Trick Dogs

Warning: This is a long one, but its worth it....

Yesterday was a big day for the Hamlin pups. Reyna finished off the requirements for her Expert Trick Dog title, Duncan completed the requirements for his Intermediate Trick Dog title, and Kodiak did all the exercises needed for his Novice Trick Dog title. It was amazing! The pups all worked really hard yesterday (took us about two hours, I think). I really love the Trick Dog stuff. First, its tricks! Its just fun. Second, you can modify the tricks to accommodate dogs with health problems (like Reyna). And third, you don't have to pay huge entry fees and schlep all over the place hoping everything goes well during your one try. Instead, you just have to have a witness sign off on the tricks and you can do them over time and/or via video. Its great!

First up was Reyna. For the Expert Trick Dog, she had to complete 5 exercises. We chose Contraband Search, Find the Object with My Scent, Shell Game, Track a Person's Scent Trail, and Weave Poles.

Reyna completed her Contraband Search last week, which is pretty impressive since she wasn't feeling well at all. For this exercise, Reyna had to find a specific, non-food scent - we used tea tree oil - and indicate the object. If you watch her nose, you can see exactly how the air has moved the scent from the box in the corner, up the side of the table, and along the wall to the front of the room. Her article indication is nice and clear - pawing at the object.



The Track a Person's Scent Trail exercise was really easy for Reyna - she's never forgotten her SAR training. We did this exercise back in May, shortly before she got sick. I didn't realize just how glad I'd be we did this one early - at the time, I was thinking about the coming heat. Reyna hates to work outside when its hot, and who can blame her for that? Suzie is the handler in this exercise and I'm hiding. When they left the building, Suzie gave Reyna a scent article to sniff so she'd know who she was tracking. You can tell Reyna's really following my footsteps when her head is down, and she's air scenting when her head comes up.



While we were out tracking, we had Reyna Find the Object with My Scent. Like the Contraband Search, she had to clearly indicate the article, which in this case was one of my socks.



Weave Poles - which she did yesterday - are hard for Reyna. With her hips all wonky, she can't weave like the dogs who do agility, but we're allowed to adjust the poles to accommodate that. We're going to keep working on these, because Suzie and I both think that with more time she can make it look a bit more like regular weave poles. But you know, if she can't, its okay.



Reyna also played the Shell Game yesterday. She has to indicate which cup is hiding the treats. She's such a silly girl!



Next was Duncan. He had to complete 12 exercises for Intermediate Trick Dog. We chose Find Hidden Treats, Leave It, Heel Forward, Hide and Seek, Leg Weave, Pick a Card from the Deck, Over/Under, Which Hand Holds the Treat, Figure 8's (2 points), and Pull a Cart (2 points).

Figure 8's are considered an Advanced trick, which is why he gets 2 points towards his title for these. This is something he learned years ago for freestyle, so he's pretty good at them.



He's not so good at Finding Hidden Treats, though. I thought about editing out the first part of this, but its such a great example of his personality. Duncan is willing to try pretty much anything I ask of him, but he's just not a nose dog.



Okay, yeah, this one's a gimme. After all, if he couldn't Heel, he certainly wouldn't have any rally titles.



This was another fun one. In Hide and Seek, Duncan has to come find me, which he does very easily. And then it got a bit silly when we tried to get out of the tunnels. Duncan really loves tunnels.



Leave It is another trick that Duncan learned a long time ago. Sometimes, if I distract him at just the right time, he'll actually forget there's a treat on his paw.



Leg Weaves are something Duncan and I never put into our freestyle routines. I really think they're harder than Figure 8's, but that mostly due to Duncan's size. I don't know many people who could look graceful trying to swing their leg over such a tall dog.



The Over/Under is another easy one for Duncan. Suzie missed almost the entire "over" portion, but if you watched the video of Duncan's Level 2 run, you know he can jump.



Duncan was not in the mood to Pick a Card from the Deck yesterday, which is why I'm so glad you can use tricks done on previous days.



