The Future is Wide Open......

CRICKET, BREEZE  AND CHLOE

Its almost the holidays again!  How did this happen?

Poor Skyler, my older tri colored sheltie-- it is suspected he has some type of bladder cancer ;-(.  We ruled out most everything that could be causing his leaking and the blood that is in his urine.  Anyway, that is the thought right now.  He got a round of antibiotics and started some Chinese herbs....Suprisingly after the antibiotics he stopped all leaking, but now he's been off the antibiotics for a few weeks and it has come back.  The thing is to make a definitive diagnosis we would have to do an ultrasound ..the vet asked if we would do radiation to treat it if that is what we found.  The poor guy is not in the best of health, he's comfortable and with how much time that would give him, I do not want to put him through something like that for the short extra time that would give him even if it was successful.  So we enjoy the time we have with Skyler, and he is stubborn enough he will probably live several more years. ;-)

Other then Skyler things have been going good. Lizzie has stayed out of the gummy vitamins, Breeze is feeling better and moving better,  Chloe my sable sheltie has lost a little weight and is in much better shape-although she has as much attitude as ever and that is what gets her in trouble with the other dogs.   I am really excited, the last few days I have been able to do a little jog, just a little and some running on the treadmill.  WHOOT!  My bionic knee with the total knee replacement is amazing, still stiff at times but it really works well, but the other non replaced knee has been a bad knee lately, until the last two or three days.  My hope is that the knee holds up long enough I can do some trailing with Cricket and have some fun before I have to get it replaced and go through rehab again.  I also am going to the gym most days and doing a LOT of lower body weights so hopefully the next recovery will go faster.

But for the fun stuff, Cricket and I have been practicing on small sequences for agility.  The good news is that Cricket loves agility and will run for anyone.  Anyone want to run Cricket for me in a few trials????  LOL.

Everyone is doing nose work-  we did an online class with Margaret Simek -that was pretty awesome and all the dogs were able to do that.  We also did an online rally...with Deborah Jones-we were sort of slackers on that class-but hey we got the basics and will continue working.  Then Cricket and I did the jump foundation online class Level 1 with Linda M, that was one intense course.

SOOOOOOO what should we take this semester.,,,humm,  I am a real lover of online classes, and everyone has sign ups right about now. The front runners are two Denise Fenzi classes, Bridging the Gap about how to wean out some reinforcers, and Denise's Play class, and maybe Stacy Goudy's Front Cross/rear cross class, or maybe auditing Linda M/Mary Ellen Barry's Fancy Cues-because that sounds so interesting and I am going to a One Mind Dog training/handling seminar next month and that class will cover the similarities and differences in Linda's Awesome Paws Handling and the One Mind Dog system.  But geese, looking at that list there is no way I can possibly keep up with all of that, esp over the holidays, so some hard choices will have to be made, very quickly ;-).

OK THE BEST NEWS-I FOUND MY VIDEO CAMERA-so I am going to kick myself in the butt and start videoing some of the things we are working on so I can make things more interesting and post some of the things we have been up to.

REALLY, ....is Pet Ownership Really Worth the Price?

WHOOOO WHOOOO, I have decided to employ the power of positive thinking and I'm choosing to believe that our month of vet visits is nearing its end.  It all started when Lizzie ate a bottle of gummie calcium, and a bottle of gummie multi vitamins-$700.  Then the sheltie Chloe has a row of some lipomas along her mammory glands-they needed to be removed, so that was scary and pricey at $750-but the lipomas are gone and her teeth are shiny, so thats all good.  Then Breeze got hurt and needed some laser and adjustments, that was small fry in the bill department.  Skyler our old sheltie is dripping bloody urine ;-( he is almost 12 and we are still investigating that-bill to date is $400.  Then our kittie Ashe somehow tore a nail that would not quit bleeding, so add a $100 to the bill.

I have to admit there was a few times as I was writing checks that I wondered if pet ownership was worth all the bills, the worry, the extra work, the hair balls blowing across the floor, the hair all over my  clothes, the nights when I cant spread out in bed because someone is pressing on my feet......

