Looking Back -- Moving Tika to Performance

SUMMARY: The emotions are still so fresh.

I just read Nancy Gyse's latest blog post,  Endings and Beginnings.  It took me back to the summer of 2009.  Just wanted to capture my response here.

I went through the Performance-or-Championship decision with Tika when she was only 8–still running fast, still making jumps, no Early Take-Off (ETO), but was coming up sore more and more often during or right after a trial (not always–but enough to finally decide that it wasn’t just a random tweak, so went to the vet). Xrays confirmed that she had arthritis in her neck and lower back.

 I do watch my title counts, and I know that it would be better to not do so, but she seemed to love being out there with me and running and jumping like crazy and I LOVED watching her do the courses. I cried because, you know, “all my friends have their platinum ADCHs” and moving to Perf meant that I’d never ever get that on any other dog, because she was so good.

That was a personal thing, so true…but it also hurt because I was sure that this would just be temporary–if she had arthritis, she’d soon be done with agility completely, and I SO wasn’t ready for that.

She was only a few Qs away from silver, or had finished, in all the classes, so I moved her to Perf in each as she finished them.

The surprise benefit to me, then, was that, at that time, I stopped thinking so much about titles because I thought that she’d be completely done in only a few months. The surprise benefit to her was that she started running like a young dog again, didn’t get sore, and started pulling in Qs and ribbons against some pretty tough competition!

In fact, my other surprise benefit was that we blasted through all of the performance titles and were less than 20 Qs away from that coveted platinum when heart disease sidelined her suddenly at 11. I’d never dreamed she’d like that difference in height so much or that she’d be able to compete that long comfortably, as big as she was.

(So, even when I started caring about titles again, it was almost all pure fun because her Q rate became so high.)

I don’t really have much of a point, except that, yes indeed, I understand the feeling about it being a physical milestone that one doesn’t want to see because it means essentially that the dog is moving on towards being an old dog.

Oh, What Is the Matter With Poor Tika-tik?

SUMMARY: summarytext

POOR PUGGY-WUG

Oh, what is the matter with poor Puggy-wug

Pet him and kiss him and give him a hug.

Run and fetch him a suitable drug,

Wrap him up tenderly all in a rug,

That is the way to cure Puggy-wug. 

- Winston Churchill, about his daughter's ill Pug

I'm a little concerned about Tika.

She was fine all day Friday. All day Saturday. All day Sunday.

This morning, she didn't want to get up. We went to bed at 9 last night and she wouldn't come downstairs until 10:30 when I offered breakfast.  Didn't want to ferociously shake her doggie blanket while I dressed. Tucked tail (what there is of it) and went further into the house when I invited her out to the yard. Doing an awful lot of the sort of cough-gag smack smack smack with mouth and tongue like she's trying to clear an uncomfortable taste from her mouth. She's been doing that off and on for a while now, but a lot more today.

She did come out to the yard in the middle of the day while I was having a fun loud game of fetch and agility with Boost, looking halfway perky, and chased the toy about half of her normal speed a couple of times, but didn't actually pick it up or want to play with it. Then went back into the house.

No whining this time, no obvious soreness. She's just been lying there all day except when food has been involved, when she gladly gets up to participate, then goes right back to lying there doing nothing.

I do know that she has a bit of a heart murmur. Last visit, doctor said to let him know if she started doing any coughing. I told him about that cough-gag thing and he seemed unconcerned, but now I wonder.  And, of course, after my experience with Remington's cancer, I wonder about something like that, too.

Maybe time for another vet visit (but she becomes so stressed unless she's on tranqs, either way not a good way to judge her condition) and maybe an ultrasound of her innards.  It's just--jeez--$640 in vet bills and meds in the last 2 months already. Sure, that pales compared to what I spent fighting remington's cancer, but still.

I've been petting her and kissing her and giving her a hug (all of which she seems to like quite well, thank you), and she's been getting a suitable drug (I hope so, anyway--rimadyl through the weekend), and it's too warm to wrap her up tenderly all in a rug.

Doesn't feel hot to me; gums look fine.

Hmm, well, there was just a loud noise in the distance and she charged out into the yard and is now making warning whorfing sounds.  ...Oh, back inside and on her bed.

Will see how she's feeling in the morning and how I'm feeling about how she's feeling. But it still remains--I'm a little concerned about poor Tika-tik.

Transient failures

SUMMARY: Pondering the frustrations and annoyances.

You know about transient failures, right? A brief malfunction that happens at unpredictable intervals. Like when you can't post a comment on Facebook, and then, moments later, you can.

So.

Remember back on September 16/17, when, after showing no signs or issues, Tika became suddenly so much in pain that she could barely stand? And then, after 26 hours, abruptly with no apparent cause, she turned right back into her usual bouncy, running, cheerful self?

Yesterday morning, we were out in the yard. I threw the toy for the dogs a couple of times, then left them to their own devices while I wandered around picking up a day's worth of dog poo. Suddenly behind me, a sharp, high-pitched yelp! When I turned around, Tika was on three legs and beating it for the house (she always goes inside when she's in pain, and sometimes even up to my bed).

I looked at and felt her pads, her toes, her toenails, her whole front left leg, and got no reaction. But, every time she tried to stand, a little whimper and back on 3 legs.

Human Mom is cursing the luck--we have a USDAA trial this weekend that it's too late to ask for my money back from. And class Thursday night, to boot. But I'm not going to fall for the trick of taking her to the vet again, since the last time was an expensive way of learning nothing.

So. Fast forward a few hours, until about 2 hours before class, I walk into the front hall where the leashes live--and Tika appears with a huge bouncy sproing, then leaps several times straight up in the air with all four feet off the ground. (She LOVES going for walks.) And no hint of any kind of soreness.

I ran her tentatively in class, then full out, and she ran just fine, didn't look uncomfortable at all. She's still fine this morning.

Transient failures of Tika's body. Hope it doesn't happen again any time soon.

Last night, as on most nights recently, I herded Boost out the back yard before bedtime to try to get a little pee out of her so I wouldn't have to get up in the night. There are 5 steps down from my porch to the yard. I've gone down those steps a zillion times, day and night, light and dark. And the back light was on.

