Title Updates for the boys

Jake has earned his superior gamblers title (S-EGC).
He now needs only 60 standard-leg points for his O-NATCH! We'd be getting there faster if he wasn't popping dogwalks left and right.

I finally went thru the ASCA certificates and figured out where both dogs are now--

Rem is RS-E,GS-E,JS-E
Jake is also RS-E,GS-E,JS-E

Tika's Second Competition

Backfill: 11/10/02 Wow, she hauls butt! We didn't do as well at Turlock as we did at West Valley--she did one of the things I had expected before, which is to go past a couple or 3 jumps and one tunnel. On the other hand, I *know* I got cocky & didn't handle every obstacle as carefully as I did down in L.A. I didn't turn her around to go back & take the ones she missed--no point, I'd rather have her learn to run & have fun--so she probably might have been a second or so slower to go thru instead of past a tunnel & over instead of past a couple of jumps.

BUT she was almost 2 secs faster than the fastest Level 1 or 2 dog on that course--and her rate was 5.75 yps! Holy cow. Yikes.

I guess this is why I want a dog with this much energy and drive. MAN, that's fun.

Remington's Tests OK--Mostly

Took Rem back to the vet's today for a follow-up. He's been feeling & acting fine. His weight was down somewhere between 2.5 and 5 lbs from 2 weeks ago (depending on which scale they used--smaller amount was on the same scale he was weighed on then), though, which is a little odd, as he's been less active but eating the same amount of stuff--I think. Just occurs to me, maybe because I'm not doing as much with him, he's not getting as much Rollover? But, still, that's a LOT of weight in a very short period of time. He didn't have that much diarrhea or for all that long, and that was 2 weeks ago. So I'm teaching him to stand on the bathroom scales & am upping his food 10% for a couple of weeks to see what happens.

His blood test came back with everything back in the normal range except one liver test, which is slightly more moderately elevated than before. But the corresponding double-check test is completely normal. I dunno.

Remington Feels Great

Well, Remington is bored out of his head. Showed that by emptying the bag of Pacific Cookie Factory cookies that John Olsen so kindly brought me from Santa Cruz and which were stashed in the middle of the dining table while we were at WorldCon. He's definitely going to class tonight. Still has half-diarrhea, though. Will take him in Monday for a repeat blood test. Meanwhile, he's excited and eager to be doing stuff. Doesn't look tired or sick at all.

Remington's Mystery Illness

Backfill: 11/10/02 Remington is acting fine this week--totally bored--but I have to take him back in for another blood test. His red blood cell count was low (30, when normal is 40-60, I think), so he's anemic--but we don't know why. With a count that low, vet says that he can very easily exhaust himself 'cause he won't get enough oxygen through his system, but it's not dangerously low (that would be 20...).

Thing is, he also had pretty enthusiastic diarrhea & loss of appetite along with it for a few days, which is *not* a result of anemia, so we might have more than one problem or we might have multiple symptoms of something not diagnosed yet.

But I am bringing him to class tonight, since he wants DESPERATELY to do something! Bored dogs are a real challenge--