Dog in Heat?

Question

Lily and Jorge   QUESTION: Hello,
We have a female unspayed border collie (Lily) who is almost 8months and 5 days ago we were given a gorgeous 8 week old border collie cross rough collie (Jorge).The afternoon we got back with him we introduced them to each other there was a it of snapping and growling the first day from Lily but after that she was fine a bit protective of her stuff but otherwise they just played heaps. Yesterday however she corned Jorge and was not being quite aggressive, but later on they were back as normal she has never in the past been aggressive to humans or other dogs even a few weeks ago my friend brought her male lab X over who is 3months and they were fine not any growling at all. So i was wondering if she is having her first heat cycle, and if she is we live in a fairly large property with 11 other homes around us 7 of which have a male dog including us. How could we keep her unpregnant until she is 2ish when we plan to breed her with Jorge if she is in full health and will the aggressiveness stop if she is in heat?

Sorry about all the writing!
-Tessa

ANSWER: Hi Tessa,   Good for you!   You're not getting your dog spayed!  Instead, you're actually going to train your dogs & manage them properly - What a concept!   They will be much better dogs for it too.
    First, Border Collies are super intelligent & their herding/prey instincts are usually razor sharp.  You always have a hard time pulling one over on them, as you must know by now.  Dogs sometimes have difficulty accepting new pack members at first but that choice falls to the pack leader (that would be You).  Don't let her get away with too much here.  Her herding instinct will lead her to behavior like "cornering" the pup & intimidating him.  Dogs, especially worthwhile ones, need to be reminded who's boss & leader of the pack because a truly good one should be right there to fill in in the leader's absence.  Don't anthropomorphize this and worry about things like "the dog feels bad because I pay attention to the new dog".  All dogs require leadership & structure.
   Other than the fact that your female is just the right age to show her first heat, nothing else here would lead me to belive this is the case.  Her aggressiveness will probably stop when the pack leader doesn't tolerate it any longer.  When she does come into season, you will notice her paying more than usual attention to her genitalia.  She will have a bloody vaginal discharge for about 7 days.  This will tail off quite a bit after the first week of her heat BUT the second week is the time when she will be most receptive to the males. (And they will be noticeable more interested in her).
The third week is the "going out week" but you still need to keep her up.  Lots of dogs get bred in this third week when the owners think it's all over.   After the 21st day I usually test the female with one of the males to see if she's still interested, but after that you're usually OK.  Just remember, these times are just the "rule of thumb" so keep a close eye on her.
    The best way I know to keep a female in season is with a crate & a kennel.  This first season is always when my females get really fined-tuned & finished in their crate training.  Smart dog trainers always take advantage of these natural consequences to support their training efforts.  You might also think about a top for your kennel if you have alot of dogs running loose in your area.  Dogs like yours are always so much better dogs, because folks like you use their heads & don't take a bunch of shortcuts like neutering their dogs.    
    I know the equipment mentioned requires an outlay of cash, but sometimes homemade kennels & boxes work as good as store bought ones & you're going to need them when you have your pups anyhow.
     Hope this helped, Tessa, Thanks for asking,  Rob
    Note* Thanks for the pictures, looks like a great breeding to me, they should have some dandy pups.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you sooo much for those answers it makes alot more sense now about why Lily was doing what she was doing already today they have been alot better and Lily has even been letting Jorge jump onto her and mouthing her! We are also going to build a large square run for them since right now Lily is sleeping in a kennel with a little run attached and Jorge is in the Laundry. The run we were thinking about is going to be built between two walls (5.5 metres by 6 metres) outside and then a thick very high fence(as Lily is an amazing jumper) we were thinking about leaving Lily in the kennel she is now because she n=knows it is hers and when i get her food she runs strait into it, but have it in the big run so that when we go away there is plenty of room for her and Jorge and then when she is in heat we can lock her up and then Jorge in a homemade decent size kennel, does this sound good to you?  

Answer
Hey Tessa,   This sounds excellent to me!  Not only are you doing the right thing, but I can tell by the way you write that you are thinking about this in the right frame of mind.  You obviously have some good ol' dog smarts.  If everyone managed their dogs like this they sure wouldn't need my advice.  This first season you can work on training your female & the next season you'll need to work on Jorge,... now that will be a real challenge.   Keep up the good work,  Best Regards,  Rob