But then I went to play agility, I can't run really well and my dogs are wicked fast, I was just doing some alphabet drills--but the feeling of working with my dogs and watching their joy made me smile and all excited inside.  I went to practice rally with Cricket and she is such a nut, she tries so hard-its not looking like real rally yet, but she works so well with me and she tries so hard that it just feels like we are a team and that is such a great feeling.  Later I let all the dogs out Skyler,  Breeze, Cricket, Liz, and Glee- (Ill tell you about her tomorrow, she's a visitor border collie girl), anyway, it was better then going to a movie watching them play together.  There are the mornings when I wake up and Cricket lays next to me and wants nothing more then to cuddle next to me.  You know where this is going- this whole month has reminded me that I am very lucky to be spending my life with these interesting creatures.  Those little simple moments during the day that the animals make me forget everything and just concentrate on simply enjoying the moment, that has to be what makes pet owners healthier and live longer then people who don't get to experience that escape.  Hopefully we can have a little quieter time, but looks like everyone is doing ok, well except poor Skyler.

As for Skyler we are running culture and sensitivities, and he is on another antibiotic, and some supplements, his xray showed some problems in his back so his tail doesn't work, and he is not getting great control of his bowel and bladder, which might be helping him get the urinary tract infections, but there was also some sort of mass that the vet couldn't palpate but we can see, that could be causing the blood he is still leaking, so any good thoughts for poor Skyler would be appreciated ;-).  

Lizzie my Nomination for the Naughtiest Dog of September

....sigh....I figured I would share the latest adventures of my little girl with the squirrely attitude....

You have to understand Lizzie is a special child, she has the best heart, and she is extremely well built, she is very healthy but as much as I adore her I have to admit she really is missing some screws.  Lizzie is 7 1/2 yrs old but she is like a puppy and I always have to keep in mind she needs protecting.  She is the only dog of mine that ABSOLUTELY can not be trusted loose when we are gone, in fact she can not be trusted in my room if the rest of the family is home but I am gone.  She has never been off leash reliable after MANY recall classes and almost daily recall work her whole life.  She just stresses and will run and I swear she doesn't hear anything except the little voices telling her to run.  She is a nut and panics a bit when I leave and will go wild getting into things and tearing things up-she really is like a naughty pup that has never really grown up.

During her latest adventures, I left for the gym, had a nice workout and got home and discovered a yellow cap on my bed, hummmm.  It hit me it looked like the cap from the HUGE COSTCO size vitamins that I had bought and left on the counter to be put away....my heart sank.  I looked and found an empty bottle in her bed, so I grabbed the little Lizard and Shoved some hydrogen peroxide and water down her throat to make her throw up while I was calling the emergency vet.  I have never been more scared especially when Lizzie started to throw up then started falling over and couldn't stand.  The vomit had some vitamins but I knew it was too clear and she had to have digested most of them, so off to the ER vet we went.

I had found another empty bottle of vitamins, seems my hubby had seen Lizzie walk out with an empty bottle and so just took the bottle and threw it away. The bad doggie had eaten a GIANT bottle of Calcium with vitamin D tummies, and a GIANT Costco bottle of gummie multivitamins with bone and mineral support-yep she was making sure her bones had plenty of calcium.  I can not believe I didn't think more about the bottle of vitamins before I left, but they were new, unopened, on the counter because I just had not put them away yet.

Anyway, her little gummy snack got her four 240 ml bottles of charcoal, one every eight hours to try to absorb some of the vitamin D in her system....and she got her blood tested to check the calcium level every 12 hours.  Not exactly as much fun as she had imagined I am sure.

Her little stunt cost me $500, a few sleepless nights, several trips back to the emergency vet, a rug that had to be thrown out when Lizzie threw up 200 cc of black charcoal that was never going to come out of the carpet, and of course I was the one that got to get all that charcoal down her.  Oh yea, then I did go down and invest in some really nice white steel boxes with keyed locks which is where all vitamins and medicines are now kept in the house-so we can add another $80 to the cost of the incident ;-).   The other consequence for poor Lizzie is that I put up an xpen in the kitchen and when I am out of the house and my hubby Bill is there she gets to go in the xpen with an open crate inside, the same set up I usually have for puppies-Oh Liz!

