Rip's Training Diary - Maybe we need to get out more?

Last week I took Rip to Rally run-throughs for practice.  We had an interesting (and fun) evening.

Our fun started as we entered the club building.  Lately, our trips to the building have been to use the agility equipment - just us in the building, no others around.  Rip must love the building, because he started barking and pulling me to the agility room as soon as we entered the door.

While I love the enthusiasm, it is a little embarrassing ("doesn't she train her dog?!?"), so I made him stop barking, sit, and look at me (rewarded with a click and a treat) before we moved forward.  It took us about 5 minutes to make it the 20' from the door to the training room.

Upon entering the training room, Rip's excitement (and random barking) continued.  I had to gently hold on to his collar to keep him from greeting every human and canine who walked by.  

Here's what Rip was like almost the entire hour: 

A happy, leaping, wagging, naughty blur!

The good part?  He was AWESOME in our run-throughs.  After our last run-through, the instructor, who is a friend from the club, asked me why I hadn't taken Rip to a trial yet.  Did he miss the first 30 minutes of class, when my dog was barking, leaping, and licking everything he could?

Yes, Rip has the skills to do really well at Rally Novice, but what I learned from Thursday is that my wild black dog needs to get out more.  

It's funny, because Ziggy and Maggie needed to get out because they were shy or nervous and needed to build confidence.  This is not the case with Rip.  He has plenty of confidence.  He needs to get out more so he's not a whirling dervish every time we go somewhere.  

So that's my near-term goal:  take Rip somewhere every week - even if all we do is work long enough for him to calm down and settle in.

I'll let you know when it finally works :)

Rip: The Host with The Most

It's the holiday season and many people are traveling, or preparing to travel.  Hospitality is of utmost importance, so I would like to share with you why Rip makes visiting our home so truly special.

 He is The Host with The Most!

Before you arrive, he will prepare your suite.

He will greet you at the door.

He will warm up a place for you to sit.

He will call you to the sofa when the movie starts.

Depending on how the night goes,

he will party with you...

...or snuggle down to keep you warm.

He's a great drinking buddy.  No drinking alone with Rip around!

(p.s.- lest you think I'm a bad dog owner, Rip did not drink this glass of wine,

but he will stick his tongue in your glass if you're not watching)

He will ensure that your socks are properly aired.

No need to bring an alarm clock!  

He will wake you up with a leap and a lick!

He will even bring you Starbucks!

Well, sort of.

Wanna read the paper after breakfast?

No problem, he's "saving" it for you.

And after you've gone, he'll clean up anything you've left out.

And THAT, my friends is why Rip is The Host with The Most!

Ziggy the Cardigan Corgi IVDD 1 year anniversary

Before.

Ziggy moving on his own now looks odd to me.

And I miss it.

December 3, 2011

The incision the day after surgery.

Moving in the sling.

We've now progressed to hind end movement, too - 

but still in the sling.

Today it has been one year to the day since Ziggy went in for IVDD surgery.

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you know that Ziggy is still not yet walking, but continues to slowly progress.  Z had quite a few inches of his spinal cord impacted by the ruptures and corresponding hemorrhage, and nerves heal quite slowly, so we are still optimistic.  As long as Ziggy is making progress we'll continue to work and hope.

This has not been the easiest year in my dog-owning life, but I've learned a lot about IVDD, canine rehab, and the special/crazy commitment so many people have to helping dogs with this disease.  I've also developed some opinions on IVDD that some may not agree with.

Here are some of my thoughts:

I believe IVDD has a strong genetic component.

• Both of my dogs that have had the disease also have very close relatives who have suffered from IVDD.
• Though no genetic marker has been found, a study of family lines in dachshunds found that while overall prevalence in the breed is ~19%, in some families it was 62%.
• I believe we should be honest and transparent regarding dogs that have IVDD, or have had an IVDD "episode," so smart decisions can be made in breeding.  I've used Cardiped.net to do this for both of my dogs who've had IVDD - it's recorded in the "notes" section of their profiles.  

IVDD isn't caused by bad care.

