weekend from hell!

Ever had a weekend where you felt like the gods hated you?

That was a weekend last month

I was so looking forward to relaxing that weekend. Work had been a bitch, this is supposed to be our down time, NOT this year! The weather was going to be horrid, so was going to have one of my rare, quiet weekends. Gossip was away with Kari, so planned on working on finishing taking down my 55 and dealing with my salt water tank, maybe go see a movie.

Saturday morning at 4ish, my roommate knocks on my door telling me her hubby is
worried about Grins. .first thing that went thru my mind was OMG, how'd he
manage to overheat as an indoor dog?

Back story. . 5 yrs ago, Grins suffered a devastating condition called "Monday Morning Disease", or "running
your back off". It is caused (amongst other ways), by over exherting yourself. I thought he was in great shape, thus why I entered the "International Invitational", the premier event for ASFA, not realizing I had a dog who would push himself beyond his body's ability. I learned the hard way that weekend, that I have a dog who is beyond insane for the bunny, and who would not listen to his body when his body said enough. IOW, he runs like a Greyhound. Greyhounds can run themselves to death and I know he will, now.

At that point, I had no clue what kind of disaster I had, as every other dog I'd ran, would pull up if their body said stop.

In going into azoturia, he also caused himself to overheat, resulting in a week at the vet's, and a huge vet bill. Since then, I have been very careful with him in the heat, as he is, even at almost 8, a full speed ahead dog who will race up and down the fence line with his son, even in 90 degree weather, so he gets brought in the house and forced to be sedate.

I knew it was going to be horrid the day before so he became a house dog Friday night. When I went to bed at 10, he was fine, bouncing at the gate, Grinning at me. And next thing i know, I was racing down stairs to find out what was wrong with my dog.

I got to the dog kitchen, and he was sprawled out, stiff, head cocked sideways, legs straight out in front of him. Afraid he was seizuring, I did not touch him. A dog who's in the midst of a seizure can bite you, not meaning to, even the best behaved dog in the world, and so I was not going to put myself in danger. I knelt near his head, called his name, he wagged his tail. . ok, not a seizure.

Put a leash on him and tried to get him up, and this is where he scared me to death, he started spinning, like an alligator death roll. We got him calmed down, which he did almost immediately after I touched him and decided to get him to the ER, and ran to change clothes. When I came back down(no longer than 5 mins), he was up on his own, head tilted slightly, wagging his tail, leaning against Jim.

We put a harness on him, and rushed him to the vet, where after a thorough exam, a chem screen, cbc, tick panel, heartworm test, he was diganosed with more than likely having 'veteran vestibular disease'. . in fact, as they walked him away from me, the vet says he's normal, I said I know, but you should've seen him 45 mins ago.

When he gave me a grin coming back to me, I knew he was better. All signs of the incident were gone

The thought is he tried to get up, and when he couldn't, he panicked, and thus the rolling as he kept trying to get up, when hsi body failed to do as he wanted, he tried to get up, and it became a nasty circle. He's a muscular, active dog, while a dog not in as good of shape as him probably could not've done what he did. It was over and done with in about 20 mins, with the only residual affects is being very sore from slamming into the door frame.

A vet friend told us Vestibular disease that it's more common in the hotter months in his experience, and this has been one hot damn August.

We are keeping him in the house, not just the dog kitchen, he's behind me in an xpen right now. . .we are watching him closely, but he's back to normal antics. While it's hot, he will not be allowed outside unsupervised, and unfortunately, his time out unsupervised is going to be totally curtailed. Pack behaviour can be sparked by something like this, thankfully his old dog compatriots all ignored him. . .but if he'd been in a pen with a bunch of punky young dogs, he could've been hurt. Or worse.

It's hard to think of Grins as a veteran. . .but he is. . .from what I've learned, sometimes it never reoccurs, and I'm hoping he's that way. It was damn scary. . .

