Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Training Confessions

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Well long time readers of this blog know that when it comes to training my dogs, most times you could label it as “Epic Fail.”

When I found out that this month’s Positive Pet Training Blog Hop’s theme was Training Confessions I figured it was the perfect time to share mine.

When I did agility with Delilah I would always say, “Handler error” because truthfully, she knows what she’s doing, and so it goes with training, I can’t blame my dogs for these training fails, because it’s entirely my fault and I’ll tell you why.

Chocolate Labrador

  • Half the time I can’t remember what the hell the command is. Did I tell her come, or here, or here pretty girl or is the command for come “black beans”? Yeah, it’s true, I’ve used “black beans” as a ‘come to me’ command with Delilah. It was a total fluke, I just happened to be going to the cupboard for a can of black beans and I was being silly and I shouted, “Black beans, black beans!” and Delilah came running. So I tried it again and it worked. But truthfully, I haven’t tried it outside the house, so I can’t recommend it.
  • I change the cue for commands. “Leave it” has become “Ick” and sometimes instead of “Come” or “This way” I say, “Ssssst.” It works. “Sssst” usually gets Delilah’s attention for who knows what reason. And “Ick” has been working pretty good too.
  • I swear. All. The.Time. It’s not unusual for me to say, “What the hell are you doing, or you’re such an asshole.” I know they don’t know what I’m saying, but I still feel like a crappy trainer when I do it.
  • I don’t always have a treat ready to reward a good behavior. Sometimes, especially on a walk the command comes so quick and my dog responds even quicker, that I’m just not prepared.

So now you’ve found out some of my training confessions, do you have any you’d like to share? Can you make me feel better about mine by sharing yours? 😉

Positive Training Blog hop

This blog hop is hosted by Cascadian Nomads,Tenacious Little Terrier and Rubicon Days. The hop takes place the first Monday of each month and is open for a full week.

I Felt Like An Asshole – Barks and Bytes

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Today is the Barks and Bytes Blog hop and it’s a darn good thing too, because I have a few barks about this and a byte about that. 🙂 If you haven’t joined us yet, Linda and I would be delighted if you’d link up.

First the barks.

We had snow this past weekend. I know, I know a good many of you did as well. But you see, I was looking forward to the snow, because Sampson loves walking in the snow, especially if it’s still snowing.  Jonas (a named winter storm, WTF? do we really have to name EVERYTHING?) was supposed to start Saturday. Our weatherperson kept saying early afternoon, so I held off on our walk as along as possible. Sadly it didn’t start until about 2:00 pm and it was so fine and light that by the time we walked at 3:30, it had barely accumulated to 1/8 of an inch.

Still, I got a nice picture of Delilah.

What's a little snow?

Where’s that friggin’ coat you keep promising me?

Our weather person told us it would stop snowing around 8:00, but when we went to bed at 11:00, it was still snowing.

I had high hopes.

Sadly, we got maybe about 4 inches.

Of course the way our weather’s been lately, it warmed up. By now, there’s barely any snow at all.

But on Tuesday, there was still a small amount and it was getting slushy. Which also means, it’s sort of slippery.

Here comes the Byte.

On our afternoon walk I let the dogs off-leash because they were really interested in something they smelled on a small stump of wood. I kept walking but just as I was about to lose sight of them, I called them.

Delilah came flying to me and I saw Sampson start to, but I was watching Delilah as she flew over fallen trees, and then I heard a yelp. I looked up to see Sampson holding up his good back leg. “Please let it be a piece of something wedged in his foot” I prayed.  I went to meet him and checked his foot and there was nothing there. He wasn’t putting any weight on his foot at all.

I turned around and headed home, feeling like an asshole the entire way, because poor Sampson had to hobble along. It was so painful to watch, I can only imagine how painful it was for him. Each time he tried to use that leg, it looked like his hip was giving out.

Delilah was oblivious to this and kept poking along and I admit I was impatient with her, which made me feel like even more of an asshole.

We did finally manage to get home and I checked Sampson’s foot again, thinking I might have missed something, but still couldn’t see anything.

