Hello all, im hoping for a little bit of advice in relation to my shih-tzu’s current behaviour. Coco is 3 years old and she is a rescue, she is having her first season with us and she has changed drastically but not in an aggressive way. Coco has suddenly become super attached to me, mainly the last three days. Her most common new behaviour is she looks at me and freezes putting her tail high and to the side- im assuming this is mating behaviour but it only happens when im in the room with her. For example tonight, she was asleep in bed content and warm, i got home from work and she ran to me and has not left my side since, she is barking at me trying to play and then turning her bum into me.. rubbing her face against my arms/hands then bum towards me etc.. My boyfriend has been home with her all night and said she hasn’t put her bum in the air etc and that she’s been playing with toys as usual! If im with her she isn’t interested in anything but me, she cries at my feet for attention but if she gets it then she puts her bum to me. She jumps on me, climbs on me, barks and will run to me before turning her bum towards me with her tail dropped to one side. She is a nightmare i left for work yesterday and my boyfriend found the dog 5 minutes later asleep on my side of the bed, something she has never done before. We do let her sleep on our bed on a night (controversial topic haha) the boyfriend doesn’t want her on the bed but if she is at the bottom of the bed she sleeps all night and doesn’t move, if she is in her own bed she walks round the house whimpering.. I think she gets a bit of anxiety at night and our close presence helps her, boyfriend thinks she is playing up for me to let her back on the bed but that’s a different story! We are working on sleeping in her own bed, slowly she is getting used to her bed isn’t scary as she is in the same room as us but for now she’s more comfortable with me. I guess my main question is, what is normal for a dog in season? She is 10-12 days in, she is no longer bleeding and her swelling is going down but this is the new behaviour. She is still walking as normal, we keep her on a lead and only take her out together, her appetite hasn’t changed nor has her mischievous attitude (apart from with me).. is this a normal thing for a dog to be doing in season? I have a rottweiler who has had seasons and she never did these things, pops my big girl just bled and never had any hormonal urges as such.. it might be worth adding before coco was rehomed with me her previous owner had a litter of pups, coco was always intended to be a breeding machine from previous owners but she never got caught, could this be the normal for her.. is she expecting to be mated? I don’t know. Any advice would be amazing!
This is the time to be ultra careful, Laura. Coco is now at the fertile stage. Once a bitch stops bleeding and her vulva starts shrinking back to normal, this is the time she is receptive to being mated and is fertile. This is frequently how pet bitches accidentally get "caught" - because their owners think that once the bleeding stops and the vulva shrinks, their girl is safe. Mine were always confined to the garden and never taken out for walks for at least a week after they stopped showing blood.
Absolutely normal. She is at the height of her season and her hormones are telling her to act like this. Watch her like a hawk until you are certain that her season has finished. Be sure to keep her on a lead outdoors, as she is currently at her most attractive to male dogs. Have you got room to put a bed for Coco in your bedroom? I have recently rehomed a Beagle who has been used to sleeping in the company of other dogs. We have put her little bed at the foot of ours and she loves the arrangement. She has a separate day bed in the living room.
Thank you both so much for the advice. I have had a chat with my boyfriend and we have agreed to stop walking coco until her season has passed, we live in such a dog populated area and the risk isn’t worth it. Luckily we have a large enclosed garden where she can run and burn energy, only issue is she won’t go to the toilet in the garden; but this is something we will work on! I never leave her in the garden unattended and will continue to monitor her every move in the garden. I have heard horror stories about dogs jumping fences etc I really do appreciate the help, i have not experienced a dog in season like coco. My rotti’s were spayed to prevent health conditions and it’s been a little while since a season haha! In relation to beds, coco has a night bed in our bedroom, a day bed in the living room and even a ‘comfort’ style bed we have on the landing which we do put in the kitchen when we are cooking etc and she wants to be near us, that’s her more portable bed and 50% of the time she uses it as a snuggly bed, the other 50% of the time she throws it around like a toy! She rarely uses the bed in the living room, and never uses the bed in our bedroom. She prefers to sleep on the sofa/our bed and i wouldn’t mind apart from she is the smallest girl and jumping really concerns me. We did have a successful period of a week where she slept in her bed in our bedroom, however she had a small accident with a car (no injuries thankfully!) and we fell soft and to make sure she was ok allowed her back on the bed… silly mistake. She will not settle in her own bed, she walks into the rabbits bedroom and cries at the bunny. She woke me up once in the living room squeaking her toys at 3am haha! I am going to start training her again, i think she would appreciate her space
