THE BEGINNING OF THE END?

Marley is on hip rest again. Probably for 3 months. I think this may be the beginning of the end of her agility career. I don't think we are going to reach our goal of earning her MX titles. I don't think she will be able to stay healthy enough.


I had noticed in the last few trials, Marley just wasn't herself. She still tried in each run, but we just weren't able to pull it together. Marley is known for being a pokey weaver but her weaving is now just walking the poles. Ding, ding, ding. Weaving is hard on the hips. So if you have HD, weaving causes pain. She still manages some great runs but I usually cause a refusal so NQ for us. Mar's last run in Springfield was a NQ for us, but what I remember was she was HAPPY when she finished. So if that was our last run together, at least I know she was happy! Some people though Mar was being a toot by the way she was running and may have even laughed about it, but I bet they never noticed how she was running. As I was reviewing her runs, it is very apparent she was bunny hopping...a sign her hips were hurting her.


I talked to her vet a long time last week. One of the first things he asked me was 'Have you achieved everything you wanted to with Marley?" I told him "no, but I'm ok if I have to retire her, I just don't want her to be in pain". It makes me so sad to think that her career is probably over at just 5 years old. But it hurts me more to think that she's in pain. Mar is very stoic and rarely shows pain unless its pretty bad. This week she's been staying in the office in her crate a lot by herself so I know she's in some pain. Plus she's not been playing with KK much. The vet and I discussed different pain meds and the best ones at this point in time to make her comfortable. No mention of surgery yet but I know that is just a matter of time before I have to make that decision.


I mailed off entries for 2 agility trials this week. Only KK's were in the envelope. That mad me very sad. If you aren't invested in a sport, then you don't know how hard it is to be at a point where you are deciding to retire a dog. Yes, it's a dog and it's just a sport. But I have invested so much in my dog and my dreams and it hurts to think that it's over. It hurts. I had already entered Marley in a trial at the end of October and I did enter her in a few runs at our home club's trial in early November. I will wait and see how she is doing before I pull those entries.


I had so many hopes and dreams for Marley. I didn't count on her having HD. I didn't count on some of the turmoil early in her training. But we live and learn. Regardless of whether Marley can ever compete again or not, she will have the best life possible.