Thursday, July 31, 2008

Trying new photo program

This video was from the other day. Miley kept dropping both the bars so I decided to video tape it to see what I was doing wrong. Was I late etc... But as soon as I started taping she didn't drop the bars anymore. You can see she cuts right in front of me and doesn't take the dogwalk that one time. Ive watched it again and again and I don't know why she did that.

My husband bought me a new computer to use for just my blogging and saving all my pictures and videos. Ive been frustrated by how the pictures have been down loaded. Plus I wanted to be able to save all the videos and pictures at the same time and in the same place. Ive tried a couple of programs and haven't like any of them. I just bought "Easy Media creator 10" . So far I really like it. I can save all the pictures and videos off my camera at the same time and in the same file. I can also edit the video in slow motion without much difficulty. I can also edit pictures with special effects. I'm going to try to upload this video and see how it turns out. I had to change the file to save it in to be able to load it to blogger. Will see if I lose picture quality.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Legs, and more legs


So here are Guiness's legs now. They look so much better. The wet to dry dressing changes I did a couple of days ago really helped. There is one more place on the back of the right leg that still needs to heal but otherwise they look good. His front legs have hundreds of tiny scabs coming off of them. Im hoping by this weekend he can go without the plastic cone on his head.
Miley's leg has not had any problems. I'm not sure what happened Saturday but I havent seen any limping since then. Ive watched her like a hawk and she is using it fully. Thank god.
Today I took her out to the practice field to work. She really hasn't done any agility in almost a month except for that run thru a couple of weeks ago. I'm posting some video of our practice today. You can see we have work to do. She has decided to fly off the teeter, even the one at home. So that is on the practice list. The time she jumped off while running up the teeter,I think I pushed her off by trying to do a front cross but she jumped off before I did it.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Problems, problems, problems

Lets see, where do I begin. First , when I was at my parents house, my husband called and said the bed broke. I asked if Mickey was under the bed? He didn't know. My son went and looked. Mickey was under the bed. Lucky he was under the bottom end and not the top. The top was what fell, so he was ok. But the bed is still broken and now lying on the ground. So I either have to fix it or buy a new one. Beds cost to much money, so I will be fixing it. Next, Guiness will not leave his legs alone. He will probably be wearing that cone for at least the rest of the week. I did have to do some wet to dry dressing changes on his legs and theylook much better. I will be very happy to leave the cone behind. As I'm sure he will be too. But is is driving me crazy trying to keep him from his legs.
Third:Last night I went to a dinner for the agility committee members. You could bring your dogs if you wanted but I decided to leave mine at home. I put the dogs in their cages before I left because no one was at home. My son called me at 6pm and said he was now home. Did I want him to let the dogs out of their cages. I said he could. I got home at 7:30. The first thing on my mind was giving Mickey his seizure medication. I usually give all the dog peanut butter afterwards. When it was Mileys turn, she usually sits up and then stands on her back legs. She couldn't sit up. It was very weird. Then when she walked away , I saw that she was lame on her right back leg. She wouldn't put any weight on it at all. Needless to say I was very upset. Why did I let my son let the dogs out of their cages? I checked the bottom of her paw repeatedly, but there was nothing there. I checked her leg again and again and I couldn't find anything. When I fed them dinner, I gave Miley one of her Rimadyls she had left over from her spay. I crated her last night and today I haven't seen one sign of lameness. We didn't do our walks or any agility. I'm praying its ok. I probably will have a break down if she is lame like Guiness.
Last: I haven't been able to sleep since this past Tuesday. Every single night I cant sleep unless I take at least 2 benadryls or sonta. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping but usually if I take 1/2 a benadrly or 1/2 a sonta , I fall right asleep. And I usually don't have trouble every single night. Its usually only once in a while. Its driving me crazy because I feel so tired but I cant sleep. If it doesn't get better soon, I'm going to the doctor.

