Limping again

Yes Miley was limping again this week. Im not sure what happened.  We had been hiking, no limping.  Went to my mom's house for Christmas and they have a good size backyard.  I let her and Java run but not to much, no limping.  I took her to the club to finish those last two jumps that needed the jump cup strips attached. I let her run some small sequences, no limping.



Then the next day she was out in the backyard. Its was around 6am. She wasnt limping when she got up but when she came in from being outside, she was really limping. Crap.  I dont know if she fell or what happened. Ugh!  She even went in my room and laid down. So unlike her. I gave her a Rimadyl. And hour later she was fine.  I havent given her any more Rimadyl but Ive restricted her again. No off leash running. The backyard is gated again, so she cant run free. She is confined to the den and kitchen. I still take her for walks except the day she was limping, I didnt let her do anything. And our walks arent that far and back to the flat surfaces.  I made an appt. with the Vet who does ultrasounds and is good at being about to see muscle tears or tendon tears. She couldnt do it this week so Miley goes Monday. Im assuming that maybe she has a tiny tear somewhere in her shoulder.  Although when I talked to the rehab vet about her possibly having a tear ( before she released her from rehab), she didnt think Miley would get better so quickly if she had a tear and as soon as I let her run, the  limp would show back up. Im not sure why it took a week , maybe I let her do to much to fast. Ugh.

Java is doing well. Still working on recalls.  Sometimes they are great and sometimes not.  One day we only took Java to the hiking park.  When we got to the back of the park, I let her off leash.  She did well for about an hour. Then I went to take a picture of something and my husband was watching her. He didnt see anything, but she took off running. Lucky we were in a valley and could see for a good distance.  I called her and she didnt come. Uh, scary. I had to use , "Pup, Pup, puppy" and then she came. Today I worked her again. She stopped to sniff an orange peel and wouldnt recall off of it. I had to go get her.  We worked more recalls. Then a dog barked, she took off running. I called her. She stopped on a dime and came running back. That made me feel a little better. 
She is having a hard not being reactive to other dogs.  Even at the class I teach where she really hasnt had a problem.  This week someone, who wasnt in class, was working their dog in the other room and had their other dog locked in a crate. It wouldnt stop barking.  And Java kept barking and growling. So everytime she did that, I put her in her crate. She stopped barking. The a lady in class came with a big border collie , Java went crazy.  I had to lock her up in her crate again. She finally got better.  It seems to be big dogs that she is having a problem with.  We walked at the park this morning. There were several people walking dogs.  I put her in a sit and clicked and treated every time looked at the dogs but didnt react.  She did much better by the end of the walk. So I guess thats what Im going to be working on. She had no problems at the agility field this week but no big dogs came to class.  One funny thing that happened . I was putting the chute away and its kinda hard to carry. While I was walking, Java jumped up and into the plastic barrel.  It was to funny.

I feel like this is a depressing post so on a good note........
For Christmas  my husband bought me an online class. Its the Silvia Trkman Running Contacts.  Im going to try and teach Java running contacts. I still need to paint my board.  You have to have a flat 12 foot board so the dog runs on it just like running on the ground. Will see how it goes. I can always change to a 2o/2o but keep the a-frame running.

(I know this one isnt in focus but its still cute to me)

Wordless Wednesday

Life goes on.

Well Christmas is over.  Thank god.  I really dont like Christmas anymore. I dont really want to get into why, Im just glad its over.

I went to the club on Friday to work on some of the jumps we made.  The  jump bars needed to be cut down and they needed to be taped.  Some of the jumps needed to be glued.  So I took Java with us, my husband came with me, so we could work the chute a couple of times.



She looks  much happier huh?

Thursday I took Miley to her follow -up rehab appt.   She was good.  No signs of pain with any movement.  So I can start increasing her activity.   The day before taking her to the appt. I played ball with her in the house and the day of we hiked at the park.  I figured if that aggravated her  that she wasnt ready to be released.  But nope, all was good.