Then Sunday morning, got woke up at 5:30 by everything in my room shutting off. . 1800 customers, not even all in the same area of Baltimore, without electricity. . it's too damn hot for this crap, especially with two dogs we're watching closely(Grins' aunt is sick). Thankfully it only lasted 4 hrs, but omg, I was never so happy to jump in the shower and wash grime off of me as I was today.

The light at the end of the really bad weekend is that Gossip picked up another point under Virginia Lyne, who really really complimented her. Since Kari camped out in horridly crappy weather, including a tornado watch, 60 mph winds, i'm glad something good came otu of it.

Thankfully, the following weekend was nice, and calm, a beautiful practice with Gibbs & babies, and RELAXING. The heat broke last weekend(but it's making up for it this weekend).

First racemeet of the season this weekend, coursing next weekend & a show! Going to be busy!

Practice!

As I'm attempting to stay cool in the horridly hot weather we are receiving, I thought I might catch up on my blog :)

Last weekend I packed Ziva, Reba (Mielikki-Mandolin's Pahu Pahu JC GRC), First (Celeritas Bellatrix of Silkenswift GRC), Gibbs(dork boy extra-ordinaire) and Aurora & Bella in my friend's van, and headed up to NJ for a QC/JC/Practice. The club was holding the QC/JC's early, unlike the local club who does it after the event, thus making it the hottest part of the day for a young dog, and it was our first chance to do so, so I really wanted to get out and see.

Got there about 8:30 and it was already getting warm. Ugh, set the xpen up for the babies, left the other dogs in the AC car and waited our turn.

AKC changed rules earlier this year for entering Open. Originally, all you had to do is get your JC(Junior Courser) and you could run in the regular event, even tho they did recommend you practice with other dogs. Unfortunately, there were people who thought JC meant they were ok to run in Open, and jumped the part about practice runs to make sure your dogs ran clean. I personally have made sure to have an ASFA Cert paperwork in hand before ever running in open, but not everyone was as conscientious. The QC(Qualifying Courser) is essentially the same as the Asfa Cert, and makes people get that practice run in before running open.

So, poor Reba got to be the QC dog for both Ziva & First, everything else we have is too old or in season LOL She handled it well, even tho she's in her slump from her season. She's a good silly red head.

I wasn't sure if Ziva would run, but she shocked me. Her practice we'd had last spring hadn't been quite as good as I'd hoped, but her QC run was really nice, even with Reba playing field cheater, she totally ignored her, and kept going. She's back to being a bit unsure with another dog, but I'll just make sure to run her with some known clean dogs for awhile, and definitely not Lemans or Serrano who scream LOL She is soo much like her mother in softness.

First's run was brilliant, and she will do her breeder proud if she runs like she did. THe judge was very complimentary of both the girls.

Gibbs had quite a decent JC run. I chose a JC with him, as he suffers ADHD right now. Silly, happy, dorkie as hell puppy, his brain doesn't stay on one subject for longer than a few seconds. He needs some focusing work, and will continue running by himself for awhile.

Then I got the babies out.

Aurora's going to make someone a great dog, she is not afraid of anything, went right up to the RR puppy who was bigger than her and play bowed, bounced off his head, and didn't get worried when an older pup joined in. She thought the entire crowd was there for her. She shmoozed, made lots of friends and jsut had a grand old time.

Bella's more suspicious, not afraid, but not willing to jump in without looking. By the end of the day, both girls were play bowing to one of Fergie's puppies and having a lot of fun. They met everything from a young litter of RR, to whippets, to RR of all shapes and sizes and age

Then we got to the line, and my sweet little Bella, who has been perfect on leash, became a little hellion, radar ears came up, she lunged at the end of the harness and was just raring to get the bunny. I had no clue if any of these pups would run, as Mom is a tofu dog, she has no desire to chase anything I've tried her on, but Bella was channeling her grandfather Brooks(DC Mandolin-Mielikki's the Dance SC, CD) and WANTED THAT GOSHDARN BUNNY!!!!

