This weekend was a little bit different than usual - Mark and I took the motorhome to Latrobe, Pennsylvania for a quick 2 day agility trial with Noodle and Dolphin. We mainly took the trip to test out the motorhome since it finally is out of the shop...
We started off the morning with FAST. Noodle nailed it for a nice Q, and Dolphin would have nailed it but he knocked a bar in the send. Standard was great for both dogs - Dolphin was on
I was on a pretty good high after yesterday's successes. My first class was FAST and that pretty much took the wind out of my sails as both dogs messed up the send bonus. Ugh.
Dolphin had a really nice Jumpers run but he stepped on a board of the broad jump so we got an NQ. I ended up trying some different things in the rest of the run since we NQ'ed so early, and he took the back side of a jump when I was trying to send from a distance. Oh well, he ran great anyways! Noodle laid down a clean run, but man it was
I have discovered that Dolphin is REALLY obsessed with Dobermans - male, female, it doesn't matter. It's like he falls in love and can't get his mind off of them. There was a Doberman than ran before us in every run and I did a good job of managing Dolphin's attention until the last run - Standard. He saw, he fell in love, and he left me after the first jump to go look for him/her. We managed to save the tun without a refusal, but when he got to the weaves they were right up front and he pulled out at pole 10 looking for that dog. We the racked up an off course jump, and he fell - WIPED OUT - in a straight tunnel. Yikes! Otherwise, he ran great, so I will take that. Typical Dolphin - feast or famine. Double Q yesterday, ZERO Q's today.
Noodle as a little sparkier for standard and she laid down a really nice run with better speed - and we went clean for a
Overall it was a darn good weekend! I am happy Noodle ended on a high note. She goes in for surgery in 3 days for her intestinal biopsies, and I am worried sick...
Today I did something a little different - a USDAA agility trial. My friend/training partner is on vacation, and her dog (Dolphin's training and traveling partner) needed one more Q to qualify for Cynosports in October, so she entered him for me to run. I entered Pizza in a couple runs for kicks. I walked Pizza off the first run (major long visit), but the second run I got her back from the visit and we finished REALLY strong, although it took me 3 tries to get her to complete the weaves. I did no stopping on contacts, just pushed her to run and she was amazing! Makes me think...
I ran my friend's dog and mamaged to qualify in biathlon jumpers and standard, giving her the last Q needed to go to Cynosports! That made me SO happy, I really wanted to do that for her. Plus, her dog is a BLAST to run (as you can see from the video below). Running a dog like him is so different than running mine. I like running him, it makes me handle differently and think a little differently, which makes me BETTER. That's always my goal - the better I am, the better my dogs (and my future dogs) will be (I hope!).
Today was the day I have been dreading all month. Noodle went into surgery to have biopsies done of her intestines. This will determine exactly what type of Intestinal Lymphangiectasia she has, so we can treat it. Link to informative article on Intestinal Lymphangiectasia.
They found considerable scarring and thickening in her intestines, plus sections where it was very pale in color. She also had some very enlarged lymph nodes, and they took a biopsy of one of those also. I should get the results back in a week or so. Meanwhile, she is on strict crate rest for 2 weekws, and then limited activity for another 2 weeks. Lawd help me, it's gonna be a
On a positive note, she came out of surgery and is healthy and seems to have no effects from the anesthesia, which was one of my biggest worries. I will sleep downstairs with her in a crate next to me for the next few weeks, so I can monitor her.
What a day to go field training - it got MUCH hotter than expected - 85 degrees! Noodle is doing well so I left her in the care of Mark while I took Dolphin and Pizza to do some field training locally.
Pizza trained first, and she was stellar (why am I not surprised?). The heat got to her pretty quickly, but she had some beautiful honors and two rock-solid birds (no retrieving - way too hot!). She did a great job of completely ignoring her bracemate, who did a little interfering with her at the beginning (nothing major). She has really grown up! I was surprised at how quickly she got tired. Possibly she did way too much running yesterday evening while she was out with Dolphin. I am going to work a bit harder on her fitness the next month or so.
Dolphin did pretty good on his turn. His honors were so-so. He understands the concept -he sees the dog on point and stops, but then he tries to turn around and come back to me. Not sure how to fix that other than keep putting him back where he first stopped and then praising him for staying put.
