Hello everyone. Been a while since I've been on here. My wife and I have a breeding pair of Bernese mountain dogs. Rocky 5 and Lola is 4. Lola had her first litter last summer and all went smoothly. Being a Bernese she normally goes into heat every 6 months. So we of course skipped her winter heat last year to give her a years rest. This summer we bred them again. Pups were 8 weeks this past Sunday and all have been rehomed to wonderful families. Except one difference this time around. We kept one beautiful male for ourselves. One male was just so special to us and our daughter. That we decided he needed to join the clan. We have 10 acres and the dogs have tons of room to run around. So adding another dog for us is nothing more then just some more food.
Any how I should get to my question. I know in Lola's first two years we didn't want her to be bred too young. We wanted to let her mature. Fortunately for us rocky makes it very easy to detect the start through finish of her heat cycle. As soon as she starts he will not stop following her alllllll day. He constantly follows her with his chin on her back keeping her close. So we would see this behaviour and simply seperate them for the few days that they are pregnant dangerous. We did this 3 times, then bred her on her 4th heat. Then skipped 5 and bred on 6th. So the puppies have all left as mentioned except one pup we kept. The last 3 days rocky will not leave Lola alone. Very much like when she's in heat. I can't imagine she's possibly in heat. She has no discharge, and rocky did not do this with the last litter. Have any of the other breeders noticed this behaviour post weaning? Is he sensing some hormonal changes as she's no longer lactating? And thinking it's a heat?
Again he only does this when she's in heat. It's like clock work every 6 months. He's not mounting her and he doesn't either when she's in heat until the few days she's ready for him. It's the normal beginning of heat behaviour. Any ideas?
Thank you
Any how I should get to my question. I know in Lola's first two years we didn't want her to be bred too young. We wanted to let her mature. Fortunately for us rocky makes it very easy to detect the start through finish of her heat cycle. As soon as she starts he will not stop following her alllllll day. He constantly follows her with his chin on her back keeping her close. So we would see this behaviour and simply seperate them for the few days that they are pregnant dangerous. We did this 3 times, then bred her on her 4th heat. Then skipped 5 and bred on 6th. So the puppies have all left as mentioned except one pup we kept. The last 3 days rocky will not leave Lola alone. Very much like when she's in heat. I can't imagine she's possibly in heat. She has no discharge, and rocky did not do this with the last litter. Have any of the other breeders noticed this behaviour post weaning? Is he sensing some hormonal changes as she's no longer lactating? And thinking it's a heat?
Again he only does this when she's in heat. It's like clock work every 6 months. He's not mounting her and he doesn't either when she's in heat until the few days she's ready for him. It's the normal beginning of heat behaviour. Any ideas?
Thank you
