2023 Not Off to a Great Start

2023 has not started off with a bang, I’m blaming Mercury in retrograde. And, well, it DID start off with a bang as my power went out New Year’s Eve about 10pm – which meant I couldn’t drown out the fireworks for the dogs. Thank god it’s not too bad where we are, but Asher definitely noticed them this year, poor guy. Navarre, of course, was so upset – poor sensitive boy. And the power didn’t come back on for 12 hours, so that was my New Years.

While my winter break is not what I was expecting, I am feeling very rested at least as I’m not doing any of the things I was planning to do. I’ve read a LOT of books! Still, working my dogs in classes turned out pretty fun, it really helps that I just have a few classes a day. I may just stick with keeping a dog in classes to make sure I actually work them during the week. Bryn is in a group class with international skill stations, so multiple dogs working at once – and sometimes coming over to her. She’s totally solid with that environment now, focused and engaged and happy. Her skills also looked surprisingly good, Lil’ Miss Can’t Send to a Wrap appears to have moved on (might have been a hormonal thing). So this will make sure we actually practice the things we should be practicing, and a fun group of dogs around her same age.

Asher … good lord. He’s doing international sequencing, and I figured we could just break it down – but we had to move down to 12 inches he was jumping like such a spaz. And he COULD NOT wrap a jump without backjumping because he WOULD NOT COLLECT. I had to break out the stride regulators even after moving him down to 12 inches. Sigh. So lots of try, some skills, and a whole lot of ‘WTF?!’. But we are trying, we’ll see at the end of the month how I’m feeling about Asher and anything complicated jumping-wise. I honestly just don’t know if it’s okay for me to ask him to do more complicated courses, he simply might not be able to. He’s almost four, it’s time to be realistic. He was definitely a good demo dog in the jumping class about what it should NOT look like. Sigh.

I do think 4 years old is one of those landmark ages, and not one of the warm and fuzzy ones – 4 years old is an age of reality. Because at 4 what you see is what you get, and often those things that you thought they’d grow out of, or train through … well, you see that’s just not going to happen. Four is an age coming to terms with who your dog is, who is often not quite what you were hoping for. And I say that with all the love in the world – but with honesty. The good news, while 4 years old is facing reality, right around the corner is that magic age when things just become so comfortable and easy. Where you’ve worked through your big issues and that relationship and trust just gels because you know your strengths and weaknesses. Yes, right around the corner … but right now, there is some reality and seeing that the issues Asher has will probably always be there.

I think we will continue to improve, but I don’t think he’ll ever be a good jumper, or be able to run together in an smooth, efficient way. International courses really might be above his paygrade, which I’ve always known. I don’t want to do anything that will hurt him. And seeing how BAD he was at very simple jumping exercises that we’ve DONE, that he really should be able to do at least with some semblance of competence … I think it may be time to face some reality for my big red goober. We shall see how the rest of this month goes.

Then Bryn, who is still very much in the 2 year old stage, where reality is not a thing yet, and I don’t have a grasp about what 4 year old Bryn will look like. We are facing another scary roadblock, and that is physical, and I’m trying REALLY hard to stay optimistic. Because this adorable girl needs to have the life she deserves. Boy have I thrown a lot of money at her and got some horrifying possibilities for her lameness. The good news, then pretty much ruled them out afterwards, including knee injury or lumbosacral disease. The bad news, or possible bad news: elbow dysplasia – which wasn’t even freaking anywhere on the radar, WTF? Now, apparently this is hard to diagnose and the vet who did the x-rays was not at all confident about it. They’re being sent off to OFA, and the rehab vet will see them next week. Basically the vet was, “I’m not sure, could just be a shadow.” Which I don’t know if she’s saying to make me feel better, give me false hope or just get me out of the building (she seemed supremely casual about it)? But Bryn has shown ZERO front end lameness or soreness whatsoever, and she’s now been examined in the last month by Maddy, two different sports rehab vets, and a chiropractic vet. So, yeah, something NEW to worry about it, how fun!

As for Bryn, she actually looks great, moving normally, and we’ve even done some agility flatwork with no signs of backsliding (it’s been 5 weeks now since the original presentation). She is not 100%, there is some sort of soreness in her lower back that everyone has found (hence the worry about LS disease). We got x-rays of EVERYTHING, knees, spine, hips, shoulders all look good (just possible ELBOWS of all things!). The local rehab vet felt it was muscular, as she was definitely more tender on one side that the other. They put her under for x-rays and the vet said even then it was very hard to get her straight for the hip x-ray – she was VERY tight on one side. The goal with the x-ray was to rule out possible more complicated options (not get NEW problems …), but, knock on wood, we are going to try shockwave with her and laser/underwater treadmill along with strengthening exercises and lots of walks and things and hopefully get her back to 100%.

I’m just going to remain optimistic that she will be able to go back to enjoying doing everything she wants to do and will have a long sound career of doing all the dog things. Elbow dysplasia sounds tricky and complicated and surgery can make things worse and I just don’t want to deal with it. Still, better than fusing a spine! We will cross that bridge if we come to it, but I remain hopeful Bryn will be back in action by February, that it was just a shadow on the xray and we can move on from this. Fingers crossed, we all miss her desperately – and she wants to do all the things! And she’s getting fat (for Bryn!) 😉

So maybe the only agility dog I’ll have is Haru, who is looking quite adorable offering jumps at this point – he’s so fricken cute! He really has developed into quite the problem solver, and his little tail flicks in concentration – or perhaps annoyance that he has to work for his treats, I’m not sure. My current project is that I’ve decided I need to start crate training the cats to eat. I ended up taking away the automatic feeder, as Haru was turning into a basketball and now Dragon looks thin … so that’s my next project. Haru, Fizban and Marvin are all totally on board with the crate training (I ended up just using the dogs’ crates), but Dragon won’t have anything to do with it. That’s okay, as long as the other three can be contained, Dragon can eat wherever he wants. Marvin may be getting a little more chill about the kitten. There is stills lots of hissing and growling and carrying on, but it’s a little LESS dramatic than it was. Poor little simple creature, hopefully he figures it out. I think Marvin would love being an only kitty, but we’ll make do, I still think he’s having a pretty good life. Fizban is turning 10 next month – so crazy! Fingers crossed he stay healthy.

Then our sheep, who because of Bryn I have not gone to work at all, are trying to kill themselves. So coordinating vet care from afar is really fun – and I’ve now wormed sheep! We still don’t know if the one is going to make it, vet doesn’t know what’s wrong with him, but did find some sketchy parasites. Fun times! 2023 … it’s been a lot, and we’re barely into it. And the crazy nasty winter weather, ugh – more pouring down rain and 40mph east gusts. Ugh. At least it’s been warmer, but it is a muddy, nasty mess out there.

So, yeah 2023 – kind of hard to be thinking of happy sparkly goals at the moment. I know last year I said I was going to finish Navarre’s MACH – ha! I kind of hesitate to assume we’ll do it this year, but it may be his last year at 20 inches (he’ll be 8 this spring!). It’s not high on my priority, I’ll admit. So, yeah, and he’s been pretty clear he doesn’t want to do herding with me, doesn’t want to do obedience, so, hey. He is the best dog for chilling out around the house though, so that’s good. Love my big snugglepants.

Asher I don’t have any agility goals with really, if it turns out that he just physically shouldn’t be doing a lot of backsides, that takes out any more interesting agility out there. AKC is hard for him with the spacing, but he can still do that, so I’m sure we’ll do some this year. We are at the point that if he still can’t do it at this point, no need to try to beat a dead horse for things like collection and jumping which we’ve worked on A LOT. So if it seems like he really can’t do more complicated coursework, that really limits what we can do in agility. We have an international coursework seminar in February with Kirstin Oneill, and a jumping workshop with Fanny Gott in March – I think it will show us where we’re at. I do want to try some herding trials with him again, I need to get some on the calendar so I have some incentive to actually work on things. The big challenge there is if he can move the sheep, it’s another thing that (much like the jumping in agility) might really limit what he can do. There are things you can train, but that is not one of them – but I can try to keep his self esteem up. I am not a traveler, so a lot of herding just isn’t going to be on my radar, but it would be nice if he could do some local trials. We shall see. If they have any arena trials locally, that’s another option.

Then Asher has obedience, which he’s enjoying more and more – I think realistically that might be where we could set some goals this year – at least a debut? He’s much better with all this novice skills these days, but still needs a lot more precision, work on those fronts and finishes, definitely the figure eight – and are you ever done with heeling precision? Maybe start training some of the higher level stuff too. For Open he has a retrieve, position changes, drop on recall – doesn’t have a broad jump though (ha, imagine that – jumping!). For utility he has done scent discrimination, he’s retrieved gloves, he has signals, stand out of motion, would need a go-out – well, he’d need things. He’s a good boy, and tries very hard in everything he does.

With Bryn, well, let’s assume she’s going to be fine, recovers quickly from her injury (already looks great to me!) and doesn’t have elbow dysplasia. Because otherwise that’s what she’ll be doing in 2023, which is much less fun. Bryn is the great adorable hope at the moment, at least for agility. I had such high hopes of trying to get her past a lot of that flankiness in agility this winter. Alas, but I remain optimistic we’ll actually make some progress this year … assuming she can. Want to get those contacts in new places, and with more difficult exits, work those international skills and hopefully have an adorable little agility dog that can do all the things. Also hoping to get her started in herding this year, before we had to stop she was looking great. Need to work on driving farther, getting her on whistles, introducing things like penning and shedding – so many things! If she DOES have ED, herding will probably be her thing, so I’m glad she’s good at it and she really likes it!

Haku is slowing down, getting more cognitive issues, incontinence … he’s getting old and it breaks my heart. He got lost on the property the other day and I found him across the street looking very confused. The hard part is he does NOT stick with me on our walks any more, so I have to continually go find him. So his days of getting to wander the property are limited, I think. He’s still Haku, he still loves to play, loves to bark, run around with the other dogs in the arena. Hard for him to get on the couch, can’t really sit, pooping is a challenge … he’s getting old and I don’t know if he’s going to make it past 2023. He’ll be 14 in July. Still sleeps right next to me on the bed, every night – my wonderful Haku, I love him so much.