And yet, somehow, I hit the last step wrong just WALKING calmly down the steps. My ankle twisted under me and I hit the pavement hard. For about 30 seconds, I thought maybe I had broken my ankle, it hurt so bad. Thank goodness, the pain died away quickly and allowed me to concentrate on emitting profanity about my hand, knees, arm, and shoulder.

The short story is that I lived to tell the tale. I have skin scraped from one knee (apparently onto the inside of my jeans, which were unharmed in the making of this film). The other knee is bruised feels a bit twisted (dang, and it felt SO GOOD in class last night). The ankle is a bit sore, although only slightly puffy in one spot this morning. The wrist only hurts when I laugh--no, actually when I play tug with the dogs or try to open a prescription pill bottle or reach suddenly for the computer mouse or, like, bend it. My back and shoulders just feel out of sorts in one way or another.

What happened to my brain/feet/instincts last night? Dunno. Transient failure. Hope it doesn't transiently fail again.

... because we're off to try to pick up a few more of them thar Qs in Dixon. Glad that both Tika and I can still run.

USDAA This Weekend

SUMMARY: Out of town in Turlock

Welllll we'll see how the little bit of bar-knocking medicine I've given Boost lately helps at all. For the last month or so, I've been trying to stop her in class and in the yard every time she knocks a bar and give her a time out.

Opinions are mixed on whether this is a good idea. I've read some trainers who believe that this just stresses the dog out more. On the other hand, Boost's sister Tcam, who had a tendency to knock bars and got this same treatment I've been doing, just ran two clean runs at the World Championships and placed third in the Jumpers competition. Tcam never looks stressed out to me when we're in class--she is one happy, eager dog with a happy, eager handler.

In class last night, Boost knocked 4 or 5 bars (I'm supposed to be counting but I lost track). Not a good average. On the other hand, her last run of the evening was super duper.

Tika has been--I dunno, getting older? For the last 3 nights in a row, when she got to the stairs to go up to bed, she put one foot on the step, backed off, put it on again, hesitated--looked like she'd forgotten how to climb stairs. Or maybe something hurts when she does it, but she looks fine running in the yard and I've not seen her looking stiff....

Oh, wait, except last night in class when I tried to get her to stretch out against my chest, she wouldn't extend her front legs fully.

Oh, crap, I forgot about that. Well, too late now to find a chiropractor. Maybe it's time to dig out that How To Massage Your Dog video that I put a ticket in for in a worker raffle and won. She did look good running in class, so maybe we're OK.

My knee has felt good the last couple of weeks--I felt like I was really moving comfortably and quickly around the course last night. Hope it holds up.

Weather, thank goodness, is supposed to be mild this weekend, and although rain is coming, it's not supposed to arrive until Monday. Perfect!

I have no specific goals except to try to relax and enjoy whatever happens. The underlying goals are still, as always, to get Jumpers Qs and Snooker SuperQs with Boost, and just as many Qs as I can with Tika in the hopes of maybe being able to finish her Lifetime Achievement Platinum (500 Qs, and we need only 31 more). Not sure we're going to get there.

This weekend, out of 100 dogs competing, only three are older than Tika. But, well, they're still going, and Jake was still going at 15 (well, one run a day; and I've never known how accurate his age estimate was). So, we'll see. If we get there, that would be nice, but I think I'm done running all over the place weekend after weekend trying to get Qs.

So, here we go! Hope you all have a nice weekend doing whatever you're doing, too.

The Scary Vet Adventure

SUMMARY: In which we are all traumatized.

September was a rough vet month for all of us here at Taj MuttHall.

On Sept 16 and 17, Tika was suddenly in so much pain that she could barely stand up (as described here). We ended up at the vet for problem analysis.

Tika abhors going to the vet. So much so that, normally, I give her a tranquilizer an hour before we leave the house. Even so, she completely over-dramatizes the vet experience. For example, I pull into their parking lot, I pop out quickly, open the tailgate--and Tika is lying in her crate (instead of the usual "Let's go!" pushing to open the door), shaking. Quivering. How does she even know? Are the noises in that area so unique? I can't imagine that she smells much there--the windows aren't open. But who knows how--she knows.

I coax her out, and as we approach the door, she pulls on the leash away from there. In the waiting room, she paces and whines and will not settle, occasionally throwing herself at the door to get out. In the examination room, waiting for the vet to come in, she paces frantically in a clockwise circle around my chair, occasionally throwing herself at the door to get out. You know, those vets stick things where things should never be stuck.  She survives; she's actually very good through the exam, just panting heavily and tense and I have to hold her front end firmly.

I like my vet, but my wallet hates going to the vet, too. I can feel it quivering as we approach the front door.

Tika, as previously reported, decided just before we left for the vet that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her (which the vet confirmed), but I didn't give her a tranq this time because I wanted a better evaluation of her state. So, even for an evaluation that everything is OK, my wallet had things stuck where they should never be stuck--the credit card into the card reader.  $57 for the office visit. $55 for a refill on her Rimadyl for future painful episodes. And the standard $5 for "medical / toxic waste environmental fee". It's printed permanently on their invoices.

Meanwhile, Boost has had some potty issues. A week after and again two weeks after her prednisone stopped, but after she started hydroxyzine (all for her over-the-top scratching), she peed on my bed while lying there. The first time it was right after we went up to bed and she didn't want to go outside before that, while I brushed my teeth. Behavior? Illness? Medication?

So *she* went to the vet last Friday for an exam, and returned again this morning to give a urine sample. We arrived and I opened the tailgate--poor Tika is lying hunched in the back of her crate, quivering. Boost is not fond of the vet, either, but what a difference. The office door was ajar this morning, and she pushed it open to go inside. Her tail starts wagging--maybe it's an "I'm unhappy or worried" type of wagging, and she does tend to snuggle up to me a bit, but SO different from Tika! After the vet examines her, Boost gets off the table and lies down, completely relaxed. SOOOOOO different!