Pull a Cart is another trick where the video option is really beneficial. There's no way I could get all three pups and Duncan's cart in the truck so Suzie could watch him pull it during a regular session. This video clip is from last year, but he's still working on his carting skills. Its considered an Expert trick, so it also gets 2 points towards his Intermediate title.



Which Hand Holds the Treat? Well, that would be the hand Duncan is chewing...



Finally, it was Kodiak's turn. I'd spent most of the last week recording as many tricks as possible at home, just in case we got to Suzie's and he decided to be afraid of air. Hey, its happened. For Novice Trick Dog, Kodiak had to do 12 exercises. We chose Come, Crawl, Down, Fetch (Not to Hand), Take It, Catch, Hoop Jump, Jump Over a Bar, Kennel Up, Place, Tug, Shake Hands, Side, Sit, Spin Circles, Stay, Touch Target, Touch My Hand, Tunnel, and Walk on a Loose Leash. Yep, that's right, Kodiak's an over-achiever - he did an amazing 20 tricks! And even more impressive, we only had to use one of the videos I took at home. He did all the rest of the tricks yesterday at Suzie's.

Catch, Take It and Tug are some of Kodiak's favorites. I brought some of his squeaky toys with us so he didn't have to worry about unfamiliar items.



Crawl is something Kodiak learned just in the last week. Suzie says he looks like an inchworm, and I have to agree. He's so stinking cute!



Fetch (Not to Hand) is something Kodiak loves to do. He spends a lot of time every day running after a ball or toy and bringing them back to me. For this trick he doesn't have to actually put the toy in my hand, just get it close to me.



The Hoop Jump has been a huge challenge for Kodiak. Those tire jumps are terrifying for a formerly feral pup. He's finally conquered his fear - for now.



If you thought the Hoop Jump was scary, well, those uprights make it really hard for Kodiak to Jump Over a Bar. He's still scared of the one sitting in my back yard. But this...this was just amazing. Not only did he go over the bars without me, he even went over some that were fairly high for a pup his size.



Kennel Up is the trick that we used the video from home. Suzie has a crate at her place, but I really didn't want to stress Kodiak by trying to get him in a strange crate. Besides, he was really cute in this one.



This one is a bunch of basic obedience stuff - things he has to know to do puppy level rally - Walk on a Loose Leash, Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Place, and Side.



Shake and Touch are tricks we started working on not long after Kodiak moved into the house.



Spin Circles is a relatively new trick for the pup. His "Twist" to his left seems to be a bit better than his "Spin" to the right, which is why that one made the final video cut.



Target is also fairly new. The goal is to go to the object I point to and touch it with his nose or paw. We have a little target pad that we use, and sometime Kodiak likes to mix things up by grabbing the target pad and running off with it.



Tunnel is at least as frightening as the jumps. I finally had to borrow a tunnel from Suzie and leave it in the living room for several days. He may not be tearing through the tunnels like Duncan, but at least he's willing to go through it now. And did you notice? It actually moved a bit and Kodiak didn't freeze or panic. Thats major progress.



I'm so proud of all three pups. They've worked really hard for their respective titles, each in their own way.

Loki

Happy 13th birthday, fluffy boy!

Togetherness

You know, getting a picture of the two of them together isn't as easy as you might think. Its a shame, since they're such a good looking pair.

Advanced Trick Dog

On May 12 (yes, nearly a month ago), Reyna earned her Advanced Trick Dog title. Her certificate came in last week, I think. I know, its taken me much longer than usual to get this posted, but I've been distracted by other things, like Reyna being sick. She's still sick (vomiting and lots of diarrhea today, fun!), but I decided it was past time to post something happy for Reyna.

The timing was actually pretty good for earning the title, because we did it before she got sick. She wasn't feeling really spiffy due to the recent addition of new pain meds, but she was willing (and able) to do her thing. Naturally, Suzie and I both forgot to have the video camera handy, so these clips are all of the second run-through. Reyna did a lot better the first time around, but what can you expect? I'm sure she thought we were complete idiots for asking her to do everything again, after she'd already done a perfectly lovely job the first time.

To earn her Advanced Trick Dog title, Reyna had to perform 5 tricks chosen from a list of 25 choices. Reyna showed off Chorus Line Kicks, Figure 8's, Find the Keys, Play Dead, and Object Guard.

