Broken

Well, it’s official, Haku is broken. Our week long rest actually seemed to make things worse rather than better. It’s not like he’s three legged or anything, but it’s now been three weeks and there has been no improvement at all. I’m a big fan of waiting to see if it gets better on its own – but it’s now official, he’s broken. So we’re off to either, a) Fix him or, b) Figure out if this is just an effect of age. It’s possible it may just be arthritis.

We went down to a rehab place in Salem I haven’t been before, who gets big points for actually being able to get us in without having to wait months for an appointment. I liked the folks there, as did Haku, they were very good with him. He got a thorough once over and, as always, they were amazed at the complete lack of flexion in his wrists. Which, once again, is probably the source of the problem. Basically he does have quite a bit of arthritis going on his wrists, which means he’s compensating with his shoulders, which means he’s THEN compensating with his rear as well. So basically three out of four legs were sore, which is not a good ratio.

The good news, they didn’t find anything seriously wrong, any more than what has been an ongoing issue throughout his life. It’s just finding a way to help make him more comfortable and solve the inflammation he has going on at the moment.

• So, first, he’s now on adequan shots – which I now remember I did actually do with London when he got older as well. I was never actually able to tell if they did anything though. From asking around, a lot of folks find that to be one of the best things you do with an older dog.

• Second, he’s on rest for a month – no pouncing, running or jumping in any way (which is really the only way he ever MOVES, unfortunately). However, he CAN come for hikes and walks on leash, so at least that’s something. The hard part, I have to put up all the toys around here so he can’t obsessively pounce at them.

• Third, laser twice a week for a month – we’ve had good luck with that and his wrists and shoulders in the past.

• Fourth, water treadmill, which we did today and he did NOT like. We’ve done it in the past, but he’ll need to be retrained

• Fifth, Maddy is going to come work on him – they don’t do body work at the rehab place. If we get a chance, we’ll see about getting in for chiro work if we can as well

• Sixth, we have added many supplements to his diet, which may or may not make a difference. Currently he’s on Synovi4, CBD oil and 1-TDC. The rehab vet recommended adding elk antler velvet, which is one I’d never heard of. She also said she had seen surprisingly good results with feeding Purina vet joint formula, which I think may try with all the crazy DCM stuff that is going around anyway (my dogs haven’t been grain free diets for years, but it’s still concerning)

• Seventh, we have his Back on Track coat and wrist wraps, and I’ll see if I want to try another woo-woo thing the rehab vet said people and dogs have had good results with, the Assisi Loop: https://assisianimalhealth.com/technology/ It’s really expensive, but then, so is all the rest of this.

So I feel like I know what is going on, I have a plan of attack to do everything I can to make him better/more comfortable. I know there is no ‘cure’ for his poor structure, it will continue to be an issue for the rest of his life. The goal is to make him as comfortable as possible and to try to make sure he can stay active as long as he can. The vet most definitely doesn’t want him to do less, unless it was things like agility or anything with jumping, but felt herding was a really good choice for his issues. Right now, sacrificing a month to get him back in action seems like a very mild trade off. However, he really is the worst dog to have on restriction, so we’re going to try our best to make this month off count and do everything we can to get him back on his feet.

I did enter Haku in a herding clinic in April, I REALLY want to work with him and not Navarre! Navarre is VERY READY to take over though. The backup dog is having his moment in the spotlight. Hopefully temporarily.

I did let Haku do some shedding practice this week, with the assumption that it would be lower impact and it was his last hurrah for a while. It did not end up being super low impact, as we, uh, are not very good at it. We were attempting to move sheep laterally through a path of cones and string out the group. We certainly did lots of unintentional shedding, I seem to be a natural at getting sheep going everywhere. That wasn’t actually the point of the exercise though, so I don’t think it counts. It was fun though, and Haku was SO HAPPY. And not at all off when he’s in action. Just when we’d gotten our groove down, so bummed to have to stop working with him. Alas. I’m hopeful that he’ll get to return though.

As for Navarre, it’s been all about him with herding this week – and I swear I think he knew his time had come. Right from the start it was obvious he was in full Pushy Navarre Mode. Ian could not get Navarre to lie down without his butt in the air, Navarre was just go-go-go. Ian introduced him to whistles and some shedding. Navarre most definitely does NOT have square flanks, nor was he at all interested in staying in a down when requested – so shedding intro did not go super well.

Then it was my turn, as without a Haku, it’s time for me to actually work with Navarre for real. This was the first time I had worked with Navarre with the mindset that we needed to actually be able to do this. It didn’t really help necessarily, but it was a different feel. When I assumed I’d have another year to focus on Haku, I wasn’t really ‘trying’ to do well with Navarre – he was someone else’s problem. So at least until Haku is better, Navarre is now my problem. Which, once again, made no real difference in the outcome. OMG, SO PUSHY.  I just felt like I was correcting everything he did because everything he did was scattering sheep because he was too damn close and too damn fast. And forget lying down, I only got a bow if I were lucky when I asked the third time.

Still, the funny part is that he CAN do so much more than he used to. He’s got outruns and inside flanks and driving and all sorts of things I never thought he could do. Yet, still somehow just as obnoxious as always. So we’re definitely not a team, and he very much thinks I don’t know what I’m doing. Ian seems to find his cocky self esteem on sheep endearing – me, not so much.

So the issues were pretty much the same, Ian is like, “You have to fix these things before they turn into a train wreck, your timing is really late.” And I’m like, “I KNOW it’s going wrong way before it does, but that doesn’t help when he’s not fucking listening!” We will get better, I’m sure. And now that Navarre’s filling in, maybe I will get better at handling – as you don’t have time to be uncertain or slow with Navarre, you’d better be correct and quick or it’s sheep everywhere.

We also had a lesson with Dave this week, we weren’t sure if Navarre was up for the full lesson, as he’s never done that before. Gave him to Dave first, as I was pretty darn sure with the ridiculousness from our last practice that he was going to need some serious reminders on backing off. And, oh, did he ever. But the good news, he did finally settle down and they went out into the big field and did some nice work. Navarre is surprisingly tentative about more long distance driving there than at Ian’s, for whatever reason.

After being reminded that herding was a team sport, it was my turn with Navarre again – and I really did not want to yell and get frustrated. My questions were about what I need to do when he doesn’t listen and things go badly, as I know they most definitely will. However, Navarre actually has some nice skills on sheep these days, helpfully trained by people far more experienced than me. For me, attempting to handle him it’s not about teaching Navarre what to do, it’s getting him to actually respond when I ask so we don’t devolve into a giant argument.

With that in mind, my second attempt to ACTUALLY run Navarre went much better. There was still lots of taking the sheep from Navarre, but I felt more like we were out there together. Somewhat. So much better than our previous attempt, I’m much more optimistic that we’ll eventually get our shit together. This time at least, we could do some things.

So my current goal is to get Navarre ready to go to the herding clinic if Haku isn’t going to be able to (and even if he is, it would be nice to be able to split the time, Haku isn’t young!). I’m still going to split lessons with both Ian and Dave where they will still work with Navarre, and then I will afterwards. Of everything I’ve done in herding, I’ve found watching someone else work my dogs is the most helpful way for me to learn. And that way Navarre actually gets to learn something, as opposed to with me, I’m just trying to learn to handle Navarre, not teach him a damn thing. So far, Navarre very much approves of this plan and is having no problem at all stepping up for more. He really, really, really likes sheep. A ridiculous amount.

I’ve also been continuing to work on replicating whistles at home, I’m feeling better about mine after getting some clarification from Ian. I may be able to do these. At least, an approximation. I do definitely like the brass whistle best. I introduced Navarre to his stop whistle this week, he caught on quickly like Haku did. When it’s the FIRST whistle, that is the easiest, that’s for sure. I’ve tried adding another with Haku, but when he hears any whistle he just lies down, no matter what the sound – hard to train more with the whistles off of sheep. Anne made me a fancy lanyard for my whistle, so now I feel very official and will stop losing it … hopefully. May be a good idea to get a stock stick with Navarre – I don’t usually use one, but with Navarre … well, yeah, I need EMPHASIS a lot.

Randomly, as I have been keeping track, with our Winter of Herding we have now been on sheep 35 times in the last two months. In March we will change to the Spring of Herding, which won’t have nearly as much sheep action.

As for agility, I actually ran other people’s dogs a lot more than my own this week, which is fun. Every dog is so different! Dogs just love agility, it makes me happy. And Navarre got to run with his good friend Robert in class, who really RUNS and makes Navarre so very happy.

Worked a little on Navarre with obedience, his recall is so much better than it used to be! In practice, anyway, we’ll see how he does at the match this weekend. He was forging a lot in heeling, we haven’t been practicing. I am feeling optimistic that the run throughs will go well, despite the fact that we haven’t practiced any of the Open exercises as well. April is right around the corner.

Especially with the unexpected Haku Rehab Expenses, we will not be doing any agility trialing for a while – but we’ll still get lots of agility in.