Friday, July 25, 2008

More Guiness

I had to go back down to Georgia to see my dad. I took Guiness with me so he could get some one on one time. My dad is doing better and is now at home. Guiness is doing better too. He can now walk up the steps without any problems. His legs are getting better. When I took him to the vet, they thought it just needed more time on the antibiotics. They said if the pus thing came up again they would go in and look at it. But its been fine. The hardest thing is keeping him from licking his legs. Even with the cone on he can still get to his legs. They were looking pretty good until I went in the back yard yesterday. When I came back in the house he had gotten the cone off and his back leg was raw again. Ugh!! This picture was before he got the cone off his head.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

update on Guiness

I took Guiness to the vet on Saturday. His legs had blister/burn type sores on them. They cleaned them up and gave him antibiotics. While I was waiting at the vet, I received a call that my dad was in the hospital with a blood clot in his lung. We went back to the beach that night. Guiness had a very hard time getting up after a period of lying down. His back legs would just give out. We had to carry him up and down the stairs. Sunday morning he had a new place on the top of his left foot that looked like a bloody bus bubble. Hair had been twisted around tight in the location. I was able to cut it all off hoping that would fix the problem. My husband took the dogs and the kids home to Columbia and I drove to Georgia to the hospital to see my dad. On the way home , my husband said the foot place opened up and drained. I was hoping that it would get better with washing and antibiotics. But when I came home last night it looked bad again, and when I washed it , it opened up and bloody pus came out. I'm not sure if something is in it, or if he is on the wrong antibitics to cover what is growing. I have an appt. this afternoon at the vet again to get it looked at. My dad is doing better. They used the drug TPA to dissolve the clot. He went from 8-9 liters of forced air oxygen with an oxygen saturation of 90%, to 3 liters of oxygen with at saturation of 94%. So that is great. He will probably get to go home in in a few days.He is a picture of one of Guiness's back legs.

He is a picture of the beach that guiness left looking over the marsh. The house that found Guiness is off in the distance on the right of the picture. This is a picture of the marsh that Guiness was found in. In the bottom of the picture is that boat that took us across the river to the marsh. Guiness was back in the marsh about 30 yards. Thank god that alligators didn't eat him. Also , Ive never been so happy for cloudy, rainy days at the beach.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Guiness is found!!!!!

\We were out looking for Guiness when we got the call from security that they think they might have found our dog. We went to a house on the marsh. We weren't looking at all in the right place. The people who called were eating outside and Guiness was standing on the other side of a river in the marsh barking at them. There was a kayaker who tried to get him but Guiness kept backing up. So they called security and told them that there was a dog in the marsh and security said a dog was reported missing . Security called us and we were in the car already very close to that location. We walked around the peoples house and could see with binoculars Guiness ear tips sticking up above the marsh reeds. Thank god for big ears. The guy took us in his boat over to the marsh and my husband was able to walk thru the mud and get guiness. He is doing ok. He chewed the long line. The one collar was a martingale and it was rusting. His back legs are raw , so I'm trying to find a vet to take him to.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Guiness is lost!!


Guiness was lost yesterday, 7-17-08, on the north beach of seabrook island. It was around 6:30am. We have been looking for him since then. There have been no signs of him. We have posted flyers, call the security gate on seabrook and Kiwah. We have been talking to workers on the island. I have called local vets. He is microchipped and is wearing 2 collars with tags. He was dragging a long red line. Thanks, Diana

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008

The long walk and then some





The dogs woke us up at 4am this morning. Let me rephrase that, Miley woke us up at 4am. I thought she had to use the bathroom but she would go. At 6am we were walking all the dogs on the beach. I put long lines on the two shelties and let them run free. There is no one on the beach at that time of the morning. Guiness seemed tired today. Miley was out running him, unlike yesterday when she couldn't catch him. So I wasn't worried about him going to far. But he must have gotten a second wind because he took off down the beach after the silly birds flying over head. He didn't circle around and come back either. He just kept running and barking. Nothing was going to slow him down. Miley turned around. So far she wont go to far ahead without coming back. I wasn't to worried about Guiness. He cant leave the beach and its only several miles long. While several miles is a long way when you have to go chase your dog. When we came around the corner and couldn't see him it was time to get down the beach, especially when it gets close to 7am and people start coming onto the beach. They don't want to see a loose, barking , manic dog. Although he just wants the birds and is running in and out of the water ignoring everything else. My very nice husband went down the beach to retrieve the manic dog. Here are the pictures of him coming down the beach and what Guiness looked like when they got back.
Miley has had a hard time adjusting to being here. She cant seem to settle down and relax. It doesn't matter how much I exercise her. When we get back into the house, she starts barking at me and giving me toys to throw for her. She has also had a few accidents in the house. Not good. But I guess after this mornings extended exercise she was tired. See picture below.The next picture is of the logger head turtle tracks left by a turtle laying her eggs. The turtle patrol was coming down the beach after we retrieved Guiness and told us that there are usually 190 eggs in the nest. They will count the eggs in this nest and then decided if they were going to move the eggs further back into the dunes. They thought when the tide changes it may come up over the nest. Also they said to come back Sept. 15th if we want to see the eggs hatch and the babies return to the sea.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

At the beach again








So we went down to the beach again. A training center close by was holding run-thurs on Saturday. I decided to take Miley and see what happens. There was only a few people there so that was kinda nice. I ran Miley first through the standard novice course. I don't think there were any problems except at the very last two obstacles. She ran down the dog walk and was suppose to take the jump off to the left but she came into close to me and passed the jump. Next I ran the masters course. Multiple problems. Started off great but then she was suppose to take the curved tunnel behind the a-frame but she took the a-frame instead. So Lori, who owes the training center, told me to front cross at the jump before the tunnel and that took care of that problem. Then, when she was suppose to take the a-frame ,she would take the tunnel. She had problems taking the correct side of the tunnel. She also dropped some bars. I ran the jumpers course too. I think it was to hard for us. But it gave us lots of info on what we need to work on. She dropped more bars then I thought she would. It maybe she needs more time to heal after being spayed. So the rest of the week she will be off.
Guiness and limping. Its very funny. Guiness can run on the beach chasing birds for about 4 miles. He runs up and down the beach , in and out of the water and never limps. But if I were to try and jump him, he would start limping. I know this because that's what happened last time we were at the beach. My husband said , "It looks like there is nothing wrong with him". So when we got home later that week, I tried jumping him. It was bad, he even just crashed into a jump. So that was the end of that.



Friday, July 11, 2008

Today is a good day

I got up at 5:30am. Not because I wanted to but because Miley was showing that she had to go outside. Of course she didn't use the bathroom. She goes outside and I think she forgets what she originally went out there to do. Anyway, I thought "man its hot out here". It was only 75 degrees out, but the humidity must be high. So as the sun started to come up, I notice it was very over cast. Must be a good day to go out to the training field and practice agility. So off we went. We got to the field and the weeds were very high. Those weeds that have the black seeds all over the top of them. They were higher than Miley and there were lots of them. I wasn't sure if that was going to be a problem. It wasn't. I wish I had brought my camera because she had those black seeds all over her face and chest. It would have made a great picture. We practice the chute since we hadn't done that in a while and I set up a panel jump and broad jump. She hadn't been expose to those before today. No problem. And , Ta da da daaa!!!!! She got on the teeter all by herself and road it down without any problems. That was a chicken jackpot moment!! And she repeated it several times and ran it in a sequence. I couldn't be happier. I was very worried about that teeter. I was thinking that I couldn't even run her in home trials because she wont get on our clubs teeter. I hope it stays that way. Over all she did well, some wide turns but they were my fault. My cues were late. I saw some blatant head checks.
Another good thing was that she rode in the car in a crate without a problem. In case your new to this blog, Miley hates the car. I put the crate in the front seat. This car will turn the air bag off if the weight is to light. I also bought this stuff called, "NatureVet Quiet moment". Its suppose to help with traveling, fireworks etc... I'm not sure what helped but I just hope it continues. Yea!!!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Here's Roxy

I'm finally home. Its always so good to come home. The dogs went crazy when I got here. They have been running around the house like crazy. My husband said they didn't do any of that while I was gone. I thought I would post this video of Roxy barking. Its a funny bark I think for a chihuahua. None of the other chihuahuas I know bark like this, but I only know about 5. Roxy is barking at Miley because Miley has a bone. Roxy has a bone too, but she always wants Guiness's or Miley's bones. Roxy never eats her bones.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Still in Virginia


This is my son and I on the deck of the battleship.

We went to see the USS Wisconsin. Its a battleship that is Inactive. It periodically gets reactivated for service. The last time was in Desert Storm. You cant go inside it but it was still neat to be able to walk on it.
In the mornings, Ive been walking on the beach. I'm surprised by the amount of people that don't pick up after their dogs. They are only allowed to be on the beach before 10am and after 6pm. No wonder since a lot of them cant pick up after them. Yuk!! Who would do that?
My sister has a 13 year old lab. She jumped down into the living room and hurt her left rear leg. (same leg a Guiness, maybe I'm a jinx) She really could hardly walk. It was terrible. My sister took her to the vet. They checked her leg and didn't even do x-rays and said it was a partial tear of her ACL of her knee. Anyway, they said to rest it for 3 weeks and come back for a recheck. They gave her an anti-inflammatory. About an hour and a half later she was so much better. She can now get up and down the step and can go from room to room. She only has a very slight limp. I wish anti-inflammatories helped Guiness like that. But they don't.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy Fourth of July!!!






We are in Virgina Beach visiting my sister. No dog, no husband , just kids. Poor husband , poor dogs. We walked to the beach and saw the fire works. It was probably one of the best fireworks displays ever. I did go with the friend, Maribeth, while I was still in college to see the fire works in Washington ,D.C. They were pretty good, but these were better. And we didn't have to fight all the people getting home.

Who sleeps like this?



This is how Miley was sleeping the other night. And there is a book under her that you cant see. .Here are some pictures of the other dogs sleeping too.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

How to cool off

Man, Im hot!

Thats better. Gota love the air conditioning vent.




So since we aren't doing any running or jumping, I decided to work on a couple of things. First I decided to train her to get in the box. Its the A-frame contact training that Rachel Sanders put in Clean Run May's issue. I made the box out of pvc. Its a big square that can be transferred to the a-frame. Since it seemed so hard to get her to hit that little mouse pad, I thought this might be easier. She can hit the mouse pad but when I transferred it to the a=frame she always slipped and slid trying to hit the pad on the a-frame. This gives them a much bigger area and shouldn't effect the stride like the little mouse pad. Plus what else do we have to do. I'm also training her to go around the back side of the jump. Ive seen that set up a couple of times where you are running straight at the jump , the dog has to go around the jump and jump back toward you. I'm putting it on cue, "around". It amazing how fast a dog learns. We started yesterday and she is already getting it. Some other things we are working on is getting all the dogs not to go crazy when someone walks in and out of the house. They just go crazy barking. I don't mind a little barking, but this is over the top. So several times a day we practice ringing the door bell and going in and out. I keep food near the door and they get rewarded for being calm.


I took Mickey to the vet yesterday. My appt. was a 5pm. They must have had a crazy day because a bunch of cars were parked in the grass. I guess the parking lot was full and they had to park some where. They looked a Mickeys tooth and said it needed to be pulled. They would rather do it under anesthesia because the roots are so long. So in a couple of weeks Ill get his teeth clean and have them pull the tooth. Mickey teeth actually looked good and had very little tarter.