# Personality Change After Heat?



## caroline429

Cali is 15 months old. She had her first heat cycle last October. Before her heat, she was an extremely outgoing, bold, friendly dog. When she went into heat, she got a bit skittish, lay around a lot and wasn't interested in playing. From what I'd read, this sounded pretty normal so I wasn't overly concerned. Her energy and playfulness has come back but the skittishness seems to have turned into outright fear of things that didn't bother her at all before.

She's always been fantastic with children and would pull me towards the local daycare group when they were out for a walk. Having a dozen toddlers surrounding her and patting her never bothered her. Skateboards, bicycles, trucks, etc were ignored. Now when she sees the daycare kids coming, she runs behind me and tries to get away if they come anywhere near her. She just about ran off the sidewalk into the road today when someone pushing a baby stroller came near her. 

I don't work so she's with me nearly all the time and I know nothing has happened to her to cause this fear. Do you think this is hormonal? She's not showing any obvious signs of false pregnancy but I'm wondering if that could be the problem?

I was planning on getting her spayed at the end of the month but am a little concerned to do it when she's acting like this in case she gets "stuck" in this phase. Sounds silly when I type that out, but I really have no idea. I'll talk to my vet about it but I'd really appreciate hearing if anyone else has seen this type of behavioural change after a heat cycle.


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## Indiana

I haven't, but my dogs are a few months older than yours and I've seen them change a bit just from growing up, I thought. There certainly is an influx of hormones when they go into heat, also when they get pregnant, whelp, or get spayed, so one never knows...but they all go through phases, too, so maybe something frightened her (even a few times? like a loud child? yelling parent? rattley stroller?) that she didn't seem to make a fuss over at the time, but now cumulatively it's become a big deal to her. Just guessing here! Indy suddenly started flipping out around other dogs at between 12 - 14 months old, but we've worked on that really hard and she's gotten better about it (but not completely better). Maddy started to settle down around a year and a half; don't get me wrong, she's still crazy energetic! But bearable now


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## Ms Stella

I am new to "heat cycles" but my Madonna is a totally different dog when in heat! She is usually googy, playful and just plain silly. When in heat she is fearful, suspisious, and physical signs include a snow nose!! Ive only had her for one heat..and she is currently in heat...She totally came out of it last tiime..I wonder if your girl is more of an age fear period than just a heat thing..? Id say ignore it and keep exposig her to new things..after her heat is over. Dogs really pick up on our feelings and emotions


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## Ladyscarletthawk

I've had 3 intact bitches and never noticed a personality change with the exception that my toy became even more outgoing that normal


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## fjm

If she was in season in October, by now she should be in anoestrus, with her hormones at their "normal" levels, although given how variable dogs can be there are few absolutes. The range for dioestrus - when progesterone levels are higher than normal, is given as 60 - 100 days. There is a useful summary here: The Normal Canine Estrous Cycle

I had similar concerns when I was debating spaying my dogs, and could not find any solid evidence one way or the other. Most is anecdotal, and any research has been based on tiny samples and wildly uncontrolled variables. The best advice I could find is to wait for progesterone levels to drop before spaying (progesterone is believed to have a calming effect, and suddenly cutting it off may increase anxiety and reactivity), and try to sort any fearful behaviours before rather than after. So whether her anxiety around children is caused by hormones, age or is just a phase I think the way to go is to work on it with good old desensitisation and counter conditioning, while talking to your vet about spaying.


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## caroline429

Thanks for your replies. Since it sounds like this is not something that typically goes on for 3 months after a heat is finished, it might be time for some in-depth bloodwork to check hormone levels of all kinds. 

Something had been nagging at the back of my mind for the last 24 hours about sudden nervous behaviour and this morning it popped to the forefront. My first Rottie, at the age of 8, suddenly started to become very nervous of things that had never bothered her before. She was a working therapy dog and solid as a rock. This change in her personality was all I had to go on that something was not right and some in-depth diagnostics by my vet showed the dog had Atypical Addison's. 

As far as I know, Addison's isn't a big problem in mpoo's, but a full cbc and chem panel are probably a good idea. Hopefully it's some kind of a fear period we can work through but better safe than sorry.


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