What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

[Fundog]

Yesterday I heard the breaks and knew the brown truck was here. Dottie started barking right away, but I grabbed her leash and clipped it onto her collar, then met the man on the front porch when he delivered my package. He didn't have a cookie on him, but I think we can still make positive progress without treats.

[Erica]

Yay Fundog

Today I went to a canine fitness workshop, auditing as they ran out of working spots. The instructor was great and I really learned a lot! I was very happy with how she explained *why* something was a good idea rather than just saying "this is good and this is bad." She seemed very knowledgeable and all the ideas behind the exercises made sense to me. It was a lot of body awareness kind of stuff and making sure the dog was equipped to move comfortably and naturally, rather than looking for extreme positions.

There was a working spot open still for tomorrow's workshop, which is focused on preventing injury in sports dogs, so given Delta's track record with accidental injuries, I nabbed it

[Erica]

So so so much more learned today. Very glad I went; there was a lot about preventing injuries not justthrough conditioning and proper warm up/cool downs, but also through identifying situations that can cause those injuries.

The instructor (Bobbie Lyons) was even more adamant today about making sure the stretches and exercises are kept within normal range of motion and heavily emphasized safety. You don't want to injure your dog when you're conditioning them to avoid injury! She also was adamant about thinking for yourself, knowing your dog and their limits, and understanding why something is being done before attempting to try it.

Delta was helpful for demonstrating trot vs pace and was the only dog volunteered to show off the stretches where you hold the dog's legs...we did a lot of handling stuff in puppy class and with all the grooming he needs, it's no wonder he's used to it.

Oh, and we were next to a b*tch in heat and he didn't fall to pieces like some people might suggest. He definitely wanted to spend some time with her but when I asked him to work he did so happily! This was his first experience with a b*tch in heat so that was reassuring.

[Nettle]

Sounds a super workshop, Erica - wish I'd been there.

[JudyN]

At long last I've worked out how to have a conversation with OH about what we're going to do without Jasper sticking his head up and saying, 'What's happening? What are you doing? You're not going to leeeeeaaaave me are you?'

I sing... it's the only way I can use an intonation that he doesn't get the gist of. So on Sunday you could have heard me singing 'Shall we go to the garden centre? He needs his home alone practice'

I need to train up OH to pay attention though. He has learnt over the years to block out the sound of my singing

[Fundog]

oh that's funny right there!

[MPbandmom]

Brilliant Judy!

I wonder if my OH would listen more if I sang? He is constantly telling me I am mumbling and he can't hear what I am saying. Of course I am often trying to talk over a TV or radio that are turned up so that he can hear those over top of road noise or whatever.

I was mildly annoyed with OH the other day. We were walking down the sidewalk and he pointed out to me that a pedestrian was coming our way. I was in the lead with Sky and well aware of the pedestrian. As we got closer, the pedestrian moved off of the sidewalk and into the curb parking area. I passed by and then a little later, I heard Sirius snark. OH then commented that he hadn't been able to grab Sirius in time and then proceeded to give Sirius a lecture about how she shouldn't snark at people because it could potentially lead to her being put down.

He had plenty of time to shorten her leash or pull out a treat distraction. He simply didn't register and act upon the need to manage before she snarked. It is totally not her fault that he failed to manage her properly. For the most part he is doing better but I think he doesn't realize management is a full time and forever thing with her. When things have been going well for a while, he starts to let his guard down. Then she snarks at something/somebody and it gets his attention again that he needs to be more proactive with her management.

[Fundog]

Today while I was subbing at the school, someone from housing maintenance came to do some repairs on our outside faucets. When she left, she neglected to close the garden gate behind her. Later, when my son woke up, not knowing the gate was open, he let Annie and Dottie outside. 20 minutes later he brought them back in, and never knew about the gate until I came home and told him. The point is, my wonderful doggies had ample opportunity to run off, but did not. WOW!

[MPbandmom]

Horray for dogs that stay in their yards even when the gate is open! Mine are more the opportunistic type.

The weather has been crazy hot one day freezing the next. Dogs didn't get a walk yesterday because I worked late and it was dark and windy and below freezing by the time I got home. They had already had dinner, so while Sky seemed to think she had missed out on something, she wasn't being her usual boisterous self about yay Mom's home let's get going for our walk.

Today OH was unable to join us so Sky got two laps around the park and Sirius got a modified lap. Baseball season is starting. Sky has gotten pretty good about understanding she can't chase every baseball that she sees flying through the air at the park, but baseball season means many younger siblings hanging out and running around outside of the ball fields with parents who are generally more focused on the already supervised child inside of the fence than the one outside of the fence. This is not a good situation to try and walk Sirius past. So Sirius' walk avoided the ball fields. 1.89 miles for Sky and 1.32 miles for Sirius.

