Fluffernutter

Meet my newest foster pup, Fluffernutter. No, thats not really his name. He doesn't actually have one yet, but I have to call him something until he gets a real name. He's a sweet little GSD (with a bit of Chow thrown in) pup, about 12 weeks old, give or take. He was found by an animal control worker a couple of weeks ago, I think. I'll admit, I'm a little fuzzy on the details. What I am clear on is that he was close to feral when she found him. He's doing a lot better now, but definitely needs some work before he can go to his new home. He's adoptable through Southeast German Shepherd Rescue. If you have any ideas on a name, let me know. I think the rescue is going to pick a name from suggestions made by Facebook and blog fans.

Love Thy Neighbor

I have wonderful neighbors (assuming you're ignoring the white trash woman and her druggie friends a few houses down). One of my neighbors has helped me several times with my gardening and yard work, she brings treats for the dogs at least once a week, and this morning she started teaching me how to crochet. Another neighbor had me over for Thanksgiving, has invited me to join her family for Christmas and New Year's, takes me to lunch occasionally, and just brought over a home-cooked dinner. How great is that?

You Gotta Be Kidding Me

Its December, right? I didn't doze off and wake up in mid-March, right? Cause mid-March is when tick season starts around here. I THOUGHT it ended a while back - haven't seen ticks on the dogs since August. Until the other day, that is. Yesterday, I pulled a small tick off of Reyna - it was making its way across her forehead. The day before, I pulled one off her cheek. Unfortunately, that one had taken the time to embed itself and suck a little blood before it died. Since I've not found any ticks on me, they must not be in the yard. The only thing I can figure is that maybe she picked them up while sniffing some of the fresh roadkill during one of our walks. But its ridiculous. Its DECEMBER, for crying out loud. Don't the ticks know they aren't supposed to be bothering us now??

Glad That's Over

Thanksgiving and Christmas aren't my favorite times of the year (other than the awesome pictures of the pups with Santa Paws, of course), so I'm happy that Thanksgiving week is finally over. I had to work Thursday through Monday at the kennel. Yes, I know a great many people work 5 days in a row, and most work more hours than I did, but I'm just not used to that anymore. Not surprisingly, Reyna's not used to it, either. Some of her old annoying behaviors showed up after a couple of days. It was obvious that she was responding to me not being home, and I'm reasonably sure the resulting lack of exercise also played a role. Reyna's seems to be better tonight, thankfully. I took both pups for 4 mile walks yesterday and today, and she's settling back into her normal behavior.

Just before Thanksgiving, I had some trouble with the ESC - ended up going two weeks with no money. That was rather painful, but everything's been resolved. I think. I also had a go-round with the mortgage company. They denied my loan modification because they couldn't get in touch with me. They finally said that someone had deleted my phone number from my account information. Oddly enough, that wasn't mentioned when I called them on November 5th to talk about the foreclosure letters I'd received and get an update on the modification. Regardless, we settled on a temporary solution, which is a special forbearance that will let me keep the house through the end of May, as long as I jump through the hoops they've specified. In June, we'll revisit all of this. Always something fun to worry about during the holidays...

I was hoping to be able to relax yesterday, but I ended up running several errands. I was trying to find a way to postpone them, but Belle kept screaming about how the cats didn't have any food (and let me tell you, she's a shrieker)and Duncan was whining about how low the pups were on kibble. What choice did I have? After going by Gourmutt's, I went to the dreaded Wal-Mart. Guess how annoyed I was to discover that I had to go by Food Lion after that, too? I spent a good bit of time today on the tax prep class I'm taking (I've really got to get more done with that) - Reyna doesn't really care what I spend my time doing, as long as I'm doing it at home. Tomorrow, the pups have their tricks/rally class, and if I'm feeling really energetic, we might swing by the herding group lesson on the way home. Maybe. Not sure yet. I get my kennel paycheck Friday, and I'm planning to go by Lowe's to get the PVC I need to make a practice jump for Duncan. I'm sure he'll be thrilled when he has to start working on that, but he's got to be comfortable with jumps by the 12th, when I'm hoping he'll be moving up into Advanced at the Rally trial.

Santa Paws 2010

The pups and I continued our Christmas tradition this year - they had their pictures taken with Santa Paws to benefit the SPCA (and give me a great 8x10 for my wall). We went Sunday in the first available slot to minimize the drama. I think the pictures turned out really nice, and I'm leaning towards the next to last for the 8x10. Here are the pictures that the photographer thought were the best, in the order taken:

Trick Dogs

Both pups earned their Novice Trick Dog titles last week (the certificates arrived yesterday). To earn the title, the pups had to perform several tricks in front of a witness. The tricks were from a list provided by the organization that sponsors the titles. Tricks are worth one or two points, depending on the difficulty, and 15 points are required for Novice. Reyna is nearly ready to go for her Intermediate title, and I have no doubt that she'll earn her Advanced and Expert Trick Dog titles. Duncan will take longer to get there, but that's okay, since he's working on Rally these days.

Zoom Zoom

I’ve been working with the trainer that Duncan and I met at the Mutt Strut a few weeks ago. I originally contacted her to find out about Rally classes, but decided to take a different route. Instead, Reyna, Duncan and I are doing private lessons with the trainer. Reyna is focusing on tricks and really working her brain, with some physical stuff thrown in for fun. Duncan will eventually start working on tricks, but for now, we’re working on Rally stuff. The pups take turns working, and have a nice carpeted place they can rest during their breaks.

Yesterday was a blast. Reyna showed off her new “which hand has the cookie” and “shell game” tricks, and then started working on putting her paws on my arm and saying her prayers. During her break, Duncan worked on better positioning for Rally and started learning pivots (going right, he can do; left, not so much). Then we pulled out several jumps and the tunnel and started working with those. That’s when Reyna took a real interest in what he was doing. I sent Duncan over to rest for a bit, and Reyna came flying out of the rest area. She was running between me and the trainer, bowing and bouncing and bounding and zooming around the room. Popping through the tunnel, sometime going over the jumps, sometimes going around the jumps. Back and forth, around and around. This went on for several minutes. She was so happy, and so clearly enjoying herself. I haven’t seen her act like that in years, and I couldn’t help but grin the entire time.

Good Boy!

Duncan had his first ever Rally Obedience trial this past weekend. We drove to Mebane Friday and Saturday evenings for the Triangle Shetland Sheepdog Club show. Yes, I know Duncan isn’t a Sheltie, but they had Rally trials for Herding Group dogs as part of the show. I figured it would be a good first try, since the Herding Group trial wasn’t going to be huge.

The best I was really hoping for was that we’d qualify, although I’d have also settled for not horribly embarrassing ourselves. Duncan really impressed me, though. He did a great job, scoring 93 (out of 100) and taking first place in his group both nights. He earned two legs towards his AKC Rally Novice title. The poor boy, he doesn’t know what he’s done to himself. After all, if he can do that well on his first time out, just think what he can accomplish with some practice and experience! We need to work on his position, as he likes to swing out a bit, but that’s certainly fixable. Our next goal is the Rally trial in Winston-Salem in mid-December. It would be great if he could get his third leg and title that weekend!

Puppy Crack

On our way to Duncan's club meeting Wednesday evening, we stopped at Gourmutt's Bakery to stock up on supplies. As usual, Duncan was asked if he'd like a cookie. Normally, Duncan will very politely take the cookie from the employee and place it on the floor. He never actually eats the cookie there, but will usually eat it once we get home. Well, Wednesday night was a different story. Tina, the owner, offered him a piece of puppy crack, rather than the usual cookie. Duncan sucked up that puppy crack like it was, well, crack for puppies. It was amazing. Naturally, I bought a container of it. I've been using it during training for the upcoming Rally trial - if he knows I have puppy crack in my pocket, he'll do just about anything I ask. I'm hoping that'll help him focus on me long enough to complete the Rally course.

Bellyrubs Freeze-Dried Chicken Livers, aka Puppy Crack

Grab Bag

Duncan and I went to the Canine Carnival and Mutt Strut yesterday. The weather was pretty crappy, but we still had fun. We got to meet Steve and Laura, which was great. I really hope they met the dog who will become their newest family member. We also met a couple of dog trainers that we just might start working with. I certainly got along with them, and they didn’t even seem concerned by the thought of Reyna and all her alpha bitchiness.

We left the event a bit early to do a home visit for Gus. Our foster pup will be going to his new (and, I hope, permanent) home this coming Friday. I really like the folks and I think this will be a great place for Gus (soon to be Max).

After a miserable 30 days, Reyna is finally off the antibiotics. Her leg looks a lot better, and I really hope we don’t have to go through this again anytime soon. We went for a nice long walk this afternoon, and I didn’t even have to stop and think about when she’d had her meds, when she’d had her yogurt, or if it was too warm for her (not that a high temperature was a major concern today). She did a full 4.25 miles with no sign of trouble. She doesn’t have the speed she did, but I figure in a week or so we’ll be back to the speed and distances we were doing before.

Duncan’s got a Rally trial this weekend, so he gets to take it easy. No long walks for him – with my luck, his knee would start acting up and he’d be limping his way through the course. He will, of course, being doing a bit of training this week, but not so much that he gets grumpy about it.

We had a semi-failed experiment this week. Poor Parm (the cat who lives outside in the crate because of his Inappropriate Behavior) cries a lot. I’m sure its because he wants to come back inside, but I thought some of it might also be loneliness. I decided to put his sister, Per’la, in the crate with him to see if that made him feel better. Well, the pitiful meowing stopped, but the pissed off meowing started with a vengeance. Not only was Per’la upset about being in the crate, but Parm was mad, too. Turns out Per’la booted Parm out of the kitty condo, and he was stuck sitting on top of the condo or on the crate tray, neither of which are particularly warm. So, after trying that for a couple of days, I let Per’la come back inside. She’s much happier, and even Parm’s meowing has eased off. I guess he’s happy enough by himself.

No Place Like Home

Tuesday, the pups and I headed west to visit the family for several days. We stayed at the cabin at Dad’s, which was great, because it meant we had privacy and a place for the pups to run. It rained all day Wednesday, so we just hunkered down for the day. I read, the pups slept, and during dry spells we’d go outside for a quick walk. We visited Mom and Ronnie on Thursday, and Ganna on Friday. Saturday, Josh, his family and Ganna came out to Dad’s for lunch. The kids are cute, but wow, they’re loud and energetic. We were all exhausted by the time they headed home. The pups and I were very happy to come home Sunday. It’s a toss-up as to who was happier, me or Reyna. The poor girl stopped at the truck every time we walked past it, clearly asking if we could go home.

We did have a bit of excitement Saturday night. The pups and I were walking back up to the cabin when Reyna cornered a possum. It was hissing at her, and as I was grabbing her collar to pull her away, Duncan swooped around from behind, snatched up the possum, shook it twice and then tossed it off to the side. He then looked at me and gave me a big doggy grin. Naturally, I told him he was a very good boy. I checked the possum, and I’m pretty sure Duncan didn’t actually kill it (although I didn’t actually check for a pulse). There was no blood and no obvious puncture wounds, just a lot of slobber. Its possible Duncan snapped its neck or back, but his death shake has always been more disorienting than fatal… Sunday morning, there was no sign of the possum, so it either got up and ran away when the coast was clear, or a coyote ate it without leaving a trace. My guess is that it “played possum” until we left, then ran home, thanking the possum gods that it got away with minimal damage.

Injured List

Reyna’s still on antibiotics (17 days to go!), and we’ve figured out a way to keep the tummy troubles to a minimum. She gets yogurt an hour before and two hours after her meal and meds. If we vary from that too much, it shows. She’s also gotten to where she can walk with me again, as long as its no more than 2 miles round trip, its been at least 8 hours since her meds, and its not too hot. Sigh.

Duncan’s finally off the injured list. Since Reyna’s not able to walk with me as much, Duncan was volunteered to fill in. He walked 4 miles Saturday and another 4 Sunday, which was a bit too much for him. His knee started bothering him Sunday evening, and then his annual exam at the vet Monday morning didn’t help. He had several days off, though, and was able to do an easy 2 miles with me this morning.

Gus is to blame for Duncan’s excessive walking over the weekend. Gus is a GSD we’ve been fostering, and he’s a bit under a year old. He’d gone to a potential home, but was returned this past Saturday. Based on what the person described, I think we know why Gus was found as a stray… At any rate, I decided the easiest way to burn some of his puppy energy was a nice long walk. He has awful leash manners, though, so I needed one of the dogs to go with us. Reyna wasn’t really an option, so that stuck Duncan with the task. Duncan did a wonderful job of correcting several of Gus’ bad behaviors, and by the end of the 4 miles each day, Gus was walking very nicely. We’ve not been able to walk since Sunday, though, because Gus decided to launch himself off my porch rather than walk down the steps, and in doing so he injured his front leg. He seems to be moving more easily today, so I’m hoping he’ll be ready to go walking by the weekend.

I’m not actually on the injured list these days. I’m on the ho-hum list, instead. I’ll admit I’ve been feeling a bit blue lately. This week is 1 year since my last day at work (I’m not counting the kennel as work, since its part time, doesn’t pay the bills, etc). I can’t believe I’m still unemployed after a year. I’ve even had some people tell me they just assumed I wasn’t bothering to look, since I was getting paid by the government – because I enjoy living off of unemployment and worrying about when I’ll lose the house?? Sigh, again.

Then The Duckies

Duncan seems to enjoy herding ducks, although he also finds it a bit frustrating (or maybe thats just me). Ducks don't herd like sheep at all, so we're both having to learn new techniques.

First The Sheepies...

Duncan and I had a nice long herding session on the 1st of the month. While we were there, I asked our trainer to get a few photos of Duncan working. Turns out that Claire not only does a wonderful job of training dogs and their people, she also takes some great photos.

Duncan is in every one of these pictures, although you might have to really look for him in a couple of them. Even when he appears to be relaxing, he's actually working pretty hard. He's either watching the sheep to make sure they don't wander off, patrolling the borders, moving the sheep back inside the graze, or herding them exactly where I need them to go. The last picture is of something very hard for him - he had to wait while I put the sheep back in the arena. The poor guy, its stressful for him when he thinks he's not doing his job, but he really was - he was making sure the sheep didn't bolt back into the yard. Still, I knew Duncan wanted to be right on the sheep, pushing them into the arena, but being the good boy he is, he waited...

Beach Puppy

A couple of weeks ago, Duncan and I went to Topsail Island with Renee and Zeke. We had a blast. The really great thing about Topsail is that dogs are allowed off-leash in the water and can be off-leash on the beach if they're under voice control.

Duncan had absolutely no understanding of the concept "don't walk on the spread." Oh, well. He was still really cute, especially when he was hiding under the towel.


Just relaxin' in the shade...


I love this shot. I was resting on the spread with Duncan snuggled up next to me. He was so alert, watching everyone go by, and really keeping an eye on a group of young guys that kept walking back and forth. After a while, his eyes started to droop, but he perked up when he noticed I was taking his picture.


Duncan had a lot of fun in the water. He even figured out pretty quickly that the best way to deal with the breakers was to turn his back to them.






Zeke didn't particularly want to play with Duncan - he was more interested in chasing his tennis ball. Duncan wasn't bothered by Zeke's attitude, though. He was perfectly happy to just chase after Zeke.




Pups and people alike had a lot of fun, and we were all pooped by the time we made it home. I don't know that I'd want to do a day at the beach very often, but I'm very glad we went.

Medical Updates

Yesterday, Reyna did our regular 4 mile walk with no trouble. I’m sure that’s because we walked before she had her morning antibiotics. Since today was a school day, walking before breakfast would have meant being out by 6am and home by shortly after 7 so that we wouldn’t have to fight the school traffic. I wasn’t really in the mood for that, so I decided we’d walk after she ate, but before it got too hot (it’s a fine line, especially when you have to work around traffic, too).

