Raising a Riot

Sheltie Trial

This weekend we were at the Shetland Sheepdog of Greater Baltimore Agility Trial. We had never been to the facility before and the surface was a bit older and bit slicker than the indoor turn we’ve seen in the past. The course on both Saturday and Sunday were quite technical and challenging especially for a young green dog — not that excellent courses shouldn’t be technical and challenging. All four courses were nice to run, if not a bit tricky.

I was not thrilled with his contact performance this weekend, so I’ll have to add board work to the list of things we’ll work on this summer. His weave pole entrances were all really nice this weekend. And he paid very good attention to me while waiting his turn up until the dog before him was running. I didn’t get any barking out of him this weekend, which I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Saturday started with Exc A Std. I had a hard time running on this course. I felt like there was lead in my shoes. I knew it was risky to do the rear cross between 4 and 5 will a young dog and ideally I would have liked to have fronted, but really I was just trying to make it though the course. So I’m not too upset about the off course. His a-frame performance shows I need to work on independent behavior with him a lot more. I was initially planning on front crossing after the double, which I started and then didn’t complete, but he read the rear cross beautifully. I pulled him too far off the jump two jumps later and caused the refusal and that was just me over-handling the baby dog. I’m very proud of him for coming with me, but smacking myself for that.

The Exc A JWW course that afternoon was a really nice course. Riot came out of the tunnel (the second obstacle) on fire and there was a long line, but after my lack of running this morning, I took off booking it down the line to not fall too far behind. I’m not sure if my booking it, Riot’s speed, or if he slipped on the surface, but he knocked the bar on 5 or 6. This was the first time he knocked a bar in a trial. I don’t have it on video and no one I know saw the run, so I still don’t know why it happened. The rest of the course ran really nicely. If only he had kept the bar up.

Sunday, Riot ran really well. It was even more hot and humid than the day before — well into the 90s when we ran JWW in the afternoon. I crated them out of the car today which I think helped as there was an occasionally breeze and it was a lot less chaotic than the space inside had been the day before. 

Our Exc A Std run was pretty nice. He didn’t hold his dog walk contact, but we got through all the tricky parts. I was a bit worried about the entrance to the weave poles since more experienced dogs were having issues with it, so I booked it from the chute so I could get up there in time. I was so thrilled with him for nailing that entrance that I told him what a good boy he was and that caused him to come out of the poles. <smacking forehead> The rest of the run was clean but he did seem to lose speed on the second half of the course. I’m not sure if that was heat related or what.

Out last run was Exc A JWW in the afternoon and it was hot and humid and sticky. People were pulling dogs left and right and those that were running seemed to be melting. Riot did seem a bit less motivated than he usually is, but turned it a very nice run. I probably should have/could have put in a front cross after the weave poles, but I was a little hesitant to do that on course. Riot saved my butt after the tunnel. I forgot for a moment that there were two jumps in that line before turning and started to pull after the first. fortunately, he listened to my “go” (almost a little too well) and took the next jump. He was about 8 seconds under course time and was the only Exc A 20” dog to qualify and the Q-rates on the course overall were not that high.

BRDTC March 2010 Agility Trial

Riot was out in the agility ring for just the second time this weekend and he did a really good job. He’s still a baby dog, but his focus and determination in the ring is incredible. I absolutely love running this dog. He is just so much fun.

Friday

We started with Open Standard on Friday and had a really nice run. I babysat the tunnel to the weaves too much and tried to get his attention before the weaves that I think I made the situation worse. I also pulled him off the jump after the chute. But overall it was a really good run.

Our late afternoon run was Open JWW. Over all it was a really nice run. I need to work on our turns to make them tighter. We also missed our weave entrance again. We’ve spent so long working weave entrances, but not that much time working them as parts of sequences at speed. We also haven’t done that many courses and I think he does start to get tired part of the way through.