This is Reyna's version of the Chorus Line Kicks. This particular trick is something she came up with years ago when we were first starting in musical freestyle, and its something she still defaults to if she doesn't want to do whatever I'm asking.



Her Figure 8's through my legs are usually a little more impressive, but again, this is the second time she had to do it.



You can't actually see the truck keys, but trust me, they're in the box she flipped over. She picked this trick up in no time at all (she'd done it once or twice the week before). All I did was show her the keys, give them to Suzie to hide, and then tell her to Find the Keys.



Reyna always dies very dramatically and it occasionally takes a long time to Play Dead...



I kept this entire clip, even though the camera is all over the place and Reyna really doesn't do the Object Guard like she's supposed to. But it was just too funny to not show. The idea of this trick is that she puts her front paws on the rug thats on the table and then she stands firm while someone tries to pull the rug out from under her feet. She's not supposed to move or let the person take the rug. The first time through, thats exactly what she did. This time was a different story...



Thats my silly, smart girl!

News From The Vet

Dr. Lapham called last night. The good news is that the UPC showed protein levels are down! They're still high enough to cause some concern, but they're definitely headed in the right direction. We'll check them again in few weeks, but Dr. Lapham is very happy about how far they've dropped. The bad news is that Reyna's still not feeling well, but her symptoms are all over the place. I'm positive she does this to make me crazy. The vet has no good ideas on where to go from here, so we finally decided to keep doing what we're doing and see how she is a week from now (unless there's a significant change in symptoms).

Reyna Update

I took Reyna to the vet today so she could pee in a cup. This was for the follow-up UPC test (30 days since the first one). With luck we'll have the results of the UPC tomorrow and maybe have a slightly better idea of what's going on with her kidneys.

Reyna started having stomach issues again Sunday week ago. The vet sent her a few days of sucralfate, which is what she took during the first bout of stomach troubles a few weeks ago. There's been some improvement but not a lot, and she's certainly not responding to the meds like she did last time. I've emailed the vet with an update on her symptoms, and we'll talk about what to do for her when we talk about the UPC results.

Reyna and Rally

This was a stressful weekend, but it ended up a lot better than I expected.

Reyna is definitely feeling much better than she did last week. The vet said we should see a significant improvement from the medication in a very short time and he was right. She was able to eat (and keep down) dinner Friday night and breakfast Saturday morning. She seemed a bit annoyed at how little food I gave her, but I was just following doctor's orders. John came to check on her while I was at the rally trial with the boys, and he said she was relatively energetic and didn't seem to feel too bad. Saturday evening, she actually had more pep than the boys or I did. Sunday morning, she was definitely disgruntled by the bland diet and small portions, which I took to be a sign of returning good health. By Sunday evening, she was acting as though she'd never had tummy troubles. She still has some meds to finish and I'm not taking her off the bland diet (its rice and stewed rabbit tonight) until the vet says its okay. I'll probably chat with him later this afternoon or early tomorrow.

The rally trial was a complete success for the boys. I'm so glad I made the decision to go (although I'm not thrilled that I'm still finding small ticks embedded in various parts of my anatomy).

Duncan ran four Level 1 courses and four Level 2 courses over the weekend. He already has his RL1 title, so the level 1 courses are for earning his RL1X championship, as well as earning points towards his ARCH title. He had very nice scores of 203, 199, 199 and 204 (out of 210 possible points). Duncan was also working on his RL2 title. He NQ'd his first run Saturday morning because he decided to refuse the jump at the last second. Silly boy. He redeemed himself that afternoon, though, with no hesitation at the jump at all. He took 1st place in his group for his remaining three level 2 runs, with scores of 201, 197 and 207, and earned his title.

He also earned quite a lot of loot during the trial - 7 qualifying ribbons, 3 first place ribbons, and 4 toys.

Here's Duncan's Level 1 run from Sunday morning:

And his Level 2 run, also from Sunday morning:

As proud as I am of Duncan, I have to admit that I've come to expect good things from him. Poor guy, he had no idea what he was getting himself into when he did so well at his first rally trial...