We put a couple birds in launchers, he was solid on the flush and shot (we didn't do any actual shooting today), but he is back to doing that thing where when he goes on point and I am a long distance from him, he feels the pressure and leaves his point, goes sideways, and goes on point again. If I am close to him when he goes on point, he stays put. My plan is to launch the bird as soon as he moves. Didn't work so well today (timing was off) but I will keep plugging away at this. His points are
I had to show off this photo of Pizza's long-distance honor. You can barely see her head in the distance when you blow up the photo. She held that honor the whole tie when I left her to go help my friend work the bird. DANG I love this girl! Crazy talented!
I took Dolphin field training this morning. We had three pigeons planted for him, loose. First bird - worked great. 2nd bird - he almost jumped in but controlled himself. 3rd bird - he was steady but the bird was damp and wouldn't fly. My trainer picked up the bird and tossed a fresh one down in front of him, and that walking bird was waaaay too much for Dolphin and he snapped and grabbed the bird. I yelled at him to drop it and he did immediately, and the pigeon was unharmed. It started to walk off again and Dolphin once again couldn't control himself, grabbed the bird, and this time the bird didn't make it. Bye bye $25 and my sanity! Dang! Is this dog ever going to get fully trained? I am beginning to wonder...
We did soething different today - Dolphin and I headed to a UKC conformation show. Every now and then I get the idea that he needs to practice being civilized. This was a decent-sized show, but of course we were the only Weim. Dolphin was a little unsettled by the judge, but recovered and gaited and free-stacked like a monster! The judge just raved about him and his head and expression. Yeah, well the judge was wearing a tie that had a squaker in it, and he squeaked it when the dog came in from the down and back. I was afraid that Dolphin would hear the squaker and grab the tie (and possibly strangle the judge LOL!), but he didn't - he did give some awesome expression though.
The group was a good-sized group, definitely the largest group at the show. Dolphin turned it on, and won the group! Once again the judge raved about him, I will admit it did make me feel a little puffy proud.
We went into Best in Show and Dolphin really turned it on - doing this beautiful big gait out in front of me. I was extra proud when he was awarded
The second show was under a different judge, he ended up getting 2nd in the group (and I will say I was a bit relieved as it was running late and I wanted to head home). Overall it was a good experience for both of us, but it also reinforced my opinion that Dolphin just plain out does NOT enjoy the sho ring. He does it, and even will play and have fun in the ring, but you can tell he doesn't
Last night my friend/training partner came over and we worked our dogs out in my agility yard. Even though we waited until almost 8pm, it was still pretty darn hot. Dolphin was super excited and motivated, but with that excitement came
I went field training with a friend this morning. I am happy to report that no birds were harmed in today's training session. Of course, we had the pigeons under tip-up cages so Dolphin couldn't get them (and he know it). What I didn't like about today was how he was pointing literally on top of the bird...like ON TOP of it. It's a combination of two things - it was blazing hot out so scenting conditions were terrible, but also he has a tendency to scent the bird and then follow the scent in to the bird. I am going to have to break down and buy a launcher to start training him - basically I will launch the bird as soon as he gets the scent and starts to come in close, hopefully to teach him to stop on the first scent. This bird dog training stuff is sure expensive...and difficult...but damn it's fun.
Noodle got her stitches out today! I am happy to say that she only managed to slightly rip out about 2" of stitches the past 2 weeks. She basically lived in either her watermelon donut or her surgical suit, sleeping in a crate next to my bed in the spare room downstairs for 2 weeks so I could keep an eye on her. Now she is FREE!
Noodle biopsy update!
First off, let me say that without a little prior knowledge thanks to a friend who went through this, and my love for FULL blood panels done every year on my dogs, I was able to catch this disease early in Noodle before we had any major clinical signs.
The biopsy showed that her protein-losing enteropathy is indeed
Noodle hasn't shown any of those major symptoms yet. Her symptoms are very subtle - significant weight loss depsite eating LOTS of high fat, high protein food, and a gradual drop in her enery levels and stamina. The biggest sign was watching her albumin levels in her yearly blood tests. They have been on the low-ish side the past few years but this year they dropped significantly to below normal, so we took action.