Saturday

JWW was first. It was a really nice course. I sat Riot at the start line and walked out past jump 3. He took off and seeing the drive and determination in his face was a beautiful site. After jump 5 I did a front cross and before I had completely turned around to move forward, Riot had taken jump 6, skipped 7 and was halfway over 8 (which got a collective sigh from the gallery). I called him back, and continued on from the missed 7 for a beautiful remainder of the run — including nailing our entrance to the weaves! A couple people who missed the run asked how it had gone. When I told them about getting behind on the front, they looked at me and said why are you front crossing that dog?

Open Standard was Saturday afternoon. I was really worried about the opening since it was tire to a dog walk/tunnel discrimination and we’ve had a lot of problems with this in class. Fortunately the tunnel opening was about 3 feet away from the dog walk so I made sure my lead out had a lot of lateral distance and we had a successful opening. We again had issues with the weaves entrance, but other than that it was a decent run and our first Open Std Q!

Sunday

There were no Qs on Sunday, but two really great runs. In Standard, Riot had one refusal getting on the table. Not really sure what happened there. And we had weave entrance issues again and for the first time did not complete our weave poles properly. Other than that, a great run.

In JWW, I made two handling mistakes. First I did not make sure I had his head when he came out of the tunnel (obstacle number 1) and second, I was a little paranoid about him taking the wrong end of the tunnel and over compensated when I think if I had just told him tunnel, he would have gone, but I confused him. We did get our weave entrance and the last half of the course was beautiful. 

Overall this weekend was a great success! This is only his second time out, only his second new environment (he did seem to be more interested in this floor than the floor in Cleveland). And this is a really chaotic trial — it’s crowded and the crating is practically on top of the ring. 

A Little Agility Training…

I had scheduled a private lesson with Claudia way before Riot got sick. Since it’s so hard to get lessons with her, I really didn’t want to cancel, but the main reason I got it was to work on stuff for Riot. Claudia found someone to share the hour with me, so Cisco could still work some. I still debated up until I left the house with Cisco as to whether or not to take Riot. I decided not to take him.

Well, when I got there, the person I was to share with had canceled. Claudia said she was running 15 minutes behind and I could have the whole hour or not. I took that as a sign and ran home and got Riot.

One of the things I had on my list of things to work on at this lesson was 2x2 entrances. Riot and I would only get so far and then we’d get confused and I didn’t know how to fix it. I figured since this really didn’t involve running or jumping spending 5 minutes wouldn’t hurt him. Claudia was able to get us straightened out and once we get the official clearance from the docs, we’ll start working entrances more.

I’m bummed because we didn’t get to work on everything I wanted to work on with him and I probably won’t be able to snag another lesson until September or October. And his next handling class was supposed to start tonight, but I pulled him from the class, so we have to wait for the next session in September to start another class.

Oh well… we’ve got lots we can work on on our own and it’s more important he recovers fully.

A Small Setback?

Riot’s recovery has been progressing really well. I’m pretty sure he has no idea there are still staples in his belly as he’d be perfectly happy if I’d let him play with Cisco.

This morning I gave him a cup of food (which he’s been getting for the last 3 or 4 meals) and he ate it but about 3/4 of the way through, he threw it up. He immediately went back to eating the remainder of what was in his bowl. That was weird. I’m hoping it was due to the amount I fed him yesterday and it won’t happen again. He got about 3/4 of a cup and a piece of bread for dinner and that has stayed down.

Yesterday was an eventful day for Riot and admittedly, I probably fed him too much. But he was obviously hungry as he kept asking for food. And well… he does need to gain some weight so I didn’t have a problem giving extra. He had a cup for breakfast, two or three handfuls throughout the day. Plus we were landscaping so he had to spend a lot of time in his crate with the cone on. he probably had about 7 to 10 tiny biscuits. And on top of that I took him out while the neighbors were lighting off fireworks and fed him another huge handful of food. And he also had no problem tugging on his leash with fireworks being set off about 60-80 feet behind him.

He’s back to being his goofy, happy-go-lucky self which is great to see. The staples are coming out on Wednesday and we’re hoping the vet will clear him to run a couple of short marks at field training on Saturday.

Riot with his brothers doing tricks during the fireworks

Can We Breathe Yet?

