Meanwhile Back at Taj MuttHall

SUMMARY: Boost and Tika

Still trying to figure out Boost and food and her weight.

She's also getting MUCh worse about scrounging stuff. I have all these varieties of dog foods to keep Tika's interest up, and a lot of the unopened ones (or sealed shut) are on the floor. This has never been a problem. But yesterday she ripped open one of the brand-new, still sealed bags and I caught her gorging herself! Yikes. Is nothing sacred?

She is now the fastest eater i the house. After all those years of Tika sucking down her own food at twice Boost's speed, now that Tika is slow and methodical... and Chip is even slower than that!... I wonder whether Boost thinks that she's getting less food than they're getting?

She also now knows that Tika doesn't always finish her meal and lurks to dive in the instant that Tika's head moves away, and I have to catch her and drag her back from that, so maybe she feels deprived fromnot getting to eat that?

It's a puzzlement, why packages of treats and food are no longer OK around the good border collie after all these years.

A couple of people suggested adding pumpkin, in the ratio of twice whatever kibble I was taking out of her diet.  I bought several cans, and what I'm doing is smearing it all around the inside of her dish and pouring the food onto it, so she has to spend time licking out every molecule, giving the other dogs time to finish eating.

Tika is mostly eating most of her meals, with only occasional meals where she won't eat the first thing that I set out for her.

I'll tell ya what's working with having Chip here, apparently: Before, she was consuming her pill pockets (containing meds) cautiously and fairly often spitting them out and refusing to eat them until I remove the pills. Since Chip has arrived, wow, does she suck down those 2 pill pockets! Doesn't want a chance for the usurper to get one, I guess.

After several days of Tika doing a lot of coughing and acting old and frail, she's back to very little coughing, more enthused play, more alertness. This cycle keeps going over and over and over.

Boost is scratching obsessively still/yet/again, after a couple of weeks off prednisone. I *SO* hate having her on pred all the time, but milder things don't work, and she's now chewing herself raw, which I really hate to see and isn't good for her, either. So I guess it's back on prednisone again. Sigh.

And that's the news from Lake Dogbegone, where all the dogs are cute AND above average.

Coming Up, Tika's Last Trial

SUMMARY: Well, officially entered, anyway.

I entered Tika in one run this weekend, Jumpers, which was always her favorite. I haven't been doing much with her at all, and she starts out in the yard playing fast and eager but quickly resorts to just digging her notorious hole to china under the shrubbery. Tried running her around a small course today with just a few jumps and tunnels and never did get all the way through it.

So I might just pick a quick few jumps and out. So sad. I'm so very sad. I'll make that officially Tika's last agility run. Here's the age data from this trial's statistics sheet:

I'm not expecting much from this weekend. This week I ended up with a cold, so am tired and congested on top of Boost's insane obsessive scratching and biting the last couple of nights, really interrupting both of our sleeps. She scratched for two hours straight when I went to bed last night, and then another hour after I gave her a prednisone.

Now that she's on prednisone, I hope that'll knock it out quickly so we can both sleep.  Except of course that prednisone tends to make my dogs' bladders work more urgently, which could get me up in the night anyway--so I *do* want to remain asleep-but-alert to avoid having a bed wetting or floor wetting like last time around.

This heavy scratching started (it's been building up by hydroxyzine had been holding it off) after several days of Tika coughing a lot during the night. Now Tika's getting an occasional small dose of hydrocodone/something (similar to what humans get with an intractable cough) and I think that's helped some, not eliminated completely but not interrupting my sleep every hour.

And I've already mentioned that I'm completely out of shape, not doing any running or hiking or anything. My foot and back aren't a lot better--improving, I think, but not there yet. I've put on weight, Boost has put on MORE weight which is a mystery because I've been cutting back her food more. She's now getting only 83% of what she has gotten most of her adult life, and she's up another half pound in the last month! Argh! It is true that she's also getting less activity because I'm doing so much less lately.

So this weekend is really not going to be about me and Boost qualifying in anything because the odds seem slim. Instead, it's about Tika retiring, and about sugar, because that's what I'm bringing to celebrate. Because I need more sugar.

In fact, must go pick up the celebration thing right now.

Wish us good luck in getting a good night sleep, and then in the morning it's off to Manzanita Park.

