An Allergy Breakthrough?

I haven't updated recently, mostly because not much has been going on. There was an ongoing yardwork saga here -- I won't bore you with the details, but basically my backyard was rendered useless by wet leaves, a lack of a rake, and a giant fallen branch due to the most recent storm. Dan and I are saving our pennies for Strata's surgery so we haven't been to MasterPeace in a couple of weeks. So there's been a whole lot of nothing going on lately. The dogs have been working on tricks or behaviors for KPA, mostly.

Anyway, when Strata broke his tooth I needed to switch him to soft food until the surgery. I bought Nature's Variety medallions because I know he'll eat them, and I scored a free coupon from the representative at the dog show in Providence. (I didn't blog about that. In short, I went and showed Laura's English Cocker bitch, Angel, and got totally dumped by a judge who put up nothing but handlers. We had a good time regardless.) I got a bag of the vension ones -- which actually contain a lot of lamb in addition to venison, but that's okay. I was nervous about feeding him NV because he's allergic to chicken, and NV has chicken eggs.

It's been not quite two weeks, but over the last couple of days, I noticed a HUGE change in his lip pigmentation. Strata shows his allergic troubles with fluctuating amounts of pigment on his lips and the tip of his muzzle. At his worst, he even lost pigment on the edges of his nose, and lost hair around his lips, too. About 5% of his lips had proper pigmentation when I made the switch, and now I'd say he's at about 30%. This is a radical change.

The only other thing I can possibly attibute this to is the lack of a glucosamine supplement. I ran out of K9 Liquid Health about a month ago and the dogs have been going without for a little while. (I plan to order some Glycoflex III chewables ASAP.) However, Strata has been on K9 Liquid Health for over a year, and his pigment fluctuated from "never there" to "100% normal" during that time. So I really don't think that is it. (K9 Liquid Health is sourced from shellfish, not cows, as to not upset Tessie's beef intolerance.)

The NV medallions contain the following:

Venison, Lamb Heart, Lamb Liver, Raw Ground Lamb Bone, Apples, Carrots, Pumpkinseeds, Butternut Squash, Ground Flaxseed, Chicken Eggs, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, Dried Kelp, Apple Cider Vinegar, Parsley, Honey, Salmon Oil, Olive Oil, Blueberries, Alfalfa Sprouts, Persimmons, Duck Eggs, Pheasant Eggs, Quail Eggs, Inulin, Rosemary, Sage, Clove.

Strata was eating a diet of lamb, beef, and a bit of pork prior to being switched to these patties, with a lot of veggies thrown in. He loooves vegetables. His other supplements -- salmon oil & plain yogurt -- have remained the same.

At this point my leading theory is an allergy to beef, if not pork. We did a total elimination diet once before, where he spent 3 months eating nothing but duck and ostrich, but that didn't help at all. I've since come to the conclusion that Strata can't seem to handle anything with feathers. (Chicken is an absolute no-no.)

I think I'm going to keep him on the NV venison medallions for a couple of months to see if he continues to improve. If he does, I will re-introduce beef into his diet and see what happens.

Allergies are complicated! :(

Another Troublesome Tooth

Many of you probably remember Tessie's broken tooth saga from a couple of years ago. Not to be outdone, Strata would like to top Tessie's tooth nightmare. Shelties are stressful.

On Wednesday, I was playing fetch with Strata when all of a sudden he spit out the ball and started batting it around with his feet instead. It was cute, but also completely out of character for him, so I went over and looked in his mouth. The tip of his upper left 4th premolar (the big one) had chipped off. Pulp was exposed.

May I interject here that this discovery came precisely after I paid the first payment for Karen Pryor Academy? Which is turning out to be extraordinarily informative, but expensive? Thank you.

Anyway, I called his veterinary office and they could see me in exactly one hour, or Friday at 1:20. There was no way I could get there in an hour, so I selected the second option.

Today was our appointment with a veterinary who has a special interest in canine dentistry (although he is not a specialist). This was the same vet Strata saw last time for his eye [non-]issue. He feels that Strata should have a root canal. If we choose to do nothing, or to just get a crown, there is the chance that it could become infected. With a dog that does a lot of traveling, and enters a lot of expensive trials, I really don't want to take a gamble with "will his tooth randomly flare up 200 miles from home?" so doing nothing is not an option. Strata was also prescribed a 10-day course of clavamox as a preventative, and I've also been instructed to dab some fluoride rinse on the broken tooth every day or two, just to prevent a build-up of bacteria in there. He's also on soft food (raw patties) until further notice.

