The wait.

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The wait....

Picture by Candice Robinson

So Ben had his operation on the Monday 19^th September. His Spleen was sent off that day for biopsy to find out what this tumour was. I was told I should have the results in 5 working days which brought us to Monday 26^th September. I tell you what I have never had such a horrible weeks sleep!

I was away teaching most of the day and night Tuesday and Wednesday at Halifax and Newton Heath, so it kept my mind busy! Fantastic sessions, fantastic dogs and fantastic people, at both venues. I LOVE teaching them.

So I took Pippa, Evie and Lloyd with me so that it would be less exciting at home. Hoping Ben would chill and relax. -Lloyd was a dog I was looking after for a week.

I dropped Evie back with her owner so we are now Evieless and I can’t actually believe how quite it is here now!

I decided that I was going to travel back after teaching on the Wednesday as I wanted to see Ben. I didn’t want to wait until the morning! I just wanted to cuddle him. So I kept myself awake and drove home.

Just over 5 miles away from home and I had a bloody blowout on the front drivers side! Typical! It was half one in the morning, I had hardly any battery on my phone, and it was down a dark road with no lighting and a mile each side from any house!

 I managed to get the AA out and get the tyre changed. I eventually got home at 2.45 am!

Thursday

So much for a lay in! I was up and out buying some more tyres for the car, then before I knew it. It was 5.30 and I was leaving to set up for my classes at Skellingthorpe.

Friday, I was meant to be setting off to 5 Rivers to compete and judge but I didn’t want to leave Ben again, I couldn’t leave him with anyone and I wouldn’t leave him somewhere on him own with someone he didn’t really know. My parents had already made plans.  I certainly didn’t want him getting excited by the agility and pulling his stitches out there. So I had to cancel, I’m gutted I missed my judging appointment but these things can’t be helped and my little man is so important to me. So I had a free weekend.. I didn’t know what to do! It’s first ‘free’ weekend I’ve had since March. I spent it with Ben and Stig. Cuddles with Ben and I did some trick training with Stig! And Chilled!

Monday was here and I was up at 8.30 (when the practice opens) waiting for the call. I hadn’t received one by 10am so I went out and got some gardening done. As we had a call for a viewing for the house! Front and back lawn mowed, hedges trimmed back and even washing in and out! Still no call. My grand parent had come round as it was my mums birthday the following day. Just as they were leaving the phone rang. I picked up the phone and it was the Vet, She quickly told me the FANTASTIC news, that the tumour was NOT a cancerous tumour…That he was fine! I put the phone down cuddled Ben and then dashed out into the garden it tears of happiness over to my mum shouting ‘He going to be fine, his results, they are clear!’ I’m soo soo pleased! My little man is back on the mend!

He had his stitches out today and didn’t even flinch. The vet said that it’s heeling really really well. So its good news, he can even get back to lead walks. He is going to be sooo happy to get out of our house and garden.

 I  made a card for the vets to say Thankyou for all that they have done for Ben . What do you think to the front?

Picture courtesy of Hannah Paterson.

   It’s just a case of keeping him calm now for a few more weeks!

Lucy Osborne.

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Why getting to know your dog is Important.

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Why getting to know your dog is SOOO important.

Now you probably think that I’m going to natter on about understanding your dogs’ behaviour patterns but this is not aimed at that at all.

When I get my puppy home I make it routine that I feel over them. Get used to how they feel. I also make it routine that they get a massage so I can feel them, muscular wise so I can feel when something feels unordinary. All mine love having a massage now and being checked over as they know the end result is a game or treats.

It’s so important to know how you dog feels. Then, when something is wrong you should be able to spot it. If you have an older dog and haven’t regularly felt them it may be a good idea to have them checked by a recommended McTimoney chiropractor or an osteopath that specialise in canines.

A good majority of dogs won’t stop and lay down they will carry on. They can’t talk, it’s up to you.

