Breeze comes from a pretty impressive family. At AKC agility nationals the owner of Breezes dad-Tracy Golden- won the 24 in class with Breezes half brother Blink. Breezes littermate Zing! owned by Gabrielle Blackburn won second in the 20 in class....Breezes Aunt Quick, and her aunt Driven have both had awesome careers. Breeze has the drive, the desire and she is so much fun to train and run in agility so todays visit to the vet was a hard one and felt just plain unfair ;-(.
Breeze was injured last summer doing weave poles and we took a very long break from the weaves- we have had regular laser treatments, chiro appointments, and lots of conditioning games. But once again it is really looking like Breeze just can not physically do the weaves without hurting herself. Even doing minimal reps of the weaves has ended up with her not able to do the weaves again. About three or four poles into the weaves she can not keep turning her back left and right to get around the poles, and she starts crashing into the poles-and looks like she just can not make it to turn before she crashes into the next pole- usually her hip gets hung up on the poles- she has bent a bunch of poles- When I see her do it it is obvious it is not a training issue but a physical issue. It might not be so bad if Breeze did the weaves slowly, Breeze doesn't do anything slow ;-).
Today my vet said that she does not feel that Breeze's back can handle the weaves and that she has come to the conclusion that this is not something that she feels is going to get better. With nine months of rest, treatments and exercise, she feels that if it was going to get better it should have had plenty of time by now. She said I could look into other treatments, or go to other people for more opinions to help but she has run out of things that she thinks will help. The vet said she feels Breeze could do agility runs without weaves ...
Of course Breezes long term soundness is the most important thing, and we have all known this day would be come sooner or later so when the vet was talking to me....I was pretty calm and agreed with her, we talked about other options for Breeze, and it all felt fine.
I got out to the car and all of a sudden it just did not feel real. I was having a hard time even thinking about it or trying to process the whole situation. I think I was afraid to think about it because I know I would have started bawling and getting home would have been hard. It had seemed we might be at this point a few times before...but Breeze has always rallied and we have had a reprieve. Breeze is just such an awesome dog to do agility with... and she loves working so much...I just wish all this had not happened to her-it feels so sad to think of giving up and moving on.
I think right now the plan is to keep conditioning her and maybe think about doing some USDAA jumpers, maybe some gamblers and just not do the weaves, maybe some NADAC tunnelers for fun and we can always do lots of tricks at home. I will take her in to get some xrays of her back although the vet said she just does not feel like they will give us any answers, but I guess it is a way to rule a few things out. My vet says that where her injury is seems to be in a place that is very difficult to isolate and exercise to overcome the weakness. I think it will take a few days of sitting and thinking about the whole situation to really accept a new plan. I know after things sink in I will remind myself that I am blessed and lucky that Breeze will be able to live a pretty normal life and is generally pretty comfortable-and she can still play, I am lucky it is just the weaves she can not do, it really could be a whole lot worse. Today it just feels pretty bad.
This was the last time Breeze was able to do the weaves, this was just last month and this time she was able to do them for a week or two before she started having problems again....It is just not looking good for her to stay sound for more then a few weeks. Watching this such a short time ago really makes it hard to really believe...
14 comments:
Oh Kathy, I'm so sorry to hear about this. Poor you, and poor Breeze!
I'm so glad nothing worse happened to her though, and it is still a blessing that she can still do agility!!!!
Im soooo sorry about Breeze. It really does feel unfair. Im sure you and Breeze will figure sometime out that makes you both happy. But its hard to get over something like this. Give yourself time.
Oh Kathy, I'm sending you a big hug. What difficult news to hear, especially after all the love and hard work you've put into strengthening and treatments.
I am so sorry too Kathy! Life is unfair - how could it be that Breeze can't do the weaves any more when all of her famous relatives can?
I guess once you recover from the shock of it all and the loss you feel you can go on with a plan. It does take time to sort everything out and come to terms with it.
Thinking of you and sending you all of my support and tons of hugs!
Chris
Such difficult news...it's hard to not let your dog do the things in life they enjoy so much. It hurts when you've tried so hard.
Whatever your feelings about NADAC are, at least it's a venue where 4 out of their 7 classes will never have weaves in them...and one that sometimes has weaves. Maybe Breeze can still play with you at that venue...?
Kim thanks, that is good to know Breeze started out doing some NADAC, and I like doing NADAC so I will definitely look into doing some more.
I'm really sorry, Kathy. It's a shame that such an athletic, driven dog and her equally driven and caring owner have to go through something like this.
I'm with the others - several of the NADAC classes don't have weaves. That might be a great option. Also if you're doing AKC with Cricket, Breeze can still compete in FAST.. the weaves might be in the bonus but not always.. I know it'll never be the same, but I know that you will think of something that will keep Breeze both happy AND healthy.
Kathy I'm so sorry to hear this. How devastating! I read the other comments and although I know nothing about NADAC it sounds like she may be able to still play and earn class titles? How about Rally?
So sorry to hear about Breeze Kathy.
Life does go on though and Breeze can still do a lot of things.
I know how you feel as I had to give up my dreams of agility with my BC Cash. But it does teach you a lot especially about what is really important :-)
That really sucks. I can't imagine having gone to the trouble of getting a well-bred dog for agility and then not being able to utilize her full potential. But there are still a lot of things you can do, you could even try new sports with her! And like everyone said, NADAC has something for everyone.
i'm so sorry - sometimes it's a lot more than unfair - it just SUCKS!
i'm so sorry - sometimes it's a lot more than unfair - it just SUCKS!
Oh Kathy, I am so sorry to hear this. That is such a tough decision. Right now my husband and I keep going back and forth about Bokeh. Bokeh is not even 7 months old but he is just flying through his puppy training is already ready for the agility training. I think we should wait because everyone tells us he shouldn't be doing this until a year old but my husband wants to move forward and doesn't feel it is that bad since he will not be jumping repeatedly in class and she is going to have him only jumping like 16 instead of 20 (which is what he will be jumping). It just really makes me nervous, I know he is excited about starting him but we also don't want to do something to cause him harm the rest of his life either.
I think that doing like Jumpers would be great for Breeze.
Also, about your puppy comment. Nope...no female pup heading this way. I am already feeling VERY overwhelmed by the number of animals we have and there will be no more for a long time. However, my husband is already wanting a Bokeh puppy if they ever decide to breed him. LOL
I'm so sorry about Breeze. :( It really sucks when you get a dog that can do so much but then is unable to. I've been stuck with a couple of my dogs that I've had high hopes for and I've had to lower my ideas and dreams with them. Now Jet, I just worry each and every day that something might go wrong with him and i sure hope not.
Have you considered do another type of dog sport? obedience has a bad reputation but with the right trainer it's an amazing sport. Or maybe flyball, or K9 Nose Work or something. There really are lots of options!
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