 The one thing that I was impressed with is that during the blood draws, and when the tech had to shove charcoal down her throat, during everything they did Lizzie was giving the vet and techs kisses and was the best behaved dog, the ER staff loved her.  Its a good thing Lizzie is such an awesome dog who loves everyone, that is definitely something she has going for her.


As if I had enough stress two days later Bill my hubby was standing in the open front door talking to a neighbor, I said three times, close the door, then of course bad Lizzie returned and bolted out the front door and took off down the street.  She was like the gingerbread man yelling you cant catch me.  It was awful....sigh.....it can be a full time job keeping a little Lizard type of dog safe.  

It Sure does Not Pay to Be Lazy

I seem to be pretty bad at my time management skills, so I figured I will just do a quick post!

I'm in a reflective mood so thought I would share one of my thoughts from the past few days-because I know everyone wants to know what is on my mind ;-).

Cricks and I...well Breeze and Liz also-have been working on heeling, something I was only interested in teaching if I could have help to teach it the same way we taught agility with an emphasis on FUN!  I have been learning with Denise Fenzis online Precision Heeling, then Heeling Games classes.  TA DAAAA we are loving heeling!  All of us!  I think we are going to start the Ring Prep class Denise is starting tomorrow.  I am just going to audit, because I am poor, hahahaha, but I learn well that way.   Denise has the first lesson from the class on her blog entry from July 17th.   http://denisefenzi.com/

So I will get video of our heeling work when I get this time thing worked out.....I'm excited to share...in the meantime.....

CAN I TELL you how happy I am now that Cricks is 3.5 yrs old, and we have stuck our feet into lots of different types of training,  I AM SOOOOO GLAD we were not in a hurry to go on to the "fun stuff" and spent her whole first year in foundation skills-body awareness, learning how to learn, building our bond and understanding each other, recalls, etc.... I have seen the big pay off with the two classes we have been doing, they involve some new things but I keep finding we usually have a little head start in almost anything we have been doing.  For example take this simple skill, going around a pole......

1. Sylvia uses going around a pole and learning to bend their body as the first step in cik/cap which teaches dogs to use their body, helps prevent injuries, helps with object focus and teaching dogs to go out away from us, and helps with speed and motivation
2. Linda M starts her jumping course and her jumping course with going around a pole, to help with body awareness, using their body to curve and flex, help them orient to the jump and to help with other exercises she uses to help the dogs focus their head lower while jumping. 
3. Denise uses going around a pole and pivot work (going around in a circle with the front end on a bowl or brick) to increase body awareness, help the dog learn to move their body so they can turn corners beautifully, etc, and she uses going around a pole and rushing back to heel position to help the dog understand heel position, to add movement and more fun to something that could be BORING,

Not sure where else that particular skill comes into play, but I bet there are some other sports!  I keep finding places where our foundation has really helped.

Now just to keep everyone unbroken long enough so that we can put that great foundation to use and learn ANY advanced skills!!!!!!!!  When I hurt my leg over a year ago, Cricket and I were just starting to gel and work on some higher level skills......sigh......hopefully we will be back working on those soon and hopefully those skills will still there there....I think we will be pretty rusty. 

FOR FUN: I have a picture of why you should take the time to sort out leashes and perhaps put them in a pillow case or bag before you wash them in the washer, hahhahah, might take me awhile to untangle this mess.  I got home from the beach and just threw the entire mess into the wash, mistake!  I should have taken some time to put in the foundation to a good washing experience, LOL, OK very bad but I did try to tie that into my post!

Hi Everyone!

                                     The girls saw a jump in the living room and
                                      KNEW life is going back to normal ;-)

I've missed everyone...last time I blogged was last October.  Last May I injured myself and after that I really couldn't do agility while I was waiting to get a total knee replacement, and some how I just found it hard to talk about dog training, agility,etc when those things were just not in the fore front of my mind.  ;-(.  I have to say it was a hard time.. 