Kodiak, on the other paw, didn't have quite the same pressure on him (my hopes were high, but my expectations were low). I was very pleased with how well he handled all the people at the trial. He was quick to remember that those folks usually have food in their pockets. He didn't become great friends with anyone, but he did let several people pet him (with a bribe, of course). Thankfully, both judges were good about not scaring him in the ring, staying far enough back that they didn't freak him out too badly. Kodiak was entered in Puppy Level, which meant I got to treat him at any point during the course. Believe me, he needed it. Saturday he did better than I expected, although he wasn't able to focus on me as well as I'd hoped. He ended up with a 180 and a 192, both very respectable scores (lowest qualifying score is a 170). Sunday morning, he started out fairly well but went downhill rapidly. He broke a sit/stay when I accidentally brushed his tail with my foot, and then he completely lost it when a dog in the room started barking and just would not shut up. I barely got him back to finish that course, and not surprisingly, he NQ'd. Sunday afternoon was a different story. A lot of the people were gone, which I'm sure helped. That run was the best one of the weekend. He was focused (for the most part), I didn't have to repeat commands, and he even wagged his tail a few times. We finished that run with a 202 and Kodiak's Puppy title! Since we were able to qualify this weekend, Kodiak can stay in Puppy until he's 18 months old, which gives him time to practice and gain more confidence before he has to go into Level 1. 

Kodiak even relaxed enough to have his picture taken with the judge that gave him his title leg.

Kodiak also came away from the trial with a lot of goodies - 3 qualifying ribbons, 3 first place ribbons (he was the only puppy competing, so 1st place was a given, but still cool), and 4 toys.

The run that I had recorded just happened to be the best of the weekend, Sunday afternoon:

I'm so proud of both of my boys, and I'm so happy that Reyna's feeling like herself again. This was just a great weekend all the way around.

Rally

Reyna still looks like she feels awful, but she's managed to eat and keep down the small amounts of rice and ground bison that I gave her for dinner and breakfast. I feel guilty about it already, but I'm taking the boys to the rally trial today. Tomorrow will depend on how Reyna does. John is coming over today to check on Reyna, thank goodness, so at least I'll get an update while I'm gone. A friend offered to provide an extra crate for Reyna at the trial, but I really think she'll be happier snoozing on her own bed than hanging out in a crate all day.

Reyna

Its never a good sign when Reyna wipes out my checking account during a vet visit. Granted, its not like there was a lot in there to begin with, but still...

The vet is definitely concerned about Reyna. He's hoping this is nothing more than a mild gastrointestinal upset, but its possible its connected to the high protein levels in her urine. Her temp was normal, which is good. Vet said she didn't appear very dehydrated, but he's worried that her kidneys are working too hard at keeping her hydrated and therefore not doing everything else they should. He was also disturbed by her rough/heavy breathing and her lethargic behavior during the visit. Vet gave her anti-nausea meds and another med that will coat her stomach and intestines. If she has an ulcer or other irritation, the med should essentially create a bandage over that spot. Reyna's stuck on a bland diet for a few days (assuming she'll even eat) and I'm not to give her very much. Basically, she'll get a bit of food, we'll see if she eats it, and then make sure she keeps it down. Vet said he's not worried about her losing weight nearly as much as he's worried about her eating at all. Vet also said that these meds should result in a significant improvement in a very short time (like tomorrow), so he wants an update tomorrow afternoon. If she's still having trouble after a couple of days, he said x-rays and/or ultrasounds to pinpoint the problem are a possibility. Of course, I also need to make sure she's getting enough water.

Now, to make this whole thing just that much more fun, Duncan and Kodiak have a rally trial this weekend and we won't be here during the day Saturday and Sunday. If I withdraw the boys, I lose all of the entry fees, along with the time and effort we've put in to getting ready for the trial. And Kodiak loses the chance to compete at Puppy Level for the rest of the year. I don't have an extra crate so I can't take Reyna with me (she would hate spending the day there, anyway). I hate to leave her home alone, but I also hate to cancel the trial. We'll see how she does tonight, and I'll make a decision in the morning.