It was Bens’ 8^th birthday on 28^th August and we were away at the Dog Vegas show. I went to get Ben out of the car and he was asleep. I didn’t think much to it as he had done a lot so was probably tired. I took him to the exercise area to follow out our normal exercise/warm up routine and he perked up, he seemed his usual bubbly self so we went up to the ring. After Ben had done the first few obstacles it was clear to me something wasn’t right. I picked him up gave him a cuddle and took him out.

I took him back to the car and had a good feel over him and noticed that his stomach was slightly inflamed, only very slightly. I didn’t know if it was me over reacting or not so I let him rest for the rest of the day.  We were booked in for Northern week champ the next day but I wasn’t bothered about missing it.

That night he was off his head, chucking toys on me at 2am and barking to wake me up to play. I opened my eyes to him sat at the end of my bed offering different behaviours thinking that would get me to pay attention and give him the reward he wanted. His stomach seemed to have gone down and felt softer so I played with him and then got a few more hours sleep. I took him out that morning in the garden and he ran to the jumps at the side of the garden, he wanted agility. He seemed fine and his stomach felt normal. So we set off to Northern week champ where he came 3^rd in the championship final.

He seemed fine that day. There was the champ and 3 other runs but I only ran the champ and scratched everything else. I got home and his stomached seemed to have inflamed again. I called my chiropractor / McTimoney one.  I wanted to make sure there was nothing out of place before I took him to the vets. She confirmed my suspicions too. His stomach seemed again a bit inflamed.

The next day I took him to the vets he was booked in for his rabies jab update I told the vet what had happened at the dog Vegas show and up to the present date. They ended up doing an ultra sound scan on him. The vet found that there was a small tumour on his spleen but it was so small she said she would like me to get a second opinion.

The following day I managed to get into Park View. The vet there had been recommended for a good ultra sound scan. That vet also wanted to do some X-Rays so Ben had to stay in for the day. The second opinion gave the same results there was a small tumour on his spleen. She showed us the x-rays and it was so tiny you could hardly see it. I began to fill up thinking the worst. The other X-Rays showed that there was no spread, which made it a bit better news.

The options

They could take off the tumour send it away for biopsy and if it came back clear then it would be sorted,  but if it came back as cancerous the whole spleen would have to be removed which would mean two operations.

Both vets said that taking the whole spleen away would be the best option as then there is no risk of having to have two operations and then he will only have one recovery time and not have to be put under sedation twice.

I’m just waiting for the blood tests to come back. They should have been in yesterday evening but still aren’t back.  Hopefully they come back clear. He is booked in for Monday. I hope it all goes well and the news is that it is not a cancerous tumour. I wont know until the biopsy comes back which could be up to another 2 weeks, after the op. Which I’m sure will feel like an age.

The vet said that Christine (my McTimoney chiropractor) and I had done well to spot this as it was so tiny. That it was made easier to spot as Ben is so athletic and I know how he should feel. So I know when something just doesn’t seem 100%

So Ben is left with a shaved belly at the moment but I know they will take more off for the operation. Just a good job I have some lovely snugly bedding for when he gets home.

I would also like to say a massive Thank-you to everyone who has sent me some lovely e-mails, you have really lifted our spirits and its good to know and hear of others whose  dogs have had their spleen removed and have got back to normal. I know there are hundreds of people out there as well and myself with their fingers crossed all runs smoothly!  Cheers guys.

One good reason to keep your dogs fit.

Ok you may find something you don’t want to find but at least you can find it earlier and hopefully cure it quick. Both vets said this  most probably wouldn’t have been picked up on a tubby dog (unless doing an ultra sound) until the tumour was three times bigger as there is a good chance you would be able to feel it clearly through the fat.

If you are unsure what you should/shouldn’t be able to feel on your dog the PRO PLAn body conditioning chart is a great and tells you each different grade followed buy a picture. This chart is on one of my previous posts and can be found on Google ‘PRO PLAN Canine body conditioning chart’

 

 Getting to know your dog IS important and it might just save their life.

Lucy Osborne

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Well done.

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Well it has been a hectic few weeks, now it’s all beginning to calm down.

I would also like to say a MASSIVE congratulations to EVERYONE that I teach who have all had a very successful year and all attended, beaten and smashed goals! A big majority have moved up a few grades too and qualified for Olympia. Well done. I am really pleased with you all. It just shows that consistency in training and competition and positive reward whilst it may take a tiny bit longer is better and in the end it simply kicks ass!

 I have one show left - Five Rivers, which I am judging for one of the days.

So over the past few weekends Ben has had two 3^rd places in the championship final, just loosing the time over the A-Frame and sometimes the dog walk. We have qualified for the Large Olympia Stakes for the 4^th year in a row and we have also qualified for the connection final for dogs in need next year, which I’m really pleased with as I didn’t walk the course! DOHHH. Along with some decent places too, not bad for an 8 year old when there are so many young fast and very talented dogs on the scene too.

So our personal winter training has me working on improvements

Bens dog walk has started to improve over the past few weeks so I am going to maintain that criteria as I feel it’s slowed through all the quick releases needed in the finals. He is just a bit unsure.

I have decided to start teaching Ben a running A-Frame. Why? The reason behind changing and not sticking to 2on2off is simply because Ben is getting older now and I don’t want to encourage him to do this piece of equipment at speed and keep landing hard on his front therefore its more of a decision to help prolong his agility career and keep him sound. Oh and of course it should encourage him to complete this piece of equipment faster then before!  I will blog about the training when we start it. I will not start until I have no shows or if I decide to start before 5 rivers I will not do the A-Frame as I don’t want to confuse him.

It will be interesting to see how easy/hard it is to teach an old dog new tricks!

Stig!

Well Stig has been actually fantastic and has had some brilliant runs with very few poles, some runs with no poles then stupid me sends him over an extra jump! He seemed focused and awesome until we got to Gillingham then everything seemed to of vanished. I’m putting Gillingham down to a lack of training as Stig had not done anything for well over a week, nearly two as I had been so busy I think it was all just a little to exciting as he hadn’t seen equipment for a bit. Although, I did get some nice pieces on the Sunday. I’m looking forward to next year with him. He is eager and loves it.

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Beauty and the devil are the same thing.

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Over the last week I have been looking after Nikki Collins new puppy ‘Halo.’ She is 8 weeks old and was a rescue from Many Tears. Halo originally came from Ireland along with some of her brothers and sisters.

Nikki wasn’t looking for a puppy but she had heard that Leah Gardner - (who works at Many Tears.) had picked some up. So she went over for a nosey, only to fall in love with Halo. By Saturday morning Nikki had decided that even though it wasn’t really the right time Halo was going home with them.

Nikki already had a holiday booked the following week. A week in Spain. (Jealous!) So Halo graced us with her presence.

She looked so calm and shy – butter wouldn’t melt look. Hummmm…fooled! Over the week the true ‘Halo’ character has started to emerge. I would say by the 7^th day ‘Devil’ would have suited her more! – Sorry Nikki!

She became a partner in crime for Evie, who taught her very quickly how to rough play and steal everyone else’s food, drink from the pond and eat the fish food.. Tut tut! When they were together I don’t think there was a minute that they weren’t charging about playing a game that seemed to resemble tag. (Run after, wrestle, get free……Other runs after, wrestles, gets free etc)

Stig the gentle giant took the gentle approach and Halo seemed to like going to sleep near him. Ben however had sharp needles injected into his tail by Halo teeth. He decided that he would spend the rest of the week on the sofa or anywhere he thought she couldn’t get him. Wuss!

Maize after having pups 19 months ago took the motherly approach and would tolerate only so much. Then just stood and growled. The only grown Halo actually took any notice of!

Cara was a bit confused and just left Evie to it.

 Here are some pictures of Halo and the gang enjoying their week together. Mostly Halo and Evie!

 

Lucy Osborne.

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Impossibilities are merely things which we have not learnt.

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It’s been ages since I last blogged. I’ve been really busy with training and shows I have hardly had any time. But.. The car needs a bit of TLC and requires fixing so it has given me some free time.

Stig and his Jumping.

So going back to the one jump training – clicker training I blogged about a few blogs ago. Well I feel this has really helped him understand the reward value for a clear jump on an individual jump, and then we built up on that.

Stig already had the drive motivation to get to the jump but always wanted to drive to the next obstacle, forgetting about his feet.  I now start and finish each training session on the one jump exercise. This means there is nothing else for him to do apart from one jump and reward. So his focus is entirely on the one jump. This is so he always starts and finishes by being rewarded for an excellent jump, an easy way for him to earn his reward quickly, and hopefully sink in quicker!

I ignore the behaviour when knocking the pole, replace the pole, I then allow him to jump again. When he does a nice jump I reward him with an awesome game of tug. I them increased his excitement level by playing before then allowing him to jump and then even tugging or ignoring depending on the jump. It’s been hard work so far and frustrating but I have stuck to my plan and I feel it is working. I had someone video some of his runs although his best runs typically were the ones I managed not to get videoed :-(

He seems to be coming along well. He is now only having 0 max 3 poles a run, hardly any lazy feet or shoulders either most are just taps, so a big improvement.  Before he had a bad habit of not even taking off just shouldering the jump/wing over because he was to excited and his was in his way.  Over 13 runs he has only knocked the first pole once.  Whereas 2 months ago I would say out of 13 runs the first pole would of been down at least 10 times.

He seems to be a little bit calmer whilst running so he is concentrating more on jumping. I have been trying lots of different techniques to try and keep him as chilled out as possible. It’s been a bit of trial and error but I think we finally have it.

The most annoying thing for us now is queuing. People trying to wind their dogs up letting them bark and playing tuggy with them. I have had a dog like this and don’t expect them not to try and get there dogs in the best frame of mind to work and perform to there best. So I now get someone to queue for me whilst I move away from the excitement. I allow Stig to watch the agility but away from other dogs that are wound up and near jumps. I will not let him watch near the weaves or contacts as this excites him even more.

He has done some really nice runs and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the year with him. I’m enjoying running him more now that he is concentrating a little better. I don’t have to worry about him getting too over excited which led to knocking poles which led to more excitement and less focus and not being sensible on the equipment and falling off. So when he trashes a jump I take him out as this is my indication that he is not concentrating. I’m afraid that he could do himself an injury at the speed he runs at or doing something silly because he too excited to be sensible. It’s not worth it.

Stig broke his wait in his G3 Agility. It’s unusual for him to break so I put him back. (Got E’d) Then he went clear, a stunning clear too!  He has had a fair few lovely runs now with 1 or 2 poles and had fantastic times too. I know he is knocking on the door but I don’t want him winning up yet. So was quite glad I put him back.

Running Contacts

I have blogged and put a few videos up of Stig running his a frame and dog walk. I am still training these at home but due to the past poles issue I have decided that he would be even more wound up and less focused in the ring doing running contacts. The stop just allows him to calm back down again and think.  Once Stig is jumping consistently well I will start to introduce them in the ring.

Ben

Ben is 8 years old this month and I’m really happy how he is working. His A-Frame is not up to scratch but I have decided I am going to teach him a running a-frame over the winter, I’m looking forward to teaching him this as he is 8 and has always done a 2on2off so it will be interesting, but I’m sure he will like it more. So come January Stig and Ben should both be doing a running a frame in the ring.

Ben won his Champ jumping and came third in the Champ final at Dogs In Need so very pleased with him…. Ohh… he also got 3^rd in the G7 jumping there too.

Here are a few clips from KCI and Dogs In Need.

Lucy Osborne

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Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results. – Winnie Nelson.

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Fearful to Fearless 

Everyone this is Evie.

