[morrmar]

My son is coming to visit and his new puppy has began her first heat. She is a rescue type mixed breed puppy and he had no idea how old she was. He usually stays with my daughter when he visits and she has a neutered Rottie. Everyone agrees he can't stay there. I live in an extremely rural area where everyone has outside dogs so he obviously can't stay with me either. To make a long story somewhat shorter, we are all advising him to leave the dog with his roommate.

But this got me to thinking. My wife and I are going to the beach in September and one thing we want to avoid at all costs is having Karma come into heat during our vacation. Even though we have read it is best to avoid spaying until after the first heat, that is something we just are not willing to do.

So my question is, at what age do Dobes usually have their first heat?

 

[morrmar]

Thanks for the feedback. Dogma, a Dach/Jack Russell mix, adopted us when she showed up under the deck so we had no idea how old she was. She went into heat before we had a chance to spay her. That was an experience I certainly don't want to repeat.

We had Niki spayed at 6 months so she never came into heat. I read somewhere that bigger dogs came into heat later than smaller ones but I couldn't remember the time frame.

As far as when to spay, I thought that was a controversial subject. Our vet is against doing it before 6 months and I've read that dogs who are spayed before their first season have a greater propensity to "leak" urine as they get older. That was the case with Niki but an estrogen pill once a week took care of that.

Karma will only be 5 months come vacation time so I think we'll be ok. Again, thanks for the responses.

 

[morrmar]

"What is the medical reason that some bitches leak urine or have less waiting control. Is this 10% that have this problem 20% 50% what is the statistics on this one."

I can't remember where I read it but it has something to do with estrogen not being available, so the correct development of the muscles that control bladder function are impeded. Not sure of the stats percentage wise but I seem to remember a higher incidence of incontinece the earlier a dog is spayed.