Posting Delays

I had planned to get a few posts done this morning, but instead I'm heading to the vet in a bit. Reyna's thrown up multiple times in the last couple of days and now she's refusing to eat.

Not Ehrlichia

Finally got the results of Reyna's tick titer. Not only does she not have an active ehrlichia infection, her titer is actually lower than it was last year. Thankfully, this means we don't have to suffer through a month of Reyna on antibiotics (and I'm so glad I insisted on the test, rather than just starting the meds as the vet suggested). The downside of this is that we still don't know what's causing the high protein levels. Vet wants us to come back around June 6 (one month after the first test) for a follow-up UPC. If the number has increased, we're possibly looking at ultrasounds and biopsies. If its decreased, we count ourselves lucky and just keep a close eye on things.

More Reyna

Chatted with the vet again. He thinks the lab has enough blood to run the tick test, but he'll confirm tonight. We talked a bit about what we'll do if the titer doesn't indicate an active infection. We can treat with doxy anyway, if I'm willing to put Reyna (and the rest of us) through a month of her being sick every day. If I choose to not do that, she'll go back in a month and have another UPC test done to see if/how the results change. There really aren't any other easy-to-test options; most everything else requires ultrasounds and/or biopsies. So, if the titer comes back positive, we treat for a month and then retest. If it comes back negative, we could treat anyway, but we still wait a month before we retest.

NIMBY

When I took the pups out last night for their pre-bedtime potty, I looked over at the catiary and saw that Khar'pern was playing with something. At first, I thought a bug had gotten inside and she was tormenting it. Or maybe even a toad. When I walked over to see what it was, I realized she was hissing and pouncing at this:

I firmly believe that snakes have a place in the world. I just as firmly believe that that place is not in my yard, in my catiary, in my house, or anywhere near me, my dogs, or my cats. I don't know what kind of snake it was (waiting on my snake expert to get back to me on that), and it was a little thing, thank goodness, but I still didn't want it in the catiary. You can't really tell from the picture (I was focused more on getting the color than I was the position), but it was holding about half of its body off the ground while it hissed and snapped at Khar. After throwing gently encouraging Khar back into the house, I took a couple of photos for identification purposes, and then I proceeded to hack the snake into multiple pieces with my (what else?) hacksaw. I felt much better after tossing the pieces over the fence into the woods. Now I just have to figure out how the thing slithered into the catiary. I'm thinking there may be a small hole that needs patching...

Reyna

Got the call from the vet a little bit ago. The Urine Protein:Creatinine Ratio (UPC) test shows that the level of protein in Reyna's urine is definitely higher than it should be; high enough that we need to start looking for the cause, but not quite high enough to put us in a panic. Apparently, there are a lot of things that could cause the abnormality (of course, because nothing can be simple). One possibility is ehrlichia, a tick-borne illness. Reyna had a low positive for ehrlichia last year but wasn't showing any symptoms, so we didn't worry about it since a low positive can indicate an old exposure/inactive infection. The vet thinks its possible that Reyna has been re-exposed and is reacting to that exposure. His recommendation was to put her on doxycycline for a month and then retest her urine. The problem with that plan is that Reyna always gets sick on antibiotics, so I don't want to give them to her unless we know there's a good reason. The vet is checking with the lab to see if they have enough blood for one more test. If not, we'll go by tomorrow so they can take some from Reyna. The lab will run a tick titer to see if her ehrlichia number has changed and become high enough to indicate an active infection. If yes, we'll treat. If no, I'm not sure what we'll do.

Not Good News

The vet called this afternoon with the results of Reyna's blood test. Her amylase was a little off, but that's apparently not a big deal. What is potentially a big deal is that her protein levels were abnormal. She has a low albumin level, a high globulin level, and very high protein levels in her urine. The vet said this could be caused by any number of things, from very minor to very major. He has the lab running another test (should have the results tomorrow) to give him some specific numbers that will tell him if this is just something we need to monitor as time passes (minor) or if its something that we need to identify the cause of immediately (major). Cross your paws for her.