We have a referral to Veterinary Dental Services which is located in Acton. Strata's appointment is on the 21st, where he'll have blood drawn, and we will discuss all of the options and get estimates on him. Based on the articles I read on their website, it seems that they will likely want to do a root canal followed by a stainless steel crown.

Well, I guess I know what I'm getting for Christmas... one fixed tooth, and it's not even one of my own! :P

Cluster Results

I have finally recovered enough from the Cluster to talk about it! What a fun show. Lots of things going on, lots of dogs, lots of people, lots of shopping! I had a blast.

Thursday was just rally with Tessie. She warmed up brilliantly and was really happy, offering behaviors, heeling around the crating area like a mad woman. I knew the course would be tough for her -- it had many of the exercises that she enjoys the least, including a 360-turn-left as the very first sign. I practiced all of the hard signs in the crating area and reinforced them heavily.

I got her into the ring and she made great eye contact at the set up. I handed my leash to the judge and looked down at her and smiled. I asked her if she was ready; she held the eye contact. We started heeling forward. We got to the first sign. I gave her the hand cue I use for backing up while heeling, that we use for left 270s/360s, and she completely checked out. Nose glued to the ground, frantically sniffing. You would think I clocked her upside the head while giving her this signal.

I got her attention again and just used the verbal with no hand signal. She did the 360, but wasn't happy about it. The next exercise was to weave once through the cones. She was DONE. Sniffing, circling, wandering. We left.

I have NO idea what suddenly made her go from "happy obedience super-star" to "the monsters are going to eat me", but goodness gracious, I hope I never see that kind of 'crash' again. I sat on a bench just outside the ring for a little while until the frantic sniffing stopped and she started harassing me for cookies again (aka, normal Tessie behavior). We did some tricks and went back to the crate. Throughout the weekend I walked her through that building and she was totally fine. Very strange.

We set up for agility that night, which was crazy. There was a mad rush for crating space, just like at Premier. The doors opened at 3:30 sharp and I saw people RUNNING in with crates and ground covers. I staked claim to a really nice location which I shared with my friend Laura and two of her English Cockers.

We spent the night at my aunt's house, which is about twenty minutes away from the show site. My aunt has two big, goofy, intact male Golden Retrievers. Tessie actually handled them very well, and told them off when they came on too strong. Strata was initially so frightened of this big, bouncing dogs that he actually peed on the floor a little! After a short walk outside with the two of them, however, they became fast friends. Strata spent the rest of the evening teaching them how to play *his* way, as in, mutual nosepoking followed by lots of zoomies. Strata was -covered- in dog drool by bedtime, but seemed quite pleased with himself. :)

We arrived at the show site bright and early because Strata needed measuring and Tessie was in the first class of the day. Strata's measuring was... interesting. His first measurement was at 17 1/4". I had to resist the urge to clock the judge upside the head with the wicket. Was she measuring his ears or something? (If anyone wants the name of this VMO, contact me privately and I will provide you with it.) This same judge also measured Yankee, Laura's dog, at 15 3/4" and he has never been a hair over 15 1/4", period. Both dogs were remeasured within 15 minutes. Yankee's measurement was 15 1/4" and Strata's was 16 5/8". MUCH better. The second measurement is the one that appears on the height card, thank goodness, or else my dog would be screwed for the International Standard class...

I quickly walked my course for Tessie, which was Open Standard. We were a little out of sync and ended up with two wrong courses and a refusal, but still under time. At least she was movin' her buns!

I had a long wait before my next class, so I did a lot of volunteering. Each class worked earned you a $5 voucher good at not just the food vendor, but also ANY of the vendors in the agility building. Way cool! I ended up earning $40 in vouchers over the weekend, which I redeemed for Amanda Shyne's Contacts 360 DVD. :D (I will post a review of it in a future post, but in a nutshell: it's awesome.)

