We had Fun

Ever since Rudy's been having trouble we've all just stopped doing the things we do, no daily hikes, no day long hiking adventures on the weekend to new places, just a lot of hanging out at home and shorter (and boring) neighborhood walks. I couldn't stand it, Kittie looks depressed, Abby's even wilder than usual and Indy's missing out on all sorts of stuff that she's still learning about. Willy....Willy doesn't care, he'll take the sofa over a muddy park any day, and he's the perfect buddy for Rudy right now. I feel a tiny bit less guilt, knowing she's not home alone.

I packed up the three young ladies (HA!) into the car for a hike in the mud! At first Kittie & Abby seemed a bit confused, but it didn't last long. They really had a great time. Abby & Indy play so well together, Indy thinks she's the coolest big sister ever!!

I now this sounds weird, but I encourage playing in the mud! We trial in some bad weather and watch dog after dog run slow, or refuse to down on the table becuase it's wet and muddy. I teach them to love the mud, to slam right down in the dirtiest mud puddles.....not positive if it has anything to do with their success running in the muck, or if I just end up with filthy little dogs?! But it seems to be working and they love it. I also found out Indy's coat really isn't hard to keep clean, how about that!!

It's not the trick

This is a fun trick to teach, great for body awareness. You can teach it using shaping, or targeting (maybe other ways too)!

It's impressive to most people, but you know what impresses me the most? The little dog, just hanging out in her carrier!! It's total chaos in my house when I work with just one dog, I pretty much have to go into a separate room or outside to get any real training done. I can work on things they already know as a group, but my dogs are a bunch of pushy hooligans when the clicker comes out. Me first, me first! diving on top of each other, no manners at all!

Vet update

I feel like all I talk about anymore is vet/medical related.

I wanted to update on Rudy though, she's up and down, and it's driving me nuts! I truly thought she was getting over this and we had nothing to worry about yesterday and now today she looks terrible again. The worst part is when she starts to feel better she wants to do everything! She's had zero exercise, so the minute she feels better she's looking for a fight, running all over the house, stealing toys from the puppy, biting Willy and no I cannot crate her. Rudy would hurt herself, she only tolerates a crate for eating, chewing and riding in the car. Any more than that and she just doesn't see the point and lets you know it!

Good news for Indy, her vaccine titer came back good! So no more puppy shots for her. It just goes to show just how any unnecessary shots our dogs get in their life time.

Rudy has an appointment next week with Maria Duthie for a massage. Maria said she deals with this a lot and said she should be able to help her, so that's promising.

I'm also planning to switch my dogs to a holistic vet. Doug Kneuven is right outside the city, he's a traditionally trained and started out as a traditional vet, but has moved farther and farther towards a more holistic approach. In an interview he stated that he feels the biggest causes for preventable health problems in our pets today are 1- poor diet (he believes in a raw diet) and 2- over vaccination. As much as I love my vet, it will be nice to have a vet who is on the same page and can educate me on these things. My current vet is open to things I suggest, like titers on a 16 week old puppy (the vet tech got in argument with me over it) but it's not how he thinks about things generally.

Not Another One

Anyone who knows Kittie well, has likely witnessed her spinning, this isn't your standard dog chasing it's tail, this is wild, frantic spinning.....kind of like a pug in a blender, but there's no blender ( I'll have to capture it on video one day). It all started innocent enough though, much like Indy's spinning in the video below.

She started this recently, maybe becuase we've all been trapped in the house?? Notice the dizzy side stepping?

Rudy update

I gave in and gave Rudy some rimadyl yesterday. I hate that stuff, but the arnica just wasn't strong enough. On one hand pain is good in that she was staying fairly calm and not moving around too much, but it's terrible watching your dog in pain. I ordered some traumeel for her, it's a homeopathic blend of several things that hopefully will help her and some glycoflex III for the whole pack. I'm going to contact Maria from annisage to see if she has any experience with this and see if she can work on Rudy a bit.

She does seem better today, but keeping her off the stairs is quite the challenge, as is not doing anything with her! I'm going to try giving her and Willy marrow bones and sneaking the others out to the park for a while. Willy and Rudy just love each other and Willy really doesn't care about going to the park unless it's in the 70s and sunny!

Rudy

Rudy, my first pug, the product of bad, bad breeding. I've known she's been pretty much a ticking time bomb....with bad knees, bad eyes and a ton of allergies. She does *not* have the typical pug temperament either.

She was moving really slow on Monday and starting on Tuesday she had these episodes where she is really hunched up, shaking and doesn't want to move.....but then she'll be fine some time later. There's no pattern, sometimes it happens in the morning, sometimes after she's been up and running around.

I took her in to the vets and he believes she may have a disc problem. I'm still trying to learn what I can about this, but it seems the prognosis is anywhere from, let her rest and heal and she'll be fine, to she could become paralyzed.

Rudy is such a wild little pug. The thought of Rudy not being able to run around and play is hard to grasp. Every bad trait she has becomes almost immediately exaggerated when she can't exercise.

Please cross your fingers that this turns out to be nothing!!!

Tri To Leave Me Out of it

I was asking Bill for some help coming up with a registered name for Indy, I told him I'd like to incorporate "Tri" into the name, someone suggested "Tri to get me" which I like, but I still think I can do better, I'd also like to work moonlight/moon into her name.

Bill's response, "Tri to leave me out of it" he's honest if nothing else : )

So, any suggestions? The Kennel name is Pasun (pronounced pay sun) I'm open to just about anything, not just names with the above criteria, just want something I won't mind hearing for years and that her breeder will hopefully like as well.

Back at Boyce

We went to Boyce park again yesterday. Rather than go to the park that's walking distance from the house, I've been driving about 20 minutes away to walk the dogs at Boyce park. We don't see as many other dogs...and that's the main point. I just don't want Indy to have bad experiences at this age and she's just too tiny to be around big dogs unless I know and trust their owners.