But my wallet still quivers: $57 for the office visit. $40 for "cystocentesis" ("a veterinary procedure where a needle is placed into the urinary bladder through the abdomen of an animal and a sample of urine is removed"), $54 for general urinalysis, $136 (!!) to culture the urine to check for a bladder infection.  And, of course, $5 for  "medical / toxic waste environmental fee".  Holy smackeroons.

Well, we will all soon recover from the trauma, I'm sure. Whoever thinks that owning a dog is cheap entertainment is in for a shock.

Old Dog, Sore Dog--Or Not

SUMMARY: Tika -- physical and mental challenges.

To make a short story long--

I'm a long way from catching up on writing down what I did during my two weeks of vacation, but one thing I did the last week was a lot of walking and hiking with the Merle Girls.

Sept 11 (Tuesday) we hiked up Coyote Peak at Santa Teresa Park--not from the base (1000 feet up) but starting about 1/3 of the way up--on leash. Tika did OK but seemed at times to be lagging, both uphill and downhill. Of course, so was I. The peak was wreathed in clouds when we started, but by the time we reached the peak, it was sufficiently warm to make us want to rouse up some shade somewhere. We did under 5 miles that day.

Wednesday the 12th and Thursday we just walked to the usual park for some frisbee (about 2 miles round trip on the level). Tika doesn't much play frisbee any more--she always liked sniffing and exploring, but now she really doesn't seem to want to run for the frisbee more than half a dozen times.  Boost is OK with that, but it makes me a little sad to see the dog of boundless energy now have bounds.

Friday afternoon the 14th I planned a nice long walk on the level along the Coyote Creek Trail, which is actually paved most of its length. We started in the very late afternoon; still warm, but the sun was sinking fast. I figured that we could get in 3 miles one way before the sun hit the horizon and then walk back the same route at dusk, but by 1.5 miles, Tika was dragging so much that we turned back and got in barely 3 miles.

And, of course, every morning and afternoon we play in the yard--tossing the toy, playing tug of war, maybe doing some weaves and jumps.  Which I did Sunday morning the 16th, then went off to see a movie and get some groceries.

When I came home, Tika didn't want to stand up.  When I tried to encourage her with a treat, she cried in pain every time she tried.  I gave her a Rimadyl  and left her alone for about 3 hours. She did, finally, stand up, but walked painfully and hunched and slowly down the stairs for dinner, which she ate enthusiastically.

But she wouldn't do a nose touch to my hand or anything else, not even sit, and then she went back upstairs to bed. (Funny that whenever she's not feeling well or in pain, she always goes upstairs to lie on my bed--which she has to jump up onto.)

Anyway, after another hour of her again being in crying pain whenever she tried to stand, I decided to take her to the Emergency Clinic. Because what dog worth their salt ever goes over the deep end during regular business hours when the regular vet is in the office? I *carried* her downstairs and set her down in the car, and she immediately lay down and looked miserable. (Usually seh loves looking to see what's going on.)

When we got to the Clinic and I opened the car door, she immediately stood up and wanted to get out and didn't want me lifting her. She pulled intensely on the leash, wanting to go explore (although still obviously hunched over). I walked her and Boost around outside, and since she could do that OK, so I decided NOT to go in to the Emergency Clinic and save myself a bundle.

Instead, I stopped at the local park and walked both dogs around on leash. Tika had a lovely poop and then her head and tail came up and she looked quite happy and normal. But, after we'd been home for a little while and she'd been lying down, it started all over again.

In the morning, same thing. I gave her another Rimadyl, but she didn't want to go outside or do anything. So I called the regular vet and made an appointment for 4:30 that afternoon. All day Tika looked miserable and yelped and cried whenever she tried to stand up--which she would do, but oh the poor suffering thing looked so miserable when she tried to walk!

It's about a half hour drive to the vet (there are closer ones, but I like this one), so I was keeping an eye on the clock about 3:45 while Boost and I were out in the yard playing, when suddenly WHO should come LEAPING through the doggie door, JUMPING down the steps, and BOUNDING across the yard, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ME WANT TUG! ME RUN RUN RUN!

Jeez, smack me with a spoon! Five minutes before, and for the previous 26 hours or so, she'd been in agony.

Anyhoo, we DID go to the vet and he couldn't find ANYTHING sore about her. He thinks it's probably the arthritis in her neck--he'd warned me before (and this has actually happened before) that if she tweaks her neck just the wrong way, it'll pinch a nerve and could be extremely painful.  So apparently she somehow UNtweaked her neck and everything was fine.

We decided on three days of rest and rimadyl to make sure that any inflammation had a chance to ease up.

On Friday (4 days after that), I decided to try another hikey walk. It was dinnertime, but I figured that it was better to hike first, maybe about 4-5 miles of nice brisk walking, and eat afterwards. I picked  a nice, easy, on-the-level hike along the Los Alamitos Creek Trail, also paved, winding among the trees, a nice pleasant walk not far from home. We got there and started walking, and Tika started out sniffing and brisk, but within the first half mile got slower. And slower. And slower. Not showing interest in things. Not pulling on the leash at all. Even lagging behind me by the 3/4-mile marker. I was determined to do at least one mile before turning back.

I was pretty bummed that she was still (or again) in such sorry shape after all that rest, and still on rimadyl, and feeling sorry for myself that my hiking and agility companion was getting old. Poor me. Poor dog.

At the 1-mile marker I sat on a bench to give her a break and do a little massage, then rest. She seemed happy for the attention and not actually in pain.

(Oh, and as I sat there, another agility person jogged by with her dogs and we were both surprised to see each other there.)

Finally stood up and asked Tika what she wanted to do. She immediately leaned into the leash in the direction of back-to-the car. She *pulled* me almost the whole mile back to the car, walking briskly and determinedly and I had to keep reminding her to ease up. As we raced back towards the car, I pondered Tika's sudden recovery and energy, and it dawned on me:

It was #$@%* DINNERTIME and Tika wanted ME GO EAT, not stupid walk, not stupid get further away from food. She wasn't slow because she was in pain or getting old, but because she was getting farther away from dinner!

So.

Sunday, I mapped out a nice aggressive 6-mile hike at Sunol Regional Park with plenty of uphill and downhill. We got a later start than I'd have liked--hit the trail about 9:30--and the day warmed rapidly. The first .6 miles were all uphill, and it just about wiped me out. We stopped twice for drinks and, among the three of us, polished off the two one-liter bottles of water I'd packed. I still had a very large bottle of water left, but I couldn't face another mile of uphill trail and wimped out onto an easier trail that headed gradually back down.  So, again, we got in just about 3 miles.

But it was off-leash, which was very nice for all of us. And Tika looked like she was doing better than me, although neither of us as perky as Boost--but even Boost wasn't racing back and forth with energy that day.

In the end, we all seem to be fairly healthy, getting older, slowing down, but not in any great physical distress, thank goodness.

Tika "Cured"

SUMMARY: Doggie chiro does it again.

Tika hates going to the vet--hates hates HATES it. Must give her a sedative before we go to a vet's office.

Fortunately there are people who work on dogs outside of the office. I was very lucky to be fit into a vet/chiropractor's schedule Wednesday evening. She very quickly narrowed it to somewhat nasty pain around Tika's neck and shoulders with some additional stuff going on in her back end--yup, the places we already know she has arthritis.

The chiro wasn't sure what she could do in one session, but to her delight discovered that, while Tika might hate vet offices, she loves loves LOVES the laying on of hands and relaxed very quickly to let the chiro do her work. Much to the chiro's surprise, she was able to get everything loosened or adjusted right then and there. Which also made me happy because it meant that there was no more major issue going on.

Twenty minutes later, no Tika pain! Walked her around for about 5-10 minutes and then the chiro rechecked her, and Tika was still feeling good.

Ran her in class tonight at 16" and she was fine. So we should be good to go for this weekend. Whew!

P.S. Tika Not Sore

SUMMARY: Just went for a short walk--

--maybe 3/4 miles, leisurely, on the flat. As I was getting the leashes out, Tika was doing explosive leaps straight up into the air, all four feet of the ground; spinning and dancing wildly; and of course making a joyous noise unto the hall. No sign of a limp at any pace. Gah. It's that on-again, off-again that's so hard to figure out.

On Judging and Tika

SUMMARY: Last weekend and through the week.

Friday May 18

Friday before my UKI judging trial, we did the Stairs From Heck as usual. Tika was even more reluctant than usual to go up the second time, but I insisted.

That afternoon, out in the yard, I thought I saw a little limp. Or, no, no limp. Or, maybe? No, definitely not. Wait--maybe?

She was perfectly happy running full tilt around the yard to play, so I didn't think more about it.

Saturday

Saturday morning, we weren't starting until 9, so it was actually lightish out when I hit the highway, and I felt as if I had actually gotten enough sleep.

On the freeway as I was crossing the central valley, I passed a string of old but beautifully restored cars obviously on their way somewhere together. They made me smile, but I regretted that I couldn't take any photos.
To my delight, when I got to Turlock and pulled off the freeway, there were a ton MORE old cars at the coffee shop next to the freeway exit, and I had plenty of time, so I stopped and took a bunch of photos. Will have to post them separately later. They just don't make cars like this any more!

At the trial site, Tika stretches fine, she runs fine in the open field, she walks fine, but when she moves up one pace (trot? I'm so bad at paces), there was a bit of a limp in the front. Didn't slow her down. She looked eager to do agility. We were signed up to compete in only 3 runs on Saturday. She had a great jumpers run--pretty fast, happy, jumping well, grabbing my feet at the end. But when I got her out of her crate for the next run an hour later or so, the limp had become very pronounced (although still only at that slightly faster pace, and she still stretched fine, etc.)

Even though Tika had been on rimadyl since friday, the limp at that one pace showed up periodically all weekend.

So I scratched her from her remaining two runs.

Dustin judged Saturday--this was only his 2nd time judging--and he's a natural. So calm and in control, good sense of humor. Good courses, too. He's a frequent chief course builder, so that helps, I'm sure.

Boost had a great jumpers run--and she actually Qed and won, compared to Tika, whose handler (yeh, me) walked the course wrong and neglected to do a serpentine between two jumps instead of a 280. Boost's Standard and Speed Stakes courses were messes of bars down, runouts, and the like, but boy her jumpers was gorgeous. I offered to trade it for a USDAA Jumpers Q. Sigh.

We were done on saturday at 1:30, then a bunch of us sat around at the picnic table in the shade and snacked on chips and fruit to avoid the heat (90s maybe) while some of the dogs played in the water. Tika kept a close eye on the snacks on the table; Boost kept a close eye on the other border collies. Bump, as usual, had a lot to say.

After that, we drove 45 minutes--halfway home!--to Ghirardelli chocolate's factory outlet for hot fundge sundaes. And that was lunch.

Sunday

On Sunday, I judged. A very busy day--there were so few competitors in each class--about 7 on average--that we couldn't keep up with the course building and tweaking in the other ring, so there was a lot of sitting around waiting for me to be available or the course to be built (with only about 20 people on site, half were working at any given time and half were running their dogs--a great group of people!). We started at 9 a.m.; I judged 10 classes (2 standards, speed stakes, jumpers, gamblers; 2 levels each); and we were done by 1:30.

I actually ran Boost on my novice speed stakes and my senior jumpers courses because they looked fun. We did OK but not perfect. I also got Tika out, because she kept voicing off when I'd take Boost out (which means she wants to go, too, which she doesn't do when she's not feeling well), so I ran her at 12" in a circle and off the course again, and she seemed happy about that--ran great again, but that pesky limping-when-at-a-trot was still there.

I had a good enough time judging; everyone was really nice. I think my courses were too easy--almost everyone qualified in almost everything, especially the gamblers, where only knocking bars or being out of position disqualified people. Oh--I should say, almost everyone who actually competed qualified--I'd guess that 5 out of 7 runs all weekend were NFC (Not For Competition) because people wanted to practice, so it was a like a fun match with the option to actually compete for points and ribbons.

Here you can see the ENTIRE crating set-up for everyone at the trial. REALLY small.

I learned that I shouldn't put all the high point gamble obstacles on one side of the field--too easy to get all those points! Although people appreciated it.

I loved watching some really good handlers with really fast dogs do amazing things on the course, from right up close.

I sometimes had trouble remembering what I was supposed to be doing--wasn't in the right place for a couple of contact calls, for example, but otherwise I was there. Because the rounds were so short, I'd just get into the swing of where I was supposed to be and how to get there, and it would be over.

I'm not sure that I'm cut out for standing in the sun all day and judging. I did slather on the sun lotion and did not get burned. I wore my street shoes at first, thinking, what the heck, I'm not doing that much walking, right? Wrong! Blisters on both toes by the time I realized that my feet were uncomfortable, so switched into my agility shoes and my feet were happier.

It was a nice enough, pleasant day--much less stressful than competing, that's for sure!--but I also didn't come out of it thinking, oh YEAH, I LOVE judging! Especially not with the hours of course design work ahead of time. I'm signed up to judge again in August at another UKI. Will see how I feel after that.

Monday and the rest of this week

So, come Monday, I didn't do the stairs from heck because I didn't want to go for along walk without the dogs, and I wanted Tika to rest some. The way it worked out was--we didn't do ANYthing ALL WEEK, didn't do the stairs even once, and only one short walk. But playing in the yard, yes. And Tika was fine fine fine. Until we got to class Thursday evening, where for jollies I put her over two 12" jumps, and she moved slowly, knocked both the bars, and came up short with a yelp. Remained hunched over, circling on her leash, for the whole evening. Yelped periodically when something would happen.

Does this dog look sore to you? Other than that the wind keeps blowing the door shut on her?

Mostly her circling kept wrapping her leash around the stake to which she was attached, but I watched from afar with disbelief at one point as she circled Boost, neatly wrapping her leash around three of boost's ankles, pullling it tight, and knocking Boost over onto her side--no rodeo cowboy roped a calf more neatly than that! But as I ran over, both dogs started to panic and Tika yelped some more, so after that she went back into her crate in the car.

Gave her a rimadyl before we left the site, and 20 minutes later at home, no hunching over or anything. But she remains in a want-to-run, want-to-play-tug, no apparent problems mode, and then briefly a little limp, briefly a yelp and then she's fine again.

Trying to find one of the chiros who might be able to give her a work-over before we compete this coming weekend.

Ratz ratz ratz.

Gratuitous dog photos

Paula (Dustin's dog)

Dig (Bump's "sister")

Booster!

Brief Concerned Human Mom Post

SUMMARY: Tika's Leg

We have two days of USDAA agility this weekend; I listed on Monday how I've cut Tika's classes down to only 6 instead of 10.

Three weeks ago, when I had the vet/masseur go over my dogs, she identified that Boost's right rear leg was bothering her and Tika's left rear leg was bothering *her*. I haven't seen any signs of it with Tika.

But just now, in a quiet house, as Tika walked casually around in the kitchen, I heard the click of toenails on the floor like this: click click click drag, click click click drag. Very subtle. Very tiny. Not sure whether someone else would notice it--or whether I'd have noticed it if I were concentrating on something. But it seemed very distinct right now, despite the subtlety, sure caught my attention. I could watch her from here and see that it was her left rear foot.

Argh.

I started to trim toenails yesterday but the dremel wasn't charged up enough, so I didn't get to her back feet at all. Will take a look this afternoon and see whether the nails are longer on that foot or, conversely, look like they've got more wear from the top side, which could indicate that she's been dragging for a while.

I'll leave us all with that thought and maybe post later if I figure anything out.

Assorted Weekend Wrap-Ups from Haute TRACS

SUMMARY: Top Ten, Move Yer Bloomin' Legs, bouncing off judges, tika not sore--

Top Ten points: Although Tika was moving well, we really didn't accrue much in the way of Top Ten points. By the end of Haute TRACS last year, we were well up into the Top Ten ranks in all four classes. This year, we're not going to be even close. So maybe I'll relax about that. Dunno, just not placing nearly as often. Can't pinpoint any particular reason.

Must say I was thrilled that Tika didn't come up sore at all after all those runs through that 3-day weekend, and that's my long-term concern for her.

I, however, was a different matter. On Thursday, I had trouble most of the day getting my legs to move at all--felt like 50-lb weights were tied to my ankles, for no obvious reason. I've experienced this before, though, and I'm concluding that sleep deprivation followed by a 2-hour drive is the reason, because it's almost always on the first morning of a trial. I'm going to have to rethink my current strategy of rising at 4 a.m. to start my away weekends. It's so odd to not feel tired particularly but to not have my legs functioning well.

Friday I was about normally tired but functional.

I already talked about how I deteriorated through Saturday. Man, I fall out of shape so quickly when I'm not doing a lot of regular walking and hiking!

That fall on Saturday was not my only fall for the weekend. During the DAM team Time Gamble, Tika took an obstacle that I hadn't wanted her to take, and in a bit of a panicked effort to save the day, I ran a pretty erratic spur-of-the-moment path and ended up bouncing off the judge, who had finally decided ("finally" after a split second or two of erraticness on my part, said she decided to just hold still and not try to figure out where I was going). As I tried to continue around her, my toe caught in something and I fell straight forward, slightly hitting my knees but taking the brunt on the base of my hands, which felt a little rug-burned on the dry soil. And I don't get up the ground all that quickly any more, either.

The good news is that, despite that, Tika and I saved our run and got our bonus points. Down side was more bruises. I don't think I fall all that often, maybe once or twice a year, so twice in one weekend was pretty radical.

Now that it's Monday evening, I'm thinking that there's no lasting damage from either fall, Tika's still in good shape, and Boost is BORED BORED BORED, so everything seems back to normal.

Tika's Better

SUMMARY: Same dang thing.

One day (wednesday), poom! just like that, sore, head down, nubber tail down, Tika can't do much of anything without pain. Keeps on, keeps on, keeps on. Get home from client site Thursday around 6:30, she greets me at the door subdued, tail down, yelps when she tries to wiggle too much.

I sit at the computer for about an hour, then get up to take the dogs to class (Tika will go and have a nice warm crate to lie in)--and Tika leaps to her feet, head up, nubber tail up and wiggling--she leaps into the air, dashes in tight little circles, runs out to the car--

"All better, mom!"

