A Doggy Christmas

The dogs were very well behaved this weekend. They didn't beg too much when people were eating. In fact, Sadie tended to spend meals curled up under the table, and Maxwell found a nearby chair or couch to doze on. My various family members were quite impressed. They were also both suitably enamored of the various presents they received. Sadie spent quite a bit of time chewing the feet off her rubber chicken, and Maxwell wouldn't let us stop throwing his squeaky toy.

It was also nice talking to my aunt about her dog. She (and her family) has an elderly golden named Max. I last saw him about three years ago, when he and Sadie exhausted each other playing in a lake in Maine. Now he's 11, and starting to show it. Poor guy's rear end isn't keeping up with the rest of him. We gave my aunt and uncle some home-made dog cookies for Christmas. Hopefully he'll like them!

We stopped at my dad's cousin's house for brunch today before heading home. They have two dogs as well, so our guys were invited. They keep their dogs in a small portion of the house, with a doggie door to their fenced back yard. Our guys couldn't figure out the doggie door at first, and definitely didn't like being separated from us. In fact, they managed to squeeze through the cat door in the baby gate to come find us! I wouldn't have thought Sadie could get her head through, let alone her whole body... In any case, Maxwell found the family cat first, and rushed in to investigate. Though Maxwell wasn't aggressive, kitty didn't like it and gave him three good swats to the nose. Well deserved, but it got him growling, which clued Sadie in, and they both had to be bodily carried back to the dog-friendly area.

After finally relaxing enough to play with their new friends a bit, we left for home. Maxwell slept or watched the road calmly from the back seat, while Sadie alternated between sleeping in the back footwell and crying in our ears. They both seem to be glad to be home.

 Did somebody say 'home'?

Merry Christmas!

Because even dogs want to open presents early...

Especially when you didn't know the package contained food, so you left it in the box with all the others. At least Sadie was fairly surgical in her removal of the gift from the pile: there was no collateral damage.

Even better, the food tin escaped under my dresser, so it survived to be handed out on Christmas day... with new wrapping paper!

The Pics Post

Just because I realized that I haven't posted many pictures lately:

How stupid can I make my dog look? VERY.

Mmmm... enormous bully stick...

Comfort is all a matter of perspective. And flexibility.

They wanted to help!

Last but not least, Sadie is admired by my boyfriend's baby niece at Thanksgiving

Three Awesome Runs, One Q: The Holy S#!t Run

Lots of thanks to my friend for filming this run! Thanks to the 'wonders' of modern technology it took a while to get the link, but here it is at last: Sadie's best run ever.

No, this wasn't a Q. She ran 2 seconds over time due to the weaves. But it was an absolutely fabulous run. You have to see it to believe it!

Teaser 7

You just adopted a new dog. She’s housebroken, loves your other, older dog, and is fine with cat. She’s everything you could have hoped for… until you leave the house! Suddenly she turns into a whirling dervish, spinning at the end of the leash, barely pausing long enough to do her business. It’s driving you and your older dog crazy.

You’ve tried reinforcing the few times she stops to sniff or stare down a squirrel, you’ve tried different halters and harnesses, and you’ve tried physically blocking her movement, all to no avail. Short of voodoo, you’re completely out of ideas! To top it all off, your trainer is on vacation for two weeks. Where can you go for advice?

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The Plot Twist

Both dogs are back from their respective vets, and it's all good news!

Sadie's break didn't go deep enough to show any nerve or pulp after all. They were able to seal the tooth without any complications. Though she can't have super hard things to chew, she can otherwise return to normal activity. Even tugging is fine... if I can get to do it! And the tooth looks great. All the sharp edges have been smoothed over, and the sealant seems thick. The vet even showed my boyfriend pictures of what he'd done. I'm hoping he'll send them to us, so I can show you guys. (Nothing gross, I promise)

Maxwell now has super clean teeth... and no fracture! Apparently it's actually two teeth that grew together and share a root system. Weird, right? The vet is going to show the X-rays to a colleague for a second opinion and get back to us on Friday, but thinks that it's fine.

As usual, everyone at the vet's office went nuts over Maxwell. He's such a ham! I'm told that he was wiggly and happy, greeting everyone (two- and four-legged) with enthusiasm. Also, the vet said he was up very quickly after the anesthesia and excited to see everyone.

Now both pups are happy to be home, though still feeling the drugs. They are currently curled up, sleeping on the couch with us. It's a loveseat, which means we're really squished. Sadie is on the end, with her head and front paw in my boyfriend's lap. Maxwell is being used as an armrest, and has his head and all four paws on my leg. It's warm and comfy.

