I have a co-owned bitch that is cycling again this week, this being the 2nd time she has come in at a 3 month interval. Any ideas on what may be going on with her? She is not quite 2 yrs old and came in for the 1st time at about 11 months?

I'll be curious to see what kind of responses you get to your question.

I too have a young girl that's been cycling about every 4 months since she started at six months old. She seems highly susceptible to the "dormitory effect" if she's around other girls.

I didn't want to be in a rush to breed her but, not to highjack your thread, I'd be curious if anyone thinks having a litter might calm down the hormones of these girls.

It's also been suggested that if/when I did breed her, might want to have a surgical implant done so my repo vet can take a look see inside.

If she came in and had a short cycle and then cycled a month later you might be looking at a split heat. With a split heat you should breed on the second heat.

I looked this up in "Canine Reproduction" by Phyllis A. Holst, MS, DVM. "Bitches that cycle every three to four months often, although not always, have fertility problems. A three to four month cycle probably is not normal, but the cause of the condition is unknown."

"Based upon the presumption that the short-cycling bitch fails to produce a litter because her uterus does not have adequate time to regenerate between ovulations, mibolerone (Cheque©) has been used to keep bitches from coming in heat."

Polycystic ovarian syndrome. http://www.dobermandata.com/heat-cycle.html

Wait for her next cycle, she might have had a split heat.

5 yr old had frequent cycles starting at a year old• bred her successfully at 4 yr old. Pups 9 mos old now ... she has cycles once. Prior to litter she was cycling every 4 months!

I will be breeding her once more. 1st litter had 9 ... 6 lived.

Btw she had no infections. Carried pups well and delivered well. One of the babies died about the day before she delivered. The pups on either side were stillborn.

Not everything happens as expected. :/

How do you know this? Did she have a c-section?

Had a bitch come in at 5 months for the first time, then she came in 3 months after that. Both were full and complete heat seasons...no splits. Then she waited 5 months, had another, and came in again 3 months after.

By the time she was 2, she was on her 6th season. I immediately bred her as soon as she turned 2 and her clearances were done. She had a healthy litter of 6 puppies this June and hasn't been in season again yet. It's been nearly 6 months since her last cycle.

My regular vet and my repro vet both encouraged me to breed her and I'm so glad I did!

That's a good question. I had a hard time understanding the story & the point being made about stillborns when the topic is frequent heat cycles.

As long as it was brought up, I've never lost 1/3 of a litter breeding a long time and hope I never do. Good whelpers normally don't. I can guess the horn a pup is out of if that side goes down but unless there's a c-section there's no way to know for sure.

How many times is the frequent heat cycles besides once? Sounds to me like a split heat.

Have you tried progesterone testing on the 2nd heat? I bet she ovulates then.