Well it’s now been over 48 hours since our last dose of Cerenia (anti-nausea medicine) and he’s still eating and not vomiting. That’s a good sign I hope.

He’s still not eating as much as the vet would like. But he is eating. I’m trying not to push food on him and trying hard not to bribe him because I don’t want a pick eater down the road. He does seem to want his kibble back, so he’s convinced me to introduce it faster than I’d like. I also can usually get a few more bites of the canned food in him feeding it to him with a fork — it only lasts 3 or 4 more bites and they can’t be big bites, but hey it’s something. He’s on to me when it comes to trying to disguise pills with food.

The vet called this morning and his WBC was back to normal (16K — down from 30K). His RBC was a little low but his concentration was good.

He’s acting like a puppy again and is getting harder and harder to keep him calm. He wants to play with Cisco and toys and he’s got tail wags and kisses for anyone he meets.

I set up a Skype account to auto answer video chat and set the laptop up to view the dogs so I could check in on Riot throughout the day. He seemed comfortable and slept most of the day.

We’re back to the vet tomorrow for a weight check.

Are We Still Doing This?

Reporting in with a quick update on Riot’s Monday. Riot was very excited about breakfast and ate it all quite quickly. I didn’t want to offer him too much at once so I figured he’d still be hungry when I offered him a second breakfast later. He wanted nothing to do with that.

Apparently he’s won over everyone at the vets’ office as we had two different people call to check on him yesterday morning. We had a scheduled appointment at 11:40 and when we got there everyone had to give him some pets. He was a bit reserved choosing to stay sitting next to me that to venture out to see people, but once they got close he had plenty of tail wags and kisses for everyone.

Our check was just a quick check to make sure he was feeling better. He was weighed again and came in at 40.5 pounds. They weighed him in at 44.5 pounds on Wednesday before surgery. He was 43.5 when he initially came in sick the Saturday before last. The weight gain could have been from fluids, but we need to go back on Wednesday to make sure he hasn’t lost any more. We were also given some more Sucralfate (which kind of acts like a band-aid for the stomach) since he was coming off the anti-nausea meds.

His first meal starting to come off the anti-nausea meds was last evening and he did okay. We got about 4-5oz of canned food in him with a few pieces of his dog food sprinkled in. He picked out his dog food first. I’m not sure if there was a little bit of nausea after eating or not.

Maybe if we get through dinner tonight (which will have been more than 24 hours since the last administration of anti-nausea meds), I’ll start to relax.

He’s certainly more active and wants to play. And amazing enough his incision doesn’t seem to bother him and he’ll lay on his back and stretch his legs out which would have to be stretching out the incision too. It’s getting harder and harder to keep him quiet — which I guess is a good and bad. We took a very short walk to the end of the street and back last night.

We Made It Through Sunday

Sunday some meals were met with gusto, others were left untouched. I’m not sure what the deciding factor of eating vs. not eating was. I was thinking it was the anti-nausea meds wearing off, but even 2 hours after re-administering, we still weren’t eating. We decided to throw out the can we had been feeding him from and start a new one (which was greeted with much enthusiasm) for his last meal of the night. We had gotten about 10 oz of the first can into him since 1pm on Saturday.

This whole keeping him inactive thing is getting more and more difficult. I think he’s feeling better and is raring to go. Seriously how he is not more affected by having his gut sliced open and his intestines rearranged is beyond me. He really want to play with his brothers, run up and down stairs, chase his tail, jump up and down, etc.

I’ve yet to relax and I’m not so sure i will relax anytime soon.

He’s Home! Again. *

Yesterday Morning we took Riot back to the vet where he spent the morning getting more IV meds and sampling (err turning his nose up) at the finest canine canned cuisine. They literally put a ton of different foods in front of him hoping to find one he’d eat. He finally decided on Adult Advanced Fitness Gourmet Beef Entrée — not necessarily the most bland food, but not that horrible either. And heck the fact that he had started to eat means I didn’t have to learn how to give him subcutaneous fluids.

