question about aggressive behavior during heat cycles

I waited too long to schedule my 9 month old malte-poo for her spaying and i have a feeling she's about to come into heat. I thought I had till she was a year old!..anyway Spaying is scheduled for August 29.
I just started noticing that her 'girly parts' are a little swollen and my lab has been sniffing around her a lot more than usual.

The lab is 5 years old and spayed for almost a year now, I was wondering if I should watch for any aggressive behavior from her towards pebbles if she is going into heat? I thought she was acting a little crabby towards pebbles lately, but i thought it was just the heat, and sometimes she just doesn't want to be bothered...She isn't vicious or anything...just some low growling when she's laying around and the puppy starts to bother her...I think that is normal right??

Only yesterday we were grilling out and one of the kids must have dropped a piece of burger in the yard...both dogs were going after it and josie (the lab) snapped and growled at pebbles...sent her screeching away...i didn't see any injury except a small cut on the roof of her mouth.. I wasn't really surprised at this because i know josie is sometimes food aggressive...mostly only with high value treats and such..like hamburger! The only other incident was when puppy was only a couple of months old and josie snapped at her over a rawhide...needless to say...we don't have rawhide or anything like that here anymore

So i guess in my round a bout way, i'm asking if a spayed female would tend to get more agressive towards a female in heat? Puppy is 5.5 lbs to josies 65 and they've gotten along like a dream so far, I hope to keep it that way!

Thanks!!

 

You'll have to wait for someone else to answer the question about the heat cycle. But I just wanted to mention that the older dog snapping at the puppy doesn't sound alarming in itself, as long as the puppy takes the hint and goes away and the older dog does not pursue or keep carrying on. Snapping is like saying, "Yo! Leave me alone!" and if the puppy then says, "Okay" and moves off, everything is good. I never reprimand my dogs for snapping as long as it is done appropriately (not saying you do, but some people do).

 

Hi dogs can come into heat as early as 4-6months of age.
It does sound like she is going through her first cycle you will notice bleeding for her vulva if she has started this will start of little spots here and there and as the cycle progresses this will become more heavy, Some dogs only have slight discharge some have a heavy discharge.

Keep an eye on her for any signs of foul smelling dark coloured discharge as this is a sign of infection.
Most dogs go through a phantom pregnancy after there first cycle and she may show some or all of the signs as if she is pregnant, You can bring her out of this by keeping her mind occupied therefor making her forget remove any toys she could take as he imaginary puppies.

If she is going through her heat cycle you will need to wait 12 weeks after the cycle ends before having her spayed as he hormones will be all over the place and spaying during or straight after a cycle can cause hormonal inbalances your vet will tell you all this.

A heat cycle lasts on average 18days some as long as 27days.
You will need to keep a very close eye on her as a dog in heat will do anything to get out to a wandering male and a male will do anything to get to an in heat bitch.
When she is out do not leave her unsupervised as it only takes 1 second for her to run off and this is when problems start if she gets caught by a male.

I would not worry to much about aggression from your lab because of pebbles being in heat as the only thing you may find is that your lab may try and mate with her i know this sounds weird with your lab also being female.

Mike

 

Thank you both for your replies...I'm pretty sure she is in heat, even though there doesn't seem to be a lot of blood...considering she is only 5.5 lbs. I'm thinking she probably won't bleed a lot, I had no idea they went into heat so young!...I will be calling the vet to change her spaying appt tomorrow.
Josie has been pretty good ever since the snapping incident...doesn't seem to want to play with pebbles as much, but she has lost interest before, I was just concerned that pebbles heat cycle might affect josie into being aggressive with her....I love that my girls love each other and don't want to do anything to upset that...
Thanks again for the replies!