not my night or day gutted

hi,i got to sound of some where,they say things come in a three some i am waiting on the third.As yous know i have been training sasha my dobbie lurcher.All was going great till last night.When i picked her up she had been left in a back garden day and night.Hardly any training,couldnt walk on a lead proper i got her when she was 10 months she now is 111/2 months.In this 6 weeks i have put alot of training in with her.To cut it short she is doing great.Will let people approach her pet her.Last night whilst out walking bumped into a lad i have got to know through his dobbie male.Whilst i stopped to talk to him and his girlfriend,no dog with them the lad asked if he could pat sasha yes i said no problems showed.Been there about half hour talking.Along came some young lads,will your dog bite no i said she is ok.First 2 lads patted her no probs,then the other 2 came to pat her,she went back to her old self,lept on hind legs barking and growling.The poor lads were doing nothing threatining.So i called it a night heading home i met a mate and her hubby with their 3 dogs.I crossed the road,sasha was jumping up of the ground barking and growling.Gets indoors and still on lead has a go at my 2 greyhounds.Well enough was enough out the back she went.Then to my amazement i was going to smack her and my other half said dont she might be in pup.I had not bred her what the hell was going on.Whilst i had been out sasha had got out with the greys and the male had caught her not once did this happen but twice so you can imagine the house hold the air was blue if not purple.I am more than gutted.So what is the third thing.I am a good trainer but didnt see it comming.I havent been able to walk the dogs for a week because i have had flu.Nothing could be worst for me,

Uhmm... this is normally what happens when entire males and females get together...

As for smacking her after the fact, I reckon your OH was right on the money... The only thing smacking will do is relieve your own frustration, and probably hurt the dog's trust in you at the same time.

Why are you hitting your dog?

You don't sound to me like the sort of owner who should have a dog........

I have no sympathy for you whatsoever after that (potential) act.

Poor, poor dog.....

It sounds as if your heart is in the right place, but you do need to understand more about training dogs and not just behave in a frustrated or angry manner - and hitting dogs is a no-no, they aren't children (not that I would advocate hitting children either).

Can i ask how you got her to the stage where sometimes people can pet her? The reason I ask is because if your training is based on older fashioned methods (and because you've said you would smack her, I'm not sure if you would use these or more modern methods) then if you've for example told her off for reacting to people, she may have been hiding her true emotions for fear of being told off.

This is just a thought as obviously I don't have a clue what methods you would have been using

To help a dog accept people, you have to get them associating people with good things but also not overload them (and go at their pace).

She's still very young - I'd suggest if you can, checking out this website

http://www.apdt.co.uk/local_dog_trainers.asp

and finding a trainer near you who might come out on one to one's with you and help you with advice. I would say this is absolutely the most important thing you could do with her at this stage in her development

As for the girl being possibly pregnant - go to the vet straight away, as sometimes it is possible to get something done about it immediately (as I understand it).

As others have said get ot the vets ASAP if she was not mated too long ago it may be possible for her to have an injection to stop the pregnancy . I assume you do not want her to have pups , she is far too young , a litter costs a lot of money to rear and there are already enough unwanted pups in this country

A spay, when pregnant, is just a bit more expensive.. and that would be the right thing to do..

go to the vet..asap... its not to late to have the pregnacy ended... I know as vinnie has caught my females twice ...so have had to have them jagged out..

deal with that first then the training thing...

Get to the vets & get her injected to stop the pregnancy. Then stop panicking about her behaviour. Obviously she's just come into season & like a lot of bitches she's hormonal & acting entirely differently from her norm. Just gentle her through her season then start your training work again. She was hormonal the lads were slightly nervous & she flipped. Once her season is over get her booked in for a spay in about 3 months. Don't beat yourself up over one mistake, just organise for the future.

Ok there are so many things here i don't even know where to start. First, don;t be put off by one bad evening - she is very young and you have only had 6 weeks of helping her so put it down to a bad one and maybe just think about taking it a little more slowly in the future. Maybe she just fopund it overwhelming - especially if there were several people all around her trying to pet her at once.

Then - do you normally hit your dogs?! I am absolutely gobsmacked. What's worse it sounds like you had already punished her by putting her out the back so you were premediatedly going to go and smack her after the fact? She wouldn't have had a clue why you were doing it and it would probably have set your training way back - especailly in trying to teach her that people are nice. Unbelievable.

Then if i get this right you have an unspayed female in a house with entire males? What on earth did you think might happen? The thing you have to do immediately is go to the vets and get and injection to terminate any potential pregnancy. Then you have to get her spayed.

I would hit your hubby.. as he said the bitch wasnt caught once but twice.... what was he thinking about..?