Yes, Another Weekend Of Agility

SUMMARY: USDAA in Prunedale

Two days of agility again.

Tika's energy and stamina has been down a bit, although she did ok on our 5.5-mile hike with 1200-foot elevation gain on Sunday. Not zooming around nearly like she used to, but it was pretty warm and all the dogs were a bit subdued, and she certainly held up better than I did.

Boost--well, did I do my homework this week? No. Not enough energy on my part to do it. *I'm* the one with really lower energy and stamina these days. Working on it.

In class last night, Boost's first run, a jumping drill, was really nice except htat she ticked a bar and I forgot that I'm supposed to be stopping her for ticked and knocked bars. Next run, had to stop her about every 3rd jump. We never did get through the drill, even starting where we stopped before. Then she couldn't even get over a 16" jump without knocking it, while I was trying to get her to have some success for rewards. Insane.

Then, the last run of the evening, a standard-type course, she was just lovely.

Of course, her weave entries remain broken -- think I've mentioned it here lately somewhere, where she has decided once again that she enters between the first two poles no matter which direction she's coming from, rather than always entering with her left shoulder to the first pole. Jeez, I *knew* they wouldn't stay fixed! Weave entries is about the only thing I *have* worked on her at home with, and there has been no improvement.

Darn dog. So maybe I just wait and see whether they fix themselves again? No idea what goes through the little BC brain.

She started scratching obsessively again about a month ago--third year in a row now--and two weeks of benadryl and Genta spray followed by two weeks of hydroxyzine didn't make it stop (just like last year), so (just like last year) we went in to the vet; she got a cortisone shot, which (just like last year) did a pretty good job of knocking it out, and now she's on prednisone pills in decreasing doses for the next 3 weeks and we hope that'll be it for this year.

I just have to remember to let her out of her crate to potty on a very regular basis this weekend--liquid seems to pass through so quickly when they're on preds, and it is so sad for them when I don't get them out of their crate in time. But at least I'm very aware of that nowadays.

Otherwise, this weekend hoping for progress on finishing off Tika's Snookers so we can claim the Gold PDCH. Would be nice.

And, as always, praying for jumpers and snooker super-Qs for Boost.

Doesn't this all sound so familiar? Bro-ken-rec-ord. Well, should be nice to be around the usual agility friends, plus the senior-dog honoring ceremony thing for dogs 10 and over is Saturday, and at least Tika and I should do well in that. ;-)

So, off to bed, I guess.

Possibilities

SUMMARY: What could we come away from the weekend with?

What could happen this weekend? That's always the big question. It could be wonderful!

There are the ucky bits, too: After several weeks of better knees & hips than I've had since I can't even remember when, this week from the waist down everything is a mess, including fatigue and muscle soreness in the lower legs that I have no explanation for. Last night in class, I was hop-skipping the first run or two because my knee had reverted to oh-no-you-don't status. Rest of the evening I was fine, though.

This weekend, hopefully some good doses of agility adrenaline will fix that all right up.

Boost is on her second go-round of prednisone to ease the scratching. Hasn't worked as well as the first go-round. She's still drinking a lot more and peeing a lot more, but no more accidents in the house--probably because I'm thinking more about the prednisone and am willing to get up once or twice in the middle of every night to let her out.

She also had diarrhea yesterday for no obvious reason.

Poor girl, after class last night, she started to head for the potty yard but I thought she just wanted to check out the dogs, so loaded her into her MUTTMVR and took off for home. Shortly after I hit the long, narrow, winding road down the hill, she started whining whining whining, and I finally got the hint. Unfortunately, nowhere to stop until the bottom, so I kept making "hold on, pup" kinds of noises. Right at the bottom, there's a wide shoulder where sometimes trucks park, and I pulled over there, got her out, and she immediately peed a lake and then followed up with very loose stools. (And, yes, she did the same thing in the potty yard right before class started, too.)

Hope she's better today.

Tika is fine but looks bored a lot. Like, "why are you sitting typing on the computer AGAIN when you have such fine dogs who would like to go for a walk?"

