# How much “mess” is there with females in heat? Be honest 😂



## iBite (Jun 24, 2020)

I’ve had dogs all my life but as luck would have it, I’ve never personally had a female in heat in my house. I’ve never researched this before and purposely didn’t look into it before getting a female puppy (I’m a girl too and what kind of girl would I be if I held such a thing against her? 😂) but she’s not getting spayed (breeder agreement) and in a few weeks she’ll be at that age... so what am I in for? 😂 
We have white carpets in the bedroom and right now the setup is she has to run across the carpet to get from the hallway to her crate. Is it time to start relocating the crate? 
Ladies? is it “drippy”? Do I have to watch out if she barks or sneezes? 😂🤣😂


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## Quixotic (Apr 30, 2020)

😆

Tagging this because I have a six month old female and need to educate myself, too.


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## AbbyandMaya (Jun 22, 2020)

iBite said:


> I’ve had dogs all my life but as luck would have it, I’ve never personally had a female in heat in my house. I’ve never researched this before and purposely didn’t look into it before getting a female puppy (I’m a girl too and what kind of girl would I be if I held such a thing against her? 😂) but she’s not getting spayed (breeder agreement) and in a few weeks she’ll be at that age... so what am I in for? 😂
> We have white carpets in the bedroom and right now the setup is she has to run across the carpet to get from the hallway to her crate. Is it time to start relocating the crate?
> Ladies? is it “drippy”? Do I have to watch out if she barks or sneezes? 😂🤣😂


Maya has already had her period once before and I noticed it when she rubbing her back end against my leg and there was blood there. Not necessarily heavy dripping but if she lays down on your carpet, sits on it, scoots her butt, etc. it’ll most likely end up on there. The best thing to do is to just keep her underwear on until the bleed stops!


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

A lot depends on the dog. I have had bitches you barely notice for the most part but one of my acquaintances had a bitch that could make a room resemble a slaughter house if she got her diaper off. 
I don't like diapers so I use old towels and blankets to cover some areas, restrict movement a bit and keep a damp mop handy.
If she does drip on your carpet, don't mess with it. Use peroxide, undiluted and let it soak a bit then press to dry. 
Shadow opens doors, thanks for that Sabs, and got on my bed. I soaked the spots in peroxide and they came right out. White cotton duvet cover because I'm an idiot.


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## K9SHOUSE (Jun 8, 2003)

I've used white briefs and then put the tail through the fly. You can also use boxers and safety pin the top tighter. I suppose you could put a maxipad in there, but I just changed the underwear. My females never had a heavy flow/clot/gush like I think we do. More like a diluted drip and they were always licking to clean it. I then just ran a wash of the underwear at night and left them pantless in their closed crates.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

With the first sign of a drop of blood roll up your rugs and no access on white carpet without the dog having functional panties on. Bleeding can last for two or more weeks.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Well, blood is red. It comes out of them during a heat. Your carpet is white. Blood is not easy to get out of anything so regardless of "amount", which varies per female, it's still red blood on a white carpet. I think you can do the math on this.


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## jarn (Jul 18, 2007)

I've only had one female, and she came altered...but I've had success removing blood from the couch (from clipping quiks! What were you thinking!) using hydrogen peroxide. Just in case you have any bits of blood on the white carpet.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Just use doggie panties. Train her to tolerate them way before she needs them. Problem solved.


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## iBite (Jun 24, 2020)

Sunflowers said:


> Just use doggie panties. Train her to tolerate them way before she needs them. Problem solved.


I highly doubt that will be possible 😂 she’s a bite machine... if it’s not nailed down or she can pry it loose, she’s biting it 😂🤣😂


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## ChickiefromTN (Jun 16, 2020)

My girl just finished her first heat a month or so ago. She was a bloody mess! We used the washable dog diapers and she had to wear them for about 3 weeks. I was shocked that she didnt bite at the diapers or mess with them at all. It took maybe two trips out before she knew the routine of walking in and standing still to get her diaper put on. During that time her personality was totally different also. My hyper fearless girl was a mopey, pouting lazy butt! In this pic I was baby talking the cat and she just couldnt deal with it and tried to hide under a blanket hanging out off the couch!









Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk


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## Kazel (Nov 29, 2016)

Highly depends on the female. My gsd/lab It was nearly impossible to tell she was in heat. I didn't spay her until she 2.5 so she went through several heats and I may have seen a spot of blood once.

Purebred GSD we got her spayed as soon as it was healthly, it was awful. She bled a ton and smelt awful, nothing wrong down there it was just smelly while she was in the first stages of heat. She wore diapers, I think some use full little suits to prevent dogs from ripping them off. I've heard boxers work (built in tail hole) and you can use pads to soak up the blood as long as she won't rip it off and chew it up. Obviously you take that sort of stuff off when they are outside or kenneled.

My roommate's dog is a small breed dog. She's not too bad in the blood department, enough that you have blood spots to clean up but nothing crazy. She does have false pregnancies though and so twice in a row now has had to be milked.

It also isn't uncommon for young females to have a sort of "practice" split heat so you can end up with two pretty close to each other.


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## MineAreWorkingline (May 2, 2015)

My females are clean and it is rare for me to see a drop of blood.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

iBite said:


> I’ve had dogs all my life but as luck would have it, I’ve never personally had a female in heat in my house. I’ve never researched this before and purposely didn’t look into it before getting a female puppy (I’m a girl too and what kind of girl would I be if I held such a thing against her? 😂) but she’s not getting spayed (breeder agreement) and in a few weeks she’ll be at that age... so what am I in for? 😂
> We have white carpets in the bedroom and right now the setup is she has to run across the carpet to get from the hallway to her crate. Is it time to start relocating the crate?
> Ladies? is it “drippy”? Do I have to watch out if she barks or sneezes? 😂🤣😂


That’s why you train the dog to tolerate the doggie diaper, before you need her to have it on.
If she messes with it, correct her. Start with a few minutes of it on, progress to longer.


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

Well, Scarlet marches to her own drummer, and pants are not part of her plan. Beach towels, hospital pee pads, and a microfiber mop are my friends when she’s in heat. She’s only moderately messy.


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Put an expensive doggie diaper on Eska. She tore it to pieces the first night.
Tried a boxer brief. She had them off within 5 minutes.
Tried a T-shirt tied tightly at the waist. Same thing.

So I've given up. She and my other female are good at licking up the drops that get on the floor, and for the rest, I keep a mop handy. NO carpets, except in the living room and she's not allowed in there.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Faren wears a doggie diaper with a pad in it. She licks around it constantly. It keeps some of the mess contained but she cleans herself with or without it.


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## banzai555 (Sep 2, 2019)

My dog's heat was messy; drips all over the floor and on her legs. I used doggy diapers with women's disposable pantiliners so I could just replace the pantiliner and not have to wash the diapers super often.


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## Amshru (Aug 7, 2015)

My bitch is 5 years old now and I swear we've probably missed a couple of her heats because she's so clean. She makes sure that she doesn't have any dirty bits and it's very rarely that we've ever seen any spotting. (And that's always been great until now, when we got a male puppy and will need to _know_ if she's coming into heat!


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Ohhhh, the pup will let you know, believe me... 😂


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## iBite (Jun 24, 2020)

Sunsilver said:


> Ohhhh, the pup will let you know, believe me... 😂


I was hoping to have it figured out before we have issues 😂
How have they not invented doggy birth control? 😂😂


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## banzai555 (Sep 2, 2019)

Amshru said:


> My bitch is 5 years old now and I swear we've probably missed a couple of her heats because she's so clean. She makes sure that she doesn't have any dirty bits and it's very rarely that we've ever seen any spotting. (And that's always been great until now, when we got a male puppy and will need to _know_ if she's coming into heat!


Did you ever notice the flagging tail? That was so hilarious to me when Willow was in heat; just barely touch her on the rump and she flagged her tail to the side like "green light, boys". I think that's supposed to be the most dangerous time for unwanted breeding too, the flagging stage. 

Anyway, my dog only went through one heat while I had her, before I got her spayed (I got her at 3 years old). And I wondered if her not cleaning herself was partially a result of the anxiety of being in a new home; I'd had her for 4 days before she went into heat.


