Ramping Up

Haku had his vet appointment today at the vet clinic my rehab vet also works at, and she got me a very good deal on basically full body x-rays. The good news, no sign of osteosarcoma and really, other than his wrists, pretty much normal arthritic progression for an almost 10 year old border collie without a middle gear. There was nothing that stood out in terms of causing the ongoing lameness issue. Spine looked great, hips looked great – so he has that going for him. We could scope his shoulders for more information – but as I am not likely to put him through any sort of surgery if we found anything, really not a lot of point.

So really the question has been through this process, is there an injury that we can fix, or are we working on making him more comfortable with an aging body? At this point, signs are pointing to just doing our best to make him as comfortable as possible so he can do the things he loves. Keeping inflammation down while increasing his flexibility, mobility and strength. Looking at using NSAIDs for when he has days of heavy activity and supplements and treatments to help him stay active and comfortable.

I’m okay with this, assuming we can keep him functional to do things he would like to do without too much wear and tear. It’s not unexpected with his physical limitations as he ages, but I wouldn’t have felt comfortable returning to activity without exploring all possible explanations for his lameness. Rest has not really helped him much, so returning to activity will make him very happy.

Maddy worked on him today at the arena while I was teaching. Apparently when I’m not around he’s MUCH more relaxed – ha! She said he felt better, still some trigger points in his shoulders and back. We have two more laser appointments this week and then the plan is to start slowly returning to activity. We’ll keep up with his stretching and rehab exercises, and keeping his wrists as limber as possible. Hopefully we are ready to start looking at coming back to real life, you can’t keep Haku down for long.

It’s official, I entered Navarre in THREE days of his first obedience trial. Because it’s so close to my house I figured I might as well. I’d also like to think he could pull off finishing his novice title in one weekend. He CAN do the things, whether he will … that’s another question. We have not been practicing, and we really need to work on the long sit/down. I’m not entirely sure of the rules in novice at this point – hey, I’ve got a month or so to figure it out.

While Navarre SHOULD be more precise than Haku in obedience, he’s also way more outwardly focused, so I’m not expecting grand things. But we’ve trained it, I feel like we should give it a go and that show is a lovely trial, 10 minutes from my house and on his birthday weekend! Though I’m sure he’d prefer to do herding instead. Our goal this month is to work on polishing up his skills, he has always been weak on his fast in heeling where he acts like a total spaz. Also work on straighter fronts, we’ve only been working about drive into position on recalls recently, and the stays (so he won’t sit-pretty while we wait). Need to actually practice on leash, which we never do. But, yeah, as ready as we’ll ever be, I imagine.

We finally worked on Navarre’s whistles on sheep. It went … about as well as expected. But by the end he was responding as much as he does to my voice … which is not nearly what I would like. To be fair, we were working with the non-dog broke sheep so they were just running everywhere. I was trying to be consistent, trying to move when he didn’t respond, but I felt like we were arguing just as much as always. I do think Navarre thinks ‘hey!’ just means ‘lie down’ at this point.

Anyway, a very baby start where it’s rather hilarious how I couldn’t even get my stop whistle to be consistent in sound. I can do it in practice! Not so much when I really need it. Navarre seems to be forgiving with my ever changing pitch – I think when he didn’t respond he just didn’t want to respond rather than not understanding the whistle. He is less sure of my walk-up whistle, but got it a lot of the time. I sent with my flank whistles a little, mostly just for me to practice. I just cannot get the hang of his away, which is high to low, while low to high I have no problem with. I can’t explain that. You have to start somewhere, we’ll keep working on it.

Having Navarre on these very exciting sheep running willy-nilly everywhere, I was more focusing on getting whistles than actually moving sheep – I can’t help be recognize that Navarre has come a LONG way. Once again, Navarre’s Winter of Herding has made a huge difference. Today I am cautiously optimistic that once I can actually get him to respond the FIRST time that maybe we can do this thing.

Meanwhile, all over facebook were people at regionals and agility trials over the weekend and I do very much miss it. I think we need to start entering some trials again. Bright very much agrees. I’d like to get Haku squared away first though, then maybe I’ll look at what’s happening in April. So far we actually have a fairly exciting April already, our herding clinic vacation weekend, Haku SHOULD be going up to an AKC herding trial with Carol in Washington, and Navarre’s obedience debut. Oh, and PUPPIES! Dove told me she’s most definitely pregnant, the ultrasound is on Wednesday. I am optimistic I’ll be able to resist getting a puppy this time around, but I am still very much looking forward to meeting Navarre’s nieces and nephews!

I’m a very bad pet owner, I still can’t seem to find Marvin’s papers that he came with – I honestly don’t know his birthday. I know that folder is around here SOMEWHERE, so that will be an exciting day when I find it all. Still, his first birthday was last year, like in November maybe? He’s such a ridiculously cute little thing, he just makes me smile. He never quite recovered from his rabies vaccination, his personality completely changed after that. But he’s not quite as, uh, autistic as he was for months after. He’s been a wonderful addition to the household, though I’ll admit I still miss the cat he was before the shot. Never had anything like that happen before, really freaks me out. I had bad luck with vaccination reactions last year, that’s for sure.

He’s a fun, sweet and adorable little fluffball and I adore him to pieces. I’m full up for cats for many years (hopefully they all live into their 20s!), but I would certainly consider another ragdoll when I am in the position of looking in the future. And, knock on wood, all three long haired cats have needed very minimal grooming. They need brushing when they shed twice a year, otherwise they are good to go. Though, to be fair, they leave giant clumps of fur everywhere. Thank god for my robo-vacuum, I can’t tell you how much I love that thing – how did I ever live without one before? I get so annoyed when I come home and my house isn’t freshly vacuumed. How quickly we are spoiled …