Evie is not my new dog I’m just looking after her for her owner, Jan who is currently recovering from a major back operation.

A bit about Evie.

Evie is a rescue from Many Tears. We are told that she was taken from a family where their son beat her!

I can remember the first time I saw Evie with her new owner, Jan. She was that scared I don’t even think I got to stroke her or even give her a treat. She was very scared of new people in a different place. Evie had only been with Jan a week but totally depended on her. Everything was so frightening. In the couple of months that Jan had her before her op she managed to get Evie positively rewarded around people and let her see that nobody was going to hit her anymore. Jan was her protection, her rock.

Evie is now living with me for a couple of months until Jan is fully recovered, we’re unsure how long that will be but that doesn’t matter because she is such a character and loves the other dogs, she fits in with our gang just fine. I hope Jan makes a good speedy recovery but it will take as long as it takes. Evie has already come a very long way. It’s easy to forget when you compare her to others, you just have to remember her as an individual, which people forget. She is so much more confident around new people when she trusts the person with her. She is experiencing new things she has probably never seen before in her life and going to lots of different places.

However things are still scary now and again and she fears things, most when they move. Although, she may have seen it in a stationary position and not batted an eyelid at it. It’s MEGGA SCARY when it moves! The positive way I look at this is Evie fearing is not a problem it’s the way in which she fears the object, is it fight or flight!?!

Evie runs away from the object and doesn’t stand snapping or trying to fight with it, She gets as far away from as it as she can and then continues to bark at it. She wants to get away a.s.a.p! 

Here is a video of Evie with an Exercise Ball. She has seen this exercise ball for about 2 weeks, in a stationary position. When it moves it becomes scary. You can see her behaviour change. The video also shows how  WE worked together to take her from fearful to fearless unbelievably in less then 5 minutes!

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results. – Winnie Nelson.

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EO Fundraising Day 1 - Thames

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Fundraising Day 1

As many of you know The following EO GB team members have decided to dress up to raise some funds to help us travel to the European Open in Austria at the end of July. To make it that little bit more exciting we have left the costume choice in your hands. Yes you read that right in your hands!

All of the following people will dress up

Ant Clarke

Lee Gibson

Shaun Young

Dave Leach

Jo Tristram

Sian Illingworth

Lucy Osborne

We have split the dressing up into 3 different shows Thames, Rugby and Tuffley. (we will ALL dress up at Tuffley)

Thames

Ant Clarke, Lee Gibson and Jo Tristram were the first candidates to dress up. It was chosen. Ant and Lee would be the Cheeky Girls and Jo Tristram would be Barbie.

On Facebook we stated that the candidates would dress up on the Sunday. After looking at the weather forecast on Friday night (Saturday = sun / Sunday =rain.) We decided that for the clothing that they had purchased Saturday would be the best day, unless we wanted them to freeze!

Actually this was a good decision because Jo, Lee and Ant now had to be run their championship class in their costumes! I can safely say I think everyone found it highly amusing watching the runs.

Lee and Ant had a cracking weekend Ant Clarke taking the ticket and Lee coming 3^rd… Hummm what are they Going to be wearing this weekend?!

I would like to thank everyone who donated at Thames. So Thank-you.

Here is the footage you all have been waiting to see. I do apologise for the videoing. Ben wouldn’t stop pulling. I tried all night to upload the video on here but it just wouldn't upload so here is the YouTube link :-D

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhWFzSxQUWk

The Following people will be dressing up at Rugby.

Sian Illingworth
Lucy Osborne
Dave Leach
Shaun Young

So get on Facebook and let us know what you think we should wear. The most likes wins. Simples!

Remember if you don't train with any of us or wont be at Rugby and Tuffley and want to donate you can do by following this link - http://www.acagility.com/wordpress/?page_id=648
I will make sure that again there is plenty of video footage and pictures :-)

Below are some of the pictures from Thames.

Looking very relaxed!

Lucy Osborne

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