Bitch in Season Distraction Training
Added 2025-09-22 13:00:07 +0000 UTCHaving an intact male dog can come with its own set of challenges, including encountering a bitch in season. But it's an important distraction to work around and proof behaviors around because not only will I likely encounter a BIS at various competitions and events, but they will also be present in the real world while working your service dog.
This is a super high level distraction so it's also just great training!
Key takeaway: watch how I help him get the right answer the first few times by getting close and presenting a reward (and also a physical target to move to) and how that lower "ask" at the beginning creates very quick success without that same help after the 2nd rep.
Comments
The only way I would know to do is ask. If you get involved with a training organization/club people are usually pretty open to “donating” their used diapers. I had mentioned it twice at my training club as something I needed to train around and both times diapers were offered up the next time a bitch was in heat. So I’d get involved with a training organization and then when the time is right, ask. Sport people know that it’s a distraction worth training around.
Laura DeMaio Roy
2025-09-23 10:36:49 +0000 UTCReally solid point Lucie! ADI accredited organizations require the dog to be altered before they “graduate”. I do not plan to pursue ADI accreditation for Denver for this reason. However, one option that I saw done when I was training guide dogs is that they would collect on the dog or use him at stud once if they really wanted the genetics and then neuter him. But I don’t love that because you’re not really proving the dog before passing on the genetics. In any event, glad to be owner-training and have that option for Denver.
Laura DeMaio Roy
2025-09-23 10:33:17 +0000 UTCIn my country (Australia) most PATs will require that your service dog is desexed, even for the training period. I like that other places in the world are more free thinking. Otherwise where do service dog lineages come from ??
Lucie Bland
2025-09-23 09:21:21 +0000 UTCHow would you approach this as someone just getting into the service/sports dog world, that doesn’t currently know anyone with intact females? you mentioned getting their diapers, which i thought about, but short of making an ‘ISO’ post somewhere, i don’t know how to go about finding ones for training sessions like this.
Mikayla Sanders
2025-09-22 17:06:14 +0000 UTC
