Problem while tracking a female in heat. - Page 1

Hello everyone. I encountered an issue while tracking my female that is in heat. About 100 steps or so into the track my female slowed to a stop. I thought she was going to give a false article indication. I immediately corrected her and she went back to the track. When she did find the article she indicated correctly, waited a second and began to clean herself. I believe when she was going to give what I thought was a false article indication, was actually her trying to stop and clean herself. Ha anyone else had to deal with this situation? She's usually a low V high SG tracker. I'm thinking about not tracking her again until she comes out of season. I don't want to start any bad habits. Then again should I make her work through the issue? All suggestions are welcome. Regards, Kyle

Hi KYLE. If you say your female is a low V high SG tracker I would say that you should keep at it. My personal opinion is to keep your dog working during a heat - of course it depends on the female, but apparently your dog knows what her work is, and she can only learn by making mistakes. Thats why we train, don't we, to teach our dogs to get to work out problems on the track. That's what I think. Iggeli

Kyle, you solved your problem.. "I'm thinking about not tracking her again until she comes out of season. I don't want to start any bad habits." your female is not her self... shes not even thinking about working and thats because of instinct behaviors. Shes more interested in having sex and reproducing rather then sniffing out some track (again thats instinct). Let her take a break and work her after shes finish with her cycle.

Brittany, she is only interested in "sex" during the few days of estrus, not during her whole heat cycle. A female in heat is not sick or mental. She does not have PMS. In the wild she still needs to sniff out and bring home the bacon. Difference is that she can do it at her pace. Kyle, you should make sure that everything with her heat cycle is normal. No unusual discharge or smell or temperature. If all is ok, make sure she has gone potty before you track her (bitches in heat seem to need to urinate more frequently). You could wipe her clean before starting her on the track so that she does not feel the need to clean herself while on the track. A bit of discharge dripping down may have distracted her. The rest you just have to work through, like any other distraction. Chances are she would not be sitting down to clean herself if agitated by the helper. Right now she may be a bit hormonal and her actions/reactions may be different. During and after a bitches heat cycle stamina can be affected, up to three months actually. You can either use this as a training situation to work through distractions, or if you feel that she is distracted too easily and it could affect your tracking in the future, then yes you may want to wait until after the heat. If a male smells something enticing it is not acceptable for him to be lifting his leg on the track either...

[[You could wipe her clean before starting her on the track so that she does not feel the need to clean herself while on the track. A bit of discharge dripping down may have distracted her.]] Great advice, makes sense. She probably got irritated by the drip.

I did not want to go as far as recommending doggy panties ;o).