My next run was Novice JWW with Strata. It was a neat course that started with a tunnel, so I got to really smack him around and rev him up right before we started. The run began nicely enough, but during a pinwheel of jumps, he knocked a bar. I -think- it was because there was a building support pole between us, and my theory is that he turned his head to look at me, saw a big honkin' white pole instead of my body, and dropped his legs a bit, therefore taking the bar down. After the bar came down, he became -extremely- handler-focused and didn't want to leave my side, incurring a refusal, which we fixed, and then immediately he refused the weave poles. He was just bouncing up at me going "mom! mom! mom! mom!" so I stood totally still, pointed to the weaves, and waited for him to get his act together. From there, we ran the course beautifully.

Very quickly after that, Tessie had a really interesting JWW run. I pulled her out of the last pole of the weaves by front crossing while she was in them, fixed the last pole, and then got sniffies. Bad handler, look what you did to your very nice dog! We managed a Q on this course despite the refusal and being OT. I was quite surprised!

The next morning, Tessie's Open Standard run was a catastrophe. My mother always stands close to the ring so that Tessie knows where she is. I leave my mother 2-3 dogs before Tessie, and we go stand at the ring gate and do tricks until going in to run. Well, somehow Tessie "forgot" where my mother was and started panicking shortly before we went into the ring. I calmed her down, brought her back to my mother, and then brought her back to the ring gate. No dice. She went off-course after the 3rd obstacle when she ran over to wiggle her butt at my mother. The rest of the run was equally as catastrophic, let's just put it that way.

Strata's Novice JWW run was gorgeous, but he again knocked a bar for seemingly no reason. I wasn't doing anything silly as a handler, he wasn't turning, etc. Very frustrating. He also did a run-by of the weave poles on his first attempt because he saw a -very- juicy tunnel entrance nearby, but I called him back to me before he had a chance to do the tunnel.

Tessie's Open JWW run was pretty good. I really, really wanted to do a rear cross to set up the middle section of the course but remember, Tessie is my "no rear cross" dog when it comes to trials. She and I were neck-and-neck at the part where I needed to cross, so it didn't really matter if I did a front or a rear, it was gonna be ugly, because I was neither ahead nor behind of my dog. I sent her ahead of me with a "go jump" cue and did the rear. Worked perfectly! I got some sniffing a couple of jumps later, then a run-by of a jump which I was able to quickly and smoothly fix. She plowed through all 12 weave poles with a lot of speed and we finished the course from there. The sniffing put her a couple of seconds OT, but it was still good enough for a Q and for her OJP! :)

Sunday was awesome for both dogs, we really ended on a good note.

I had high hopes for Tessie's Open Standard run. The course had the A-frame early, which tends to make for a happy springer, but it did have a tricky tunnel where the dogs were faced with both entrances. If you didn't have a stopped contact it was quite hard (it was after the DW). We started the course with a false start -- the timer told me to go, I went, we got to the A-frame, and I heard a loud whistle. The timer took full responsibility for the error, so I wasn't in trouble. ;) We then started the course 'for real' and she SMOKED it! Perfect contacts, perfect weaves, the only thing that could've been faster was her sit on the table (she hesitated for a moment). She won the class to finish her OAP. Naturally, this extra-perfect run is the run that the video camera ate. Sigh. You'll just have to trust that it was really pretty!

I had forgotten to move Tessie up to Excellent JWW, so I decided to end on a really, really good note with her Standard run. We got her a big cookie from the kind folks at Wigglebottom Snax ("by Springer people, for Springer people!") -- she LOVES their treats!

Strata's last run was crazy. I did a pretty long leadout because it was a straight line of jumps, after which I needed to front-cross to change his direction. I'm glad I lead out so far because he came off the start line like a racehorse out of the gate! I was scrambling to keep up with him the whole way. When he got to the weave poles, my plan was to move out laterally to get in position for a front cross. Unfortunately, I had to use the weave poles as my chance to catch up with him, and not much else. (I think I need to hit the gym!) I wasn't able to get the cross in, so I couldn't handle the finish properly... and therefore inadvertently cued an off-course jump. Ugh, disappointing! He kept all of his bars up and even with the off-course (which we fixed) he ran just over 4.5 YPS. Faaaaast!

