False Pregnancies

Has anyone else noticed a high occurance of false pregnancies in Decker line females? Just to clarify... I am not talking about fertility issues, I am talking about a female who is NOT bred, that looks and acts like she IS bred.

The reason I am asking is because, without fail, EVERY single time one of my Decker girls has a heat cycle, they have a false pregnancy. I have never had any other female canines that did this, until I got my Deckers. It is never severe, mainly there is a just some swelling/enlarging of the mammary glads (looks like they are getting milk) and that last for a couple of months, then it goes away until the next time around. ALL of my girls do this, and I have casually observed this in a couple of other breeders' Decker line dogs also. I am just wondering if any other breeders have made this obervation?

An interesting fact that I read... The origin of "false pregnancy" in dogs goes back to their ancestors, wolves. I have read that in wolves, only the alpha female mates and bears offspring, the rest of the females in the pack experience a "false pregnancy" so that they can help raise the alpha female's pups.

Danielle,

Sugar had a false pregnancy after her first heat. I knew there was no way she could be bred, but it worried me a bit anyway. Like you said, it went away. Then, Ivy, her daughter, had a false pregnancy after her first heat as well. It still wasn't a big deal, but she even gained some weight and ate like a little horse. None of the others have had any signs of it. I asked my Vet about it and he said it wasn't uncommon, and was nothing to worry about. I figured it was just something with Sugar and she passed it onto Ivy. I guess it must be more common than I thought.

Ellis

I think that it is pretty common. Lola used to get false pregnancies until she actually had a litter. I had a friend with a Rhodesian who used to have them until she was spayed.... and then another friend has a basset who keeps getting them!

It absolutely makes me crazy, but I don't think that it hurts their health.

Thanks for your input, Ellis and Rebekah. I was not really concerned about it being a problem... Basically just curious as to whether anyone else had noticed this in their dogs. I had never experienced this until I got my Decker girls, but it sounds like it is pretty common in all breeds across the board. Thanks again for your input guys!

I haven't seen this but now could be the time. Both the girls are in heat and Slickrock has gone away on vacation for a couple of weeks. So they are mating with the neutered males!

Well Jack,
We better not be seeing any pedigrees showing up with your neutered males listed as the sire

Clyde

Ha Ha. No chance of that as those guys ain't got no pedigree. Alls you really need to worry about are those coyotes out in the desert. If I get any pups with long coats and really long snouts, I promise to do DNA for anyone who somehow finds out about it...

I saw the strangest dog I had ever seen a couple of years ago. He was owned by a carpenter that was building a house that I was landscaping. I was looking at the dog, and trying to figure out what on earth it could be. It was about 18 to 20 lbs, and had some long grey hair on its back, but a mostly short coat on the rest of its body. I finally asked him what his dog was. He said a coyote crossed with a chihuahua. It looked exactly like that. Watch those ladies Jack...LOL

Ellis

That must have been a stretch, or a crouch, or a stretch and a crouch. There is a coyote x something cross just down the street from me. Apparently it happened up at a sheep camp. The dog has 3" long straight off white hair, very firm ears, and looks to be about 50 lbs. He still barks at me although I've passed by there a thousand or so times and petted him with the owner present. He sired a pup that is deaf and bit one of the neighbors.

Here's a question. What varitions do you see in the onset of first heat and heat cycle frequency and what, if any, factors affect it? Kimi cycled again 5 months after whelping. She was very healthy thruout lactating and didn't show the dullness of coat that Rene did or lose any weight. These two girls came in within a week or so at just over six months. Their sister Tracey (Nubbin) down in Tucson cycled even earlier.