So in February I got a left total knee replacement.  I have had a couple of people tell me they had been told that if you get a total knee replacement it as no big deal and you would be all back to normal right away!  Hey I don't know who they were talking to, but the recovery did take awhile, a lot of exercises, physical therapy, doctors appointments, it was a bit intensive for awhile.  The good news is that I LOVE my new knee now, it is awesome and still gets pretty stiff but it is working great.  My other knee has been complaining though because it had to carry more of the load for awhile.  There have been things I did not expect like my balance being really off which has been one of the things that has made training the dogs hard-Cricket is a bit rough and loves to jump on me, and I did not realize how much I had built that behavior into her everyday training, hahahhaha, but hey I love it and now that my balance is better it is ok-- I enjoy her enthusiasm. 

I was a bit bummed because it seems like it has taken me longer to recover then some people-it has taken me a few more months then some and I am just now feeling like I might be able to work toward running.  SERIOUSLY it is not good to compare yourself to others, so I have tried to stop doing that!

So that is what has gone on physically....but the fun stuff is what is going on with my doggies.  They all did very good for a lot of months just being doggies.  They have not seemed to mind at all.  It actually has felt nice in some ways to just enjoy each other. Cricket has grown even more attached and rarely left my side for months, it really is nice to have a doggie to cuddle with.  We  raised another litter for a friend this spring, which I just LOVE doing-I find it so fun and challenging to raise the pups.  I love getting to know the new owners and now watching the pups grow up. 

Now it is time to get back to the things I love and hopefully getting life back to normal.  I started getting itchy to start training the kids again and just finished up the Precision Heeling online class with Denise Fenzi, and I LOVE her!

I hate to make this too long so I will come back tomorrow and I can get into the fun stuff, I am really excited about what we have been learning and the skills we are working on now!

Chloe heading to the beach last week

Sweet Lizzie the Lizard, she plays hard but she enjoys her down time

THE GREAT ESCAPE

The puppies turned 4 weeks old yesterday and boy are they getting to be full of it.  I got a tug game yesterday with Fig and Peanut during our little one on one play sessions and Raisin is a little imp....she just dotes on me, she just acts like it is the best thing in the world just to hang with me-I hate that she does that and love it at the same time.  MUST STAY STRONG!!!!  A puppy is not in the plan yet. 

Today I woke up to a very sweet, happy, bouncy proud of herself little Raisin prancing around the living room with the big dogs.  WHAT??????  HOW COULD THAT BE?

I scooped up the little princess and put her in her pen.  The pen is fairly tall and does not have good footholds.  I had rigged up a PVC doorway for Cherry that is 16 inches tall so she could go in and out and doesn't get stuck with the pups when they get to be too much but I want her to be with them when she wants.  I lined the inside of my door with vinyl pet screen thinking the little darlings would not be able to use it like a ladder that way and thought between the screening and the height we would get no first out of the box puppies.

I love the naughty, CHEEKY puppy and the first out of the box is generally my pick.  ;-).  Hummm, I knew when I saw Raisin dancing around so happy with herself we had had a first out of the box puppy, LOL, but hoped it was not true!  I put Raisin back in the box and she was SOOOOOOO MAD!  She had a screaming fit but then was happy to repeat her performance.  She has not yet learned that you should wait until everyone is gone so you can go undetected!

IF YOU LOOK REALLY CAREFULLY THROUGH THE BLACK NETTING YOU CAN SEE HOW RAISIN ACCOMPLISHES HER GREAT NEW TRICK, I'M SO PROUD OF HER, HAHAHA!

 

 

 

CRICKET CANT BELIEVE HOW NAUGHTY THIS ONE IS!

 

SHE MAKES IT OVER

 

Once out Raisin had a hiddey ho time running with her mom and Cricket.  She liked being one of the big dogs and sure did not seem to mind being in the big house by herself.  What a nut. 

