Fantabulous ...

... and late. This cold, dark winter stuff is not helping me stay up and write blog posts!

The weather Nov 10 & 11 might have been brutal (-20*C is not good for dog feet) but the weekend itself was awesome!

Spencer's vet appt on Thurs yielded favorable news. I was mentally prepared to hear he had  a grade 3/4 luxating patella, needed surgery and that any strenuous physical activity was out for the foreseeable future. The vet couldn't actually get his knee to pop out, since Spencer was pretty tense. There was more movement in his right vs his left so we went home with some glucosamine supplements and exercises to help strengthen his leg muscles and allow them to help hold his knee in place. As for activity, his behavior/performance should be a guide. For now we'll try the exercises and some rehab/physical therapy and hopefully hold the deterioration off and prevent the need for surgery.

The trial was almost as awesome as the news from the vet. I didn't get any pictures, but I did get video once I have a few free minutes to edit it!

The boys were fantastic. Baxter was so hyped to be playing agility again. He did very well and was very enthusiastic. He came home with 2 Master Jumpers, 1 Master Standard and 1 Master Gamblers Q's, so 4/8 runs, which is a whole lot better than we've been doing in the Q department recently! My performance with Baxter is a little hit and miss - "his mistakes" were really mostly all handler error, but I think I am getting a bit better?

Spencer was a awesome little dog for being in a new venue. He was a little nervous about the venue and had issues with pottying on Sat night/ Sun morning until our awesome agility friend let us borrow some of her fantastic dog booties so he could go poop in the snow. He was quite the baby dog with some silly little moments, but all in all I think he did fantastic. Looking back I realize that I should have done a lot more playing with him between/before runs, and getting him to tug, but he did very well.

Since I'm still working on his teeter, he was just entered in the games where I can avoid that obstacle without just running him past it. He ended up coming home with 2 Q's in Starter Gamblers and 1 Starter Snooker, Qing in 3/5 runs. So different from Baxter who didn't get a gamble for 6 months (I'm sure it helps that I know a little better what I am doing now!) In the exact opposite though, Jumpers is much harder with Spencer than it was with Baxter.