• I keep my dogs lean and fit.  
• I provide them with sofa stairs and ramps.
• I try to keep them from doing stupid things -- which is often impossible :)
• I believe that if a disc is going to go, it's going to go.  Yes, good preventive care is needed to help protect long-backed dogs, but preventive care won't prevent a disc from going.  Ziggy's disc went when he was out in the yard for his before-bed pee.  No roughhousing, no craziness.  Just walking in the yard.

The people at Dodger's List are a godsend.

• If you have Cardis, or another breed with a high prevalence of IVDD, you NEED to go to this site.  Now.  Before something happens.
• At a minimum, read the FAQ's so you have some grounding in what to look for and what to do if something (heaven forbid) happens.
• They also have a survey to collect information on affected dogs.  They include Cardigans, and I submitted information on both my dogs, in hopes that some day we can have statistics on IVDD in Cardis.

In Cardigans, we need to take this more seriously than we seem to be at the moment.

• At the 2011 National Specialty, one of the leading experts in IVDD treatment gave a lecture.  Hundreds of Cardi people were at the specialty.  Around a dozen people attended. 
• I attended and what I learned helped me tremendously in the first few post-rupture days with Ziggy.
• Through my Facebook friends, and following blogs, it seems that quite a number of our dogs are having problems, yet I do not often see this mentioned as a problem in the breed.

Dogs will heal on their own timeline.

• Right after surgery, our surgical vet predicted Ziggy would be walking by the New Year.  I guess he didn't specify which new year...
• A few nice Cardi people whose dogs had been through disc surgery emailed me, assuring me that it took their dogs a few months before walking.  Ziggy missed that memo, too.
• Cardis are bigger and bigger boned than Dachshunds and this impacts healing time, so much of the "time to heal" info that's out there doesn't apply to Z.  
• It was the Dodger's List folks who have kept me hoping.  In reply to my posts on their list, they assured me that many dogs take longer than expected, and reinforced that as long as progress is being made, there is still hope that a dog will walk.

The cost and effort required to help a dog with a disc rupture are tremendous.

• The initial decision about what to do after a disc ruptures is not easy, and, after living through a year of Ziggy care,  I will not judge the choices other people make.

Please contact me if you ever experience something similar with your dogs.  I am happy to help, support, and share as much as I can.  I know that it's an extremely emotional and difficult thing to go through.  I can relate, and hopefully I can help.

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...

Wagmore Farm: Who needs a sofa when you have a dog bath?

We're in residence at Wagmore this week - enjoying the rain, visiting with family, and planning for house and property.  So nice to be here.

And it's a week of excitement, too -- the dog bath is now in the mud room!

I've been dreaming of this particular dog bath for a long time (and I'm not really joking about that).  I just kept tabbing over the page in the PetEdge catalog, waiting for the right time to buy it.  I even made sure that the mudroom was long enough to accommodate the bath, a dryer, and a grooming table.

Finally, a few weeks ago, the timing was right.  I had a % off discount code, AND PetEdge was offering a promo.  So I just did it.  I ordered the bath.  And here it is, in the mudroom!

Hello, my pretty.  How nice you look in my home.

I'm not sure this is the "final" location within the room.  I have some flexibility because it will drain into a floor drain using a hose from the bottom of the bath, and the wall faucet hose can be can be lengthened or shortened depending on the best location for the bath.  I need to play around a bit to find where it fits best.

Oh, and the promotion for buying the bath?  A free, matching dog dryer with stand!  So exciting!  And yes, I do already have a dog dryer.  Coincidently it even matches.  But it doesn't have a stand. And who can't use an extra dog dryer anyway?

Maybe I can work both dryers simultaneously and

get the dogs dry in half the time?

Oh, and in case you're wondering about my priorities, here is the current state of the living room & dining room:

Dining room table = folding chair and plastic table.

Living room furniture = 3 hand-me-down chairs that my mother was planning to throw out

(But The Small Human loves all the open space in the room for "Minute to Win It" games using ping pong balls and foam dominoes.  So that's a benefit?)

Yes, to most rational humans the money would be better spent on decorating the human part of the house.  After all there are no dogs living here, and humans live here at least some of the time.  But the dog bath is just so nice...

 Here's a photo from the driveway looking towards the wooded pasture.  

Pretty even when it's grey outside.

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: