Trial weekend

I went to another trial this weekend. I drove with a friend since it was a 4 hour drive after work Friday. I figured it would be easier to drive with someone then by myself.  I think we got there around 10pm on Friday night.  Im still having trouble sleeping. I think I only slept 3 hours Friday night. Miley barked a lot too.  The hotel was packed. In fact there were 3 or 4 hotels right together and all of them were packed. So people yelling down the halls at 1am and doors slamming. Ugh!   The next morning I had a bad headache. By the time I go to the trial it became a migraine. Ive had at least 6 migraines in the last two weeks since starting that new medication.  Anyway I was pretty miserable at the trial. Really, I would have just driven home if I hadn't been with a friend.  Lou offered to come get me but I didn't want him to drive all that way.

The trial site is nice. I like the astro turf that was on the agility field.  Miley didn't like that pebbles that were around the ring on the one side. We had to walk through it from the car to the ring. There were a bunch of gated areas to let you dogs run around off leash but no real place to "go for a walk" with your dog.  Miley had problems adjusting to the turf. Im not sure if she didn't like it or if something was wrong.  I don't have the course map for the jumpers run. When I looked at my map, it was Friday's map. Hmmm.
Miley was slow and jumping weird so my timing was off.



I asked a fried of mine and he said sometimes it takes a bit for dogs to get use to running on this surface if they hadn't run on it before.  She seemed to speed up at the end.

Java had a great run, until the end when I fall behind and she didn't know where to go. So she missed the last jump.  She ran 5.6 yards per second. Whoohoo!!



Next was standard.  Miley looked much better running standard.

 

 

I messed up Java's run. I did a rear cross on the flat into the weaves. I thought she was to wide to get the entry so I stopped. ugh. She got the entry and then pulled out because I stopped. Darn it.



We were done pretty early.  They have a pond there that you can do dock diving. So my friend let her Yorkies swim.  They are awesome little dogs. After that we went back to the hotel.  My migraine was gone but I just was wiped out.  I did sleep that night.  But still had a headache all day on Sunday. What the heck???  I didn't take any of that new medication Sunday. I felt like I need sleep and maybe that medication is causing the headaches.

It was suppose to rain Sunday but we got lucky and it didn't rain until we were done with our runs and headed home.  We parked farther up the hill so Miley didn't have to walk through the pebbles to get the the ring.  Yay!!   Miley seemed better today. She played with Java in the gated area. 

I walked this course and everything seemed ok.   But then when it was time to run, the sun had come up.  It wasn't high enough yet for the roof to block the sun.  So when I turned after the table, I saw the sun coming in right at the triple. I knew it was going to be a problem.

Those big shadows coming in front of the jump were going to be hard on Miley. But it was to late, we were already running to it.  ( lots of dogs dropped the triple or hit it but it bounced but didn't come down)  Miley took off way to early. It looks like she thought the dark shadow on the ground was part of the jump. So she didn't clear the jump. Plus she slams on the breaks right in front of the chute. Big shadow there too.



Java was having a great run before she flew off the teeter. Both my dogs had trouble getting in the chute. Not sure if the shadow in front of the chute caused some problems or what. They didn't have problems Saturday.



Next was jumpers.

Miley ran nicely. She still looks a little off to me.


Miley Qed and took 2nd place.

I messed up Java's run. I don't know how I just ran the course correctly with Miley and then mess it up with Java. And it wasn't a long wait between runs either.  You can see my arm come up after jump 2, to start to front cross. I wasn't to front cross until after jump 3. I realize it in time but now Im not where Im suppose to be. So she pushed to far and has to come and and drops the bar.  Then Im late with my cues on both tunnels so she takes the wrong end. Ugh!! I have to remember to cue her before she takes off for the jump before the tunnel. You can see she is already committed when she takes that jump. Ugh!!  I really messed it up and it wasn't a hard course at all. Ack!!



For some weird reason my ipad taped this run upside down.  Lucky there was an app I could down load it to fix it.

Anyway I probably wouldn't drive 4 hours to the trial again. I like the agility ring but its just to far and no place to walk my dogs.
I woke up with another headache at 4am this morning. It turned into a migraine and I had to call in sick to work. I hope I don't have a headache tomorrow. Im thinking of just taking a migraine pill before bed to prevent it.
I made a rehab appointment to have Miley checked on Wednesday just to make sure nothing is wrong.

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.

whats up with that?

So Miley did well all weekend. I didn't see any problems. We went to the park again on Sunday and walked even more of the up and down hills. No problems. Today we went back to rehab and I was warming her up in the parking lot and she skipped. Maybe her foot is sensitive. She did the treadmill ok but really didn't seem into it. She kinda lagged behind and had to be encouraged to come forward more. But not limping or off loading weight. She just seem distracted. Go figure.
Last night I took Guiness to the freestyle class. There were only 2 of us there. We worked on sequencing which helps the dogs learn the tricks better. My big mistake was cutting Guiness's nails that morning. We also worked on alternating paws touching my hands and then legs ( with your hands on your legs). So now my hands are all scratched up. He wasn't trying to be rough, it was just his nails didn't have time to get the ruff edges off. That's was a big mistakes. Looks like Ive been in a cat fight. Sometimes I have to make myself go to class but once I'm there, I have a good time and enjoy it.
Also last night Micky had a seizure. I hate seizures, in dogs and people. Its just such a helpless feeling to watch them go through that and there is really nothing you can do. It is usually over in a couple of minutes but it feels like forever. Poor Mickey. He hasn't had one in over a year so I'm not sure what was up with that. He is awake during his seizures and just gets really stiff. No jerking. Although last night he cried for the first time during his seizure. I just hold him until its over. Then he gets down, shakes himself off and trots away. Its kinda funny. Like, "Man, I'm glad that's done."
This next part is for Dawn who asked me what box work I was talking about. Sometimes in agility, people refer to box work when they are talking about jumps. Setting 4 jumps up so they look like a box and you practice front and rear crosses and other things. But also there is a way to teach a running contact where you build a box made out of PVC. First you teach to dog what to do on the ground and then you put the box on the a-frame. If you go to this link you can see an old post of mine where the box is on the a-frame. It teaches the dog to hit the yellow zone.
(I couldnt get it to link to the post. So just go over the the labels on the bottom right hand side and hit the one labeled "box a-frame".)

Rehab today and other things

Today I still let Miley run around the back yard but only for a few minutes. I did have my husband video tape her when she chased a toy. I wanted to have the rehab vet watch the video and make sure her gait was ok. Sometimes I think she is bunny hopping. So I got the video and off we went to the rehab vet. When I got there I walked her around outside to warm her up. Its on a paved parking lot and I noticed some little pebbles. So guess what happened? She skipped a couple of times. So off we go into the building. I talked to the vet about the foot flick yesterday and the skip just now. she had me walk her again and watched. But you know that weird thing that happens when you go to the vet. The dog doesn't do it. LOL Then we put the dog in the underwater treadmill. She did great. Nothing noticed in the treadmill. You can look under the water and watch the feet and gait. Perfect the whole time. She even increased the speed the last 2 minutes. I also had her watch the video. Once I slowed the video down you could then see that the dog was not bunny hopping at all. It was just hard to see when she is running and stuff. She thought Miley looked great. Had great extension and she didnt feel this was a dog having
pain. She feels that there is just a little laxity in her knee that may sometimes cause a funny feeling in her leg. Like something is off. She also told me Miley could have a sensitive spot on her foot. And next time check her foot and see if anything is on it. Make note of what surface we are on and what we were doing then and before that. Which I feel like I have been doing. Have a note book that I keep Miley's daily activities , exercises and symptoms in. I have been charting it since Feb. 21st. I told the vet that it has now been 6 weeks since this started , should I be worried. She said not at all. It can take months to build the knee up to what we need. Also she told me to do a little agility but nothing repetitive. I think she is a good vet. She did her rehab training at the University of Tenn. and so did her tech. She has a regular vet practice too. And she works at the spay and neuter clinic. She always ask me how Miley did after the last treatment. Watches her in the treadmill, carefully watching her legs and feet and gait. But lets be real. Its a dog and they cant talk. So some of it is a guessing game and see what works. I'm not sure about the agility. We will see how the next few days go.

Next I bought the DVD, Running a-frames by Racheal Sanders. I had originally taught Miley a running a-frame with this method and gave up. Now that there is a DVD, which I felt was a good price , I realize a bunch of mistakes I made. Some of them were not making sure she made the correct number of strides into the box. My jumps were to high. I wasn't far enough away from the box to make sure she understood the box cue. And other things. Good thing I had those videos I made of training to go back and watch and see what I did wrong. Plus she states you are going to have failures in the ring when you first start and you need to expect this. You know what my problem is? I'm impatient and then change what I'm doing. I need to give things time. Oh, you mean like rehab? LoL

More Rehab

This video was from Friday appt., second time on the treadmill. They put a leash on her because in the morning , she was riding the treadmill to the back and stood where it wasn't moving. Sneaky huh? She did really well on Friday. Friday night at home she seem very good. I didn't seen any leg problems. Saturday I cancelled my appointment. Where were suppose to get severe weather and I didn't want to be driving in it. But we just got lots and lots of rain. It stopped for a short while and I took the dogs for a walk. I really didn't see anything specifically wrong with her gait. Just this little hop, but not with her feet it was more in her hip. It was so slight, I kept saying to my husband, "Did you see that?". "No"
I think I'm making myself crazy. I did decrease the Rimadyl to once a day on Saturday. On Sunday no walks. Its been raining a lot.

We are suppose to get snow. They are saying between 1-5 inches. So guess what? They closed school already. Its been raining all day. What if they are wrong? And I cant believe it but this school system has no emergency days built into the calender. So the last snow day they called off , I have to make up on my own time. Stay late and make up the time or take a personal day. I don't have a personal day for this type of thing. My personal days are for agility , dog or kid stuff. An now they have called school already and I will have to make up this day too. I get seven personal days for the year and they think I should use two for this. They better hope it snows!!

Has anyone used or know someone who has used Cartrophen for knee injuries?

Im so excieted!

There is a new, new to Columbia that is, rehab vet in Columbia. Its only about 10 minutes from my house. Today is the first day she is open. She just called me and I will see her Monday at 4:30. She has an underwater treadmill and a heated pool. Plus a room for therapy with physio balls and caviletties. WooHoo!! Driving all this way has been killing me. Yesterday I drove up dropped her off and drove home. Then a couple of hours later went back up to get her. Today I just stayed because the time in between sessions was only 4 hours. I'm waiting right now at a Books-a-million. Luckily people have posted on their blogs so I have something to read.
Yesterday Miley did really well in the treadmill. They kept the water level the same but increased the speed of the treadmill. When we got home she seemed sore or maybe her muscles were really tired. I didn't see any limping, rolling of the hips or skipping. She just seem tired. I did notice that going up the steps , she 2 footed them and stead of alternating her back feet like she usually does. I told them this morning that I thought she was either tired or sore. So they weren't going to change anything in the treadmill except letting her stand in the warm water longer after the session. The love Miley. Yesterday when I picked her up, the girl at the front desk said, "Your Miley's owner. I looooooove her". Miley is being loved on there which isn't her favorite thing. I'm sure she is thinking, " You want to do something for me? Throw the damn ball."

Miley's first day of rehab

Today was Miley's first day in the underwater treadmill. She had two sessions today. They were about 4 hours apart. I think she did 12 minutes the first time . With a break every few minutes. Then the second time it was about 15 minutes with one break in the middle. I asked the view the second time. I think I was to distracting. She kept trying to jump on the glass or would stop and just ride the treadmill to the back. So probably the rest of the week, until Saturday, I wont watch. She didn't show any signs off loading weight in the treadmill, so that was good. A lot of times when the dog's leg is hurt and they are in the underwater treadmill you can see them off load their weight. Sometimes to the point that their leg will float up. Miley didn't show any signs of that , so that is great.

It was a long day for me too. I'm exhausted. I know, really what did I do that was so hard. I don't know but it almost killed me. Really , I think it was all the driving. I did go to the outlet mall and they had lots of great stuff that I cant find in Columbia. I could have spent a lot of money. I kept having to remind myself about the money I'm spending on Rehab. I did buy a book to read. My husband needed some jeans and I bought a light jacket for Stephanie. O'yea, I also bought and ate a Carmel apple with nuts on it. Not as good as the ones I get with my sister in Florida, but it was still good.

Rehab vet appt.

Yesterday I took Miley to see a rehab vet up in Charlotte just to make sure the bar dropping isn't an injury. It was ruff because Miley had been in her crate all day. I came home and had about 15 min. to let her play and go the bathroom before putting her in the car. She was not happy. We got to our appt at about 5:30. There was a Shar-Pei dog in the waiting room. He just kept barking, growling and lunging at Miley. Miley was terrified. After about 2 minutes of this ( it felt like forever), I asked if we could go stand in the hallway. The hallway separates the waiting room and exam rooms. There is a solid door , so that dog couldn't see us. The mean dog stopped barking right when we left. I didn't need Miley to think this was a terrifying situation. We saw the vet, who I really like. She watched Miley trot up and down the hall. She then examined her and went through all her joints and muscles. Then watch her walk around some more. Then she wanted to see Miley sit. Usually Miley doesn't have a problem doing this. But last night she would sit for a split second, then down and then sit up. I had treats and I guess she was just trying to give me all her tricks to try and get the treat. It was funny. I finally got her to sit nice 3 different times. The vet said she didnt see or feel anything that would give her any indication that Miley was injured. She did say there is an injury the toy dogs get that could be possible but she didnt think Miley was showing any signs. A small dog can fall and hit their hip. The trauma causes the blood flow to stop to the ball of the femur bone. Then the ball starts to die because its not getting any blood. If you took an x-ray right when the dog got injured you wouldn't see anything. But in a couple of months the dying head of the femur would show up on x-ray. Its called leg-Perthe's disease. But she really didnt think Miley showed any pain. But its something to keep in the back of my mind.So if in another month I thought she was still having trouble we could do an x-ray. Then it was time to go home. I think I paid more for gas to get there than I did for the appt. We got back home around 8:30 at night. It was a long day for both of us.