Happy Halloween!

Ultrasound

Indi had an ultrasound today and it revealed...nothing. They couldn't see anything wrong going on at all. I was sure they would see something wrong with her pancreas. I was worried there might be a mass somewhere. But everything looked fine.

She was given an antiemetic and it's definitely helped. So far she's held down her early dinner. It's the first meal she's kept since Saturday.

Next step is to see the specialist. They might need to do an endoscope on her which worries me. But we really need to find out what's going on.

Indi Illness

Indigo hasn't been feeling well lately. She's always had the on and off again problem of vomiting bile late at night if her stomach was empty. We sovled the issue when she was younger by giving her some treats before bedtime. Occasionally with her raw diet she will vomit up a few chunks of bone her stomach was not digesting well. We adjusted which kinds of bones she ate and that mostly solved the issue. Certain ones were more likely to upset her stomach.

Over the last few years she will randomly look sick. She tucks up her tummy, rushes to a corner, sometimes tries to vomit, other times just huddles there miserable. A few minutes later she's back to normal. Over the last couple of months this has increased and now on some days she will refuse to eat. If you know Indi, you know this is far from normal.

We had a complete blood work done, including a special pancreatitis test we sent off to Texas. Her numbers for the pancreas were only slightly elevated, but we did find out that she was B-12 deficient. It seems her intestines can no long absorb this vitamin so she has been getting weekly shots for just over a month now.

Indi started doing better after the shots began, so I was hoping that was going to solve our problem, but this weekend she had another spell. This time it's a little worse. She's vomiting up the little food she eats (normally it's just bile or bile and grass) and she's having very loose stools.

This morning she was very eager to eat breakfast but barely touched it. I managed to get her to eat some bread, which came up an hour later. Yesterday she happily ate hotdogs, but let me tell you that was a mistake. it's not fun waking up at 1am to clean up hotdogs mixed with canned dog food. At least Indi is smart and tries to vomit in the bathroom or a corner.

I have a call into my vet and I asked my friend (a former client) who is a vet, but not practicing. She suggested I see an internal medicine specialist, so I'll discuss that with my vet and hopefully we can get to the bottom of this.

Restless Rover

Porter was not a happy camper in his crate at agility today. I had to babysit him a lot to keep him from barking his fool head off. But at least he was totally focused while we were working. :)

We started with a slightly tricky sequence. The first time through I messed Porter up. I lost him in my peripheral vision and he stopped to sniff the ground before the tunnel. Then my line of travel wasn't quite right and I pulled him off of jump #4. But the second time went very well and he did great!

This is how it should have looked* but I'm sure we were a little sloppier.
*except for the end, our lines shouldn't converge, but I suck at the paint program

Then we worked on threadles for the first time. Just a very simple exercise to practice using our arm change to change the direction of our dog. Porter did well.

Last was the weaves but there was only time for one quick run. I'm glad we've been practicing at home.  The two set of poles were about 3 feet apart and at 1 & 7. I chose the easiest entry since it is a different location than home and it was the end of class. Porter drove ahead with speed and determination and hit both the entries. :) I need to start staking the poles down at home.

Harley was in class again today and while I kept Porter at least a few feet away, he never gave Harley a nasty look. He might have, but I'm not going to give him the chance and practice that kind of behavior.

Even though he was very vocal in the crate today he is doing amazing driving to the crate when we are finished with an exercise. He used to try to rush past it to get to the palm tree or bushes behind it, or even the pool farther along. Now he rushes inside to get treats. He doesn't try to poke his head out and shove through when I unzip the door...he started to for a little bit, but now he waits calmly. Even when I release him if I don't do anything right away he rushes back in. He knows treat rain from the sky when he's in there :) And this is after he had a good breakfast this morning, too! His girlfriend, Jackie, was out of her crate very close to us but Porter was not tempted by the little vixen and remained in the crate with the door open.

Birch, Anise, and Clove. Oh, My!

Porter's Nose Work practice group met again today.

The other two dogs are on all three odors, so the first two times we met, I either paired the last two odors with birch or with his primary reward (food).  Today I did the same for the first half of practice. We ended on a vehicle search (three vehicles actually) and did three rounds so each odor was searched for. This time I did not pair and Porter easily found the anise and clove hides. I didn't delay, but jumped in to reward him the second I could tell he knew where it was. I didn't wait for him to give an alert, or more likely, second guess himself and move on. I'm very proud of my little hunter! He's doing amazing.

We haven't had any problems with marking even though Porter has no interest in peeing before a search. I give him the opportunity, but he knows what's going on and wants to just get right to it.

Our next goal is to widen the search area and practice on a big field with the hide somewhere in the grass or dirt instead of on an obvious object.

Constant Contact

Today's agility spend spend the first part on our contact behavior. We took them over the dogwalk, rewarded a nose touch to the target plate with 2 on 2 off and then a right turn to the A frame and rewarded a down on the ground on a tiny mat after the contact.

Porter is doing very well with these behaviors. I still would like to tighten up his down. He was very straight today, but some classes he pivots so he can turn towards me if I am slightly behind. This will not work as well if we are then heading to an obstacle straight ahead or off to the other side. I have been practicing changing my speed, sometimes being ahead of him slightly and sometimes behind him. My next step is to work on being farther out from the obstacles.

Next we played the bang game with the teeter. The front of the teeter is propped up so the end is only short distance off the ground. You shape the dog to climb on and it drops to the ground as you reward the dog in the right contact position (2 on 2 off on our case). At first the end is only an inch off the ground and you slowly build up on that. We approach the teeter perpendicularly with the dog so our body encourages the dog to hop up and not swing off.

