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.

Ups and Downs

It's been a interesting week and a bit, that's for sure.

First, we didn't get into the TT's Halloween trail, which was a bit of a disappointment. That was Baxter's "first" weekend trial last year. I even tried seeing if just Spencer could get in. Nada. I know, these things happen, but it's never fun to find out you got wait listed. I was looking forward to hopefully getting Baxter's MADC and a new club's title ribbon for the collection on my wall!

All dressed up, but no where to go

However allaying the disappointment, Monday night after the trial heralded a return to agility class. Something to look forward to! It's back in the Hebson Arena (super fun to find if you haven't ever been there, NOT!) I was interested in how Spencer would do in a new place. Especially a new place with mice/cats making regular appearances and horse poop to distract him from paying attention to me.

On the plus side, once we (I) braved the horrid fog that was as thick as pea soup and made our white knuckled way to the arena, Spencer wasn't too distracted to work. On the down side, the footing in this arena is different than any other surface we've run on before. It's regularly used as a riding arena and is quite loose/hard to run in sandy dirt. Spencer sometimes has a hitch in his stride where he skips with his right hind leg. This was VERY apparent at Hebson, due to the footing I think.

Dr. Google and some experienced dog people think it might be a luxating patella (slippy kneecap) which I knew was a congenital health issue, but I didn't realize that it isn't uncommon to develop it later in life as well. Several different vets have looked at him and no one has ever noticed him having issues, but because of the severity of it on Monday I want him checked out again to determine what exactly is up with him. It doesn't seem to bother him, but it sure bothers me!

Why do you keep looking at my leg lady?!

Baxter was also very happy to return to classes. Slightly less happy to share my attention with Spencer but still a very good boy. He did awesome and nailed his weave entry and was quicker to complete them. It was apparent enough that our instructor commented on how we must have been working on them over the summer. It was great to see my hard work paying off!

Spencer had a vet appointment with a rehab vet on Halloween to get his leg issue sorted out. That was the quickest I could get him in unless I wanted to wait over a week. The downside was the appt was for 5 and TT's Whee Wed trial that Baxter was entered in wants the first dog off the line at 7 - not a whole lot of time.

I figured it was more important to get Spencer checked out, and if we missed Baxter's first run it wasn't the end of the world. We got to the clinic really early, like 4:40ish, so we could get the first time paperwork and questions out of the way and still see the vet by 5.

Apparently I neglected to pay Murphy off so that my plan could go off without a hitch. The appointment before me was late getting there, since I doubt they only schedule 15 min between appointments. Then that dog needed extra diagnostic tests. THEN the owner got bad news (thin walls + waiting boredom = lots of overhearing.) So at 5:45 I went out to the front desk and asked to please reschedule since I had been waiting an hour by then. Which was annoying as I had to take time off work to get the dogs to make it to this appointment to begin with.

Cue panic that I'm not going to make it to Wet Creek in time for the trial! We made it though, with some time to spare, and no, I didn't break the sound barrier speeding to get there either.

So you'd think after our stellar Monday night class that we'd have some great runs, right? Maybe a couple Q's? Yep. Nope! Murphy strikes again and Baxter won't weave. First run he was good, just popped out early on the last pole. Ok, maybe I pulled off and didn't support them to the end? Rev him up, start him over and he does it great, maybe he just needed a reminder that yes, you do need to do all 12 poles here.

2nd run was team. This time he popped out of the weaves 3 from the end. Oookkkaayyy .... Put him back in, and babysit. Pop, 3 from the end again.

His jumpers run though, was lovely. His handler was just a noob and I didn't support/cue a jump properly so he missed it. I didn't think the angle was that odd while walking it, but several other dogs had the same issue.

Ah well. On the final up side. Today was time change. I love my dogs. No one moves in the morning until I go to get up. It's great. The dogs and I can sleep to noon or get up at 6 am, LOVE it! After the emotional roller coaster of a week, I needed the hour!

No! It's not up time yet!