Age of first heat?

3weimMom · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:51 pm Post subject: Age of first heat?

I've never had a Weim that wasn't fixed. My breeder wants to show my latest pup so we're in new territory here. She'll be 16 months old in a week and still no heat. Her teats are much more pronounced this week, but that's it. Is this typical? And why does she have to be intact to be shown?

darlinggrl7 · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:07 pm Post subject:

I don't know much about when her heat should be.. however, I've been researching dog shows and such. Showing in confirmation is basically an evaluation of breeding stock. They are judged on how well they represent the breed standard. Generally when a dog gets his/her champion, then they are generally a good dog to continue this wonderful breed with.

I'm sure someone else can elaborate on this much better than I can, but that is my basic understanding of why the dogs are supposed to be intact.

3weimMom · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject: Why intact?

Makes sense if the breeder is holding an option to breed her. But if she's definitely just showing her and NOT planning to breed her...then there is there anything that says she MUST be intact? Is there a confirmation category for dogs that are fixed? Sorry if this is an absurd question.

darlinggrl7 · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject:

I tried to find where it says this.. but I couldn't find it. Sad

Either I have talked to someone about it on a seperate forum or in person or googled it, I don't remember. But there are some classes for altered dogs, but they are very rare and I don't believe that is had made it to the states yet. Possibly could be for specialty shows too. (I could be WAY off on this too) Most shows that you will go to will not allow this.

I do want you to kow that I have never showed before and techincally I have only been to one show. However, I thought that this might be something I wanted to do so I did quite a bit of research on it. Just an FYI. Very Happy

versatilek9s · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject:

My older girl was 17mos, and the younger one was 13mos when they came into heat for the first time. Talking about this with other people, weims seem to average about 12-14mos most of the time, depending on bloodlines. Find out how old her mother was and go from there. At 16mos I wouldn't worry about it, but if she hits 2 or you're just really worried, I'd get her checked out to make sure that she isn't having silent heats or bleeding very minimally/not at all.

Hope that helps.

Meredith

3weimMom · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:14 am Post subject:

Thanks to you both. It does help. I'm going to love this forum.

anne · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:53 am Post subject:

As Meredith says, your breeder should be able to give you a guidline, first heats tend to follow family history.

Weimwayz · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:07 pm Post subject:

I agree with Ann ask her breeder when the dam first came into season. Our girl was 14 motnhs before her first heat cycle but our breeders dog was almost 23 months old!!!! So it can be a huge variation as well as the frequency of heat cycles. My weim goes in exactly every 6 months but I know other weims that only go in once a year and others who go in every 4 months. Each dog is different and their own individual. Keep a record of all her cycles so you can hopefully see a pattern forming. I found that to be very helpful for me!!