New Puppy Adventures – Sugar the Beagle (Part 2)

If you want to check out the pictures of when we first got Sugar, go to Meet Sugar the Beagle Part 1.

As Sugar moved past the young puppy stage and into her 7 months to 10 months, we got to experience a few changes with the other dogs and her including:

• sharing attention
• sharing and fighting over toys
• continued potty training
• going into heat
• first vet appointment
• settling in place as a family

 

Here’s a recap of her as a puppy of around 4 months.

 

It didn’t take her long to start growing. When we got her in July, she was just the same size as our little Winnie, but within 2 months, she had grown over double and was bigger than our other dog Chapo.

I didn’t realize how big she would grow so quickly and I really missed her little puppy belly….. but I did not miss her piranha teeth (read Part 1).

They love to play with each other… Sugar being so much bigger now can simply eat Winnie’s head.

But she’s super silly and goofy… still a lot of puppy left in her before she settles down.

Always wanting to be in the center of the attention and not to miss anything, she tried her hardest to reach up by Chapo when we celebrated his 5th birthday in February 2022.

 

We were hoping to have her fixed before she went into heat, but alas, she started it almost right at 7 months old.

It was my first time dealing with a dog in heat because I’ve always had them fixed in time or were fixed when I got them if they were girls.

I did a lot of reading about it, especially to learn if she was going to be in pain and how I can help her be more comfortable during this time. What I learned is that when a female dog goes into heat, it is not like when a woman gets her monthly cycle…. so dogs do not have “cramps” or painful issues like humans do. This was comforting. But, reputable sites like pets.webmd.com and chewy.com did advise that some dogs can be uncomfortable at times and to watch your dog to see how they are acting.

What surprised me about a dog in heat is how long it would be – at least 14 days – 21 days on average.

Sugar’s lasted for almost 3 weeks. We were really proud of her though because she seemed to take care of herself very well and cleaned herself very often. We weren’t sure how much bleeding to necessarily expect as the sites didn’t go into those details, but she was spotting mostly after sleeping. When she would wake up, if she didn’t lick herself clean right away before getting up, we would see spots where she had bled a little. We checked the bedding and the places she laid quite often to take a very cold wet washcloth and clean it up. Really water and soap is all that was needed.

Since we have the dogs sleep with us, we had a waterproof mattress protector and white sheets during this time because it really was so easy to just have a mixture of water and bleach and spray any spots clean. Or just put the white sheets in the wash with bleach to get them perfectly clean again.

This is just what worked for us.

We did try putting a dog diaper (has a hole for a tail) on her one time, but it only last about an hour before I felt it just wasn’t going to work and really useless because she kept sticking her nose right through the leg opening to lick herself.

Here’s a picture that I believe shows her total humiliation.

 

One thing I mentioned in part 1 was how adorable her puppy belly was…. well….her little smooth puppy belly is now full of hair! So cute still… and she of course loves belly rubs.

Since she went into heat, she did get her nipples. I know, that’s a weird thing that I never thought of before, but that makes sense since our little Winnie never went into heat and she doesn’t have any protruding nipples.

We also introduced Sugar to Winnie and Chapo’s favorite dog puzzle and she loved it. We started getting more puzzles and snuffle mats for them since three dogs need a bit more to keep them occupied. We also had to look at bigger dog toy options now that Sugar has grown much bigger than the other two.

You can take a look at all their Dog Toys, Snuffle Mats & Dog Puzzles that they love to play with.

We had hoped that the dogs would take to her quickly, but it was kinda a bit slow.

Dog behaviorists say it can take dogs either real quickly or real slowly to be close and bonded in a cuddling way. Our other two have never cuddled, so we weren’t sure what to expect with another dog. It’s not looking like she will be cuddling much but we appreciate them tolerating the touching.

This is as close to snuggling as they have gotten…. and that’s ok with me….

 

Once Sugar’s heat was just about done, she went in for her first vet appointment to get her rabies and other shots. She needs them before we can get her fixed.

Right about this time, we were dealing with an unexpected situation at home…. both of us getting Covid for the first time. We were concerned about the dogs and whether or not it would be transferable… but they advised that there is just too little research available on animals and Covid, but so far that she’s aware of there have been only very few rare claims of dogs getting Covid or carrying it and little to no evidence they can pass it onto humans.

Sugar did great and it was such a different experience with her than with Chapo or Winnie – because Chapo is so scared and can snap at anyone who gets too close to his face and Winnie just hides and is terrified.

Sugar was so curious and friendly… they were playing with her and kissing her and it was great to see that. I wasn’t worried about her at all which was such a relief to feel.

 

 

 

Of course, there were tons of excited playing when we got back home with Chapo and Winnie so happy to see Sugar come back. It’s really adorable to see how much they missed her and smell her to see where she’s been.

 

 

 

Here’s a great picture of them in reference to size and how big Sugar has gotten in comparison to just 4 months ago. We think she is about done growing because we haven’t noticed any additional changes in the past month or so.

The picture below is at a weird angle because this looks like she is absolutely huge…. but I had to share because of her tongue hanging out.

 

 

Now here’s a full comparison from day one of getting little 11-week old puppy Sugar to her at 9 months old in February, nearly fully grown we feel.

Thanks so much for reading about Sugar! As we have new updates on her, I will add them below!

 

 

 

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