And has been fine since then. Such a puzzler.

I made an appointment with a new chiropractor for her anyway, for this coming Wednesday. I asked my agility club for south-bay recommendations and about a dozen people gave me her name. That sounds really good! And Tika loves chiro and massage, so it should be a nice thing for her as well as maybe taking care of any kinks or alignments here and there.

And we hope she stays hale and hearty through next weekend's CPE trial.

Dang Sore Dog

SUMMARY: Don't know what made Tika sore this time--

Tika hasn't been sore for quite a while, thank goodness. For a long time, I was giving her rimadyl before and during agility weekends just to be sure (arthritis sucks for aging people and dogs), but forgot to do it a couple of times and she was fine and then I just stopped doing it. I mean, Jake was on rimadyl for a while the first couple of times he came up sore at maybe 7 or 8, and then just didn't need it any more except on rare occasions, and he was still doing some agility apparently quite comfortably just before he died at 15.

Anyway--Tika is sore this afternoon and evening. No clue why or how. We played in the yard in the morning like we always do--like we usually do a couple of times a day. We didn't go to the park and play frisbee, which we often do. We haven't been going for walks as much the last 3 weeks because my work load has been higher than normal.

So this afternoon--when I actually got ambitious and actually went into the yard specifically to actually practice agility (having not felt like it for the longest time), Tika just trotted into the first tunnel I put her into, went gingerly over a 16" (which is low for her) jump, trotted across the dogwalk--well, if you've ever seen Tika work, you'll know that this is odd.

I gave her a break on the deck & tossed treats to her (which is always her #1 priority anyway) while I did bar-knocking and weave drills with Boost.

I went out for about 3 hours this evening, and when I came home, the dogs greeted me with the usual insanity--and within seconds, Tika had yelped, tucked what there is of her tail, and started to vanish to go hide in my bedroom (which is her fallback strategy when she's sore or not feeling well). I jollied her out of it and gave her a rimadyl.

But it remains: She's sore, and I don't know why, drat it all. Maybe it's *because* we haven't been going for walks or going to the park or doing as much work and play even in the yard?

I hate guessing games like this.

No trial this weekend, but CPE the following weekend. Hope she's feeling good for that.

Many Many Runs This Weekend and an Iffy Dog

SUMMARY: 7 runs saturday, 5 possible Sunday. And is Tika OK?

This weekend's VAST USDAA trial, out in Turlock, should be "unseasonably cool"--merely 90F (32C) for a predicted high. Guess I'll be packing the shorts.

Tika started looking completely bouncy and happy yesterday, but I've mostly kept her from running until late this afternoon, when I tossed the toy into some shrubs or behind some things so that she wouldn't be chasing madly or lunging onto it. That looked OK, so I put her over some 16" jumps, then a sequence with 16" jumps and tunnels, and she still looks fine.

I sure hope she stays sound this weekend. But I dunno: SEVEN runs on Saturday? Only four planned for Sunday (plus possible Round 2 of Steeplechase).

Normally I'd welcome that for both my dogs--the more trial activity, the more it burns out that extraneous energy.

But I'm still thinking I should scratch Tika from some of the classes. Realized I can't scratch from pairs, because I promised this one specifically to someone who's had trouble getting Qs with various partners. That would really suck if I had to pull Tika for being sore.

Probably will scratch grand prix.

She usually does well in Steeplechase, and it's always nice to come home with some $$$, but if I scratch that, that's OK--I'm not caring at all about Performance Tournament Top Ten, as our record overall hasn't been that great this year. On the other hand--she just needs 2 tournaments to finish her performance tournament Silver, which would be cool.

But not at the expense of the other classes where it would be nice to get more top ten points. Really, that's the main reason I entered these 3 in a row.

Could scratch jumpers; I think she's got plenty of T10 to be in for this year no matter what else we do. But she likes Jumpers.

I hate making these choices. Dang.

Anyway--small trial, lots of runs--but all masters runs are in one ring, so no stressing on conflicts. Also, potluck saturday evening, which is always tasty and FUN.

Tika Not At Her Best

SUMMARY: She's still sore. And we're trialing this weekend.

This particularly sucks because this club is one of many who really don't do refunds after the closing date. (Most clubs say they don't but, if finances allow, sometimes some of them do.) So my money is sunk into this trial whether I run her or not.

I'm thinking I'm going to scratch her from the classes that don't count towards the regular Top Ten**--that is, stick with Standard, Gamblers, Snooker, and Jumpers, and scratch Grand Prix, Steeplechase, and Pairs Relay.

We'll see how she's doing as the next 48 hours wear on, though.

Dang.

----
** Not that I'm counting Top Ten points any more, or even mentioning them in this blog. (As i clearly stated in Titles Schmitles.)

To Test Or Not To Test, That is The Question

SUMMARY: Paranoid about dog health. And I guess no course design clinic, either.

Agility is all about money. (When it's not all about the clothing or all about the Qs or all about the food or maybe even all about having fun.) We're FINALLY having a USDAA course-design clinic and judging test this month in our area; tried for it several years back and couldn't get enough people. I'd really like to go. At $295 for the clinic and $65 for the judging test afterwards? Yikes. That's nuts. But I'd still like to go.

Yet another friend's agility dog just died from hemangiosarcoma, which is what took Remington. Seems to appear in the 8-12 year range, and some friends are doing one-time midlife ultrasounds on their dogs to check for tumors. I've been thinking about Tika's on-again, off-again discomfort, and likening it to Remington's on-again, off-again discomfort and his sometimes-superdog and sometimes-not-interested approach to agility. In retrospect, determined that a lot of that, at least in his last year or two, was probably due to the tumor. Soooooooooocoooullld it be the same thing for Tika?

I ran out of Rimadyl, Tika's still not 100% today, so when I called the vet's office for a refill, I posed the question. Turned out that she's overdue for her bortadella shot and way overdue for a heartworm blood test, so I made an appointment for this afternoon and in we went.

Forgot to give Tika her sedative before going in--Human mom fail!--poor doggie shook like a leaf, and you should've heard her screech when the vet took her temp. But we got through it--I accidentally got her head inside my fleece while holding her for that torture and it seemed to calm her more than just holding onto her.