Possible titles--

Boost:

• Now we have sunk into the "only 2 jumpers, only 2 super-Qs to the ADCH" abyss. Two chances at each this weekend. How long can this go on? Based on our history, a very long time indeed.
• Also just needs one standard for her Bronze Standard (15 Qs) -- 2 chances.
• Would be nice if she could get a Grand Prix Q. No title, but she's only ever earned 3--in --her--entire--life-- and she needs 2 more to be able to earn her Tournament Silver, which she's getting closer to with Team and Steeplechase Qs.

Tika:

• Needs one Standard for her Perf Standard Silver (25 Qs) --2 chances.
• And, oh, yeah, if she gets that, that's her Performance championship silver, which is the same title level she reached in Championship before I moved her to Performance because of the recurring soreness thing. (In other words, combined, it's the equivalent of a Platinum championship, the highest you can get, but it's in 2 different programs. Sigh.)
• Platinum Lifetime count: She's at 396. Needs 500.  Has the minimum required in each titling class, now it's just cranking out Qs. This year, she has averaged 4 Qs per trial day--so that's another 25 days of trialing. That's 13 weekends of USDAA. If her health holds up (and mine), maybe we could actually do this by this time next year (assuming I don't start adding back more weekends of agility).
• Platinum Performance Tournament count: She's at 46, needs 50, including *two* DAM team Qs. She has Qed in every DAM since she moved to performance. There just aren't that many opportunities. Next ones not until next spring and summer that I know about. That's a long time for a 10-and-a-half-yr-old dog!

 Hope you all have a lovely weekend as today's autumnal equinox moves us officially into the next season.

Increasing the Potency

SUMMARY: Next magic potion for itching.

I called the vet yesterday after Boost continued scratching into the day. He replaced the previous pills with prednisone.

Well, as any student of fantastic magic (or science, for that matter) knows, if you up a spell's potency, there's a higher price to pay. I still remember how bad I felt when Remington was on pred for some reason, and I left him in his crate for 3 hours while doing something important, and came back to find him and his crate soaked in urine, with him standing there, looking miserable, trying to keep his feet on the only one or two barely dry spots.

So I know about this drinks-more, pees-more effect.

My thinking on this itching thing is that, if it's allergies, a really thorough house-cleaning might help, too, whether there's a stray flea involved or not. So I've been vacuuming like crazy (usually do one room at a time), and last night washed all the pillows, dog beds, sheets, and blankets in the bedroom and put fresh sheets on and a fresh duvet cover, too. Ahhh, felt nice!

Last night, middle of the night, Boost jumps off the bed and starts wandering around. That could mean: Tika rolled over and got too close to her, or: Looking for a more comfy place to sleep, or: Bored, or: Is thinking about maybe having to go potty. What I normally do to forestall the first three is just invite her (or insist) back onto the bed. She popped right up, lay down, and went to sleep.

I always figure that, if she really needs to go out, she'll let me know (like she did Thursday night, twice, by whacking the door with her paw).

This morning, I woke up, she snuggled, and I noticed her entire left thigh was soaking wet. Sure enough, on further exploration, the duvet cover is soaking. And the down comforter inside. And the sheets underneath. And the extra sheet I put over the electric mattress pad. And the electric mattress pad. And the anti-allergen zipper cover on the mattress. And, yes indeed, mattress sopping wet.

Interesting, looking at a couple of very small previous stains on the mattress top. They might very well be from the weekend Jake died, when he first had a major seizure and emptied everything--that's where he was sleeping. So, other than this new, huge stain, that's all that's ever gotten through to the mattress.

Dang, I wonder how deep down the liquid went?

The nice thick, absorbent dog bed ON the bed? Dry as an antler, which, I forgot to mention, I finally spent a bunch of $$ on because so many people rave about how their dogs love chewing on antlers. My dogs? Took them from me, dropped them on the floor, and haven't looked at them since. Gah.

But I digress. I hosed Boost down, stripped everything back off the bed, soaked everything with Nature's Miracle, and am working my way through the laundry. Not what I was planning on doing today. But poor Boost, poor me, guess I'm not going to assume anything at night while she's on the pred. And maybe I should put a ton of extra padding on their side of the bed for the next week or two.

Oh, and I forgot to mention--only a couple of very brief scratching incidents in the night. So the pred seems to do what it was intended to do--and is exacting its price.

Itchy Itchy Itchy But Agility Progress

SUMMARY: Boost scratching and does well in class.

Last night was our weekly agility class. Boost did pretty good (except for bars bars bars). No refusals or runouts except for the usual, *normal* kinds of handling issues that one might have. We even got a compliment from the instructor on how much Boost seems to have improved.

Here's the thing: We didn't go to class last week. My agility practice for the last three weeks has added up to approximately the following:

• A few weave pole exercises.

So, go figure.

We (and others) got called out on how sloppy our contacts have become--a known issue with Boost, who has for some time been stopping on the dogwalk with her feet off the side where I am (if I'm behind her) rather than straight forward, and has sometimes progressed to just coming off the side entirely. Something else to work on, besides maybe going back to bar-knocking drills.

Neither of which, frankly, I still have any particular urge to do.

Meanwhile, Boost has been scratching like crazy. This happened last year briefly, but this year has made a ferocious return appearance. Tried benadryl for a couple of weeks, no luck. Like, as in, scratching for 10 minutes straight in the middle of the night.

Saw the vet Wednesday morning and talked about the different levels of treatment, and his preference is to try things with the least side effects first, which I agree with.  He said the doggy dermatologist reports that this hay fever season is extremely high, so dogs with any kind of sensitivity or slight irritant are more likely to dive right into the deep end of reaction.

So she got a shot of dexamethasone for short-term relief to try to break the cycle of scratching, a prescription for hydroxyzine, and a spray bottle of GentaSpray (gentamicin sulfate with betamethasone valerate).

Well, that worked great--for about a day and a half (probably the Dex), and then Boost scratched off and on, sometimes with insane intensity, most of the night last night. I'll give the treatments another day--erk, well, hmm, another day would put me on the weekend, wouldn't it. Hm.

Meanwhile, I have this to say: Zzzzz.

The Month of Losing Dangerously

SUMMARY: A purse, a watch, sunglasses, a flashlight, Benadryl, a man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura...but I digress.

I am not the sort of person who loses things, normally. Really, I'm not. Now, I'm beginning to wonder--

First, the vanished purse on Saturday, Oct 16, which I didn't discover until the following Tuesday night, when I had tickets to a play.

That Wednesday was spent searching for the purse and making phone calls and such.

(It wasn't an entirely wasted effort--in the process of tearing the house AND the car apart looking for the purse, I did a lot of clean-up and putting things away, like the bottle of benadryl that had been sitting, unused, on the kitchen counter since Boost had itchies a couple of months ago but then got better.)

So perhaps it was understandable that evening when I took the dogs to class (with no drivers license, no money, no AAA card, nuthin') that I was a bit distracted. As usual, pottied the dogs when I got there, cleaned up Tika's poo in the approved manner using my new spiffy LED flashlight to see what I was doing, tossed it into the poo can, and walked away--yes, the unclear pronoun reference: I realized I still had a bag of poo in my hand.

Retrieved the flashlight from the poo can, made a mental note that it needed to be cleaned before further use, and--I haven't seen it since.

As class continued, I glanced at my wrist to check the time, but no watch. "Huh," I thought to myself, "I thought I put it on, but I was a bit distracted." Got home, tore the house apart again looking for the watch. (Which was a very nice, very expensive Seiko watch that was quite beautiful when I got it as a gift 25 years ago. It's pretty scruffy now, but I like it and would hate to lose it.)

It took me several days to realize that perhaps I HAD put the watch on before going to class, so I called Power Paws and--a miracle--someone had found that dainty tiny black watch in one of the fields.

After I got my purse back, I decided it was time to clean up assorted other business that I'd been postponing. Like, on Thursday October 28, an eye appointment to order replacement glasses. I actually had a warranty of sorts on the glasses, so I could either get an entirely new pair with my new (very slightly changed) prescription for a lot of $$, or get an exact replacement of what I had with the warranty for half the $$. One of the deciding factors was that the not-cheap clip-on sunglasses that I've had for the last 2 years and that were made explicitly for that frame would still be useful to me.

The next day, got into the car to go for my long-postponed haircut, reached for the sunglasses in their holder--and, yeah, you got it, not there. These are useful to me *only* in the car, since I have self-darkening lenses. They almost never leave the car, and almost always are replaced in their holder by sheer habit. I don't have to think at all about them at all--and apparently I didn't, because I couldn't at all remember the last time I had used them (yesterday on the way home from the eye appt? on the way there? the day before? etc.).

