Shaping Workshop

We had "training group" today and it's really a get together for us friendly dog-friend/nerds to socialize and kinda train our dogs.  I ended up bringing Buzz today and he was oh-so-happy to go!

Elizabeth and Beckett were there, Brian brought the adorable Ms. Maisy Jane, Jane brought Finn, and Robin had her NEW PUPPY Via!

Buzz and I have been working on crating more than half-heartedly lately, trying to determine if his poor crate behavior is due to a lack of training, or possible cognitive issues.  The last two nights he has settled nicely after a walk and some down-time before bed time.  When we arrived at training group this morning, we took a short walk with Beckett and then he crated up nicely at the training center.  Very few barks and only in one instance.  I'm trying to keep better records of his behavior in general, so this is definitely something I need to pay attention to.  When, why, and for how long does he bark.

After crating adult dogs so we could PLAY WITH THE PUPPY, we actually got to work.

Robin had us do a warm up heeling/loose leash walking on both sides activity.  Three dogs milled around with their handlers and nobody had a collision.  That impressed me.  I thought for sure I'd hit a pole or a dog or someone else, but nope!  (Confession time: I've never been in a group obedience class...)  Buzz had quite a few no-sits and I was trying to work on my clicker mechanics (don't reach for the treat until after clicking) so then we stopped movement exercises and worked on semi-stationary exercises so I could focus on less.  Robin tagged me for remembering to click THEN treat.  Mannn was that challenging for me!  It's something I should work on at home a lot more and just... don't!

Scent Articles
--where we ran into the problem I always have.  How to mark a deaf dog from a distance!  I utilized Robin's expertise and extra hands to try solving this problem.  Buzz was working the "pile" (2 leather, 2 metal, plus my scented leather) nicely but not committing to the correct article, so I wanted to mark when he indicated.  The lights I brought with did not have the distance or direct-ness (I'm sure there's a better word I can't think of right now) it needs.  Robin's going to bring a laser light next week to see if we don't get better results.  I do have to admit to telling him how adorably wrong he was when he got confused one time and just started picking up articles and throwing them at me.  I never know how to handle it when he does that, so I normally call him away and just start over.  I have yet to find a way of preventing the pick up of the wrong article... ideas?

Elizabeth and I traded dogs.  She worked with Buzz on muzzling while Beck and I worked on head turns and paw lifts.

It was grand fun and I'm very sad I missed out on the first session.  I'm going to bring Buzz again next week, and I may actually bring both and trade out--I haven't done THAT in forever either!

Buzz and I miss camp.  Not that this picture has anything to do with dog training, other than it was taken at camp.

Oh, dog training fun... I just wish we could get together more often, then I'd actually have well trained dogs.

Books

I just finished reading The Dog Who Spoke With Gods and The Art of Racing in the Rain.  Both are wonderful books and both made me hug my dogs super tight.  It's easy to get caught up in day to day life, and forget about just how special these creatures are.  Nights like tonight make me unbelievably happy I have the resources available to make Buzz's aging as painless as possible.  It's certainly not the cheapest, and likely not the absolute most effective, but being able to watch him catch a scent and then RUN after it brings me to tears every time.  Watching him dig in gopher holes, because he can, makes me happy.  It does my heart good.

Both books are an enjoyable read, but be prepared to shed some tears.

Fall

Photo... Saturday?

How many words is THIS worth?

Three Vermilion Tollers

Vad, Torque, and Riga ran in the WCX test today at the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever National event.

"Vad"

Vildanden's Neon Af Nischi

"Torque" (Vad x Remi)

Vermilion's Twist'n Torque

"Riga" (Vad x Hannah)

Vermilion's Rah Rah Ramona

To see more of these talented tollers, visit their webshots album, or their website!

Recheck Appointment

We managed to arrive on time to Buzz's first recheck appointment.  Overall it went wonderfully well, except for the initial "Bailey is here for her appointment" scare!  Jenny needs to stop scaring me!  I only brought one dog, that would have been a problem if I brought the wrong one.

Anyway, Dr. Julia had me on the edge of my seat when she felt him and said "he might be ready for strengthening," but then changed her mind.  He's doing VERY well, but he's not doing that well.  He had some "spinal manipulations" (aka the MN legal version of chiropractic adjusments) and we were sent home with the same exercises.  His exercises are pretty easy and I do them almost religiously.  I've also given him all of his oral meds and injections ON time so far.  Go me, right?  (Having a calendar plastered to the refrigerator helps, a lot.)