I handed Aurora off and slipped Bella, who took off like a bat out of hell, tearing down to the pully, where the bunny stopped, as they're flipping it around, she is bouncing off of it, tearing at it, having a great time, to the point they had to carefully start it to bring back, as she was refusing to let off of it LOL. I truly hope she keeps than enthusiasm and grows up to her potential, as she looks like she's going to be a fun dog.

Handed a very unhappy Bella off and slipped Aurora, who took off also, but when the bunny stopped and didn't move right away, she came back to me. Not a bad thing, Great Uncle Eros is the same way, it's only fun when it moves, but we'll keep working on focus with her.

Put them in the car, where everyone promptly flaked out, and left. I was gone by 11, and it was too darn hot by even then.

Unfortunately, no pics as we rushed thru it all to get done before the heat, but hopefully next time!

Was going to head out coursing this weekend to get Jenny's QC, run Ziva(I hope to have her pointed for the NLCC), but with a heat index of almost 110 expected tomorrow, temps over 90 on Sunday, we will be staying home!

First show!

A puppy's first show can be tramatic, to either you, or the puppy!

Kyra was a dork her first show, she was happy, enjoying herself, the first judge we ever showed to did not have a sense of humour and snarked at me that I needed to train this puppy(she was 6 months and a few days old LOL). He's on my never again list LOL

Rinka was so bad, Pat ripped her leash out of my hand when I left the ring, only to hand her back and say she would NEVER show her ever. . as a peer said, you could see the Devil dancing in her eye. She was attacked at a show a few months alter by three weimeraners on 6 ft leash, and was never the same again ::SIGH::

Then there was Races, who behaved beautifully at his first show, the 2002 BCOA National Futurity, until the harpist at the corner of the down and back would pluck a cord, then he whirled to figure out where the noise came. LOL

His nephew Gibbs thought at his Debute that the world was there just to see HIM!!! He is sooo much like his father, what did I truly expect? He'll be a veteran before he sees the ring again LOL if a dog could gate with his eyeballs behind his shoulders, he did in the ring, to stare adoringly at his handler. . LOL

OTOH, we have Gossip, who walked into the show ring at just over 6 months, handled by a stranger, and behaved like she'd been doing it forever, same with her sister.

You truly have no idea how they'll behave, til you get them there, as how they behave in handling class doesn't always translate to the show ring.

So I entered this show with some trepidation despite Bella having behaved herself at her 1(LOL) handling class, fresh memories of Ziva & Gibbs being total idiots their first time in the ring vivid in my mind as I waited with Ms Bella, who was 6 months and 13 days old at her debute.

I don't usually enter babies in local shows, but this one had a puppy group, so I figured what the heck.

We arrived early. This show is a huge metal pole barn type setups, which can be rather scary to dogs, even adults, Eros HATES this show venue with a passion. Thankfully, we were very late in the day on the last day, so a lot of the dogs had cleared out, no barking corridors coming into the building. Also meant we didn't have to wait along all day for group, groups started at 2:45, we were in the breed ring at 3, so it was perfect. As it was, hounsd weren't in til 5, can you imagine how long the day would be if we'd been in at 8?

We walked around the building, allowing her to see the strange dogs, from the French Bulldog to the Great Danes, walked thru the vendor booths, where she made a lot of friends, including a nice vendor who gave her a bag of liver. We then headed back to the ring, which couldn't've been situated better, last ring in the row, down near the emptying grooming area. And we waited, yes, I tempted the gods on being there so early with her getting bored, but Bella laid down and went to sleep, not even bothered by Steed when he tried to be a hormonal dork with a baby.

I am so thankful we entered a small show, as well as were surrounded by wonderful Borzoi people. . there were four girls, each in their own class, so WB was a decent sized for a regular show around here, and nobody raced up on Bella's butt, nobody did anything to scare her, unlike a well known breeder who had ran stomping up on Ziva's butt at Trenton. They were all WONDERFUL!! And I was so thankful for it, and they were all very complimentary of my silly sweet puppy.