He also suggested that, since I'm using the rimadyl more, we should consider doing a full blood-work panel now and possibly more often in the future to check her liver and kidney function and other vital signs.

Turns out that ultrasound for the full torso cavity (spleen, heart, and lungs being the most crucial points for possible hemangiosarcoma) could run around $1000, and he says it's just like the full-body scanning for humans that some places (for-profit scanning centers) are pushing: Odds of them finding something real are extremely small, and more often than not they find something that they really then have to suggest that you get further testing done on, and the odds are extremely high that that ends up being nothing significant.

He said, if I had that kind of money to throw around regularly without noticing it in my budget, sure, I could do that every year or every 6 months or however often I wanted it, and it might catch something before it got serious. Or--not. When just randomly scanning for something, the beginnings of tumors are small enough that they're not likely to be identified. If I do just one scan, it could be, say, very different from what it would be 3 months down the road because the evidence isn't yet large enough to be detected. No way to know one way or the other.

And really, he says, there's no "epidemic" of hemangiosarcoma; of course like anything else by statistical laws it's never perfectly distributed among the entire dog population, so making assumptions based on a small group isn't really going to give useful data in most cases.

I know all that.

So I'm pretty much talked out of doing the ultrasounds of all her major organs.

The total bill--bloodwork, bortadella shot, rimadyl (double prescription this time because it's cheaper each in larger quantities), consultation and physical check-up--nearly $400. And i don't think my vet is particularly expensive.

But that bill has pretty much also talked me out of signing up for the course-building clinic. Ah, well, given a choice between that and my merle girl's health, guess you know which I'll pick.

SouthWest Regional: Another 3-Day Weekend

SUMMARY: Yup, we went, we agilitated, we got some Qs.

Tika Saturday--Performance Team ("Here We Go Again" with many-time teammate Brenn):

18 dogs competed in Tika's height in Team. Handling error in team snooker kept Tika to only 17 points. Won Team Gamblers. Second in Team Standard. Some bobbles (wrong turns) in team Jumpers--clean but only 6th of 18 dogs. Brenn did well, too, and we were clean in the relay. Our combined scores placed us 4th out of 30 teams--again--dang that snooker round! We were only 10 points/faults/seconds out of 3rd place over 5 classes times 2 dogs. So close. But it was definitely a Q and I'm not unhappy with 4th.

Tika Saturday Steeplechase: On a tough tunnel calloff, I yelled "Come! Come!" which I know from years of experience does nothing. I needed "Tika!" Off course. So no Round 2.

Tika Sunday:

Won Standard. With 10 dogs--IF I were still counting Top Ten points, which of course I'm not, that would be 5 more. (The 11th dog dropped out, or it would've been 7 for 1st. Ah, well. Older dogs sometimes get sore & tired & can't do as much. Hold that thought.)

In Gamblers, tied 2 other dogs for high points but, due to a [sigh] strategy error, out of 12 dogs, we placed 3rd based on time instead of 1st. I'm not counting Top Ten Points now. But, if I were, that would be 3 more.

In Pairs Relay, Tika knocked a bar and our awesome teammate Chaps (who won a ton of events this weekend) had a contact and a refusal in their mere 10 obstacles--but even with 15 faults, our combined time was fast enough (barely) to at least Q.

Grand Prix--gah, handler tried a slightly aggressive weave pole thing that she thought was actually pretty safe with Tika--but Tika popped out at #10, so no Q, although even with having to go back and fix it, we were within a few seconds of hte first place time. Ah, well.

Tika Monday:
Snooker: Tika ran competently but was slow in the tunnels (of which we did several). Did 4 reds in the opening, ran out of time on the approach to the 3rd part of #7 in the closing. In retrospect, I realize that I was urging her on, which I don't usually have to do in snooker because she gets so roused up in that game. We were lucky that only 1 dog (Chaps) beat our score, so 2nd of 14 dogs, and since I'm not counting Top Ten points, I won't mention that that's 5 more.

Jumpers: Short story: Sore, so pulled her out halfway through. Got her a massage with the wonderful Pawssage lady who noted my distress, stated her fondness for older dogs, and gave us at least a 10-minute evaluation and massage without charging us anything. Tika likes this sort of work and it seemed to help. But--

Standard: Short story: Still sore, so pulled her out after 3 obstacles. This was probably the first time in 7 years that she did a careful Aframe and stopped in 2o/2o position. Ah, me, older dogs sometimes get sore & tired & can't do as much.

Now: Seems to be feeling pretty good. At 4:30 after packing up, wanted to run and play frisbee, but I said no. She should be good for VAST USDAA next weekend.

Boost Saturday DAM team with Ariel and Gustavo as BAG Ladies:

Thought she did well in Team Gamblers, but no, lots of people got way more points than she did. About average. 20th of 80 dogs--not awful, but not great. I actually mistimed it and we could've gotten 5-8 more points. Team Snooker: Again, not awful--27th of 80 dogs, but missed weave entry in closing on #6. Team Jumpers, Eed on refusals I think. Team Standard--well--we didn't E, but ended with a course time of 65.59 (to compare, winner was 37.22) and 24 course faults! About as bad as you can do w/out Eing.

Team Relay: Before the relay, our team's cumulative score had us 4th from last of 42 teams. We ran early in the 3-dog relay and all 3 of us ran clean (compared to all of us having Es and other problems in the earlier classes). Interestingly, very few teams ran that without at least one dog Eing, which pulled us all the way up to 24th of 42 teams! Not quite enough to Q, but we were pretty pleased with our relay showing.

Steeplechase Round 1: Weave issues, runout issues. No Q.

Boost Sunday:

Pairs Relay: I thought her half was flawless--really lovely! But apparently got called on the up contact on the teeter?! Teammate had a refusal but also pretty fast; we Qed anyway. And so Boost continues her steady march towards what I see as an eventual Relay Platinum without every getting a single Snooker Super-Q or any more Jumpers Qs. Silly.

Gamblers: Oh, man, a nice opening--among the highest scores--and did the gamble, but on the last jump, which was a double, knocked the first bar. How does one knock JUST the first bar on a double? Dang.