So, we continue with the weight shifting (she gave me some tips on being more efficient), bows, and treat stretches.  Cross those darn fingers we get to start strengthening (and thus, going less frequently) after this Friday's appointment.  (I was hoping we could do a Monday or Wednesday but it seems everyone takes those evening appointments.)  I guess Buzz gets to come to watch the NSDTR NATIONALS conformation event with me!

Bailey did 2/3 of her diagonal leg lifts to 30 seconds tonight!  I'm still not sure if they count or not though because she was wobbly at first, then recovered.  The last was only about 15 seconds, then she started trying to lean on me.

And, for your educational fun: PennHIP vs OFA

Dog Books

I love to read.  I don't read as much as I would like to, and when I do it's mostly girlie stuff (Nora Roberts/JD Robb, and the occasional John Grisham, et al, if it's not a dog book of some sort).

When Eric and I went to Wheels and Wings yesterday (and the day before, in the rain, to watch the truck pull...) we happened upon Motorbooks at just the right time!  It was after 3:00PM and thus you could fill a bag with as many books as it would hold, for only $30 (plus tax), a box was $60 but it really did NOT hold twice as much!  I was so excited by this because before 3, everything was "just" half price, so 2-3 books equaled $30. We went our separate ways and I grabbed almost every dog book I could, that was not written by Kyra Sundance.  (And Eric found a billion books on home repairs, cars, free calendars, mixing drinks, etc!)  I came home with some pretty neat books, and some that... well, I wouldn't have paid actual money for!

See Spot Run by Kirsten Cole-MacMurray and Stephanie Nishimoto is first on the list to be read.  It looks like fun and actually seems well put together!
Retails for $19.99

Whole Health for happy dogs by Jill Elliot DVM and Kim Bloomer is next on the list.  I'm pretty fascinated by what I paged through, and super excited to read it!
Retails for $15.99

The Safe Dog Handbook by Melanie Monteiro, for no reason other than the other two looked more exciting, is third on the list!
Retails for $19.99

Dog Lover's Daily Companion by Wendy Nan Rees and Kristen Hampshire doesn't appear to be a "read me page for page all the way through" type of book, so I'll probably look at it from time to time unless I find differently!  Definitely not something I would have bought under different circumstances.
Retails for $19.99

Love of Goldens edited by Todd R. Berger is not something I bought for myself, but I'm going to read it before it gets sent off to Ohio anyways!

The non-dog books: The Quotable Barn Cat, Rainy Day Magic, The Gourmet's Guide to Cooking with Chocolate, Digital Photography Guide, and a work out book that requires the use of things I already have!

Now I just need to finish the current JD Robb book so I can get started on reading dog books.  Reading two books at once doesn't work well with my CDO tendencies...

Oh, and I bought a book at the library sale for 50 cents, Sight Unseen by Robert Goddard.

Old Dogs

Bailey had a recheck with Dr. Julia on Friday and I scheduled to bring Buzz along too.  We'd never determined the cause of his exercise intolerance, despite a visit to the Cardiologist, and Dr. Enochs was still sure it was a pain response that just wasn't being managed with NSAIDs.  Dr. Julia found lots of things out of whack with him and used the word "kittywampus" many times while doing her evaluation and chiropractic adjustments.


The short of the long is that he's an old dog with a changing body.  He's in a lot of pain, so her plan is to manage pain--with Adequan injections ($ouch) and Previcox ($ouch2... it's a darn good thing I get discounts at work), increase mobility and then hopefully strengthen!  We're also using a drug called Amantadine--believed to work by restoring the balance of natural chemicals (neurotransmitters) in the brain.  She noted on his evaluation that there was some delay between stimulus and reaction to stimulus.  So we started a regiment of prescription medications (I guess waiting until he's over 12 years old before needing regular prescription medications was nice of him) and have a recheck in one week.


Adequan is one injection subcutaneously every 4 days for 4 sessions, then once a week for 4 sessions... after that we'll see how it goes.  She's hoping to get it down to once monthly.  Apparently it's licensed for subcutaneous use in felines but not canines, though it appears to work the same.  Dr. Julia said something about money being a restriction in their pursuit of FDA approval for SQ use.


Previcox is at half of his "normal" dosage for now, one half tablet every other day.  He's been on Previcox before, but it didn't seem to have much effect.  It had more than the no-effect-Rimadyl though.


