Female dogs and wolves may synchronize their reproductive cycles within packs, but evidence for true suppression is unclear. Some subordinate females develop false pregnancies that produce milk, allowing them to act as nannies for pups. The alpha female may monopolize estrus while others experience delayed or suppressed cycles.
Do any of you have any thoughts on whether dogs will regulate their seasons, female dogs, so as not to have one if they are not top bitch?
Look, uh, definitely I see bitches cycle together, uh, for a start. I don't often see one being necessarily suppressed. I think from a point of view of do they still cycle, yes. Do they all have puppies. Well, you do definitely see that there's not 15 puppies in a pack of, you know, 30 wolves. Uh, so I would just say, suggest that we do see nanny, um, bitches occur where they will look after the pups as the rest of the pack go off to hunt because they have a season and therefore they have a false pregnancy, therefore they have milk, and so they can look after the alpha bitch's pups.
You saying that, um, the that, uh, in the wild, uh, in a pack, that the alpha female would be, uh, the only one that comes into estrus, that the other guys don't come into estrus at all?
Yeah, but the alpha is going to be more, more fertile for whatever reason. She's more fertile because she's the alpha, uh, but the— I think that the others do as well, and there's a degree of synchrony. In humans, there's a thing called menstrual synchrony which, which is called the McClintock effect. I suspect when you've got enough female mammals together, there is a— the cycles will coordinate, but they will be deferred to the, to the dominant or the alpha