So yeah, all in all, we had a pretty darn good time. I'm disappointed that Strata and I couldn't get our act together enough to finish his NAJ title, but I'm really, really, really pleased that Tessie finished BOTH of her Open titles. I had been planning to stop running her after Open, but I think we will pursue our Excellent A Jumpers title (AJP) because she enjoys JWW so much. Maybe we'll go for the Excellent A Standard title, too... we'll see. :)

Turkey Cluster!

This weekend, the dogs and I will be showing at the cluster in West Springfield, MA. Tessie is entered in Rally Advanced B on Thursday. If she qualifies, she will finish her RA title, and likely be done with rally and obedience forever. Or at least a very long time. It just doesn't make her happy the way agility and weight pull do.

Friday-Sunday is agility. Strata is entered in Novice JWW and Standard, but his DW still isn't finished, so it will be just JWW with him. My goal is to have fun and get him out of Novice JWW (he has 2 legs). Tessie is entered in Open JWW and Standard. I would like to see her get two Qs out of the weekend. She has 2 Standard legs and 1 Jumpers leg.

I'm bringing back my Twitter account, the one I used for Premier, so you can follow the updates there. Really, it's for my benefit mostly... it helps me remember everything when I go to write the blog post later! A couple of people said that they found the Twitter feed confusing. Remember that the -most recent- update is at the -top-, just like a blog. You can click here to see the Twitter feed; I will also add it to the right sidebar of this blog.

I took the dogs to MasterPeace yesterday for a final big training session. Strata kept almost all of his bars up but was having trouble collecting for a straight approach to the weave poles. I don't think that the mats helped; they make collecting hard. He would consistently hit the entry (#1-2) and then weave poles #5-6. If I gave him VERY strong collection cues (strong deceleration to a stop/nearly stopping, and/or stomping my feet) he would slow the heck down and weave properly. It will be interesting to see if there is a problem this weekend on "better" footing (dirt) or if he continues to miss.

Tessie worked on a bit of agility, but mostly heeling practice and rally manuevers. She's so good for me there. Her right finishes are really crappy, she -does- them, but she does them waaaay wide and seems to get confused halfway through the manuever so she ends up kinda near heel position with this confused look on her face. I've been working on them and seeing an improvement, but... let's just say we both strongly prefer left finishes, okay? ;)

While I was there, I got my early Christmas present from Dan -- a year membership to MasterPeace! It gets you 15-20% off classes and ring rentals. I debated getting one last year and never did, which turned out to be a -big- mistake, because it absolutely would have paid for itself. So it's a gift that keeps on giving! :D

Spread the Word

USDAA Nationals will be in Pennsylvania or Kentucky in 2010.

...HOOOOOOOORAY!*



*=only if my dog continues to get measured under 16" by USDAA judges.

Freedom

...or lack thereof.

Lately there has been a lot of hullabaloo in my household regarding the dogs and their "freedom". For those who don't know, I live at home with my parents and two older brothers. Getting everyone in the house to 'coordinate', so to speak, on a training or behavior issue. For those of you who live alone, or with one supportive person who does as you ask, believe me: you don't know what you're missing. ;)

The current issue is Tessie. A couple of years ago, Tessie decided she no longer needed to hold pee through the night. She would get up, pee on the carpet in the living room, and go back to bed. If she was crated, she would hold it. It didn't matter how long the "night" was -- if she went out at midnight, and we got up at 5:30 to go to a trial, there would be pee. So for the past couple of years now, Tessie has to sleep in the crate.

Tessie also finds the trash very tempting. It is kept in a small barrel under the sink with the door closed. The cabinets are made of old metal and are no longer flush. She has discovered that by giving the cabinet a good hard BANG with her snout that it will pop open, giving her access to the trash.

Of course, it completely mystifies some of my family that I cannot train her out of this behavior. The concept of "self-reinforcing behavior" is some crap that I made up, as far as I am concerned. Also, the concept of getting a trash can that she cannot get into is equally absurd to them, although to be honest, Tessie would probably figure a different can out pretty quickly.

To outsmart her, Dan decided to put a chair in front of the cabinet when we aren't around. (See? This kid's bright. I'm keeping him around.) This works just fine...