The Amantadine is given once every other day too.  She said it will take up to 8 weeks to see results with that medication, so I guess we're in this for the long haul too.


In wonderful news, Bailey's making some great improvements.  We have not been cleared for fun activities yet, but she did write "I'll evaluate your request for tracking after our next appointment."  She makes me laugh a lot.  Bailey and I won't be visiting Dr. Julia again until she can do diagonal leg lifts for 30 seconds, so that's my motivation to keep working with her and get to 30 seconds.  We're at about 15 right now, she wants us to shoot for increasing by 5 seconds each week.  She's still pretty unbalanced at times and tries to brace herself with a wide stance, so it's been definite work for both of us.  I often feel like this would go smoother if I had another set of hands and eyes, but we do what we can.  


If I needed more motivation... I get to order a FitPAWS Peanut.  I don't think she understands how much trouble my dog is going to have with balancing on something.  My dog is not brave, but we can fake a lot of things.  I don't think we can fake being brave on a wobbly ball though.  That means I'll actually have to train my dog to do something (other than walk on a loose leash), I guess we'll just see how it goes though.  The end result will hopefully be Bailey balancing on TWO legs on this peanut ball, that's a darn lofty goal.


I have two old dogs that are working towards being pain free.  I love the resources available to me, I just wish Dr. Julia would move closer to me.  


Bailey's picture of her on a hatbox is displayed at the Rehab Center.  That makes me laugh.  So does the fact that Dr. Julia uses words like "kittywampus."  I also told her again that the biggest benefit of this whole activity restriction thing is I actually taught Bailey to walk on a loose leash.  She thought that was pretty funny, but it's never really been important until now!  I couldn't put a GL on her, or an EW, and I couldn't just put her x-back on and let her pull me.  I actually had to train her to walk nicely and respond to leash pressure.  It was annoying as all get out, but it's a really nice thing to have now.  I think that should be a selling point for TC Rehab, don't you?

What can we do now?

I read about Steve's rehab and I become semi-motivated to write about Bailey's.  Their ups and downs have weirdly coincided.  Bailey doesn't see Dr. Julia until NEXT Friday, a whole three weeks since her last appointment.  After I got the picture of her sitting on the hat box, I emailed it to Dr. Julia and the reply was "HOORAY!"

I've been not good about doing all of her exercises every single day.  She's supposed to be doing paper slides, opposite leg lifting, sits, bows, treat stretches, and quad stretch morning and night.  We're supposed to do pivots right and left on the pivot box midday.  I usually get at least one set in, sometimes two, and rarely three.  I've made a pact with myself that I will get all three in for at least three days starting yesterday.  I only did part of tonight's set because she seemed sore from our walk, but that still counts!

I don't think Bailey or I understand the paper slides very well, but we do them as best we can.  Dr. Julia showed me how to do Logan Basic last time, to help me help Bailey more, but I can't seem to do it well enough to make a difference.

Rather than sounding like a broken record though, I'm happy to say my pupper is doing well.  She's doing so well in fact, I've discussed with her doctor, trying to wean her off Fluoxetine.  She's been SO good after the initial stress of lack of exercise and such, that I'm really, really thinking about it.  We've had zero incidents at the cabin with being evil to cats and guardy.  Creatures are responding to each other when necessary.  She's been relaxing nicely out in public... but the real test will come when she's allowed to actually go to classes again (I'm being optimistic here).  Until we can evaluate that, she'll remain on it.

My goal from the visit with Dr. Julia?  Cleared for tracking practice.  Her sacrum has stayed where it needs to be the last two visits.  It was "barely" out of place the visit before that.  That was my biggest concern.  We couldn't build those necessary muscles if the body wasn't staying in the right place.

Improvement.  Lots and lots of improvement for the girlie dog and I.

We Have A Hat-Box Sit!

She can sit on a hat box now.  She can use the leg muscles.  They're working again.  I would be yelling and typing in bold if that wouldn't scare people away.  I AM SO HAPPY.  I got this behavior yesterday... it's still has very little duration but I HAVE THE BEHAVIOR!

Getting By

We've been crazy busy here.  All four creatures and I have been staying at our lake home while the farm is being worked on.  This is both fun and frustrating.  I feel like I've cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, yet it's not really... clean?!  We also have no interwebs, so I've been busy doing other things and neglecting my email.  Rather than the usual 2000 unread emails, I had about 4000 when I checked today.  Oops?

Mostly we're all getting along and adjusting to living in a house that essentially has four rooms.  New development today though was Bailey wanting to eat the kitty litter.  Why on earth does World's Best have to taste good?  TWICE today I caught her chomping down on it.  She's not looking for cat excretions, but really eating the litter!  Then she looks at me with this dry mouth, tongue flapping expression that says "HALP!" and I just laugh at her.

I put up a new shower curtain today, did about five hundred loads of laundry... and washed dishes, floors and vacuumed.  Oh, and I rearranged furniture, and tried to make the litterbox dog un-friendly, but that seemed to make her MORE curious.  Buzz is leaving it alone.  He only cares if there's nasty stuff in it.  I have weird dogs.

I want another bonfire, but I think I burned all the good stuff last night.  Hrmph.

I miss Ohio.  I miss talking about intricate details of competition behavior training.  I miss having a dog to train.  I want a puppy.  Have I whined enough yet?

Oh, and I have to write my food toy article-y thing for work and bring in examples.  Whee!

Food Toys aka Enrichment

I'll be doing my continuing education "talk" at work about Enrichment Toys.  I'm pretty excited, but wanted to get some input on non-store-bought enrichment/food toys that people have used.  We use boxes and paper bags and that's about it.  What else do you use around the house to hide food in and provide enrichment?

Then...
I'll be bringing our Tug A Jug, Kong Genius, Kongs, and the Atomic Treat Ball.  There are so many food toys out there, and I'll bring a list of others, but I'm curious... what is your dog's favorite food toy and what is yours?  Pros and cons of it if you please!

And... kitties!
Our good friend Kristen sent the kitties a Funkitty Twist 'n Treat.  Rascal thinks it's pretty darn awesome, Rasza and I are working on it.  We also have a treat ball and a "fish sticks" treat dispensing toy.  Neither one seems to like the fish sticks toy yet.  I think I need different kibbles for it though.

I just don't know.

If I'm stupid, crazy, or (fill in the blank).

Proof of Bailey's DNA CHIC blood sample submission for research.
http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1216954#animal

Proof of Buzz's DNA CHIC blood sample submission for research.
http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1313481#animal

I'm in the process of finding a time to schedule CERFs for the aging creatures.  Other than that, not many changes on the home front.

Wrongdoings.

A forum I frequent has had disputes amongst members lately about "wrong doings" and "fixing things" and "inattentiveness" and "too many pets" ad nausem.  I've stayed out of it because... who really wants to be called out on what they did wrong six years ago, five months ago, yesterday?  If it was wrong, and the person knows it... I'd just be pretty darn sad if it kept coming up over, and over, and over... again.

With that said.  Irresponsible breeding kills me.  I have a hard time feeling sorry for people who have had litter, after litter, of non-health tested, non-otherwise tested stock.

Buzz was intact until 28 months old.  Bailey was 9 months old when Buzz was neutered.  Bailey was bough for me, to "possibly breed" with.  My dad thought if you have one of each sex and they're of the same breed, you might as well breed them, right?  Thankfully we neutered Buzz.  No Buzz puppies.

Bailey was intact until 14 months.  "We" (the family) had intentions of breeding her.  Then we went through a single hellacious heat cycle with her (half of which happened while we were on vacation, you see how wimpy we were) and she was spayed soon after coming out of heat.  They were then given the title of "just pets" or "farm dogs" or "hey, you, go chase the guinea hens off the cars."

So, while we were responsible with our dogs (I think that counts as being responsible--no litters), we had a barn kitty named Baby who had litter, after litter, after litter.  We loved playing with the kittens and they "always found homes" so, really, it was ok, right?  Wrong.  Baby was born in 1990 and had litters of kittens until 1997.  Seven years of uncontrolled reproducing.  She was our pet, and was vaccinated, but she had litters and litters of kittens.  We tried (unsuccessfully) for about a year and a half to contain her after weaning kittens to have her spayed.  She always escaped.  It did not fail.  Her second to last litter of kittens contained Rasza, our beautiful grey kitty boy.  She escaped ONE MORE TIME and had a singleton litter of a short haired calico female we named Mischief.  Baby was then, finally, spayed.  Except it didn't go so smoothly.  The vet "misunderstood" and declawed our outdoor, barn, kitty that we were trying to HELP (yeah, she was spayed too)!  My dad said NO More Cats In The House (we had Rascal and Rasza inside at this point), so she had to live outside, with no front claws.  Somehow, she still survived.  (The vet spayed her daughter Mischief for free to "try" to make up for declawing Baby... and Mischief died shortly thereafter.)