Thank goodness for healthy dogs!

Options

The dental specialist looked at Sadie today and gave us three options:

1. Remove the tooth - Once the area heals, there’s practically no chance of further issues. This is the least expensive option.
2. Seal the tooth - They can remove the splinter, clean the area, and use a dental sealant to cover the break. We’d have to brush her teeth daily to keep the area clean. Since there is a little bit of nerve exposed, but no tooth pulp, there’s a chance of infection under the sealant in a year or two. In that case we’d have to remove the tooth anyway, or go with option 3. This is slightly more expensive than removal.
3. Root canal and crown the tooth - They do a complete root canal to clean out the tooth, remove the splinter, and give her a titanium crown. She’d be back to normal use of the tooth, with practically no chance of infection. This is by far the most expensive option, at more than twice the cost of sealing.

I’m completely in favor of saving the tooth, since it is one of the most important ones in
a dog’s mouth. That rules out immediate removal. And my emotional side says Well of
course you get it crowned. No question, give her the best chances possible for normal
dentition. Then the logical side of me (the one that pays the bills) says How can you even
be considering spending $X on a DOG?? Are you nuts?

The vet is going to do X-rays before they proceed, to make sure they know exactly what
they are dealing with. If it ends up being a lot worse than expected, and sealing becomes
a less viable option, Sadie will come home with one less tooth tonight. If it looks okay,
though, we’re getting it sealed.

*****

In the meantime, Maxwell is getting cleaned and X-rayed as well. If the X-rays show
extensive damage, he’ll be minus a tooth tonight also. I’m slightly less concerned about
removal for him, since it’s a less important tooth (3rd premolar), but it’ll stink, since he’s
not even 2 years old yet! Here’s hoping for only a minor fracture, and we just keep an eye
on it.

*****

No matter what, the dogs won’t get their tough chew toys any more. No antlers, no bones,
no hard Nylabones. We will still be able to give them the softer Nylabones, which means
Sadie gets to leave bits and pieces all over the floor. She loves to rip chunks off and
scatter them. Maxwell never really chewed the softer ones, which we had actually gotten
specifically for him! I guess he’ll have to learn… Or start eating the furniture.

Nana The Border Collie

All I can say is WOW. I now have a huge list of new tricks to work on, thanks to this amazing video of Nana the Border Collie!

Plus, what better proof the positive reinforcement is the best way to train?

Dentist Day

Both pups have dental appointments tomorrow.

Maxwell is having his teeth cleaned and x-rayed at our regular vet. Hopefully the fracture is shallow, and they don't need to do anything further.

Sadie is going to a dental specialist, to see if her tooth can be saved. My research tells me that she has a slab fracture, which can be crowned if there isn't any (much?) exposed nerve. I can't see any nerve, but I also can't see inside the cracked portion. If they can save it, and the cost is reasonable, she'll be worked on tomorrow as well.

So we potentially have both dogs undergoing anesthesia and varying degrees of work. I'm unable to attend the vet appointments due to work commitments, so my boyfriend is taking them. He's under instructions to call me if he has ANY questions. Plus, it'll make me feel better to be involved at least a little bit.

I'm also worried about the pups. I know anesthesia is done all the time, but I also know there are risks any time you put a dog under. So cross your fingers for good diagnoses and successful procedures!

Video Day!

I came across this fabulous herding video, from the American Border Collie Association. It makes me really want to find a good instructor to work Maxwell with.

Who knew? Paragility! It's wonderful for the poor pup to be able to continue competing, despite her accident.

And finally, a nice demo on how to assess your dog's weight.

Three Awesome Runs, One Q

Sadie had a trial in CT today. The just missed Q'ing in T2B (2 seconds over time) and Standard (missed dogwalk contact), but got a beautiful Q in Jumpers.

Sorry for the dark video on Standard. Not sure what the video camera was doing....

T2B was a Holy S#!t run. I left to get Sadie just after the 20" dogs started. By the time she had peed, 24" was already done and we were marked absent! Luckily they hadn't moved anything out yet, and the judge was kind enough to let us run. Between the rush into the ring and the massive adrenaline high from thinking I'd missed the run, I was afraid it would be dicey.

A group of women were laughing about it a bit, and offered to cheer for us. I figure why not! So we set off like our asses were on fire, and they were clapping and cheering. Sadie has never, NEVER run so fast or so focused in her life. We flew through that course, hugging turns and neatly avoiding a 'trap' jump. Our downfall was the weaves... 12 of them. She's so used to 6 poles in class and trials that she decided she must be done at 10. Having to use up all three attempts put us 2 seconds over maximum time.