[mansbestfriend]

A couple of days ago I got home after walking Kelly dog to find Max the GH chewing on a corn cob and bits and pieces of corn cob and corn scattered around (usually he doesn't bother raiding the rubbish). Coincidentally had a vet appointment for Max yesterday - after explaining about to the vet she said watch and wait. Long story short - I safely disposed of all the bits of corn I could see, both dogs are eating and pooing fairly normally, Kelly dog has been pooing the most corn, somehow bits of corn husk keep finding their way into the lounge room. Maybe there's a secret stash of corn somewhere in the yard that I couldn't find, so still watching both dogs and waiting for a few days yet.

The vet checked Max's limp and said it looks like some arthritis in both his hips and his left rear foot. He may need pain meds sometime in the future. Unfortunately it didn't come as a surprise considering his track racing past.

Max is accepting his wearing a muzzle again now after a scuffle with a little dog recently. It took some re-training with toast crusts, marmalade, and "Smackos" for reinforcement. Kelly dog is very different and dives her head into the muzzle during training but won't have a bar of it in a real world situation. They say that variety is the spice of life .

[JudyN]

I hope Max & Kelly are still fine after eating the corn, MBF

I'm just back from a walk in the woods with my friend and her dog Lola. She tried doing a bit of agility with Lola on the permanent tunnel, jumps, etc in the woods as well as a large old fallen tree - but as she tried to gee up Lola, Jasper got even more geed up and kept jumping up in between her and Lola, going 'I can do it! I can do it!' and getting very overexcited It was hilarious to watch, though I had to stick him on lead so Lola could get a look-in.

We bumped into a couple with two Inuit-type dogs, a mastiff, and what looked like a boxer on steroids. A couple of them chased Lola, who was clearly frightened, but the owners did sod all, and then claiming they just wanted to play Eventually they managed to get their dogs back, then let them go again, so back they came. Not one single word of apology I had hoped Jasper would defend his little friend but he just stood by not wanting to get involved coward.

Later we met our friend's Staffie, Jezebel, a lovely girl with some serious joint issues. I'd seen a video of her in YouTube and she was so uncoordinated, I was quite upset. But apparently, the problem is with nerve transmission down her spine so she's not in pain - the messages to move her hind legs just aren't getting through properly. I've had the same problem myself a few times after the occasional glass of wine....

[JudyN]

This morning there was a cat on a small area of heath we often walk on. Jasper took off and when OH eventually found him he was barking up a tree, with the cat hanging off a branch. it took quite a while for OH to convince Jasper he couldn't just stand there all day

He's hurt himself in the process though. He's been limping on his back left and when I examined him, all was fine until I flexed his foot, then he shrieked and snarked. What's that joint called - the one at the bottom of the pastern, I assume the equivalent of where my toes join my foot? He's had a short lead walk and once he'd got going he wasn't limping much at all but had problems if he stood on something uneven of when he tried to lift his other leg.

I'm assuming if he's done something serious there would be swelling, so I'll just keep an eye on it and keep him on arnica and short lead walks tomorrow. And I won't be examining it too closely unless he's muzzled I do have some Metacam, but don't want to mask the pain and him do himself more damage as a result.

[JudyN]

I took Jasper to the vet this afternoon as he was still very sore, and he's diagnosed the equivalent of several stubbed toes No wonder it hurts He can't rule out a small fracture, but the treatment would be the same anyway - short frequent lead walks on even ground till he's better, which the vet reckons will be a couple of weeks.

Using the car might be out too - he really struggled to get into it to come home, I thought I was going to have to walk home & pick it up later

He was very good at the vet's (once we got him in the consulting room - the vet had to go round behind him to get him to move forwards). The vet could feel he 'resented' having his toes bent over, but he didn't shriek or snark. I was stuffing a lot of cheese and pepperoni into his mouth though

When I went into the waiting room there was a man with a Scottie on one side, so I went over the far side. I then got J on the scales to distract him, and after we sat down again the man decided he might as well weigh the Scottie - walking him right past us so he could sniff J's bum. J was fine - he was too busy worrying - but if you're in an environment as stressful to dogs as the vet waiting room, and someone else comes in with a muzzled dog and sits as far away from you as possible, does it not occur to you that it might not be the best idea to let your dog sniff his bum?

[Nettle]

Vet surgery/waiting room etiquette - or lack of - is a real with me. Some people have NO common sense at all.

[Erica]

Delta's been getting reluctant to give up his tennis balls for fetch. I have some smooth rubbery Chuckit balls that we use because his teeth were wearing down from chewing on the standard fuzzy tennis balls (:shock:) so hopefully those will be less abrasive on his teeth. So today after fetch and cool-down time (toss a handful of kibble and treats around the yard + a couple exercises) I just let him have the ball back so it may become less special. Obviously once we're in the house, it's much less interesting. Three minutes later and he's already abandoned it for the new sweet potato chew