I have thought about where I should start things. I have decided to use the information section as a tool to fill people in on the current events of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever at the age of 1 1/2 years and on. I do, however, fill that my site would lack foundation if I failed to include information on training and caring for a Chesapeake puppy. That is why this site will be opening a Puppy information page some time in the near future to answer all the puppy owner's questions.
It just so happens that this particular part of the year brought one of Chessie's seasons with it. This was her second time to be in heat and I had seriously thought about breeding her with another pure bred Chesapeake. I needed information in order to make my decision and I managed to find out some things that I thought others should know.
I have always wondered how long the process lasted and when the optimal time was for breeding. Well here is the answer to those questions. It seems that the process lasts for about 21 days(depending on your dog). They spend seven days coming in season, they stay in for seven days, and then they spend seven days going out of season. The optimal time for breeding is the middle seven days the females stay in heat. Like I said, this is not an absolute cycle for your dog, it can easily vary anywhere in the process, but you may rely on the cycle given here as an average of occurrence.
Something has been happening for the past couple of days that puzzles me. Chessie is eating almost double the amount she was in the winter. All my experiences in the past suggest that it should be just the opposite but it's just not happening that way. I am hoping that it is part of her metabolism returning back to normal after being in season. Once I find out the answer I will let you know. Right me if you have any ideas to what is going on. (Please don't say she's pregnant. I might not be able to handle it.)
Well some time has passed since my last addition to the information page. I figured out that I simply jumped to conclusions. Her eating pattern has returned to normal and I fill that my initial assessment was probably correct. For some reason, it seems that females go through an increased eating period after being in season. Nothing else is happening as of now. I will tell you an observation I had on another Chesapeake (a male named Smoky). It seems that Smoky ran in contact with rat poison; a lethal dose from what I understand. He managed to pull through it without medical attention. His only visible symptoms were loss of appetite and lack of energy. Strength and Will is a key trait I hold to the Chesapeake breed and I don't find it surprising at all that he was able to pull through.
This addition to the information page comes at one of the most lethal parts of the year for a Chesapeake, the summer. I talked about Chessie's eating habits a couple of months ago (also earlier in the page) and now the problem of not eating enough has occurred due to the hot summer "dog days". Chessie eats very little but maintains her constant level of energy. The only solution to having her eat more involves bribery. I now (for the time being only) have to mix canned dog food with her normal dry variety in order to get her to eat all that she is given. If your pet has trouble eating during the hot summer day consider bribing their diet.
The summer months are now winding down. Chessie has begun to eat almost 50 % more than she has in the past couple of months. As you all know ( I am not trying to patronize by any means) the winter months causes the dogs to create more body fat from the food they eat for the winter months. I often see some owners continue their normal feeding quantities as they did in the summer months. I have not consulted a Vet on this but it seems to me that it would be logical to feed them more in the winter if we know their bodies require it. This is just something I wish for everyone to think about. I will be including it in my tip section to emphasize (as I feel) its importance.
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