Saturday, March 23, 2013

ANOTHER SETBACK...AGAIN

Marley has had recurrent front leg lameness intermittenly for a little over a year. It started with a sprained leg in Dec. 2011. After that, every few months Marley would become lame, limping with a front leg. Sometimes the limping was so severe she would hold the leg up and refuse to put weight on it. It seemed like it always occured on the weekend, so I would give her Rimadyl and watch her. Then usually by a day or so she would be fine. I've taken her into the vet a few times and they would do Xrays and say she sprained a toe.

A few weeks ago, she was having an accu/chiro treatment and the vet looked at her toe and noticed it was swollen. She thought it was broken so we went to get Xrays. Same old, same old. No break, just a toe sprain.

I went to another vet a week or so before the Shreveport trial. She felt Marley was suffering from a neck strain and prescribed steroids and muscle relaxers. Plus rest. I took Marley to Shreveport anyway because she was acting like Marley. She did great on Friday. Ran 2 clean runs. Saturday morning we noticed Marley seemed tired, a little off. I ran her in JWW and she was clean but a little slow for her. During her standard run, she just didn't want to run. Was slow off the start line. I noticed she started limping after the A-frame. I pulled her from the trial. I talked to the vet and she advised me to start her back on the steroids and muscle relaxers.

We went back to the vet on Thursday and the vet feels her neck strain is better and wants us to continue with her current therapy. She goes back in a week or so for some Xrays. Poor Marley is so good with being rested. She wants to go out to play so bad, but she is content just looking out the window....for now. I know she's starting to get a little stir crazy. Today she got on the treadmill and stood there. I turned it on for a few minutes and I think she was seriously disappointed when I turned it off.

I had entered Marley in Memphis in April. I pulled her entry and hope that she will be able to at least run agility for fun in a few months. I just want Marley to be ok, to be healthy. Hopefully, it's just a setback and Marley will bounce back as she always does.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

A BABY DOG DEBUTS!!

 
 

Monroe, LA was a huge success for us! Marley is becoming my reliable agility dog. She is moving well and runs happy. Her only errors were refusals twice in JWW that I totally caused. For some reason, I balk my handling during JWW. I know that Marley doesn't read a rear cross but I try them only to have them fail. I kick myself everytime I try one and it fails. I know better so I don't know why I do it. So on Sunday, I walked JWW saying to myself  'front cross, front cross' over and over. I guess it got into my head because I didn't balk any handling during that run. Her biggest brag is she earned her first QQ! It may be the only one she gets so it is so exciting for us.





Miss Kalea-Kate's debut was a major success. Her first event was FAST. She was a quick little devil and got the SEND with no problem. Got her A frame contact and did a nice teeter. Q/2nd





I learned during her standard run that I had never practiced KK on a panel jump. After several refusals, I chose to go on and just let her run. I can't teach her a panel jump in 5 seconds on a course. The second day, the panel jump was the first obstacle. After the novice briefing, I went over to the judge and told her my dog doesn't know the panel jump and she laughed and said she caught that yesterday during her standard run. The judge was so nice and told me to leave her in a stay and call her over. I did and it worked. You can actually hear the judge cheer for KK went she went over that panel jump. That first standard run is actually the first time KK has ever run a full course!! Crazy I know, but this trial was a practice for us to see what KK would do in the ring and how I would handle running a baby dog.


Jumpers was a success for us. KK got her weave entry and didn't slow down. It's so different handling her. She does so much better with rear crosses. I love watching her JWW run, seeing her kick in and just throw dirt behind her as she runs! She got a Q/2nd the first day and a Q/1st the second day. I love this puppy and the adventure we are on.