This morning went as follows: 6am yogurt, 7am breakfast and meds, 9am yogurt, 9:15 grocery store for more yogurt, and 9:45 out for our walk. Reyna made it just over a mile before she quit on me. She didn’t lay down like she did Saturday, but she was clearly miserable – lagging behind, stopping frequently, and frothing at the mouth (I swear, she’s not rabid). She wasn’t even going after passing vehicles with her usual enthusiasm. I'm going to give her the next few days off and see how she does. We'll try walking again when the temps cool off enough for us to go out later in the afternoon. I’d hate for her to take a full three weeks (or more) with no exercise, but I’m certainly not going to make her walk when she’s so uncomfortable.

On the upside, Duncan is definitely doing better. Even though Reyna didn’t want to walk, I still needed the exercise, so I took him out after bringing her home. Duncan and I walked a little over two miles, which is the farthest he's gone since he started having problems earlier this year. I kept him on the grassy shoulder and off the pavement for most of the walk, since his twist still causes damage to his pads when he’s on a hard surface. I did let him walk on the pavement some, mostly because I wanted to hear how he was hitting the ground. Even after the two miles, he wasn't dragging his rear feet. That’s a huge improvement.

The vet school called today with the results of Duncan’s blood test. His Ehrlichia titer is exactly the same as it was the first time, which means the month of Doxy was pretty much useless. Since the titer was the same, it means we didn’t treat an active infection, but we have no way of knowing if he had a low exposure years ago, or if he was fighting an active infection before we did the original test. I guess it doesn’t matter, really, since he’s doing so much better now. I was tickled at the vet, though, because he kept chattering on about what the titer might or might not mean, and how it does or doesn’t impact what type of future treatment they might or might not consider for Duncan. He went on like that for a good five minutes, and then he finally asked about Duncan.

The vet: Blah blah blah, titer, blah blah, no real way of knowing, blah blah, can’t treat what we can’t find, blah blah blah, keep an eye on him as he gets worse, blah blah blah. By the way, how is Duncan these days?

Me: Oh, he’s doing great. He’s higher on his hocks than he’s been in months, folks at our last herding session were talking about how good he looked, and he walked two miles this morning without dragging his feet.

The vet: Oh.

Me: I wish we knew what caused his troubles, but I’m just really happy that he’s doing so well.

The vet: Well, yes.

Me: Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on him, and if he starts to have problems again, I’ll bring him back in for a follow up.

The vet: Um, okay. Oh, do you have to give him Rimadyl very often?

Me: Nope. He hasn’t indicated that he’s having any trouble moving around, so I’ve not bothered with the Rimdayl.

The vet: Oh. Well. Good.

I like the neuro vet, but it really was funny to hear the bewilderment in his voice.

Reyna

So the good news is that (up until today) Reyna and I have been walking about 4 miles a day, 4-5 days a week. Occasionally, we walk farther. The cooler weather has been a wonderful thing, because it means we don’t have to be out before daylight, and that means we can walk farther because we don’t have to be home before the morning traffic gets really bad.

The bad news is that Reyna's obsessive licking has set off a nasty infection in her right front leg. Her tail isn’t looking so great, either, but at least it’s not infected. Yet. I took her to the vet yesterday and he put her on antibiotics. He wants her to do a course of about 3 weeks, but since she’s always had trouble with antibiotics, he only gave us about 10 days worth so we could see how she does. She’s also taking Pepcid and a lot of yogurt (probiotics) to help reduce any stomach troubles. I’m thinking she’s not going to do well. She had a dose last night and again this morning. When we went out for our walk, we got less than half a mile before she decided to just lay down on the side of the road. It took me several minutes to convince her to get back up. I didn’t want to push the issue, so we just headed home. As soon as we walked in the door, she went to her bed. I’m not really sure what we’re going to do, other than wait and see for a few more days. If she just can’t take the meds without getting sick, there’s apparently a shot she could get that’s supposed to be very effective. The problem is that it’s also very expensive (for example, the shot for a cat costs about $50, and the amount of med needed is based on weight, so imagine the cost difference between a 10lb cat and a 75lb dog). That may be the route we have to go, but let’s hope not. Cross your paws…