 

A PRIVATE STOP AT THE MILK BAR IS WAY COOL FOR A PUP

 

RAISIN WAS READY TO GO OUTSIDE WITH THE BIG DOGS, PRETTY BOLD CONSIDERING THEY HAVE NOT BEEN OUTSIDE YET-I DID HAVE TO DRAW THE LINE AT THAT, ONE ADVENTURE PER DAY PLEASE!

 

 

Guess we all know my day now includes another trip to the hardware store for some more PVC parts to improve my little gate.....sigh....I knew I bought extra pipe last time for some reason!

 

I have to apologize, I want so much to get around to everyones blog and catch up on what has been going on with everyone, sorry it is taking so long!  I really am so excited to sit and be able to catch up.  Soon I am going to have a lot of time on my hands I think!

 

 

 

 

 

EARLY LEARNING

Since the pups have been staying with me and Karen their owner was nice enough to let me continue to  keep/play with the puppies after she got back from her trip...I have got a golden opportunity to try all the things I have been reading about to raise puppies that I have previously only been able to read about. 

One of the best DVDs and books I have found is Jerry Hopes "The Breeders Guide to Raising Superstar Dogs".  I think it would be a cool book or DVDs for anyone considering getting a dog to read so you know what you should look for if you are getting a puppy for your next dog. 

Research shows that with a few simple things you can increase the neural pathways and the intelligence of a puppy and you can make their immune system stronger and make them able to withstand more stress and recover more easily in later life.  I personally think the first eight weeks of a puppies life is very important.  Of course genetics of the parents, how the parents are cared for, the stress the mom is under, the diet of the parents and of the pups, all those things play a big part in determining all a puppy is able to become too. 

So with Cherry's pups I started when they were 3 days old and did the ENS, early neuro stimulation for 14 days.  The ENS program is only done once a day and for only 14 days.  It is surprisingly easy to do....the first step is just taking a Q tip and rubbing in between the dogs toes for three to five seconds.  Right after that you securely hold the pup with their head straight up in the air for three to five seconds, then you securely hold the pup and put their head down for three to five seconds, then you put the pup on their back for three to five seconds and then put them down on a cloth that has been in the fridge a few hours, you leave them on it but they can wiggle or move all they want for three to five seconds.  I did the ENS with the daily weight at the same time each morning then gave the pups to Cherry to nurse so the minimal stress of the ENS was followed by something great.

Pups are born not being able to see or hear.  About the same time the eyes are opening-around 2 weeks the pups are also starting to hear.  When the pups could start hearing I started playing classical music which has been shown to increase neural pathways in the brain.  Any music works but classical seems to work best probably because of the nature of the different instruments and the tunes.  As time went on I added DVDs with sounds, vacuums, babies, kids, fireworks, gunshots, dogs. I also had the pups moved to the living room where they would be surrounded by the household dogs, the kids, and all the noises of a home. 

So that is basically the starting point of raising puppies to be superstars ;-).  Another HUGE thing is spending time with the whole litter, talking to the pups, and playing with them and cuddling them, touching them so they are used to being touched and handled.  That is one of the funnest parts and it is important to spend some time with each puppy individually. 

OF COURSE the biggest thing to keep in mind with early learning in my opinion is just spending time with the pup and having fun.  The goal is not that the dog can compete in obedience at 2 months, LOL, it is that the dog has fun with people and wants to learn more and looks to their person for fun!  You accomplish that and you are so far ahead of the game.  These pups have taught me they have their own agendas and they are very tiny THREE WEEK old babies with baby attention spans!  Ya gotta not pressure and go with what the puppy wants to do, a good lesson to remember when working with my adults too! 
KRISP:

I took some video of the early learning of each of the puppies, and of course I had to video.  It does not look that impressive and mostly I am luring the pups to sit, down, touch the target stick, and they do naturally come pretty well when placed away from you.  I just basically hope it is laying the foundation for the pups to be figuring out what people want, figuring out it is fun to work with your human partner and hopefully making it fun to play with me so they will look to their new human owners for those things when they go to their new homes.  :-).  PLEASE do not feel obligated to look at them all, I just posted so you could look at what you want ;-). 
DOODLES:

FIG

 

RAISIN

 

PEANUT

 

WE ARE STILL HERE!!!!!! WE MISS YOU ALL!!!!

