# Season February and now again



## Espiritus (Mar 8, 2018)

Perplexed seems to be my default position when it comes to these GSD's.

My WL girl was in season in February (at 29-months old), and is apparently back in season. Her seasons previously were 8 months apart. 

I have another that was in season last month (27-months old) and not bred. 

My WL girl is extremely alpha to the point of immediate launching aggression toward the other female (who is very sweet), and any other female. 

Is it possible that this is a true season brought in by the other female, or is it more likely that this a false season?

Thanks for any thoughts. BTW, I did not buy that gorgeous wolf color male.


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## Pytheis (Sep 23, 2016)

That dog is not "extremely alpha." That is called aggression. A true alpha dog only has to give a look to get other dogs to back down or obey. They very rarely have to get physical, and they would never attack a submissive dog like that. She sounds more like an insecure dog, not a confident one. I hope you never ever plan to breed her.

As for the heats, I can't tell you. I have only had one female dog go into heat, and she only did it once before she was spayed. Others will have more knowledge on that than me.


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## Femfa (May 29, 2016)

I'm going to start this by saying that wolves are not dogs. But in the world of wolves, there are times when the lead female will essentially suppress the other female to prevent them from breeding. It often appears through shows of aggression and dominance displays. Intrasexual competition between females tends to be far more serious than males, and once females start fighting it very rarely ever stops. It tends to escalate instead. Hormones can make it much worse as well. 

That being said, it sounds more like your one female just has inappropriate same-sex aggression. These two should never be out together, and I highly suggest a crate and rotate lifestyle between them before your one "sweet" female is pushed too far and you end up with a very physical fight that you might not recover a dog from.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

Heats can vary and 5 months is not unreasonable a time frame (even if we find it annoying). Yes, sometimes another bitch being in heat can bring the other in.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

Femfa said:


> I'm going to start this by saying that wolves are not dogs. But in the world of wolves, there are times when the lead female will essentially suppress the other female to prevent them from breeding. It often appears through shows of aggression and dominance displays. Intrasexual competition between females tends to be far more serious than males, and once females start fighting it very rarely ever stops. It tends to escalate instead. Hormones can make it much worse as well.
> 
> That being said, it sounds more like your one female just has inappropriate same-sex aggression. These two should never be out together, and I highly suggest a crate and rotate lifestyle between them before your one "sweet" female is pushed too far and you end up with a very physical fight that you might not recover a dog from.


Rare to see any actual fighting in natural wolf packs, it's detrimental to the whole pack. Bickering, snarking and the odd dust up but since the whole pack is needed to hunt fighting would be foolish. More often the young adult alpha female leaves the pack to find a mate, sometimes taking a beta with her. Wolves have surprisingly low incidents of inbreeding which is supported by them leaving familial groups to breed. Other then the alpha pair no breeding takes place which is healthy since you would be breeding brother and sister.

Anyway, Shadow went from three heats a year down to two as she aged and heats do flex year to year presumably with seasonal changes. Females kept in close proximity will often cycle together, most mammals will do this to varying degrees.
As far as them fighting there is probably a reason we use bitch as a derogatory term. I would not be letting them together at all. In heat this is likely to get worse, and as @Femfa mentioned you should be living a crate and rotate style. Letting them continue to practice this behavior will lead no where good.


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## Femfa (May 29, 2016)

Sabis mom said:


> Rare to see any actual fighting in natural wolf packs, it's detrimental to the whole pack. Bickering, snarking and the odd dust up but since the whole pack is needed to hunt fighting would be foolish. More often the young adult alpha female leaves the pack to find a mate, sometimes taking a beta with her. Wolves have surprisingly low incidents of inbreeding which is supported by them leaving familial groups to breed. Other then the alpha pair no breeding takes place which is healthy since you would be breeding brother and sister.
> 
> Anyway, Shadow went from three heats a year down to two as she aged and heats do flex year to year presumably with seasonal changes. Females kept in close proximity will often cycle together, most mammals will do this to varying degrees.
> As far as them fighting there is probably a reason we use bitch as a derogatory term. I would not be letting them together at all. In heat this is likely to get worse, and as @Femfa mentioned you should be living a crate and rotate style. Letting them continue to practice this behavior will lead no where good.


Yep - sorry, my language isn't necessarily clear in layman's terms. Shows of aggression and dominance displays is the equivalent of, "oh, they look like they might fight". When aggression displays escalate to legitimate biting, it generally means a wolf is about to be kicked out or, at worst, killed. 

As an average pet owner, as soon as you see dominance displays, its your job to curb the behaviour. It's a hard lesson to learn because sometimes people take the mentality of, "they'll work it out", and the working it out doesn't always look nice. Especially between females.


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