Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Move Along, Nothin' To See Here

Almost quite literally nothing to see.

I promised myself after my last ridiculously long photography/blogging break that I would make an effort to fit it in since it is something I actually enjoy.

You may have noticed that I failed miserably.

I suppose having too much work is better than the alternative, but dayum! Lots of work at work. Lots of side job work, which means I get to stare at a computer at home as well as at work.
Mama needs a break! :-)

Bella has been doing well.
That is to say no more teeth have fallen out of her face.
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The vet suggested that we do a baseline old-lady work-up on her when we were there for the tooth. Everything came back great – solidly mid-normal ranges on everything. Well, everything except her creatinine level. High-normal at 1.6. It was suggested to me that I put her on a low protein food. You know, that prescription diet for kidneys that you can only buy at the vet that has NO MEAT IN IT AT ALL? All grain with some pork fat thrown in to get the dogs to eat it. That bag of corn that costs $75.00?

Seriously? WTF?

OK, if your dog is in serious end-term kidney failure, go ahead and go low protein. Why would you put a very active, very healthy dog who has no symptoms at all and is still actually in the normal range on this food?! If this is to be a true baseline, shouldn’t we make no changes at all and re-test in 4-6 months to see where we are at? What if high-normal is just normal for her?
Argh!

The old-lady bit came up because she turned 8 at the end of last month. Flaked on that, too. Sorry, Belly. No party, no post, no nothing. You can have a cake when you’re 10.
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On top of work, work, work, we have been trailing, trailing, trailing.

Mid Feb to Mid April is just non-stop. Fun, but no free weekends, either.

Bella has been pretty normal. I seem to be ironing out my weave weirdness and she is responding by actually doing them. Funny how that works.

Kate has been great. Last weekend she had her first-ever full day. 5 runs in CPE. Handled it like a champ. All Q’s!

Her head has swollen so much that she no longer fits in frame
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I still have a hard time trusting her. I really have to regularly remind myself to run her like I do at home. No baby-sitting, no waiting, keep moving. And forchristsake, don’t fuck up her weaves like you did with Bella.
Just a game, just a game.

No game. Serious agility face
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You know how it can be hard to transition to trailing? More tense environment for you and the dog, no food, no toys, etc? I have come to the conclusion that the transition is not that hard on the dogs. I think those things are more crutches for us than they are for them - the privacy, the treats, the toys.

You know that whole 'sing like no one is listening, dance like no one is watching' thing?

We need an agility one...

Run like you have liver in your pocket and a tug in your belt loop!

7 comments:

  1. You need to publish that quote and put it on a t-shirt. I would totally buy it.

    Nice to see new pictures of the girls! I hope your trialling continues to be successful!

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  2. I agree, please make t-shirts so I can have one. What a great quote!

    I'm so glad you've been able to put some of the the weird weaves behind you.

    I'm still trying to not babysit Freya at trials too. My goal at our next trial is to give Freya some space :)

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  3. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these pictures. Especially that last one - good job on them!!!!!!!

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  4. your pictures are lovely and so are your dogs.

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  5. Great info. Thanks for sharing about your dog's health.

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  6. Amazing pictures of your cute dogs!

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  7. The pictures are sooooooooo great full. To increase the beauty of your dog please give them puppy supplement.

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