GSD cycling her seasons every 4 months - Page 1

Hi all,

My 2.5 year old girl cycles every 4 months. It's been consistent for the last 2 seasons she has had.
I know that heats typically come at about 5-8 months, with 6 being average. This then makes my dog atypical and is a concern of mine.

As some may know, I've attempted to breed my girl twice. Both at about days 10, 12, and 14. Both different studes, both proven.
Both resulted to no puppies, just a false pregnancy with milk and mucus and appetite changes, but uterus was empty.

Can this be a factor, this short cycle intervals? I've read previously that it is not so uncommon for GSDs specifically to cycle at 4 or 5 months.
And does this short intervals translate to maybe a quicker progression of her heat, meaning LH peak comes sooner and therefore, she would ovulate earlier than the typical dog? If so, then this may have caused mis-timing the matings as the matings were scheduled based on a typical dog with a 21 day heat.

Hoping for your feedback as my girl is, I'm predicting, about to have her season again. Her hair is shedding already and so, in a month would be in heat.

This will be my last attempt to breed and to know if she truly is infertile--meaning if I've been mistiming my previous attempts of her matings resulting to no puppies.
I've also come prepared with ovulation pads as seen here:http://www.ovulationpads.info/

I'm to use those daily until I see the LH peak, giving me enough time to have her mated about two days later. This way I'd know maybe she's ovulating earlier or later than the typical textbook bitch.

Thanks in advance.

Hello. I had a bitch that would cycle every 4 months but consistently ovulated on day 21! I would highly recommend progesterone and LH testing to find the day she actually ovulates not ovulation pads at this point.

I also have a female that cycles every 4 months and with the help of progesterone testing she has had 4 litters of 2, 3, 3 & last being 5 puppies.

Good luck. Progesterone testing is your best friend.

What the above folks said! progesterone is a MUST! The bitch I had like this, took on day 25 of free breeding after 3 failed attempts previously. She was willing the entire heat cycle and it wasn't until I let them breed as many times as she would accept (supervised of course) that she finally took. Only got 2 out of that litter, BUT after she had her first litter, her heats went to 6 months and she had consistent 9 or 10 puppy litters after that.
Debby

Absolutely do progesterone. There is no way of knowing when she ovulates otherwise.

I can see from these thread that 4 months cycle nearly all the time results in fewer puppies. Mine also is a "4 monthsome+bitch", infact, she's presently on her 8th day in season and i intend start mating on the 10th day. She had 3 beautiful pups in her first mating, after 6 months+, she was again mated but she had a false pregrancy with large belly that lasted(4 months +) to her next heat. She was mated again but failed to concieve, as a result of still going through her previous false pregnancy(because her belly was still comparatively large). Now she has a normal tuck-in belly, and i hope n thinks she makes it this time. The last time, her blood dischard had a dark red, not until her 17 day that it came ligkter in colour. 4-monthsome bitches are just too difficult to understand.

I have had several females who cycled every 4 months. As long as there are 110 days between seasons, there should be adequate time in between seasons for the female to be capable of getting pregnant.

I suspect you bred her too early in her cycle and I second (third?) the recommendation for progesterone testing.

I would like to post this question,  should dogs who have abnormal heat cycles be removed from the gene pool and breed only from females who have normal non split cycles? I had 2 females who had 4 mo and or split cycles and both ended up with thyroid problems. Neither were related and both were spayed.

I will say that I also think that a dog that requires AI to get pregnant is also defective. IMO reproductive issues such as these weaken the gene pool.

No one here is talking split seasons and so far no one mentioned AI, these bitches all have normal but short cycles and if the bitch is of good enough quality then small litters are OK, after all we are only looking to breed our bitches FOR US.
My female is of exceptional quality and she has given ME some quality babies, she is now retired but I am more than happy for the puppies she gave me.

Why are 4month cycles something that should be struck from the gene pool? I'm lost on that one. I would prefer it to be every 6, as every cycle wears on them, bred or not, but who am I to tell her body what is and isn't natural and normal? 

Capri and about 1/3  of her daughters cycle this way. This has a lot to do with why I have bred her more frequently in a shorter time period than I would've planned, but I think it's healthier for the reason I stated above.  I've never noticed shorter cycling causing a problem, and I've bred her on different heats (ie, "middle one", etc, skipped 2, then skipped only one, etc.), and I have never used any form of testing whatsoever. I don't do progesterone testing (don't think you should need to for a natural breeding) don't do any kind of, well, ....anything like that and have never had a problem, so it doesn't always affect fertility.  Her daughters have only had a "problem" in that it took their owners by surprise and once resulted in an oops litter, as he was 2mos. off and out of town when she was standing and flagging his very willing male. Zero need for human intervention in either conceiving or whelping, zero puppy loss (except for one twin that was stillborn), excellent mothering skills. I don't see the problem if the only thing "odd" is the timing. JMO. 

A dog with different cycles is not the same as a dog with split heats. A dog who can't conceive by normal, natural means, sans human intervention, imo, should not be bred. I totally, 120% agree with Bhaugh.