I have some questions about (my first puppy's first) heat?

Question

Before I get to my questions, let me tell you about my puppy, first. Her name is Maggie, and she's a 6-7 month old min pin(possibly mixed with chihuahua). We found her in a box by the side of the freeway when she was 6 to 8 weeks old, and we fell in love. She's got an amazing personality. She isn't very well trained, but she knows sit, stay, come, and is leash and house trained. She's not fixed yet. We've had problems in the past trying to get animals fixed (our cat nearly bled out on the table) so we wanted to wait until she was bigger and a bit older than the 4 months she would have otherwise been fixed at. She didn't have all her shots at time, as well. She's put on 2 and a half pounds since then, and now weighs about 5 pounds. We don't have the money to fix her right now, though we do not intend to breed her.

So... my questions...
We found her humping her bed last night. Is that even normal for female dogs?

And could she be going into heat even though she's so young and tiny? And since we do intend on getting her fixed, could going into heat cause complications?

And when she does go into heat, what do we need to do for her? Do we need to give her more iron, is there some sort of doggy pads?

Will getting her fixed change her personality? She's not very hyper. Actually, she's downright lazy. She'll play for a little bit, run around, drink some water, then sleep. That's, of course, comparing her to our friends dog, who is like a little energizer bunny. My dog is more of a lovebug. She'd rather watch TV with you then play fetch.

And my last question: How often will she go into heat?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Small breed dogs generally have their first heat at 6 months, so no, she's not too young and tiny has nothing to do with coming into heat.   You don't do anything for her except NEVER let her go outside unsupervised for the next 3 weeks and keep her away from all males.  She's much too young for a so-called accidental litter.

Humping has nothing to do with being in heat - its just something dogs do.

Getting her spayed won't change her personality.  She'll go into heat every 6 months unless you do the responsible thing and get her spayed.  It cuts down on her chances of getting cancer or pyometra drastically.

When she's in heat, hormones can come into play and change her normal temperament somewhat.  

The only things to do for her are keep her safe and buy sanitary panties made for dogs to protect your furniture.

•Poppy• · Answer

It is normal for her to be humping the bed. I'd stop the behavior, but it's up to you.

She could absolutely be going into heat - her size doesn't really affect that.

The most important thing here is to keep her away from ALL other dogs. Don't let her out of your sight for anything, especially outdoors. When she potties, take her out, watch her, and take her back in. It's really for her safety as well - you don't want her breeding, especially with any random dog. She's too tiny and way too young. 

Her heat will last about 3-4 weeks (even after she stops bleeding, she'll still be in heat) so you need to keep this behavior of watching her like a hawk up for another month or so. You'll be able to tell when she's about to go into heat because her vulva will swell and her nipples will get bigger - and she'll begin to bleed of course.

You can get her doggy diapers, but they're only really necessary if she's not cleaning herself. Many dogs will keep themselves clean so it's not an issue.

Spaying her won't affect her personality at all. My dog was spayed a couple of weeks ago, she was groggy and sore the first couple of days, and was back to her old self in no time.

She'll go into heat ever 6 months or so, so I'd start saving and finding a place to take her after she gets done with this heat. It's really just more convenient to live with a spayed dog than an intact one (I've lived with both), and there's really no reason for her to go into heat either.

elmblad · Answer

The warmness cycle lasts approximately 21 days. The bleeding is not like a girl's waft and don't seem to be customarily very "heavy"-extra like recognizing and each puppy is exceptional. (generally the primary warmness is "silent"-individuals do not become aware of or very gentle!) Some puppies simply preserve themselves enormously blank as good. As a ways because the diapers- I'd difference them each couple of hours or as you suppose quintessential. And such a lot puppies cross into warmness each 6-eleven months- so approximately two times a yr.

stephen harmon · Answer

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I have some questions about (my first puppy's first) heat?

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