We got to pick him up at 12:30. Armed with 5 medicines and canned food to hopefully get us through the weekend. My first task was giving him the Cerenia (anti-nausea medicine). Since he’s not eating much, I couldn’t bribe him with food. He’s one of the hardest dogs I’ve had to pill and I don’t think I got the pills far enough down the throat. So he ended up foaming and drooling for about 15 minutes after — nothing like making a dog nauseous on their anti-nausea medication.

Riot had his first meal at home about an hour later. It was just a couple tables spoons of his canned food that he initially went after with gusto and then let a few teaspoons behind. We all took an afternoon catnap. As soon as he woke up he gobbled down the rest of the food.

Dinner was served (again a couple tablespoons of canned food) and then it was time for the pilling. One of his meds is an antibiotic that is notorious for giving an upset stomach if not given with food.So I was supposed to give white bread with the meds. We get the pills down and then Riot doesn’t want the bread. I finally started making little balls out of it and throwing them to him. He only probably got about half a slice of bread though. After all this he didn’t seem to be feeling as well so I suspected he didn’t eat enough with his antibiotic. I tried to get him to eat more breadballs, but he refused. He pretty much slept the rest of the night so he didn’t eat again.

This morning we’ve already had a small meal and he’s going to eat here again shortly — this time with meds again. Hopefully we get enough food in him that the antibiotic doesn’t upset him tummy.

When I picked him up yesterday I talked to one of the techs that assisted with his surgery. She said that one of those little plastic pieces was embedded in the wall of his stomach. That’s gotta be enough to give anyone an upset tummy.

* Please note I’m cautiously optimistic about this home coming and probably won’t start to relax until we get through Monday with no set-backs.

A Day of Ups and Downs

Friday was a day filled with ups and downs. I called first thing in the morning and was told he was doing great that this was the best yet the techs had seen him.

It was decided I’d come over around noon and try to give him lunch as he’s still not eating. So I head over at noon armed with some boiled hamburger and some Ensure. The dog they brought into see me was certainly not the best yet they had seen that morning. I got a few half-hearted tail wags but that was about it. We set up quite the smorgasbord picnic for him — dry kibble, canned dog food, canned cat food, hamburger, and ensure and he wanted nothing to do with any of it. He alternated between sitting next to me and going off on his own and curling up in the corner.

This was really hard on me as based on the earlier reports I was expecting an even better dog than I had seen the night before and that’s certainly not what I was seeing. Actually I hadn’t seen him looking quite that pitiful since last Friday night/Saturday when all of this first started (he looked worse then). Then I found out his 24 hour anti-nausea medicine was due in about an hour and a half and he did seem a bit nauseous. It was quite the frustrating visit. I did take him out right before I left and he seemed to perk up a bit being outside and even tried to hop up a little (not a good thing for a dog with staples in his gut).

I called the middle of the afternoon to check in and they said they had given him some food and so far he had kept it down.

I headed back around 6 to see him again. At this point he had had two very small meals that were willingly force fed to him. And he had his anti-nausea meds again. The dog they brought back to me was a totally different dog than the one I had seen a few hours earlier. The goofy boy insisted on holding the leash in his mouth and was wagging his tail. If you held onto the leash he’d walk around with it otherwise he was content to hold it in his mouth and stand on you. The few times the leash came out, he had plenty of kisses to give. The best news came when they said I could take him home for the night.

I got to come back and hold him while he got his meds via IV. He was for the most part a very good boy. Once we were done, I asked if we should go wait up front and get out of their way. As we were leaving he bounced up and got a collective “oooo” from me and the entire staff — at least we know they didn’t remove his springs during surgery. It’s going to be a long two weeks keeping the boy grounded.

We brought him home last night armed with meds, canned food, and lots of hope. He spend the night either in his crate or leashed to me — we got some good snuggle time on the couch which I’m sure was much needed. He still had no interest in eating for me, but is drinking. He did nose around Cisco’s food bowl which is a good sign. He did pretty well overnight. He slept in his crate and I slept on the couch behind their crates that never gets used.

This morning he’s back at the vet’s office for observation and more meds. With any luck he’ll get to come home mid-morning.