So, last weekend, I tore the car somewhat apart again looking for the sunglasses. Nada. Argh. I can't think where they might be, unless I did something like take them off, set them in my lap for some reason, then get out of the car and they fell out. That would be a big Crap. A week later, I still don't know where they are.

Anywayyyyyy Boost has started scratching again. Today seems particularly worse, so it's time to start the benadryl again.

So...yeah... I put it away: But where?

All I can say is, the dogs could be next at the rate I'm going, so it's a good thing they're nailed to the floor.

---

In its entirety, here's the palindrome I started on in the Summary: "A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal – Panama!"

What's All That Itching? Oh, It's Her Genes!

SUMMARY: Littermates itch, too.

The benadryl twice a day seems to have eased off Boost's scratching quite a bit, although not completely. At least we're sleeping through the night.

Saw her littermate Bette abruptly sit and start scratching this weekend in much the same way. Bette's mom says hers started last year for the first time (Boost this year for the first time) and she uses prednisone spray to alleviate it and it works well--unless she forgets and leaves it at home over the weekend.

She told me that Boost's littermate Derby has horrible flea allergies.

So is skin sensitivity to environmental factors a genetic thingie? Lookin' like maybe--

Scratch Scratch Scratch Scratch STOP IT!

SUMMARY: Boost allergies?

Several weeks ago, Boost's eyes started gooping up a couple times a day. Sure, my yard is dusty, but my yard is always dusty, and Tika's eyes weren't gooping up.

Then, a week or so ago, she started scratching more than usual. Just a bit more. Then a bit more. Then more and more. Then more and more and more. Then off and on all night long Friday night and Saturday night (of course our vet appointment was for Monday morning). Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch... "STOP! IT!" (I point out helpfully at 2 in the morning.)

Vet didn't find anything obvious (well, I didn't either, but it would've had to be obvious for me to spot it). He says the odds are good that it's allergies to something, probably in the air (since nothing else has changed--bedding, house, food, etc.), so we're treating it as such.

Ointment for the eyes three times a day; benadryl (Diphenhydramine) twice a day.

And of course you know that, when I have my camera in hand to get a scratching photo, for half an hour she won't scratch or goes behind the desk and THEN scratches. (Or waits until the card is out of the camera and then does a major scratching fit right in front of me.) This is the best she was willing to provide:

Flea Fly Flo Flum

SUMMARY: Boost might have fleas. So much cleanup to do!

Since I started using Advantage or Frontline, I've had almost no problems with fleas on my dogs. Occasionally we pick up a couple from somewhere, and then I do a thorough cleaning and bathe the dogs and the problem goes away again.

"A thorough cleaning and bathe the dogs." Aye, there's the rub. I wash everything in sight--all my bedding (since the dogs sleep on the bed) and all their bedding--in bedroom crate, on kitchen beds, on office beds, in car crates, in mats used for agility crating...so much bedding! It takes ages to do all that--unzip things, unwrap things, get from all corners of the house and garage--and then wash, and then put back in place. And some of the stiffer mats don't wash very neatly. I've been at it for hours, it seems, and have barely started.

I vacuum all carpets thoroughly. Bedroom, even under the bookcase headboard--THERE's a challenge. Office--move even the printer tables and such. Living room, although we don't go in there often. Then there are the crevices around the mattress on the bed and other odd places. It's a lot of vacuuming! Usually I just sweep my kitchen, but for this I ought to vacuum around the edges anyway.

And bathing the dogs--ugh, I just have no energy for that this week.

And why am I doing this? For the last week or two, Boost has been scratching more and more often, and last night she woke me up several times scratching scratching scratching. I'm not seeing any obvious flea signs, but at Scottsdale in the trailer we rented, one evening I caught a flea hopping on the bed. So I'm thinking that she picked 'em up from the trailer or from being around zillions of who knows what kinds of dogs with what kinds of flea care for 5 solid days.

I'm only a week late with the latest application of Frontline because I ran out and I wanted to get it on sale this coming weekend--it's a bit pricey. But it sure beats all this work!