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| City on leash walks for now |
We’re finished! I was so worried about having a female dog in heat, downtown, in the summer, in an apartment. I’ve heard that the first heat isn’t very representative of the future ones, that it can be lighter, shorter, and apparently sometimes people don’t even notice it. I’d be super surprised to not notice my dog in heat, but it honestly wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Neither Whiskey nor any male dogs we met in these weeks went “crazy” and it really was only about 5-7 days in total where her drive to mate was strong enough to overtake her normally great recall.
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| off to quiet trails |
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| a waterfall is welcome during a dry summer |
The first week she bled, I noticed a decrease in energy and lots of small pees, but male dogs were not showing interested in her. I started feeding more buffalo/beef which has lots of iron as I notice that I become anemic and tired when I’m also bleeding. After that her energy popped right back up.
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| working on our modelling skills |
By the second week, her appetite was back to normal (for 2-3 weeks before it was up and down) but the bleeding had shifted from bloody to a more pinkish color. The smell also go much stronger, which my partner hated, but for some reason it didn’t bother me. Whiskey became MUCH more interested in flirting with particular males (not every male) and males because quite interested in her. As, we live downtown, most males are neutered and haven’t encountered a female in heat before. I kept her on leash around other dogs and did many quieter hikes. I’m so lucky that there’s so much real estate for dogs to run that I never had a day I couldn’t let Whiskey run off leash for at least 45mins. Our normal dog park is normally empty at 7am for fetch, and there is such a selection of trail networks that you don’t have to go far for some beautiful walks on weekends.
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| the smoke from wildfires drifts into Vancouver |
The dog diapers worked great for the most part but there were a couple leaks. I ended up going with gigantic “night time” pads and hand washing the diapers every night as something would always leak. Our sheets also got stained as Whiskey loves to roll over for belly rubs (rolling around in diapers is bad).
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| pointing the way |
At the 2.5 week mark point, the bleeding had stopped and males had stopped showing interest. Whiskey is still swollen and peeing lots but I’m really happy not having to worry about diapers. It gets annoying walking to the car with a diaper in your hands and don’t forget it to it off IMMEDIATELY when they get out of the car (2x she peed in her diaper).
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| my mountain goat in the North Shore |
Overall it wasn’t the disaster I had expected in a busy downtown area with lots of dogs. I imagine this would have been much easier with a house and yard but it’s nice to know it’s manageable in an apartment. I’m still tossing up how much longer to wait to get Whiskey spayed, and what kind of spay, but at the moment, I’m just happy to have gone through this with her. She’s grown up now but she’ll always be my little Whiskey girl.
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| Stanley Park has many small side trails for fetch |
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