Belated Birthdays

My slackness in posting means I have a couple of belated birthdays to mention.

Mirabelle turned 14 in April. I can't believe we've been together so many years!


The kittens all turned 6 in April. Khar'pern, Parm and Per'la have certainly made life in the clowder a little more interesting.




Happy belated birthdays, Belle and Kittens!

Mother's Day

The kids gave me a great present – they let me sleep until 7:30 Sunday morning! The cats usually wake me up at least once before 6am, and the puppy normally forces me to get up absolutely no later than 6:30, so 7:30 felt downright decadent.

Medical Update

Reyna saw the vet yesterday for her senior wellness exam. It was a good thing we booked extra time because we used every minute of it. Overall, Reyna is very healthy (ignoring her mental issues, of course). As always, her hips are the main concern. She yelped several times when the vet checked her left hip, and was a little fussy when he checked her right. The right hip is the bionic hip, so it should be better than the left. What neither of us really expected was just how bad her left hip has become. The vet said there's absolutely no cushioning (cartilage) on the joint anymore - its nothing but bone crunching on bone. Since surgery is completely out of the question at this point, the only thing we can do is try to manage her pain. The vet gave me a couple of weeks worth of Tramadol for Reyna, and if it helps, he'll prescribe a nice big bottle for her. If not, we'll add another med or try something else. She'll also keep getting her full dose of Rimadyl, as well as her regular supplements. The vet also wants Reyna to do her cavaletti exercises three times a week for the next two weeks to see if she'll start lifting her back feet. That's the other problem - she's dragging her back feet (along with falling a lot) and we can't tell if its the start of a neurological problem or just the result of really painful hips. If she's picking up her feet to get over the cavaletti bars within two weeks, then we can assume its just the orthopedic issue of bad hips. If she's still dragging after two weeks, though, we're most likely looking at the onset of a neurological deficiency. My poor little girl. She's had such a rough time of it with her hips. I'd really like to find the people who bred her parents and slap them several times.

In other medical news, Duncan is now being treated for whipworms. The vet checked with several specialists about what might be causing Duncan's issues, and the general consensus is that there's a low-level intestinal irritation (there's a shocker), and whipworms are a potential cause. So Duncan's on meds for three days, and then we'll see what happens (or doesn't happen) after that.

Catching Up

Yes, I know, its been over a month since my last post. There's been a lot going on, but I just haven't felt like getting on here and writing about any of it. I'm starting to feel motivated again, so I will catch up on most of the goings on, but it'll probably take me a few days. I guess its a good thing I don't have any plans for the weekend....

To get things started, here's a quick sum-up:

We survived the tornadoes that came through the area on the 16th. We were very lucky, because there was significant damage pretty close to our neighborhood. Thanks so much to everyone who checked on us!

The cats are...well, they're the cats. Not a lot going on with them. Five of the six are using the catiary on a regular basis, which is good (Belle prefers to spend her time on the love seat in the library).

Reyna has been having a lot of bad days lately. She's started falling a lot and needs help getting into the truck every time now. She's shown a few other odd behaviors, but she still occasionally acts like her old self. She sees the vet this Friday for her annual exam, and the nice receptionist booked us some extra time to make sure we're not rushed.

Duncan's butt is still having difficulties. He's been back on his old kibble for more than a month with no significant change. His fecal exam came back negative for parasites, so the vet's still scratching his head over this one.

Kodiak is doing really nicely. He's gaining more confidence every day and I think he actually stands a chance of Q'ing at the upcoming rally trial. My Great German Chow finally has his official name: ReyDunc's Wiley Little Bear.

Here's how Kodiak likes to ride in the truck. Notice the nose sticking out the window behind him? That's how Reyna likes to ride...



Mary and I took Kodiak to Crowder Park for a Doggy Easter Egg Hunt on the 23rd. He wasn't the least bit interested in the kibble-filled eggs, but he did a great job of interacting with the other dogs and people. He even managed to relax enough to pose a few times.

Great German Chow

According to the DNA results, Kodiak is....

1 - German Shepherd
2 - Chow Chow
3 - Great Pyrenees

He's a Great German Chow!