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## banzai555 (Sep 2, 2019)

iBite said:


> I’ve had dogs all my life but as luck would have it, I’ve never personally had a female in heat in my house. I’ve never researched this before and purposely didn’t look into it before getting a female puppy (I’m a girl too and what kind of girl would I be if I held such a thing against her? 😂) but she’s not getting spayed (breeder agreement) and in a few weeks she’ll be at that age... so what am I in for? 😂
> We have white carpets in the bedroom and right now the setup is she has to run across the carpet to get from the hallway to her crate. Is it time to start relocating the crate?
> Ladies? is it “drippy”? Do I have to watch out if she barks or sneezes? 😂🤣😂


Also for my pup's heat, I generally had her diaper on whenever she was loose in the house. I took it off when I crated her, b/c I wanted her to be more comfortable (and obviously took it off whenever she went outside). So yeah I wound up with some dirty towels in the crate. But as soon as she came out of the crate I had a diaper waiting. I had paper towels handy and would give her a wipe immediately to reduce dripping on the floor in the few seconds it took to put the diaper on, but you might want to either move the crate or put a sheet or towel around that you don't mind getting dirty.


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## Tessa1114 (Mar 26, 2020)

Quixotic said:


> 😆
> 
> Tagging this because I have a six month old female and need to educate myself, too.


I keep my females intact until a few years of age. It’s not so bad ! Only one week of heavier bleed and mine wear a cloth diaper when out of crate! I have two young females right now !


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## coolgsd (May 1, 2010)

It is not a pleasant time. Excuse me - I don't mean to be distasteful or crass but imagine a woman during her menstrual cycle that could not use any absorbant protection for the discharge. Our girls wore panties with velcro so they went over the tail and held much like diapers with tabs. An absorbant pad is worn inside. Now, every time they want to go outside to potty, you take that apparel off and put it back on when they finish. I would suggest that once your dog is old enough to judge whether or not they are "show" quality, ask the breeder to amend the agreement. If the genetics are not good enough to show and title, they are not good enough to breed from a breeders perspective. I personally would not have gone into any arrangement about no spaying. There are thousands upon thousands of good GSD's out there but only a select few are good enough to be bred. Otherwise they should be spayed IMO.


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## iBite (Jun 24, 2020)

coolgsd said:


> It is not a pleasant time. Excuse me - I don't mean to be distasteful or crass but imagine a woman during her menstrual cycle that could not use any absorbant protection for the discharge. Our girls wore panties with velcro so they went over the tail and held much like diapers with tabs. An absorbant pad is worn inside. Now, every time they want to go outside to potty, you take that apparel off and put it back on when they finish. I would suggest that once your dog is old enough to judge whether or not they are "show" quality, ask the breeder to amend the agreement. If the genetics are not good enough to show and title, they are not good enough to breed from a breeders perspective. I personally would not have gone into any arrangement about no spaying. There are thousands upon thousands of good GSD's out there but only a select few are good enough to be bred. Otherwise they should be spayed IMO.


Her parents breed survey insisted that they should be bred so I would hope her genetics would be okay 😂 ...there is a reason I’ve never had an intact female in my house and she should feel honoured I’ve made that exception 😂😂


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

iBite said:


> I was hoping to have it figured out before we have issues 😂
> How have they not invented doggy birth control? 😂😂


Well, they have (cheque drops) but it's been show they are not a very healthy thing for the female to be on. Mibolerone - Wikipedia

As for keeping the male and female separated, the female doesn't ovulate until about 12 days into her cycle. However, most male dogs will show interest long before she gets to that point. My friend's intact Airedale is interested in my intact female even BEFORE she starts to bleed. You should have lots of warning. The main difficulty will be keeping them apart. Just to give one example: a friend put her in-heat female in the garage. Her male destroyed the doorknob on the door connecting the garage to the house. Thank god he didn't have opposable thumbs, or it would have been game over for sure! I've also heard of a male getting out of his wire cage and chewing his way through TWO DOORS to get to the female! 

Roaming male dogs are another risk. Never leave your female unattended in the back yard when she's in season, and it's a good idea to drive her to a nearby park for exercise, so males can't follow her back to her home. I once had a randy male mutt camped out on my doorstep for over a week when one of my females was in season. I sent him off to the Humane Society twice, but he still kept coming back!


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