After a tragic family loss in 2005, everyone ended up coming to live in the house.  No more losses, no more tragic losses needed to take place.  We went from having one cat live inside permanently, to having five animals living inside all the time.  Some may say THAT was ridiculous, but it has worked for us.

I've done as much as I can humanly do for all of our animals, who didn't have the best start here, in an attempt to make up for it.  Nobody has had a truly bad life, but I've provided them with all the necessary veterinary care and good food and clean, safe, warm environments since then.  My perception of others has changed a lot, knowing how difficult it can be to make changes like that.

The point of this?  I'm human, I learn from (most) mistakes, and I have a genuine passion to provide the best life for my critters as I can.

As my dad would say, "Accident's don't just happen."  Well, he's right.

Tags

My dogs have been wearing collars lately.  They never used to.  Every collar they wear has a "name tag" on it.  Typically a Boomerang Tag, because I love those.  It's pretty uncommon though, for them to wear the collar with microchip/rabies tags attached too.

The point of this pointless post is to ask if your dogs wear tags, or even collars...

I have no real reason.

I'm Exhausted!

Between being Trial Secretary, going to School, exercising and stretching Bailey As Is Allowed, and dealing with Buzz's medical issues... I'm exhausted!

Recheck for Bailey tomorrow morning.  We've not been as good this week about stretches for various reasons.  Surprisingly, when I do them, she seems to be improving--rather than me getting frustrated that she is sliding backwards!  Maybe it's my imagination... we'll see tomorrow.

In other wonderful news, we finally got whole-blood DNA samples sent out for the CHIC repository.  They went out yesterday.  Let's hope the shipping place I used actually knows what the hey is going on.  They were mighty confused, and mighty slow.

Our house is a state of construction--still.  I think everyone's fuse is getting short because it feels like we live in a one room house for right now.

The dogs need baths.  Who wants to come do that for me?

Embracing My Dog

Our good friends Crystal and Maisy recently wrote a post titled, "In Praise of the Abnormal Dog."  It's a wonderfully inclusive post that you'll have to read to get the full effect.

It's something I've thought about a lot, and especially this morning.

We all spent the night at our cabin, and after arriving home this morning, I didn't put the kitties crates away (or close the door).  Buzz went to sniff Rascal's crate and Bailey immediately shoved herself into a tiny crate so she could guard it.

Why am I posting this?  Because all my girlie-dog did was lift a lip.  I've been oh-so-concerned about the relationship between my two dogs now that Buzz is deaf and doesn't respond to her "get away" cues.  Buzz has had teeth on him more times than I wish to convey, despite me trying very hard to protect both of them.

In the past Bailey has gone from lip lifting to snarl/lunge in record time because other creatures did not respond the way she wanted.  For her to lift a lip... and WAIT, is pretty darn impressive.  She's been showing me a lot lately that she's capable of quite a bit more than I give her credit for.  She's learning that even at home, I can manage things that are going on, and she doesn't have to take on the Hallway Monitor job she doesn't really want.

Buzz responded, she didn't aggress... and it was a pretty funny situation after that.  I practiced calling her away/out (she did so successfully, score one for training), and then I put her into her own crate, for a break.

Improvement, improvement, improvement.  We can do this, we can function as a household.

Not Enough Improvement

Bailey had another appointment with Dr. Julia on Wednesday.  She was slightly better, but Dr. Julia wasn't very happy with her progress.

Still right quad stiffness, her core muscles aren't building, and she needed another adjustment (or five).

We go back next Friday, and I'm hoping for better news... but if not, Bailey will be getting vibrational therapy to hopefully jump start her recovery.

I have a feeling this will be longer than the anticipated 8-10 weeks.  I'm working on letting go of the guilt, and focusing on the fact that she WILL improve, even if she can't compete again.  She'll be pain-free, sometime in the near future.

Camp 2010

Camp is Awesome.  That's all there is to it.  We even got nap time this year!

The campers were awesome, all four dogs in the bad dog closet did a nice job.  We squeezed seven people and nine dogs into the itty bitty red cabin.  It was loads and loads of fun.

Buzz practiced his cookie moving powers after we used him for a structure lesson.  The kids "drew" lines to see how well he was built and then... we played with the toothpaste.  It says "4-H Dog" on his right side...  He was such a good sport.

And then it was bath time.