Skips

Its been hot this week. I think its been about 85 degrees all week. Tuesday it was so humid the dogs were just laying around. I kept thinking maybe Miley was hurting because she didn't want to run around or play. But I think it was the humidity. Yesterday it was still 85 but no humidity and the dogs seem back to normal. Miley even stood in her little pool a couple of times.
Yesterday Miley went to rehab . She really isn't enjoying the underwater treadmill. I don't know how to make it more fun for her. They tried to increase the speed and she just couldn't get it. She would speed up, like she was trying to catch up to me and then go back to her slower pace. And that would make her fall behind and end up at the back of the treadmill. The vet felt she just didn't understand what she needs to do. So Friday we will put a life jacket on her. This will give us more control of her so that we can encourage her to increase the speed. We will also let her go in the pool and see if she thinks that is more fun. I don't want her to think this is torture.


This morning I was walking the dogs and we had walk passed the usual spot where I usually see Miley have an off gait or skip. Guess what, I didn't see anything. We walked up into the cul-de-sac and I was thinking to myself, "Maybe she is getting better". Right when I thought that, she took a huge skip. Ugh! I looked down at the ground and there was a large pebble on the ground. Did she step on it? I don't know. I saw two tiny skips farther along in the walk. Now, I don't think I over did things yesterday. The only thing she did yesterday was go to rehab. I didn't do either walk. The morning one, I was just to tired and decided to sleep an extra hour. I didn't do the evening one because she had done the underwater treadmill. I did let her run in the yard a bit, but nothing excessive. But...... When I looked at my notebook where I keep her progress recorded, I read something that I forgot about. Tuesday I decided to let her do a little agility. I figured the teeter was safe. ( I know, everyone is laughing) But there is no jumping or turning . It wasn't like she ran across the yard to the teeter. She was maybe 4 feet from it. Some how she wasn't straight getting on and came off sideways but at the beginning of the board. It was very ugly and made me cringe. She seemed ok afterwards. But maybe that has something to do with the skip.
And poor Guiness. His skip is so much worse since I restricted all the dogs activity. I'm hoping is will get better as I'm letting him run more in the backyard. I tired to work with him last night on tricks but he gets so excited about food that he is almost crazy. He can hardly control himself. I guess I need to work on that because I couldn't get much training done. I did get him to go into a bow and tell him to wait. Then I put the food about 12 inches from him. Then release to the food. I'm training the bow that way because he really isn't getting the bow without me keeping my hand by his hips. If I don't put my hand there, he goes into a down. So I'm hoping that making him wait in the bow position will help him learn what he is suppose to do. Will see. I also worked on alternating lifting his paws. He was really crazy, slapping my hands with his paws. It made my hands hurt. I think I'm going to teach him to touch a stick with his paw instead.