Abby in the lead, as usual, Indy coming up from behind and Willy holding up the back. Kittie's most likely right behind my heals, that's her usual spot. Rudy was with Bill.

Indy! Yes, she has a coat but she keeps ketting stuck in it, so we had to ditch it within the first couple of minutes. She didn't seem to mind the cold.

Several poor attempts at a group photo:

Here's the girls; Kittie, Rudy, Abby & Indy

Indy, Willy & Abby

I had to settle for this! Kittie staring at the sky, just waiting to chase an airplane. Rudy, Willy & Abby looking down the trail wondering what Bill's up to....no idea what Indy's looking at!

Done with that

Indy says she's done with this fear period nonsense. Puppies are so funny the way they change for the better or worse each and every day, seemingly for little or no reason. What scares them one day, winds them up the next!

It was 65 degrees out yesterday and I think everyone who wasn't working was outside. Indy went on 4 short walks around the neighborhood, some just me and her, others I brought along one of the pugs. There were kids running around at the small playground near us, dogs barking in every other yard, none of it phased her. When I ran into a neighbor she was able to settle down and let us talk too, which was quite nice of Indy to be so patient!

The tiniest teacup, with the biggest ears

Indy & I went to the "Teacup Social Hour" held at animal friends, http://www.thinkingoutsidethecage.org/ and she was the tiniest one there, but made up for it with those ears of hers. All dogs were just 10 lbs or less. She had fun, but it seems she's going through some sort of fear period, which while not unusual, still always worries you a little. She was pretty scared at first, but then came out of shell and was playing like crazy, then she got a bit clingy. She was up ALL morning before, so she was probably a little tired too. She's nervous on neighborhood walks right now too, barking dogs really scare her. We weren't able to do any walks like this before because of the salt on the sidewalks.

Overall Miss Indy is doing well, the others dogs don't exactly love her, but they tolerate her quite well. Abby thinks it's pretty funny to play tug with her.....especially since Abby always gets to win! Training wise, it's a lot of the same thing; sit, down, stay, come all for toys as well as treats. We're playing lots of shaping games as well, she's not the frantic throw a million behaviors at you kind of dog Abby and Rudy both are, but she seems to really think through what might get that click-treat. We're working on backing up and she can already scoot around me backwards with a lure, too cute! The pugs have always had trouble with that, I think it's easier for her to bend around me. She seems to really understand housetraining too and hasn't had a single accident in over a week, although I still wouldn't trust her for even a minute alone without someone watching her!

She's due for her vaccine booster this coming Friday, the 13th....and I don't think we're doing it, espcially not on Friday the 13th!!! I'm going to have her titers checked instead of just blindly giving the vaccine and hope she's protected.

Another decision I need to make is whether to go to puppy classes or not. Rudy is the only one of my dogs that went to a true puppy class and I have no idea if it helped her in any way. When Willy & Kittie were both little I owned a small pet shop and we had a weekly puppy play group held in the store and they both had a ball there. Abby just came along to meet some of my clients and to Kittie's agility classes and trials. Kittie is by far my best socialized, easiest to live, compete, train etc with dog, I don't know if it was anything to do with what I did, or didn't do, but I would love to be able capture those traits in Indy. The only reason I would go to a puppy class would be for socialization, Indy already knows more behaviors than are taught in those classes.....although working with distractions would be good for her. Any opinions??

Silvia Trkman seminars

Silvia Trkman's coming to the US again for several seminars. They're not until next Nov. & Dec., but I'm planning early.....I missed out last time. She's won many world championships and her dogs are well known for their running contacts, tight turns and tricks!

http://www.silvia.trkman.net/

Snow Day in Boyce Park

Indy's ears present a interesting challenge when taking photos of the pack

Weeeeeeeeee

Time to go home.....walking 5 dogs at once, when one of them is barely leash trained and another desparately wants back to the car (Willy) is tougher than it looks!

Indy week 2

I haven't had much time to keep up here....Indy's keeping me pretty busy and there just isn't much going on, with no trials and only the occasional agility practice.

Indy's been doing a lot though. She's all better after her vaccine issues. I realize now, she really wasn't feeling well, but by Monday night she was back in action.

We're continuing working on sit, down and stay.....stay is tough for her, but she's coming along. I started playing some shaping games with her, just clicking for almost any novel behavior. At first she really didn't understand, and would look at me like "just tell me what you want me to do!" but she's starting to get the hang of it now. She learned hand touches very easily and I'm shaping her to sit in a large food bowl and we're working on riding a skateboard too. The skateboard, aside from just being really cute and funny, gets the dogs used to things moving under their feet, which is very important for agility dogs. We're playing, playing playing ALL the time right now.

She's been coming out hiking with us and I'm amazed at how well she keeps up and handles the cold and the snow. Socialization is a big focus right now, she's met several of my dog walking clients (both dogs and owners), and she came along with us to the Strip district yesterday, which is an area of town with lots of variuous food markets and street vendors, it's pretty hectic but Indy took it in stride and came inside some businesses in her little carrier bag too.

Agility wise, we started working on a low teeter. The criteria for her teeter is to run all the way to the end, and ride it down and exit as soon as soon as I say OK. she has not one bit of fear and just charges out to the end, while I hold the teeter up and gradually lower it, she's not phased by riding it down either!

We're also working on some agility foundation skills on the flat, both front and rear crosses on the flat with no equipment and recall to heal.

The pugs are coming around. Abby as been playing with her a bit, but I swear it's just because it makes ME happy whenever she interacts with Indy...no major issues with anyone at this point, I think they're coming to terms with the fact that she's here to stay