Working Entire Bitches

[Sayreovi]

Just wanted to add to what a few people have touched on. A bitch in season will have her body changing to prepare for mating and pregnancy (her body doesn't know she isn't being bred) and their ligaments and tendons will loosen significantly. They are at a much greater risk of injury and should not be doing strenuous work (I'm talking from an agility/flyball point of view here) for that 4 week period (and some take longer to get back than that). That's not to say they can't do anything, just be aware of the risk and take measures to minimise it, so no intense jump work etc and set them up with good approaches to contacts. We don't do any flyball box work during that time either.

Learn new things every day! I knew they loosened up but not that much so didn't think about it too much

I've never had a bitch before so will be taking that into account as those are the two sports she will be doing.

[Bisart Dobes]

Need to be able to vote for each bitch as they are all different .

I see no difference with our girls - I stop phantoms with natural drops and they get on with life. It affects our boys alot more . I don't hard work our girls into or out of a season though as their bodies do change but obedience training isn't that hard a job.

[kathq]

I've had several entire bitches over the years, dobes getting their CDX and now Coco in UD and they all have worked/trained like brainless twits for a week or so prior to coming into season and then whilst actually in.

One bitch was a 5 month bitch so taking a 5 week block out of each 5 months the fact we got past Novice was a miracle but she was a fantastic girl. Coco only cycles every 8 months so the fact we lose 5 or 6 weeks doesnt really matter. Gives her a chance to freshen up both mentally and physically as I believe giving them a spell is a must anyway.

[freundhund]

Well my last bitch I trainned thru to UD, through her seasons and 3 pregnancies,(Hers)and 2 of mine

I never found her being in season to be an issue or in whelp for that matter, trialled her in whelp, and put her back into the trial ring when her puppies were 5 weeks of age. She was desperate to go back to trialling, for her trialling was the biggest show off you could imagine, everything done at a million miles an hour.

My current bitch 20 months is due to come into season in June/July I trialled her last weekend and I noticed that she was very distracted at the morning trial with the border collies up the other end of the ring playing together, she desperately wanted to go and play as well, in the afternoon trial, she wanted to go and play with the Aussie Shepherd in the Open ring. So I would say that she mighn't pass until she has had this season, I don't worry about taking her out when she is in season, I just use this a time to work on a new excercise.

[W Sibs]

I just like answering polls :p

me too

[Staranais]

Interesting, thanks guys. So from this very unscientific poll, there's a roughly even split between people who think their bitches don't work as well when they're in season, and those who find no difference, plus a few people who find that they work better.

And 32.6% of DOLers just like to answer polls.

[ness]

ROFL the 32.6% is probably the most statistically significant answer in the poll Staranais .

[helen]

I didn't really train Bella while she was in season, but she was always happy when she was in season (desexed now), but one thing is for sure is that after the break she came back even better, so I say the break can work wonders

[leopuppy04]

Mine actually works best just before and during her season .

She then takes a plummet about 4 wks later until about 9wks post season and can be dead flat . which sucks because I can't trial her while she's in! LOL!

Since she's had her litter of pups though, she hasn't really plummeted like she used to... thank Dog!

[The Spotted Devil]

Just thought I'd bump this topic up as Em has been in season for a week. I noticed that she was a tiny bit flat in the week prior (which means normal behaviour for most other dogs ) but she is loving training at the moment and is going rather nuts hunting and quartering in the chook yard (nice steep bush block with over 6 foot fences). I took Zig downstairs to our small flat lawn to do some weave training yesterday - the protests from upstairs were rather...um....audible

What has surprised me is how keen Zig is to train still - it probably helps that he hasn't been mated, is used to being at shows with bitches in season and it's Em's first so perhaps not quite as powerful. We will see what happens I guess!

Edited August 10, 2011 by The Spotted Devil

[**Super_Dogs**]

I still train my bitch (agility) at home. She is alittle flat for about 1 week, but still works for me, but for a few days she is not interested in working at all - so we just head back inside.

All she likes to do while in season is sleep :D