Updates from past few months: nose work, heat, Christmas, cats

Terra is moving along in nose work. We make the exercises easier for her if it involves going into tight spaces, but she constantly impresses me with her dedication and endurance when searching.

She had her third heat cycle just before Christmas. It made her a little more clingy toward the end. I'm thinking of having her spayed around the time she turns 3 this summer.

We spent a week at my parents' house. She was on Trazadone and Gabapentin the whole time. Initially she was doing better than usual. After my sister and her husband arrived, she was overwhelmed by the number of people, even though she usually likes them. She spent a lot of time in the back yard or closed into my bedroom. She barely ate and lost about eight pounds. Her biggest stressor was still my dad, whom she's always been scared of.

The last bit of news is that Terra has caught and killed two feral cats. One was in the dog yard already when I let them out, and for some reason was caught by surprise. The second was spooked by something outside the yard and jumped the wire fence, practically right into Terra's mouth. Both times it was a challenge to get the dead cat away from her afterwards. She is now obsessed with them. Peggy, who knows that she is safe as long as there is a fence between them, often sleeps right on the other side of the wire. Terra will stare at her, then bash her face into the fence as she pounces forward. I'm working on discouraging the staring, but I will never ever trust her around small animals other than dogs. I'm muzzling her when we go for off leash hikes just in case.

First heat cycle

Terra started spotting on August 18th. She quickly learned to clean herself, and the blood was only a problem when she got up from a nap, during which it would apparently pool near the opening to her vagina. That was when big drops would end up on the floor - or splattered all over if she was vigorously wagging her tail to welcome me home.

I didn't notice any behavioral changes while she was home. Unfortunately her heat coincided with me having an intact adolescent male boarding with me. I sent her off to stay with my parents during the second half of his board, as he was getting worse in his behavior. Terra has always been wary of my dad, but this time she started barking at him when he would make noise from his office or enter the room she was in. She likes my mom, who provided all her care.

The spotting had stopped by the time she returned on September 3rd. On September 13th she had gooey discharge but that cleared up after just two or three days. All seems back to normal now.

I put a note in my calendar for February 18, 2019: "Terra heat sometime around now." I hope she's regular.

I made her these adorable panties for the most part they weren't needed.