Her treatment will be a 3 week round of tapering Prednisone, weekly vitamin B-12 shots (which I learned how to give...ick), and strict diet changes - eating only Hydrolyzed food (hydrolyzed so that the protein can be digested) and low-fat treats. We go back in exactly one month to do another blood panel, and I hope and pray that we see her levels going back up to normal. If they are, we will end the prednisone, keep up with the Vitamin B-12 and the hydrolyzed food, and test again in a month to make sure her levels stay good. Then we will test every 3-ish months to make sure she isn't relapsing.
A lot of work, but Noodle is SO worth it! I feel so good that we have a definite plan. I am hoping and praying that we get
My training pal and I headed east to Harrisonburg, Virginia for an agility trial with the boys, and we went a day eary to do some hiking in the nearby Shenandoah National Park. It was amazing, amazingly beautiful, and amazingly
Day #1 of the agility trial started off terribly. I set up my crates in the building, and then brought Dolphin in. Someone was playing with their dog off leash in the aisle of the crating area, throwing a ball. As I brought Dolphin around on leash, the dog came and attacked him. Dolphin cowered behind me (I am still amazed he didn't fight back, but he is a big wimp!) and the dog grabbed his leg. I kicked the dog as hard as I could to get him off of Dolphin but he kept coming back. I kicked him multiple times and he just kept coming back after Dolphin (who had his tail and hind legs tucked underneath him trying to scoot behind me). Finally someone was able to grab the dog and get him off of us. It was freaking
Our day started off pretty unsuccessful, which wasn't surprising. It got better as the day went on and Dolphin got his confidence back. Here is Friday's recap:
Well, what can I say about day #2? Dolphin ran
Last day in Harrisonburg! This is the most beautiful area, I can't imagine waking up every morning and getting to look out at those mountains in the distance. Just stunning!
Interestingly, Dolphin ran faster today than he did the other two days...surprising since this is day #3, and day #5 since we left home. Not a lot of success to report today, but I can't fault his enthusiasm. I should mention that yesterday he decided he wasn't very interested in his usual trats or his ball toy, so I broke out some chicken. WOW was he excited about that! I just hate dealing with chicken, it's so smelly, but it made him happy. Today's recap:
I received my digital copy of the Weimaraner Magazine today, and lo and behold look who hit the Top 10 in Gun Dogs?
Also in the magazine -they had the results from the April field trial that Noodle and Pizza competed in. It was a great feeling to see both girls listed as placers in the gun dog stakes. Man, I wish there were more walking trials around.
I did something a little different today. Pizza and I competed in a USDAA agility trial. It was a very small trial, small enough that they didn't have any bar setters sitting in the ring. How
This just shows me what I already knew - without the distraction of bar setters, this girl is
I started off today with some field training in the morning. I thought it would be a bit cooler, but of course the temperatures rose to the 80's by the time I was done.
I started off with Dolphin, my friend brought her 3 launchers and we put out a total of 7 birds in launchers. When Dolphin went on point, if he moved an inch or relocated I launched the bird. If I saw him get birdy and follow the scent in to the launcher, I launched the bird. Several times he ran and stopped quickly on point, but was super close to the launcher already. I think this was due to the lack of wind and the heat, he just wasn't catching the scent until the last second. Overall, I am not sure how productive this training session actually was. I am thinking that maybe I should not train when it is hot, or windless...at least not now while we are still trying to get his training solidified? It's hard to know what to do for sure. I do know that this makes me think twice about entering him in any of the early fall hunt tests. I think the heat is definitely hurting his scenting ability.
On the flip side, there's Noodle. No heat, snow, or hurricane can stop this girl! I worked Noodle with my friend on a few birds just to see how she is doing since her surgery and long time off. What can I say, my girl was a
It cooled off a bit by evening, so my friend came over and we did a bit of agility training in my agility yard. Dolphin did great - his usual knocked bars from sheer enthusiasm...I noticed that he has a lot more trouble with the shorter bars (i.e. 4' and shorter). I have a couple jumps that are extra short just for training, and those were consistently knocked when he had to take them on a turn (which makes sense).
At the end of the evening, I brought Noodle out to run just one course, to see how she would do. I have been getting her back in shape over the past couple weeks since her stitches came out, but this was her first full course. She was