Standard: Oh, man, ALMOST PERFECT! Beautiful weaves, held all contacts, running ahead of me, kept her bars up, beautiful table, etc., just one rear cross that I apparently didn't manage well for a runout.

Boost Monday:

Snooker: Tried Tika's same course. Knocked 2nd red in the opening and #4 in the opening, but got nicely all the way through 7 in the closing. So it was a Q but still not a super-Q.

Jumpers: Gah.

Rafflin' Dog: Boost won me TWO free entry cert's in raffles this weekend! That's really super! I'm thinkin' she's easily earned her RfM (Raffle Master) title by now!

Loose Ends

SUMMARY: Weekend away, Tika soreness, video camera, upcoming schedule.

Last weekend I spent a weekend away with friends and family at an annual relax-a-thon, without the dogs. But I got my toenails painted with little doggie footprints. In my favorite colors.

Meanwhile, Tika's soreness seems to have gone away again, thank goodness. She's been off rimadyl for a week and there's been no yelping or limping for 10 days. Took her to class this Tuesday and she ran fine in both Jumping Land and Contact Land. Whew!

Another Bay Teamer read my plight about my video camera, and produced a very compact JVC camcorder that she'd almost never used and offered it to me if I like it. So far I like it! The agility community has always been extremely generous with so many things for so many people. Now I just need to take some videos--and find a not-too-expensive place to get all my tapes converted to DVDs.

Now: Two more weekends without agility, hopefully with some hiking and movies, and then it's into the insanity of weekend upon weekend of agility trials, and I will try to remind myself that I hate that many trials in a row and stay out of them. Looks like this (I'm listing ONLY the ones I'd be interested in--there are lots of other venues--and * for the ones I'll probably actually do):

Aug 28/29 *Salinas SMART USDAA

Sep  4/ 5 *(labor) Prunedale Bayteam USDAA regional
Sep 11/12 *Turlock VAST USDAA
Sep 18/19 Woodland TRACS USDAA 
Sep 25/26 ?Hollister USDAA judges clinic

Oct  2/ 3
Oct  9/10 *Dixon Hautedawgs USDAA 
Oct 16/17 Turlock VAST CPE
Oct 23/24 Elkgrove CPE
Oct 30/31 Turlock PowerPaws Camp

Nov  6/ 7
Nov 13/14 *Turlock NAF USDAA
Nov 20/21 
Nov 27/28  ElkGrove CPE

Dec  4/ 5 
Dec 11/12 *SantaRosa Bayteam USDAA
Dec 18/19 
Dec 25/26 (xmas) 

Judging clinic: I would SOOOO like to do it (mostly for the course building aspects, don't really want to be a judge, mostly for the course building aspects--wait, how's that again?) but it's so expensive amidst all those trials. Argh. If only someone would buy me a winning lottery ticket.

Feet and Footprints

SUMMARY: Tika soreness and food thief in the dark.

Tika's soreness is puzzling. The first time she hit the sore spot and came up limping where I could see it, she yelped when I touched her toe. But then touching everything again got no response (except the usual "why are you touching my feet?").

She's always better in about 30-60 seconds and rarin' to go full blast again.

Right at the beginning of Saturday's hike, she suddenly pulled up with her foot in the air, so I went ahead and put on her bootie.

(Thanks for the photo, Vici!  Tika rolls her eyes: Not THIS again!)

Last winter when she was sore, it was her toe, and this seemed to protect it from the extra catch or twist. This time it doesn't seem to do much, if anything at all. Most of the way through the hike, Boost got in her way once, near a stony dip in the trail, and up came the paw. A little rubbing and attention, and half a minute later she was completely fine again, no limping.

I've been using the bootie on her when playing  in the yard. For a couple of days, it kept her from wanting to do anything at all ("I can't walk with this thing on!"), but then she reacclimatized and now "frolics" with the usual wild, driven intensity, and is usually fine, but then, suddenly, ping!, she's limping. A little sit, a little checking for soreness, and 30 seconds later, she's fine.

Might be the arthritis in her neck pinching a nerve. I've had her on rimadyl since she first exhibited this last week. Torn between really enforcing rest for a week and just avoiding agility activity for a week. (Hmm, it's been a week already--because I didn't take her to class last Tuesday.)

Meanwhile, Sunday morning I came downstairs to discover a trail of tiny muddy footprints across my back deck leading to my dogfood bin, whose lid was off. The dogs snuffed the trail and the bin with extreme prejudice, then discovered that dogfood had been scattered on the ground below the deck, and focused on retrieving that.

This muddy evidence was left behind, inside the bin:

Last night, I latched the lid down. (It's an amazingly tight seal.) Middle of the night, Tika started going nuts. I finally gave in and let the dogs out of the bedroom--Tika shrieking the whole way as they hurled themselves down the stairs (sorry, renter housemate!). Both were barking and plunging ferociously at the sliding glass door before I could get there and turn on the light.

The bin had been dragged to the other side of the deck and was on its side, but the lid held. Once again, I didn't get a look at the culprit. But usually a good dose of dog barkification scares them out of coming back again.

The rest of the night was peaceful.

Ol' Sore-Foot Tika

SUMMARY: Right front foot not happy.

Sometime between Monday morning and monday afternoon, Tika's right front foot became sore. That's about all I can tell you about it. I didn't see anything happen. I don't find any specific injuries. It doesn't bother her all the time: For example, she'll run out to the yard, grab her toy, bounce playfully a few times, then yelp and come limping. Twenty minutes later, she'll be blasting full speed across the yard after a squirrel. Couple of hours later, gets excited because I'm getting the leashes out, dances around and around, then suddenly yelps and is limping. Like that.

Last winter, we were out for several weeks for rest because of the little toe on her left front foot. I'm disinclined to spend money on a vet visit unless it gets worse or doesn't go away.

At least, thank goodness, we have no more trials scheduled until the end of August.

So I left her home tonight with the renter while I took Boost to class. Where, of course, her Aframe that fell apart over the weekend was perfect. But also the usual knocking bars, not wanting to come in to me on jumps, not liking rear crosses... so much to work on, so little time!