If any of y'all have a female dog, I'm sure you've have that conversation. The one where every other female-dog owner loves to tell you all about the horrors of a season. The dogs that scratched at their door keeping them up all night, the ones that followed them home while they were out for a walks, the female dogs leaving a horrible mess everywhere until the poor owners resorted to doggy diapers (which were readily shredded by said dog), and OH MY GOD MY DOG WAS SO BADLY BEHAVED/ All stories told with a grim smile and a definite feeling of schadenfreude: HAHA I've done it but *you* still have to live through it!
Well, I'm here to say that it's not that bad.
Okay, I'm not gonna lie: I'm glad it only happens every 6 months, and it's not been super fun for poor Hazel. But if you do some pretty easy things it's definitely doable.
First of all, and most coincidentally, our hallway has a dark maroon-y carpet. Awesome. The front room has that horrible red patterned carpet (which I am told is an improvement over the tiles beneath, but I don't know if it is possible to get worse), both of which need to be replaced soonish anyway and the bathroom, kitchen, and living room have tile, vinyl, and wood floors respectively. The only room we needed to keep Hazel out of was the bedroom, as it has a cream carpet. Well and the other bedrooms but A. They've not had any work done yet and B. She's never in them anyway.
This was Bad News. Lemme tell you: the Davemonster and I are not what you would call morning people. Really. By any stretch of the word. Before we got Hazel weekends included breakfast and sometimes lunch in bed and snuggles until like 2. So while Dave drags himself out of bed and off to work every day like a good little bread-winner, Hazel (who is happily also not a morning dog) Hazel and I cozy up in bed and snooze. So this week, we cozy up on the couch, which has been covered with an old duvet. Bah. It is not optimal but one of these days she will stop leaking and all will be comfier again :D
(I feel bloated and want chocolate. Now.)
Luckily (or unluckily, however you want to look at it) Hazel was supposed to have a new training class the day after her season started, so we had bought a lovely long lead and we have used it! Every night when we assume most sane people have finished walking their dogs, we all hop in the car and drive to a field about 10 minutes away. This serves two purposes: 1. there will be no trail for horny boy-dogs to follow to our house, as Hazel is even carried to the car. and 2. Well, duh. Hazel is a freaking cow if she doesn't get exercise. Oh and 3. We go to the field because she doesn't get off the long line and can you imagine that in the woods? Hello tangle. We also went one evening to the only closed-in field in Sheffield so that she could properly run around which is definitely better for her, but is about a half hour away. She doesn't run so much on the lead but she snuffles around and is a bit happier when we get home. This would be so much better if I could drive here because when she started whining to go out at like, noon, I wouldn't have to listen to it for the next 7 hours >_>.
So anyway, while we are being a little bit insane and chauffeuring our dog around to get some exercise, I can't imagine not letting her out. And yes the little blood drops are not optimal but they are cleaning up well. So far we have only experienced the howling dogs when we went to the closed in field for Hazel to spaz around, but they were in their house. I consider this to be going well because there is a lovely boy doggy across the street who is so far very well behaved.
Hazel is mostly normal, if slightly naughty (but I assume this is the lack of exercise, she is still getting much less than she is used to if we go out for an hour each night).
Naughty? Me?!
So, the million dollar question: Will we spay? I have no idea :D I feel kind of bad about it but it would make life easier. Also PUPPIES! But at the same time: Puppies. You know what I'm saying.