WE ARE HERE-
Hey,....so sorry, it has been a long time since my life got turned upside down and boy, what a summer and Autumn.  First off I have to say I love my blogger life and my blogging friends have been so much a part of my life, following what they are doing and talking about what we are up to but when I hurt my leg and doing agility was out of the question and it got hard to even do most training with my dogs...it felt funny talking about the dogs, not much was going on....and it was a little easier to stay away I guess.  SOOOO I hope I can keep what has been going on short, but still catch everyone who has wondered where we were up.

After Spring agility camp...way back when ....I had injured my leg, I know I tore my meniscus- the cushioning behind the knee cap, and torn some tendons or ligaments -who knows what because the doctors don't seem concerned about that, because of injuries I had when I was a kid and when I broke my knee a few years ago the knee is in such bad shape they say fixing anything is out of the question, the only thing to do is to do a knee replacement.  Well, when I finally got to see a specialist he agreed my knee NEEDS a knee replacement and there is nothing else to do but he said he highly recommended I not get one because I was too young and it could potentially need to be redone twice more at least in my life time.  That was devastating news because I really cant walk much and it impacts not just agility but my daily life a LOT!  So the first specialist injected some hyalurine acid into the knee, OUCH, which after a few weeks worked well enough that I did not have to use a cane but it only lasted a few weeks.  I was referred to a specialist specialist, hahahaha, because the specialist said my case was too complicated for him.  It took 2 months to get into the specialist, specialist, but I have an appointment next Friday!  I have come to the point where I have really decided living now is what I have to insist on, and I will worry about the future when I have to, so I just wonder how long it will take to schedule the knee replacements if it takes two months to even see this surgeon. 

Along with hobbling around I started water aerobics, which has been heaven and I really enjoy-it has helped me lose 25 lbs as of this morning!!!!  yippie!!!

As far as the dogs we all had a full summer of just hanging out and being dogs ;0!  It has been hard on Cricket, the lack of exercise but she has been a trooper.  A thousand things I could have trained or done to keep them active but...I just needed to shift gears a little for awhile ;-)  

At the end of the summer a great opportunity came up.  A friend of mine, Breezes breeder who owns Cherry...the same Cherry that lived her for quite awhile a few years back....had to be out of town when Cherry was going to whelp a litter.  She asked if I would take care of Cherry and her pups.  It has been great, and has kept me very busy and having a lot of fun.  Cherry had her six pups 3 weeks ago. 

These are the babies at 3 weeks old: 
Newton Blue Merle Boy-the biggest guy:

Raisin-black tri girl

Fig-black tri girl who LOVES  me, LOL!

Doodles-black tri girl-an explorer

Krisp-black tri female-always the first up playing and the last to go to sleep, very playful right now

Peanut-about half the size of the other guys but sooo cute and playful-he holds his own!

I have been trying to do all the fun stuff I have read about to enhance early learning with the pups.  I did the early neuro stimulation to increase their brain power, played classical music which increases neuro pathways, let them watch the flickering lights from the TV which increases their neural pathways in the brain and spend a lot of time talking to them and changing their environment around, I make sure each gets some alone time with me/us and I spend a lot of time with them as a group.  It is soooo much fun to watch them.  Here is their pen, I have it set up so they are in the middle of the living room and in  the middle of life in the home, there is a little bedding area, then a potty area--and at three weeks they are doing great going in the potty area...then there is an area with toys, and perfect for play. 

Here are the puppies playing from yesterday morning:

 

 

 

HERE IS THE CRICK STAR-she is awesome with everyone, small puppies to big dogs, to any people she meets, can not say how much I love this girlie! LOL!

 

ANYWAY, so that is what we have been up to in a nutshell, hope to catch up on everyone as quickly as i can, thanks to everyone for wading through this long post and thanks for everyone who has always been out there for me and gave me so much support over the years!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Just checking in with everyone always means a lot!