After a quick refresher with the end 6 or so inches off the ground we progressed to the next level where the teeter was mostly parallel to the ground. The front was propped up on the table, so we hopped the dog up, he walked to just past the pivot point, the teeter dropped about 2 feet and we heavily rewarded him right there. Then we let the dog proceed to the end and do his contact behavior and earn more rewards.

I was happy Porter was not fazed in the slightest.

Thankfully we had practiced out weaves this week since we worked more on them today. Porter did as well as he does at home. Mostly amazing at the level is is at, but a few missed entries at the hardest angles.

Last we did a very short sequence. Jump, to a curved tunnel, to a wing jump, then a double. Since I didn't decelerate soon enough Porter even took the panel jump. Good pup for staying on his line and taking the obstacles on that line :) The line continued to his crate so he almost finished his run by dashing inside :) Crate games is really paying off.

Sad part of today is his "friend" Harley, the Viszla, was visiting class today. Harley neutered several weeks ago and I was hoping Porter would stop being a punk with him. No such luck. Porter didn't care if he was near, but once when Harley started coming over to say hi, Porter stared and did a quick, low growl. Ugh. Maybe the hormones have not completely left Harley's system? I can only hope.

Back on Track

Porter is fully recovered :) so we did more 2x2s today. The two sets of poles are now 4 feet apart at pivoted to 1 & 7. He's doing well with his entrances 90% of the time, but occasionally misses the first set when we are attempting an entrance from the 5 o'clock position.  He's doing well when I'm barely moving or when I'll running full speed. I can be a few feet off laterally, too, which is all I can get in my tiny yard.

My next goal will be to take the show on the road and practice elsewhere. This poses a challenge since parks do not allow off leash dogs and dog parks are not appropriate to do this kind of training (unless we hit one at 4am maybe!). So I'll have to see what I can manage. But at least we have two places to practice, home and the agility field. Maybe I'll try the front yard.

To Add Insult to Injury...

On top of feeling down in the dumps yesterday, Porter is having an allergic reaction to something this morning. We don't know if he keeps getting stung by bees, bit by spiders, or is allergic to a plant in the yard, but this is the third time his face has swollen up.

Poor guy was miserable pawing at his face and rubbing it on the ground. Benadryl did the trick for a few hours but then it started getting worse again so we headed to the vet. Now he's on prednisone to make him more comfortable.

The good news is he was ready for breakfast this morning, so his stomach is feeling much better! I still kept him hom from our FCR Fun Day just in case he caught something he could pass on to the other dogs.

Sick Pup

Poor Porter isn't feeling well today. He refused to eat breakfast, which is rare, but I thought it was because I offered him ground chicken hearts and veggies. He ate a small amount fine last night so I figured he was just being picky and didn't want that much of it this morning.

That's not the case. He's turning his nose up at treats and deli meat. He actually puts his ears down and backs away like I'm trying to poison him when I hold out something to eat.

Tomorrow is our big Flat-Coated Retriever Fun Day were we get to hang out, do agility, and swim all day long. I hope he's feeling up to going.

2x2 Weave Pole Training

I admit it. Sometimes, ok, many times, I'm a lazy and procrastinating trainer. I love to train. I find it mentally fascinating and enjoy working with the dogs, but life gets in the way more than I care to admit.

I've owned a set of 2x2 weave poles for several of years now, but I can probably count on two hands how many training sessions I've had with Porter with them. And Indi, well, she sees them maybe once a year.

I have excuses as to why I'm so awful about them. Blah, blah, blah, not enough time, blah, blah, blah, other dog makes a ruckus, blah, and so on. But really...I need to shut up and get to work. More than half of Porter's agility class is already weaving a full set of 12. And here's Porter, stuck in the beginning stages of the 2x2 method. If I want an agility dog I need to put in the time and effort outside of class.

I busted out the poles this morning and I'll be making a bigger effort to do so more often during the week. A few minutes once in week in class is not going to cut it.

And of course, Porter did amazing. We made huge strides from class two days ago. I think that since I practice so rarely I wasn't upping the bar. I figured it had been a week or more since we last did the weaves so we need to revisit the same level. This isn't faulty thinking, but I was dragging his progress slower than it needed to be.

Let's hope for Porter's sake that I can keep up this momentum!

K9 Nose Work Trial Prep

I am hoping to enter Porter in his first K9 Nose Work trial in January. At the moment, we do not have trials in San Diego, although our first ORT is being hosted in March (Thanks to Connie Kelley and her excellent planning and organization!), so we'll need to travel to Orange County again. If interest is high, there will be a random drawing for spots. I'm crossing my fingers we get in.

In anticipation for this trial, Porter and I have been doing more hides outdoors, since we have the least amount of practice with this element. I was a bit worried, since Porter and I did poorly at our friend's house. We searched her front yard and while Porter found the first hide quickly, the next two proved difficult. He was more interested in marking. : / This could have been lack of experience, it could have been I did not give Porter enough time to potty and mark around the neighborhood before we started, or it might have been her own intact male's scent in the yard distracting Porter. Thankfully this has not been repeated and all of our other outdoor practices have been stellar.

In addition to getting in more practice outside, I have also been pairing the other two odors with birch (or his primary). I've been thinking of doing this soon, so we can do the San Diego March ORT and test for Anise and Clove, but was planning on waiting a littler long so I could focus on the trial first. However, the group we are practicing with is already on the other odors, so we just jumped right in.

If we do not get into the Jan. trial we'll be well prepared for the next one. Let's hope it's not too far away.