Saturday we hiked 4 miles at the park.  Not anything to hilly but lots of roots so you have to pick your feet up more. While in the back of the park, about  a mile and a half  we run into a lady walking two dogs.  I was trying to work on Java not barking at people and dogs we pass at the park. So my husband was walking Miley and Guiness.  Java had done really well everyone we had passed so far.  I told the lady my dog may bark.  The lady got off the path, which should have clued me in.  She was walking both her dogs, a Great Pyrenees and a mixed dog( looked like lab-pit bull) on flexi-leads.   The mixed breed was a rescue.  All of a sudden all hell breaks looks. Her dogs start barking and  pull the leads out of her hands. The dogs go charging at Lou.  He trys to block, and successfully blocks the GP. But the mixed breed goes behind him. First jumps Miley, who doesnt really fight back and backs out under the dog.Then he goes after Guiness.  The lady just stands there. Didnt even leave her spot.   Lou kicks the dog in the head. The dog takes off to his owner. She grabs him. Lou has the GP by the leash.  Finally she responds and gets the GP.  I have Lou take Miley and Java away from the area. Guiness is bleeding from his face.  I did have my first aid kit with me and Im trying to clean Guiness's face and see how bad he is bitten.   The lady tells me that the mixed breed had bitten another dog at home twice this morning.  The said, "I guess this tells me what I need to know about this dog".  Ugh, to  bad my dog had to pay the price.  I was mad but I was more concerned about my dog.  The lady did apologize several times and felt really bad. I didnt need to make her feel worse.  And she  stayed there until I was the one who finally left. I think she was more traumatized  then me.  I was just glad things werent worse. Im glad Guiness didnt get bitten in the eye.  The vet was closed. But I had doxycline at home and started  him on that.  It looked swollen after about an hour or two at home but the next day was much better.

He had a small shallow puncture wound to the face. I guess because there isnt much tissue there and mostly bone, the dog didnt get a good grip. The worse part is my husband kicked the dog with his leg he had knee surgery on Nov 2.  Its now been hurting for the past 2 days. Ugh. I hope its not wrecked. Plus Java probably wont be calm passing other dogs for a while, that was a big set back. It probably just reinforced her thinking. I never asked the lady if her dog was ok.

I did manage a few pictures after that.

( here is Miley trying to figure out how to cross this little creek without getting wet. Java cant understand what the problem is. Just walk thur it.)

Miley finally just says "screw it, Im jumping".

Here was Guiness's face again a little later. I was concerned about the inner corner of the eye. But the next day it was back to normal.

Game!

Lian at Knight shelites http://theknightsmixedbunch.blogspot.com/, gave us this award. Its a fun little game to help bring blog readers to your blog.  Thanks Lian! Dont forget to go to Lians blog either. She runs some awesome shelties and made the WAO 2012 team for England. WhooHoo!!

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. As with any award, there is a bit of ceremony involved. In order to accept the award, we must do the following:

1. Copy and paste the award on our blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award

3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs

 Here are my 5 blogs Im picking to send the award to.

1. Bently and Lexi's blog.  She has two shelties her and her husband run in agility.

http://corbinwooten.blogspot.com/

2.Thur Labs eyes.   Great blog about running agility with her lab.  She is  kinda just getting started in agility.  The blog also talk about her other dog and kids.  http://thrulabseyes.blogspot.com/

3.Kerales Kate.  Awesome blog!  She runs a border collie in agility and frisbee. Very talented, I love to watch her run agility.  http://keraleskate.blogspot.com/

4. Another Awesome agility person who I would love to be able to run my dog like her. The Adventures of two Urban Border Collies and a sheltie , http://urbanborders.blogspot.com/

5. http://daysofspeed.blogspot.com/   Another great blog.  Not only does she run agility but does triathlons.  I dont know how she has all that energy.  She also post beautiful pictures of the Colorado country side.

( anyone who I picked and you dont want to play , I wont be offended.  And some of the blogs I picked I couldnt find how many followers they had. )

Drive update

We had our co-op class last night instead of tonight. It was suppose to rain today so I emailed everyone to see if they wanted change to Tuesday night.  Good decision because its rained  all day today.  So last night someone asked me if I was feeling ok. I said "yes , Why?".  She said because the course was to easy and usually I set up hard courses.  LOL, I told when I renumber it , it will be more challenging. It was a course that was already set up, so I didnt have to do much work.  The first course was a starters jumpers course that I added weave poles too. Then when I renumbered it, I added wrap and back sides of jumps.  I think everyone felt challenged.
But before everyone got their I worked Java.  I let the video speak for itself.(it was dark but lights on the field, so some of the video isnt good)

Wordless Wednesday

Drive

Before I talk about drive, Ill talk about the beach.  We drove down to the beach on Sunday.  We had to clean up a water leak at the condo.  The hot water heater has a pipe going to it that brings the water into the heater. That was leaking. My husband just happened to be there last weekend for a Marathon that was at Kiawah. He was a volunteer and some of his friends were running in the race. So they used the condo. He walked into the closet and didnt have shoes on and felt the wet carpet. So he pulled the wall out that hides the water heater. Had a maintenance person come over to fix the  pipe. Then ran a fan to dry the carpet. Then we had to go back to put the wall back up to hide the water heater. Not a good design but I didnt fell like changing it at this point.  We got there at 9:30am and took the dogs for a walk on the beach.

This picture would have been cool but it was into the sun. I wish I could figure out  how to take pictures into the sun. Anyone know any tricks?  Most of the time the dogs seem to be into the sun when I wanted to get a shot.

Here is a little canal of water that forms when the tide goes out.

Here is Miley trying to figure out how to cross that little canal of water without getting wet.  Its only about up to her wrists deep. LOL

These people were riding horses on the beach. Lucky we could see them coming and leashed the dogs up.

I wanted to get some cool pictures of the horses running through the water but it  didnt happen. I wasnt in the right place for the shots and I didnt  think they would want me taking pictures of them. So this was the best I did.

They must have gotten some new alligators for the ponds. Now there are three out there.

This is taken from our deck.

It was a nice day. Beautiful sunshine but a little chilly. But nothing that some extra clothes didnt take care of. It only felt chilly on the beach because of  the wind.

Now onto drive.  I took Java to the club last night. A friend asked me to meet her there to work on young dog things.  I got there first.  Java did well when I first got there.  She isnt really fast about doing things. She may just be thinking, Im not sure.  I can put her in a tunnel and beat her across the room. But the room isnt that big so maybe she doesnt feel she needs to run full out.  Going around the cone, shes got that but never does it fast.  I taught it  with shaping and maybe thats why she doesnt do it fast. Im not sure. Ive been working on the chute. Because I was by myself, I did it different then I usually do. I lifted the end of the chute and threw the cookie into the chute (backwards). Then called her and let the chute fall as she came out.   This technique seemed to work better then  holding the chute open and calling her threw. (which I tried when my friend got there). So here she is going through the chute for the first time, all  by herself without help.



So how do I increase her drive for agility?  I dont know. Im trying to make it fun. But she doesnt look like she is having fun does she?   She seemed nervous when the other ladies dogs were out. She worked, each of us took a corner. But then when I decided to stop and we sat down, when  a yorkie would come over to see her, she would hide under my legs.  Weird. She hasnt acted like this at all in the classes.  She got better during the night but never seemed comfortable around the yorkies.  One even kept trying to get her to play. Java thought about it but never did.
Im signed up for a puppy camp in January called, "Drive,Drive and more Drive".  Its taught by Ann Braue.   Im hoping that will help me.   She likes to run and chase stuff like Miley and squirrels. I just need that to transfer to me and agility.

Whats up???

I have no holiday spirit. Ive only bought one gift and that was for my grandfather. He likes that movie "The Christmas Story" and I saw this and thought he would get a good laugh.

Java is getting big. She no longer looks like a puppy.  I kept hoping she is going to stay under 16 inches but I dont know.  Last week she was 14 3/4.

Its been a busy week and Ive been to tired to blog. Then Friday and Saturday morning I woke up with a migraine. Not a nice way to start the day.
Wednesday I taught the agility Co-Op class for the club. Its been warm out but as soon as the sun goes down it feels freezing.  I was so cold while out there teaching.  Brrrr. I hate to tell you it was only 50 degrees out. LOL, Im a wimp.   I took Java with me.  She did well. No barking or going after other dogs. But no big dogs were in class.  At the end of class we were cleaning up the equipment and the little dogs were all loose. They all got a long. They just hung out and no one really cared about the others. While there I worked on Java's tunnels and teeters.  She doing much better with the teeter.  She seemed kinda afraid of it a couple times when Ive taken her to the field. But this time, no problem. The teeter is set between two tables. I even lowered one of the tables and she was ok with it.
Thursday I taught 2 foundation agility classes.  She does really well in those class.  I had her in Miley's crate while working the other dogs in the class thur the chute. Java busted out the zipper on the crate, ran thur the chute and came to me.  It was so cute. I think she was thinking, "I can do it, I can do it".  So I guess I cant use Miley's crate anymore. I have a bigger soft crate that I used for Guiness. I guess Ill try that one. Its heavier  and thats why I dont like it but the zipper is more substantial.  Java's recall is getting better. In class two bigger dogs started barking at each other, Java started running over there. I called her  and she turned right around and came to me. WhooHoo!!  Now if I could just get her to do that with squirrels.  At the end of the class, two different people came up to me and  told me how much they are enjoying class and that they are learning a lot.  That was  so nice. I really worry about  people not  being bored in class. Foundation stuff can sometimes seem boring especially if you dont understand why you are learning something. But you will need that foundation later on.
Miley is doing ok. I think I might have seen her limp in the house twice. But it was just once so Im not sure. I havent seen anything on walks , and thats where Im really watching her. So Im not sure if I really saw it or not. Of course when Im watching her, I never see anything.

I forgot to add this.  So I had to edit the post.  There is a web site called "I shot it".  You can enter your pictures for a small fee. If you win, you get the pot.  They are having a contest for dog pictures. Right now the pot is worth about 400.00, but there is still 6 weeks to go. So Im sure as more people add pictures it will grow.   I added some pictures and will probably add a few more. It sure would be nice to  get that money. Here is the website   http://i-shot-it.com/

They lady who does Scruffy dog photography ( who is on my blog reading list side bar) is judging the contest.  I love her photos. She takes awesome dog pictures!

Great Idea

Yesterday I had this great idea.  I had bought some tall rubber boots. I would walk through the river and take the dogs out on the rocks. Then using my tripod, I would great a group of of me and the dogs. LOL this is what I got.

Yea, not a great idea. LOL   The rubber boots worked well until the end. The  last time I crossed the river  I must have walked a little bit deeper and the water went over the top and into my boots.  But I was done and I had dry shoes on the shore.  I carried all the dogs back and forth across the river so they wouldnt get wet. But Java decieded she was going in anyways, after I carried her across.

Java thinks she is a border collie.  Its a lot of work to get her to put her head up.

They must have recently let the dam out. All that green stuff is caught on everything. Its pretty the first couple of days. Then it just dies and is ugly.

Java likes to hide in the stuff.

There's that border collie again.

This is on the island thats in the river. Mostly I take pictures out on the rocks. I dont like the  inside of the island.  It reminds me of snakes.  Then on the path, in the middle of the island, there was a dead snake and bird. Together. I recognized the snake because of the spine but the bird skull took me a while to figure out.  Then Jave picked up the snake in her mouth. Ugh, I thought I would throw up. I hate snakes, dead or alive.

Im sure I looked like a homeless person walking out of the park.  Boots over my shoulder, pants wet from the knees  down, and my jacket dirty from holding the dogs while crossing the river. But for a short time, out on the rocks, the sun was out. And life was perfect.

Miley update

Miley had her 2 week follow-up appt. yesterday.  It went well.  She was no longer tender when the vet touched the tendon. When she was lying down and she fully extended her leg froward, she kept her head on the floor relaxed. Last time she kept picking her head up when the vet extended her leg all the way forward. But the vet said she could feel her muscle tense  when she extended it.  So she is much better but still has a ways to  go.  Two more weeks of rest and then she will get checked again.

I put this picture in the blog because it had Miley in it but also that chest.  I found that chest at Goodwill over 20 years ago. It was painted the ugliest orange color I had ever seen. I thought I would take it home, strip it and then repaint it.  But when I started stripping it, it was beautiful underneath. It took several stripping to get all the paint off and then I just left it natural. I think I might have used some oil on it since stripping it dries out the wood. I really like this chest. It been with us moving to 6 houses. Never any problems.  Over Thanksgiving Stephanie came home and said she needed a tacky Christmas sweater to wear for a  Christmas party she was going to at school. So can she look through my sweaters.  LOL, yea way to build me up there and make me feel good about myself. So she goes through my chest. And yes she found one that works.  LOL, I like that sweater too. I guess that shows my taste.  She went through the whole chest and found some other outdated stuff she thought was cool and wanted.  Also in that chest is my electric blanket.  Stephanie put everything she didnt want back in the chest and closed it.  The other day I wanted to put my electric  blanket on the bed and went to open the chest. Its locked.  WTF?  Locked?? I dont have  a key. Its never been locked. Thats how things sometimes go with Stephanie. She touches it and it breaks. Im not sure how it happens but it happens alot.  I know she didnt mean to lock the chest but its locked.  Weve tried several times to get it open and no luck. Ugh!!!!!

Ive been thinking a lot about not being able to Q with Miley on course.  And since getting Java, Im noticing  Miley's quriks a lot more.   One of them is her space issuses.  She doenst like to come in close to you unless its her own decision.  So if you call her while she is going thur the den. Oops, her signals tell her, "go wide, go wide".  She will start making wide circles thru the den, kitchen area.  Or she turns around and goes the other way. She dodges your hand as it comes out to pet her. If she lays down next to you and you pet her, she gets up and leaves. LOL    So since she is on rest and cant or isnt suppose to run around, I thought I would work on her coming close to me.  I had to wait her out a pretty long time, but Im finally making some progress. I used the clicker. I called her  just saying "come".  And then waited until she did something that meant forward motion. Not backward, circling or going wide. No luring.  If she leaned foreward or to one step or even attempted to step forward. I clicked and said yes. And then I would throw the treat to her but so that she would have step forward again.  Its going pretty well and she she will always step toward me when I call her and lots of times come all they way in  and let me pet her.  My thought is that we cant work as a team on course because her space bubble is to wide.  Lots of times your dog needs to come in close , well if your dog doesnt like close, your in trouble. I ve also been working heeling exercises  with her. Just little short ones and not that often.So heeling passed  obstcales.   I dont know if any of this will make a difference  but it cant hurt either. (once again I cant get spell checker to work so read at your own risk.)

 

Wordless Wednesday

Java 25 weeks

Java turned 25 weeks today. I think she weighs 16 lbs and is 14 .5 inches tall.

I have the back yard gated off so I guess she decieded the flower pots were the next best thing.