbal drops she got are going to work with the DAP plug-in. I would offer to look after them for a night but I have family round. 

I feel so bad for her, now is just like THE worst time for this to all be happening to her. I never expected maid of Honor duty's to include this lol. 

-Elina


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## kellogg (Aug 15, 2010)

I have an intact male and he couldn't care less about a bitch in season, he has not change in behaviour and doesn't even seem to notice them


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## TalulaTarantula (Jan 21, 2011)

This is very interesting (im bit of a nut case when it comes to canine behaviour, i love it lol)
I too have never heard of dogs acting like this, my mother bred GSD's and working collies while i grew up and not a single one of our stud dogs or intact show dogs ever reacted like this, i would def suggest looking into other things,
You say she lives near shops? it may be worth to pay a vist,asking them to see what sort of alarms they have,
There are also silent house alarms i believe, put in place to alarm authorities but not the imposter, maybe theres a house alarm nearby that has gone off too?

I hope its not too stressful on her and i hope its sorted out soon and that her neighbours lay off, its not nice knowing someone else can jeapordise the ownership of a beloved pet when its completley out of your hands.


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## PPVallhunds (May 23, 2010)

Elina said:


> Well the card that was put through her door says "RE: Continuous dog barking/crying October 16th-present".


She may want to start recording them to see how long they are realy barking for when she is not around. Yes barking at the door when someone knocks is normal and fine but not if the dog then barks for 10-20mins straight after the knocking. It could be for some reason her boys have become reactive to something. Has anyting at all changed in there lives other than the bitch in season?


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## Kare (Mar 9, 2010)

Elina said:


> She lives near a shopping street, not a high street but one with a few shops and so she wondered about the alarm you mentioned? How does this effect dogs?


There is an alarm thing that some shopping centres and councils place, normally around shops anyway. It is called a mosquito alarm because that is pretty much what it does, it creates a high pitched whining buzzy noise.

Because of the way humans lose their high frequency hearing it means that past the age of say 18-20 most people can no longer hear the noise it creates, it exists solely to discourage children/teens from loitering.

I did know one terrier went completely insane living near by one, and was nearly put down because the owners could not tell what was wrong with it but I do not know how close it was, because it is high frequency the noise cannot travel far at all at least not at what would be an uncomfortable pitch.

I really just used it as an example, but other things like some cat scarers and plug in rodent deterants mole posts etc etc can I guess also cause uncomfortable noises for a local dog.


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## Kaida (Mar 9, 2006)

I agree with PPs, it sounds a massive over-reaction to be cause by a bitch in heat. My bitch is just coming out of heat, and I also have an intact dog (who, like your friend's, has never been allowed to mate) and although on (literally only) a couple of occasions he has gotten a tiny bit whiney, that's only when he thought he had a chance of getting at her (testing baby gates etc). If put in another room or once he'd decided the defenses were solid, he was quiet. I guess you'll find out soon if it is or not, as she'll be out of heat soon.


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## 5plusmany (Sep 29, 2011)

What an awful situation, I know what it's like to have a neighbour with a vendetta against you and it doesn't help when they make (untrue)assumptions. When I worked from home I had people coming in and out quite a lot, next thing I knew I was accused of drug dealing! I got so fed up I pinned a (laminated) note to my gate firmly putting various rumours, all spread by one person, to bed. Not recommending that course of action though as quite frankly if someone is an a:censor:hole they always will be!
However, your friend needs to nip this in the bud and make it clear she won't be bullied. Perhaps she can speak to the other neighbours and explain that she is aware of the problem and to please bear with her while she finds a solution. At least this will hopefully stop them from complaining as well , and the neighbour who has will be just a lone voice.


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## Elina (Jul 22, 2009)

So Alice went to the vets, it was one in Pets at home. The vet gave her 'Zylkéne' which is herbal and apparently much better then the DAP diffuser (which did not make much difference to her dogs). It is herbal and has to build up in their systems. Apparently it will be working to it's full ability by November 5th. . . We were thinking the bitch should not be heat by then but heck I guess the vet is meant to know best. 

The TFLN that she got does seem to be working, or that and the DAP are working well together as that is in the dogs room, neither of us are sure but she said her dogs are going on less at night now and that's a start.

Alice wrote a letter back to the neighbours and they don't seem to care what she has to say. She is contemplating reporting them to the police as what they are doing to her the end of the day is harassment. She even has witnesses as she had a garden party in the summer where she kissed her girlfriend/wife to be and then the neighbours opened the window and screamed harassment at her for being 'unnatural' :gasp:. 

Wish people would just live and let live. 

-Elina


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

So do I Elena, but it seems impossible for some people to ignore other people's behaviour if it conflicts with their opinions! :bash:

I hope the Zylkene works - we tried that on Skye to calm him down and it didn't make any difference, neither did the Dap. We found we had better results with a product called "Calm Down" herbal from CJS supplies. It's also a combination of herbs known to calm a nervous system and it's a helluva lot cheaper than Zylkene, which I thought was incredibly expensive. Worth it if it works, but it didn't for us.


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## Kare (Mar 9, 2010)

Elina said:


> She is contemplating reporting them to the police as what they are doing to her the end of the day is harassment. She even has witnesses as she had a garden party in the summer where she kissed her girlfriend/wife to be and then the neighbours opened the window and screamed harassment at her for being 'unnatural' :gasp:
> -Elina


She most definitely should, luckily we live in a country where freedom of speech does not extend to hate and abuse.

She should also get Stonewall behind her to add some weight to her firmly putting her foot down to the bullies.


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## samurai (Sep 9, 2009)

Not hugely relevant but Zylkene is derived from a milk protein not a herbal product. I only mentioned this incase it doesn't work, so it won't put her off trying herbal options.
There is also a product called Calm by Royal Canin which is a diet that has the same milk protein, may or may not work out cheaper for her as Zlkene is expensive.

I hope she manages to get it sorted, her neighbours sound delightful 

ps what breed are her dogs, just being nosey as you say they are rare


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## marthaMoo (May 4, 2007)

Sorry only just saw this.

But you should ask the vet about "Tardac" Its a chemical castration in injection and works very well. And I would swear by it. Some rescues even use it when they castrate a dog at the same time so that the castration kicks in quicker (Mainly with bolshy bull breeds, or male dogs that have been used for breeding)


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## Kaida (Mar 9, 2006)

Just thought, Dorwest herbs do a Skullcap and Valerian tablet which I give mine during firework season. Does seem to have an effect, might be worth a try?


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