...except that now she's decided she is entitled to steal things off of the dining table. Like my father's order of french fries. Or my entire bag of Wellness Pure treats.

The behavior has escalated so quickly that if you leave the room to use the bathroom or grab your purse or do anything, you will come back to find her with either her head in the trash can or her paws on the counter.

So between the peeing and the theft, Tessie now has to stay in the crate unless someone is downstairs with her. My father was adamantly against this... until she ate his french fries last weekend. That changed his point of view pretty quickly. ;)

Strata, on the other hand, is enjoying his new-found freedom. He's a good boy, and doesn't take things that aren't his. He doesn't go looking for trouble the way Tessie does. Even as a puppy, Tessie would wander from room to room, just to see what was going on. She would also take anything she could get her mouth around. Strata doesn't give a rat's toenails what is going on unless he thinks he might get fed or get to go play. And he would rather play with one of his toys than something that he perceives as 'not his'. He just has a different mindset.

While I'm on the topic of "day-to-day living" with these two dorks, I'd like to mention that they get along pretty well now. Strata has figured out how to elicit "play" from Tessie. Er, the closest to "play" that Tessie gets, which is beating the crap out of him. She nose-pokes him violently, either into the floor or against the wall or furniture. She also whines excitedly the whole time. Strata has figured out how to 'present' himself to increase the likelihood of getting poked to death. Once he's been poked enough, he rears up like a horse and air-snaps at her face. She smacks him with her muzzle and pokes him some more. The whole situation is pretty entertaining. Occasionally Tessie will poke him when he doesn't expect it, and it triggers "the zoomies", causing him to run around the house like his ass is on fire, banking off of the walls, with a crazed expression on his face. Meanwhile, she stands in the middle of the room, wagging her stump, looking quite pleased with herself. They are such dorks!

Video of the Day

It's been a prolific week for this blog, hasn't it?

Recently, AgilityVision started a "Video of the Day" section on their website where they post a short clip from one of the videos they have produced. AgilityVision has put out several DVDs in addition to filming some of the major agility competitions in the world -- the European Open, AKC Nationals, NADAC Nationals, AKC World Team tryouts, and FCI World Team competition.

Today's video is from Amanda Shyne's DVD, Contacts 360. This video is at the top of my Christmas list! Amanda has always had SO many good ideas for training, maintaining, and improving contact performance that I think it would be good to have them all in one spot. In this video, she discusses stride regulators, and also shows an exercise that she uses to strengthen the dog's understanding of the 2o/2o position. Click here to view!

Pick a Breed!

I stole this from Katrin. :D

IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE A DOG FROM EACH CKC/AKC “GROUP,” WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?(excluding your own breeds)

Group 1- Sporting
Group 2- Hound
Group 3- Working
Group 4- Terriers
Group 5- Toys
Group 6- Non Sporting
Group 7- Herding

Let's see...

SPORTING: That's a toughy, there are SO many sporting breeds I like. All things considered, probably an English Cocker or a really nice Golden. I LOVE Laura's ECS that I help her show in UKC from time to time, they are just such goofy dogs. And I really like some of the Goldens I'm seeing at agility trials now, especially some nice up-and-coming young dogs.

HOUND: I've always wanted a Saluki. I find longhaired and wirehaired Dachshunds incredibly charming but the whole "long and low" body type always makes me worry.

WORKING: I love Sibes and Malamutes, but I'm not sure if the personality would mesh well with mine. I really like Dobes, too, so that's my pick.

TERRIER: I really like Border Terriers! They're so cute, and feisty. (Aren't almost all terriers cute and fiesty, though?) I also like Jacks and Norfolks.

TOY: I'm actually going to steal Katrin's answer for this one and say Coton de Tulear, which isn't AKC accepted just yet. I've handled them a couple of times in UKC and they are fun little dogs! I also like Pomeranians (strongly considered Poms when I was choosing last time) and Papillions.

NON-SPORTING: A girl I went to high school with has a Lowchen puppy right now, and holy crap, I am obsessed with her. She is just the CUTEST thing. I also think one would make a killer agility dog (her dog is constantly playingplayingplaying)!

HERDING: I really want a Border Collie, but Dan isn't a big fan of BCs. (Lame!) I really like Pyrenean Shepherds and working-line/imported GSDs.