Ziggy the Cardigan Corgi IVDD month 11

Ziggy continues to ever-so-slowly progress towards walking.  No big changes in month 11, but some encouraging signs:

• More frequent attempts at standing on his own
• More weight-supporting walking in his sling - he still needs help with stability, but more leg movement
• His right hind is getting stronger w/ better paw placement

We sent him to ISU rehab for a week in the middle of the month.  He hadn't been there in quite a while, and the rehab therapist did notice progress.

The therapist thinks Ziggy needs more core strength, though, as the "c" in his spine (when looking at him from above when he's standing his spine curves like "c") seems to be remaining and maybe getting more pronounced.  She believes that the c is caused by uneven core muscle development.  This impacts his standing, as his left hind comes in too far to the midline to support him properly.  It also causes problems with walking - his left hind often "trips" his right hind. 

So she has recommended ball work.  Today we had a family viewing of disc one of "Get On the Ball Two" with Dr. Debbie Gross Saunders, then we did a little work with Ziggy.  I ordered 2 sizes of Fitpaws peanuts, and need to order one size larger, too.  Ball work will become a daily part of his routine, and (according to the video) we should see results in two weeks or so.

Ball work to strengthen hips and hind end.

Ball work for overall core fitness.

You can see from the panting that he's getting a good workout!

To help with progress tracking, here are some videos of Ziggy from his last trip to ISU:

Underwater treadmill.  

Notice right hind doing really well.

Lots of hind end movement in the cart.  

He still tips left when the padding shifts.  

Z may be getting a custom cart as a Christmas present...

Rip's Training Diary #4

I realize that I haven't posted lately about what Rip & I doing with our training time.  My work duties (travel! projects!) continue to be onerous, so my training time is a bit sparse.  We are making progress, though!

Right now we're working on:

• Go out games - including hitting the stanchion, taking cheese off the stanchion, and running to a pvc box, turning towards me & sitting in the box.
• Retrieving - Rip loves retrieving!  We're working with wood, plastic, metal, and leather dumbbells.  Rip now reliably retrieves when I throw the dumbbell (though I still have to hold his collar to keep him in place while I'm throwing).  We're not doing any fronts - I'm just having Rip bring it back to me and drop it when I release him to the treat I've thrown.  
• A better dumbbell hold.  Naughty Rip likes to play with the dumbbell when returning to me - mouthing it instead of holding it politely.  No surprise there - why just hold a dumbbell when you can hold it, run, AND chomp on it?!
• Side-passing (horse people will know this term) - I'm training Rip to walk sideways when facing me - moving to stay perpendicular to me as I move back & forth.  Prep for fronts.
• Heeling!  We love to heel!  Now we're adding in automatic sits and slow pace.  
• A new trick that I really hope we can pull off.  I'll record it and post it on YouTube if I can pull it off.  So far Rip hasn't had an "I get it!" moment, so we'll see.

What we should be working on but aren't:

• Agility (sigh. where does the time go?)
• Stays.  Must start seriously working stays.  I know it's bad of me not be working on these more often.  I'm just so thrilled to have a dog who loves to play that I hate to "waste" our precious training time on the stay.

Since I don't have a training picture, I'll end with a picture that shows what happens when Rip is bored due to lack of training.  Naughty dog.  Or maybe he just wants to play MarioCart on the Wii.

A smile from India

I enjoy traveling to new countries and seeing and experiencing things that I wouldn't at home.  Many times these make me smile.

I ran across a sign that makes me smile.

Why did this sign amuse me so much that I asked my driver to pull over and wait by the side of the road while I hopped out and snapped the pic?

Because when the roads around you  look like this:

or this:

then this:

really does seem like this: