ness

A good session today = we finally seemed to have a breakthrough and she seems to be double stepping much less in her hind end. By her third session she was in cruise mode and I think could have kept going much longer. She was bored the minute we got home and wanting to do stuff .

Hmm I had paid for baggage but on a flight to Adelaide to Perth, I had no issue with carry on bag + laptop + dSLR camera + video camera . I will say my utility metal article that I had in my carry on however proved a little confusing and perplexing for the x-ray guys though :laugh:.

Hmm DD did you get her checked out by a specialist. The reason I ask is because Kenz's went undetected for ages despite vet checks/chiro vet/physio/orthospecialists. If Elsie is well muscled and fit there is every chance they might not necessarily pick up on them. Kenz's was only discovered when she was rested and lots a stack of muscle. Elsie isn't old either - apparently they can deteriorate with time and can go from not noticeable to really noticeable. Despite having a thorough check over Kenz's RH it was only picked up on ages in January this year and was not detected at time of surgery nearly 12 months ago. The explanation being it wasn't bad enough to be picked up. The other thing to consider is potential for a partial cruciate tear. Definitely might be worth a specialist visit and having it looked at by a good sports vet/chiro.

What sort of signs does she show of having a cramp? I only ask because it was tossed around as being a "diagnosis" for what is going on with Kenz which actually turned out to be luxating patella. And for a long while I would take her to the chiro with 24 hours of having had one and they could find nothing to explain it.

Somebody decided to bring themselves up to bed last night - SHE DID STAIRS :D. Better then any trial brag. Off to underwater treadmill soon. Hopefully use up some of her feralness.

Just my thoughts leopuppy but given you are asking the dog to track I would rarely do a seekback as anything other than the first exercise because if you have been using the area already your just making it more complicated for the dog. Having said that I have done a few repetitions of seekback, one box then repeated a seekback and done another box. What happens if you go back a step do a seekback and then do a really short box. I haven't been following the thread but is it just a trial issue or do they miss the first box when training as well?

This is an interesting video on reward placement that I came across just now -

Took my oldie who is 13 in a few short months and been on the RHVC for a while out tracking training yesterday. OMG she was so feral. Tracked at warp speed and I was clearly just an accessory hanging on for the ride.

Not sure Jumabaar - her reward structure is pretty much toy focused which doesn't obviously make it easy either. In part through training structure but if I use food as a "reward" she quickly disengages in favour of finding twigs or whatever she can get her paws on. I am not quite sure where tug and toys fits in the hierarchy of what she can do. And the other problem is "training" quickly = high excitement. I am suppose to be allowed to do cavaletti's with her but she can't seem to come at doing those at any speed other than warp speed. Same with her balance disc/rehab activities she is super keen on that as well.

She did a Rally trial and I won't say it was without potential for issue for EIC but Rally is also to hard on her hind end because of all the repetitive sits and things. She hasn't done tracking, that involves strangers and being nervy its obviously not really something she can cope with.

No crepitus. No effusion. No swelling felt. Joints all felt good apparently. Just the luxation issue. Surgery was not discussed. She was moving like a dream this morning. Obedience is to much of a risk because of the exercise induced collapse condition. The hard and most frustrating part is keeping her from being a pest because she has energy and enthusiasm to burn and not using it constructively for anything because I can't channel it constructively. All that energy was channeled into her obedience and it meant she settled and wasn't a constant hassle to Ness and wasn't busy being a brat. Without that (and she isn't a food dog so food puzzle toys aren't of value really) I am left managing bored dog. Not to mention the fact that she then runs the risk of finding her own things to get worked up over and therefore run herself into collapse issues when I am not around (and yes as you know SnT that has happened before). She has already run me into trouble with the neighbours for a "small" amount of barking. It really was token but they seem to be dead set on suggesting its a nuisance and making trouble for me with council. Really feel so caught between a rock and a very hard place .

Giving up on ones dreams

So this morning it was back to the specialist - I guess the "good" news is that the rest of her isn't falling any further apart. She finally has some decent muscle back on her front end and no hint of anything the matter there. The bad news - yes the RH has deteriorated further then it was in January (didn't get a grading though) and yes she still has a residual grade 1 MPL on her LH but he did feel that had improved. So the main goal now is to focus on getting her so she can manage a walk around the block. The days of thinking that she may get back into the trial ring are all but over. Not even holding out hope for obedience these days unfortunately. Will continue with the UWTM sessions since she has a few left to use of the last lot we have bought. Completely devastated doesn't half describe how I am feeling .

What does he find the MOST rewarding Lisey? You can certainly mix up using food and toys but how rewarding does Booker find a toy? There are plenty of dogs who are trained predominantly or even exclusively using food rewards for obedience.

Way to go Moo (and Ptolomy) . Give the boy an extra cuddle from me please. He is such a deserving boy and glad to see he got it together for this Grand OC at last . So now does that mean he can be referred to as the grand occasionally clever one or is there something else .

Uploaded some of my in between session footage from Monday. Not sure if its "normal" or whether its worth flicking through to the specialist. Same day she ended up coming up lame on her RH after her treadmill time. Have just been back over all her other sessions and she never holds the RH up to that level in any of the others. Not sure if its significant or not though.

somebody did the stairs twice this morning of her own accord and jumped on the bed for morning cuddles without needing to be invited . Sooo happy. She hasn't done the stairs again since though but thats ok I guess baby steps. She thought she was pretty awesome stuff as she was also allowed to do some balance disc/peanut work again and start on walking over baby cavaletti's.

We have been dropping water level so she is walking not swimming - hence also starting the treadmill while the water is low to encourage walking. And yep speed has been mentioned but the vet is convinced she double steps less at a lower speed hence why he seems to want to run it slow . She came up lame after session 6 which was run at 1.5 MPH.

At this stage nobody seems really concerned if she does chose to. So its a positive that she did.

Well she managed to get up the stairs tonight after work so that is something. Fed her, came up the stairs, got busy doing stuff (normally she gets up an impatient dance on the bottom stair and won't come up), well next thing she had managed to get up the stairs .

Zug Zug - what I normally do if I am training stays is pick 3 times which I think would be achievable for my dogs current level of training. They are not necessarily gradual increases. If you have seen Morgan Spector's Clicker Training for Obedience book he has a variable reinforcement schedule for heeling (and I think maybe for stays). I will assign these before I train the dog and so resists the temptation to return :laugh:.

Hmm 3 weeks maybe it still needs a little bit of time to work to the full extent. I know all about the problem with tramadol as well . Might be worth trying another NSAID there are plenty others out there if she can't manage the rimadyl. Fingers crossed that you get some improvement for your girl.

good news moosepup and yeah its level scoops.

So today was appointment 7 and because of the fact she came up so bad last time she had a very short session today. Hmmm its back to the specialist we go next week to see where things are at . She is bored out of her brain tonight though and stir crazy. And for anybody curious in watching the video - ETA. Have had it suggested that the UWTM has been a waste of time because of the way its being run = NOT happy why do people offer these things and not really know how to structure rehab properly .

Sorry to hear its not doing much for Jazz Trishm. How long has she been on it now? Fingers crossed the cartrophen helps in conjunction with the RHV. Its so hard to see them struggling. At 15 1/2, have you tried any more normal meds with her either a NSAID or tramadol?