When a Dog Becomes a Teenager
We all know that our pets age differently from us humans. For average-sized to large dogs, they age about 7 times in a year. For small dogs like a chihuahua, it's about 6 times in a year. If your chihuahua is healthy, he/she may live up to 15 to 20 years.
How do you know when your puppy is no longer a puppy because it has turned into a dog?
How do you identify when your furbaby is entering the adolescent age?
One of the signs is when your female dog starts to fangirl over series... Just kidding!
(She has a crush on Rollo of Vikings.)
She loves this show.
Studies say that the dog's 6 to 18th month is the adolescent age.
It's the awkward stage from puppy-hood to adulthood. While you want your little furbaby to stay a baby forever, you can't ignore the fact that he/she needs to grow up.
Xena was born in February 2016. We started seeing changes in her, both physically and behaviorally, last September.
As expected, she's grown to maybe her final height and length.
She was only 6 inches long when we got her. She's more than 20 inches long now. She may get fatter and heavier in time. Overweight chihuahuas are prone to diabetes and other health problems. We avoid that by keeping her on a diet.
She's grown a new set of teeth.
It bothered us that she became uninterested in eating her food. She was never a picky eater. Initially, we thought that she was having stomach problems or that her dog food might be expired. We then found out that she was growing a new set of teeth and it made her uncomfortable.
Suddenly a snob
From a very hyper dog, she became somewhat apathetic of us. She became less active. She became more possessive of her chew toys. She stopped greetings us when we got home. We really thought she was sick.
First period
Everything made sense when she got her period. Our baby is now a lady!
It made me wonder if dogs feel menstrual cramps too. I was holding her on my lap one time. She was very irritable. She grunts whenever I try to carry her or nudge her. Maybe periods make her feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was a process she never fully understands yet.
Xena is still in her heat cycle but the bleeding has stopped. We're taking extra precautions and she's quarantined until we can confirm that she's no longer in heat. There's a high risk of complications if ever she gets impregnated at this stage. And we're not planning to breed chihuahuas as of the moment.
Meanwhile, Muffin (Xena's mother) is getting a well-deserved rest from birthing 6 batches of puppies! Xena is from Batch Number 5. Muffin's Purpose in Life
Here's Xena's latest and youngest siblings to date.
Here's Xena's latest and youngest siblings to date.
Dogs grow up to fast, so if you have one, cherish his/her puppy days as long as they last (only 6 months, more or less.)
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