We got lots of compliments on that run. One person said they thought we might have won, if not for the weave issue. All I can say is, it was a heck of a ride.

A friend got video on her camera, so hopefully I can post it later!

On The Road Again: Part 2

Apologies for the (very) late conclusion to our trip, but it’s been a busy few weeks around here!

Friday was nice and quiet for pups. People went golfing and shopping, and some fabulous naps were had. I even took the pups to a nearby park, where Sadie could wander off-leash, and Maxwell played fetch on his long-line. Even in the light drizzling rain, we had a great time. Sadie sniffed around, got treats for recalls, and beat on her brother. Maxwell got to burn some of his crazy energy, relax away from the crowd, and got lots of treats for getting called off another dog walking past.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, a bunch of us were going to take the train into Chicago to hang out and have dinner. My boyfriend’s parents would watch the dogs for us, though no real walks or anything would be needed.

We had a late lunch of take-out Chinese, which meant both our pups were under the table, praying for someone to drop food. Towards the end of the meal, my boyfriend rubbed Sadie with his foot for being a good dog. She was wet.

We got her up on her feet, and found that she had been lying in a puddle for some time. It wasn’t there when we sat down to eat, so clearly she peed herself and either a) didn’t notice, or b) didn’t care. Sadie hates being wet (unless swimming is involved) so I’m going with option a.

She also walked really funny, and kept trying to just lie down wherever she was. Poor thing looked miserable. Which of course means we made her even happier by getting her into a bathtub to wash off the urine. She had already stopped moving strangely by the time we finished cleaning her up, and she shook off like a normal dog. Someone suggested that she knew she had been bad by peeing in the house. I reminded them that she was probably scared and confused, since suddenly there were six humans fussing over her and acting strangely.

Our trip into the city was cancelled, and we stayed in to watch the dog. She drank a fair amount, and peed even more, but didn’t make another mess in the house. I made sure. I took her outside at least every hour until we went to bed.

Both dogs were ready to head home the next morning. They were totally worn out from all the people and lack of dog-naps, and probably missing their routines. Sadie even slept for a while on the road home.

It’s amazing how dogs seem to know when they are close to home. By the time we got to our exit, both animals were staring hard out the windows and panting. Sadie ran back and forth, driver-side to passenger-side and back again, whining. Maxwell sat on the center armrest and looked over his shoulder at the road ahead.

As we came in the door, we just dropped stuff on the floor until the car was unloaded. Maxwell’s bed ended up in the middle of the entryway, with Sadie happily ensconced. Maxwell patrolled the apartment, eventually settling on the human bed.

And all was right in the canine world again.

WARNING: Do Not Give Your Dogs Antler Chews!

I found a funny-looking tooth when I brushed Maxwell's teeth on Sunday. It has this grey area with plaque around it. I'm thinking oh no, major cavity. Here comes the tooth extraction! I got a better look at it last night at the club, and showed a friend. We agreed it actually looked cracked. So he went to the vet today.

Sure enough, his tooth is fractured. They put him on antibiotics, and he'll get a cleaning and X-rays next week, but the vet was fairly confident he'll get to keep the tooth. She thinks that the antler chews I gave the dogs are to blame, as they are so hard.

On a whim, she decided to give Sadie a quick look as well. I bring both dogs to all appointments, so that the non-exam dog gets to have a positive vet visit. In fact, Sadie had her annual physical last Friday, and came home with a clean bill of health.

A close inspection of her teeth, however, found an issue: a broken tooth. Not just fractured, but missing a chunk, and with another section attached only below the gumline. That sucker has to come out. Bonus, since it's a premolar, it has to be done by an oral surgeon.

Two antler chews: $16

One tooth cleaning, X-rays, antibiotics, and one tooth extraction: Wait, how much...?

The joy of watching my dogs enjoy chewing their antlers: Totally not worth it

DO NOT GIVE YOUR DOGS ANTLER CHEWS!

Teaser 6

Your older dog is doing great; she’s got obedience, agility, and disc dog titles, and you just started herding. (For fun!) Your new pup just started competing and squeaked in his first title in under a month. You couldn’t be prouder, and want to showcase your dogs’ successes. You don’t want to just start emailing everyone you know, but want your training friends to be able to see your dogs’ titles and recent results. If only there were a place you could post bios of your dogs and highlight your proudest moments…

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