Saturday, March 14, 2009

Cant chew gum and walk

Here is Miley with her life jacket on. We put her in the pool first. She did ok. I wouldn't say she loved it, but she did swim. But most of the time she didn't use her back feet. I think the life jacket kept her so buoyant that she didn't really have to try very hard. Next time we might just put a harness on her and see how it goes. The good news was she did much better in the underwater treadmill. We got the speed up to 1.4 mph. I had treats to keep her moving forward. ( I did last time too, but it wasn't as effective.) One thing Miley needs to learn is to chew and walk. I would break the treats into tiny pieces. Once she ate one, she would stop walking and ride the treadmill to the back. She couldn't walk and chew. It was kinda funny. We are hoping next time we can get her up to a trot.
On Thursday I let her just run around the backyard and chase Guiness. I wanted to see if it made any difference when she would go for walks the next day. I left her be wild. The next day on the walk, no skips or weird gaits. So today, because its cold and rainy, Ive been throwing the toy down the hall. We haven't done that in about 7 weeks. So far everything seems fine. I have been doing a little agility. Just having her run the down part of the contact of the dogwalk. Going to find the entry of 2 weaves poles that are open at 8 and 2 o'clock. Once this week I let her run a a pinwheel of low jumps with one rear cross and one front cross. Its so funny, when I tell her "all done". She just stands there staring at me like, "what, you are kidding me right? Hey ,where are you going we just got started".

8 comments:

Sara said...

I put life vests on my dogs last summer, and they seemed really confused by them. They didn't move their legs much at all, just kind of hung out in the water. Maybe their instinct to swim only kicks in if they feel like they are sinking?

Sounds like Miley is making progress. You can tell by her face that she definitely is not a big fan of the water!

JustRunFast said...

can someone get in the UWTM with her?? that could make a huge difference...

Diana said...

Yes someone can get in with her. I guess I could ask her to do it and see if that helps. thanks, Diana

Dawn said...

Poor baby! She doesn't look happy. But if she's getting better it's worth it.

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

OOOH I just love Miley-she is just so sweet and she is going to be so happy when she gets back to full activity.

KEY WEST COLLIES said...

We saw the picture on Josh's & Jessie's blog and had to check out the story. Keep up the good work and hope every paw feels grrrreat.

Essex & Deacon

Lian said...

Miley looks very cute in the yellow jacket! If you want to give her treat, can you try to give her something easy to swallow like tiny pieces of ham or cheese or chicken.

Chris and Ricky said...

Poor Miley - she wants out of the water and onto the agility field! Hopefully that will be soon!