OH, MARLEY

I'm still up tight about Marley. She goes back in less than 2 weeks for a recheck. After over 6 weeks of activity restrictions, I let her play out front with KK yesterday and she comes back in limping. Holding her left front leg up and was not weight bearing. I got a NSAID in her and she layed around the rest of the evening. Today she's weight bearing but she is walking stiff. I gave her another NSAID and totally restricted her activity.


I just don't get it. Why does she keep having this limping?? Left or right, she limps on one or the other. She has been Xrayed from nose to tail and nothing shows up. I rest her. Crate her. Monitor her. Medicate her. Massage her. Heating pads. Feed her high quality food. Keep her slim. Love her. But she keeps having this intermittent lameness.


Dog friends tell me to have her checked for Lyme Disease but she's been vaccinated and the only symptom she has is the limping, so I don't think that's it. We are currently at a 3rd vet and this one has been the most helpful.


I just want Marley not to hurt. To not know so much pain in her life. I want her to be whole.

DARK PLACE

Lately I've been struggling with everything. I'm not sleeping again, have slacked off in everything, and just don't care. I don't know why I'm having these episodes. I finally was getting back on track after the holidays when I started having some medical issues. Even after getting a diagnosis and some treatment, I just haven't been able to get it back together. I feel like I'm struggling everywhere... my weight, training, dogs, life in general.

My uncle (my mom's little brother) died last week and at his funeral today, I felt like I was reliving losing my mom again. It was almost too much for me. I couldn't even sit through the graveside service.

I've got to dig deep and get through this slump I'm in.

NOVICE DOG, BABY DOG

Little Miss Kalea-Kate is coming right along in her agility training and career. She just turned 18 mo. old and is now age eligible for my favorite agility venue, USDAA. We will probably try Franklin, TN USDAA in July. She will measure into Championship 22, so I have started throwing in some 22in jumps every so often. She's still young and I want to protect her body so she will just do random 22in jumps until the trial is close.

Miss KK has been in just 3 agility trials and is in Open JWW and Open FAST with Q's in both already. She earned both her Novice JWW and Novice FAST titles at 17 mo. Her first title came just 2 days after she turned 17 mo. Standard is giving us some trouble but I know it's just a small hurdle and we will get over it successfully. I actually enjoy being in Novice. I don't feel any pressure there. :)

We are on a trial hiatus until Memorial Day weekend. I'm hoping Marley will be cleared to compete by then. So during our hiatus, we are working hard on our distance, directionals (I think I could pay someone to teach those rights/lefts...arghh!), and me being able to run KK from the rear. I'm so used to reliable Marley who likes me to run the course with her and likes on side weaves and front crosses. There is absolutely no way I can run with KK. She's already averaging well over 4.3 yps which I think is pretty good for a novice dog and for a handler who has never handled such a fast dog. When we get it all together, I think we may be pretty good. :)

SO OVER ACTIVITY RESTRICTION!

We are into week 6 of Marley's activity restrictions. We will go in for a vet visit in the next 2 weeks and hope the neck strain is better so she can be released to more activity. She is getting so bored. She went into the agility yard today when I took KK in to practice. Marley was so cute. She was running the course behind KK. They were both weaving with Marley just a few poles behind KK. I had the jumps set at 22 (getting KK ready for USDAA...maybe) and Marley didn't knock a bar. I had to stop her when she got on the teeter with KK. I know her little agility venture isn't on her activity restriction order but I just couldn't crush her enthusiasm.


It just hurts my heart to see her lying around doing nothing. She's such an active girl and doing nothing is hard on her. I got her shaved today and she is thin. She always looks chubby with her winter fur. She's been having a decreased appetite lately. I guess when you don't do anything but sleep, you don't get hungry.

She's currently napping in the recliner. :(

TOP DOG

The AKC contacted me recently to let me know that Marley is the first All American or Canine Partner in Arkansas to earn her CD, all of her Novice and Open Agility titles and her Excellent Standard title. She is the second All American or Canine Partner to earn her RA, RN, and AJP. So, that means Marley is the top ranked All American in Arkansas!!

They sent me a press release to look over and it was sent out to the Little Rock paper. So we will see if it gets published. My training group surprised me last week at class with cupcakes to celebrate Marley's success. :)

Marley remains on house arrest. We will go back to the vet in about 2 weeks or so to see if she will be cleared for agility. If she does get cleared, I will have to get her back in agility form quickly but safely. She's being so good through it all but she is getting a little bored.

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.

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.