Then was the long wait for group, but Bella handled it well, fell asleep in my lap when I sat on the floor. Judges kept having conflicts with the regular group, but we finally got in, and it was almost as big of a group as the regular group, whippet, and saluki, and PVBC, beagles, basenji and more. .. we were behind a Foxhound and in front of the Saluki, and they were wonderful with her too. .

She was the youngest in the group by over 2 months, and looked it, but she took it all with style, handling like a dream. We didn't get a piece of the pie, but all I'd wanted for the day was for her to have fun, and to behave herself, and she did both. . .

All in all, it was a very successful day for my little blond bombshell. Lots of compliments, from a handler to my peers, so I was very pleased. . she promplty came home and beat up her sisters LOL

She'll be back out next month, I managed to hurt my knee on the concrete, so am goign to take it easy. But there's another puppy group coming up, and she will be there :)

Uncle!

UNCLE!!!

I feel like we've been transported to the desert, the ground is so dry the babies have ran paws sore, and when the dogs play in the early AM(only time it's really cool to play), the dust is enough to choke a horse.

It is HORRID!!!

And keeping dogs cool has been a nightmare. No central air inside, it's cooler outside than inside some days. Unfortunately, Grins forgot to get the memo that he is not a young whipper snapper and can not do stupid crap like fence race his son when it's warm, so he's been delegated to a crate in the house to keep him calm, a fan helps keep him cool.

The rest of the dogs each have huge wading pools. Really, they're giant horse troughs, and it's interesting to see how each dog interacts with them. Eros & Reba will sprawl out in them, as will the big hairy beast Bagheera, where all you can see is their little eyes over the rim. Gibbs & Ziva will stand in it and splash themselves. In fact, they are no longer flashy irish marked dogs, they are self brown LOL. I'm surprised Tipperary hasn't turned green as much as she hangs around the pool.

Giant craters are dug to help keep them cool. If it keeps up, we may have to put them int he basement to keep them cool . .it's been awful.

What's scary is the performance events that go on. There was a three day coursing trial an hour from here, with temperatures of over 100, I can't understand why people go, or why trials are held in July for that very reason. LGRA & NOTRA meets have been cancelled because of the high temps, but it seems that coursing WILL GO ON. My dogs are outdoor dogs, but I would never course them in temps like this. .the one time I did(not realising how hot it was) cost me $3000 in ER vet bills. . I had hoped to go Saturday, when it was supposed to be low 80s, but once the week progressed, I opted to stay home when the temps ended up being high 80s. .I so wanted to get Ziva's QC and work on Reba's FCH, but cant' afford an ER vet bill. . .nope

Makes training dogs hard, Bella's first show is this weekend, and haven't been able to work with her much, because of the heat, missed out on Rally class this week, cuz of the heat. .blech. Thankfully, the weather is breaking for the shows this weekend, with a frigid 79 expected for Saturday LOL

What I have been doing, is working with Tipperary. . Tipp had gotten into this "You can't catch me" BS at racing to the poitn I've had to pull her. She's a very sweet, decently fast, silly dog, but like her great uncle Eros, when the bunny stops, she has no interest in it. Where he'll come to me or someone for petting, she takes for the hills, galloping gleefully away from me for 5-10mins before she goes oops, guess I should come back. My asthma and nerves can't take her taking this. She's almost half way towards her title, I'd hate to see her never reach it. . unfortunately, this habit has gotten worse over the last few months. She wont' even come when called in the yard.

So, the magic meatballs have been introduced to Tipperary, and it took her a few days, but thankfully she also has great uncle Eros' appetite, and she realised she REALLY likes these treats, and if she comes to me, she GETS these treats. .. we'll slowly wean off the treats to ear rubs (since I don't like giving treats right after a run) She's coming pretty reliably in the dog yard, and Saturday after the show, we'll go to the front field(think that's 8 acres completely fenced) and see how she recalls there. I'm hoping to have her fixed from this issue before the meets this fall.


Otherwise, we're jsut workign to stay cool .. and praying for rain, please rain!!!