Where have all the bitches gone?

When Bharat Phirangi gifted his wife a male Labrador, she knew what to name him. The dog kept fumbling about and crashing into furniture. “We called him Goofy,” she says. Lately, however, a new problem has arisen. Goofy no longer crashes into furniture. He tries to have sex with them. And, not satisfied with table and chair legs, he tries to hump the human leg too. 

When you consider it, Goofy’s predicament is more tragic than funny. And it’s understandable, too, why he feels compelled to explore copulation options outside of his species. “There are just no female dogs,” says Anu Sethi, a dog behaviourist.

 Phirangi could have easily put Goofy out of his agony by neutering him, but he wants his dog to “do the act” at least once. Says Phirangi, “For the last two months, we’ve been enquiring with friends, other dog owners and also vets, but none of them have female dogs, and those who do, have had them spayed.” 

A couple of months ago, Phirangi even put up ads at popular dog salons. An agitated and exasperated Phirangi states, “I didn’t get any enquiries. Not even one.” He’s decided to wait for another six months. “We’ll be sad if he cannot mate. We’ll have to neuter him,” he says. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to control him. Not only is it embarrassing when he starts rubbing himself against people and furniture, he also becomes aggressive and goes ‘nuts’ when he sees a female dog, adds Phirangi.  

Anu Sethi lists the reasons for the crisis. “Firstly, people believe that male dogs make better watchdogs, which is untrue. Then, many think that a bitch, when on heat, can make the house dirty; and thirdly, many don’t want to deal with a litter. So, even if they get a bitch, they get it spayed, pushing it outside of the pool of females that can mate.” Everyone wants a male dog, many don’t neuter them, and thus there is an imbalance created, she says. 

Moreover, with owners wanting their pets to mate only with dogs from the same breed, the problem only gets worse. Sheil Naharwar from the Bombay Presidency Kennel Club, however, thinks there is another reason why people hesitate to keep bitches. “Our bias towards the male child is known and this is undoubtedly reflected in our choices, too. Thus people prefer male dogs to bitches,” says Naharwar, the club’s honorary secretary.  

As the pet dog grows up inside a house, its only interaction with other dogs occurs when it’s taken out for a walk for a few minutes and this doesn’t help. As Sethi says, “Many of them don’t even know how to do it.”

This was a problem Andrea Cyrill Khuranam faced. When her female Golden Retriever Tinkabell finally came on heat and was ready to mate, she took it immediately to a family which owned a male Golden Retriever. “All of us were there, my family and the other dog’s family. We all waited, in great anticipation, for the two to start mating. After about half an hour, when nothing happened, we realised there was a problem,” she says. The male didn’t know how it was supposed to mate, and needed help from a veterinarian. But its owners thought it would be too traumatic an experience for their pet, says Khuranam.  

Not only is Khuranam the owner of two Golden retrievers, Tinkabell and a neutered male dog Blit (he was neutered because he was born with defective hind legs, and thus did not have the strength to mate), she also runs a popular website for dogs called petsburghonline.com. Of the 16 dogs listed on the site, only two are bitches. “Right now, we are waiting for the two bitches to come on heat, so that we can hook them up with males,” says Khuranam. 

Sethi underlines the seriousness of the problem. “Not only are there fewer females, but to get a bitch of the same breed and wait for her to come on heat (which usually happens twice a year) is a big problem. And many of them have some problem or the other and so can’t mate.” 

Dr Sangeeta Shah, a leading veterinarian in the city, has stopped taking any more enquiries till her backlog is cleared. She has more than 160 dogs on her list, on the lookout for mates. “In this list, the ratio of bitches to males is 1:20,” she says. “People in India are unsure if they want to keep dogs only as pets or also want to breed them. It is cruel not to neuter them and at the same time be unable to make them mate. Not only does this increase their chances of contracting cancer, they can become temperamental, aggressive, and the females can suffer from pseudo-pregnancy.” 

Khuranam’s Tinkabell has suffered from pseudo-pregnancy twice. In this condition, the bitch starts acting like a mother, undergoing hormonal changes, lactating, not eating well, and even suffers mood swings. Says Sethi, “Tinkabell, in fact, adopted a shoe as her child, not allowing anyone to take it away from her. Her mammary glands were full with milk and she was also not eating well.” 

Armity Homji is, in her own words, “dumbfounded”. “Zack [her Labrador] is jet black and very good-looking. But we haven’t received a single enquiry. Can you believe that?” she asks, clearly unable to believe it herself. The Homjis have been on the lookout for a female Labrador for the last 18 months. They’ve asked innumerable acquaintances, friends, and also put up advertisements at dog salons. Zack turned three a month ago and the Homjis had a grand celebration.

“But we can’t give him what he really wants. He has brought so much happiness to us.” “I hope we can do the same for him,” they say.