On my way back to work I called the Vet and luckily was able to get an appointment for him that evening.

After examining Sampson, the vet says she can’t say his ACL is fully torn, but she’s fairly certain he has a partial tear.

I had mentioned to Hubby in the last couple of weeks that I didn’t like the way Sampson looked when he was running and I don’t know why I didn’t think about that before letting him off-leash in slippery, slushy snow.

I still feel like an asshole.

So here’s what’s happening with that. A routine dental surgery scheduled for last week detected an irregular heartbeat in Sampson, this means surgery isn’t a good option; at least until we can determine what is causing that irregular heartbeat. So for now, he is on anti-inflammatories and strict rest. He can go outside to potty but we have to monitor his pace, absolutely NO running. We will maintain this for a couple of weeks to see how he does and the initial plan (at least until we figure this heart thing out) will be to treat the injury conservatively. After he is re-examined we will discuss and look into Physical Therapy.

I’m pretty sure he KNOWS he can’t walk on his foot, but that doesn’t stop him from lying at the top of the stairs and looking at me those sad eyes when Delilah and I leave for our walks. The good thing is, so far he hasn’t been pitching a fit.

That's one sad puppy right there!

That’s one sad puppy right there!

SO, if you believe in prayer (I do) I ask you to please include my boy in yours. And if you don’t, would you please send some positive thoughts out to him?

Next week I’ll update you on the whole adrenal nodule/heart condition or as the head vet put it, “Pandora’s Box.”

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.



And So It Is – Barks and Bytes

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I had my twin daughters straight out of high school, so as a result I was a much older adult (37ish?) when I found the time/energy/finances to attend college.

As an older adult learner, I found I really enjoyed school, in fact, I excelled at it and loved  going and learning and getting good grades. Grades in fact, were my highest priority. And while it took me 5-years to complete a 2-year degree, I was so proud to graduate Magna Cum Laude. (Fuck you earth sciences! You stole my Summa!)

One of the things I discovered while attending college was, the more anxious/nervous I was, the better I did on tests. On those days when I walked confidently and calmly into an exam, chances were I wasn’t acing it.

And so it is in the rest of my life. When I’m super anxious about something, odds are, things are going to be fine, and when I’m fairly calm, the unexpected happens.

Before I tell you this, please know that Sampson is okay.

I calmly dropped Sampson off at the vet on Tuesday, I’d slept fairly well the night before (another thing that should have tipped me off) and had no real nerves/anxiety about the procedure.

I had to run home after dropping him off to finish feeding Delilah and let her out to potty. It was super cold out, so I left the car running with my purse and cell phone inside.

This would be the great part where the car was stolen from my driveway, but that didn’t happen.

Instead, I missed a call from the vet.

So when I got back into the car I realized she’d left a voice-mail. I called her back and that’s when she told me that Sampson had an Arrhythmia and she thought she detected a slight heart murmur. The tooth pulling was off as she didn’t feel it safe to put him under anesthesia.

Things change in this world so rapidly. Sampson had his annual wellness exam in November, (November 11th to be exact) and everything was fine. Now here we are just over two months later and he has a heart murmur and an irregular heartbeat.

Sounds a bit scary if you ask me.

Sounds a bit scary if you ask me.

Since he was at the vet’s office on Tuesday, they did a chest x-ray which showed his heart was NOT enlarged, which is a really good thing.  The next suggested step was an EKG and an ultrasound. As luck would have it, the traveling vet who performs the ultrasounds was in the office yesterday and they’d had a cancellation, so Sampson got that spot.

From everything I’ve heard about him, he’s very knowledgeable and does ultrasounds and consults in vet offices all over New England.

So yesterday I dropped Sampson off at the vet’s office again. Poor pup missed breakfast two days in a row and don’t even get me started on what a pain in the ass Delilah was.

Around 2:00 I headed home to give Delilah her walk and on my way, my vet called. The ultrasound of Sampson’s heart showed no abnormalities, and apparently the next logical thing to be causing the Arrhythmia is a mass on the liver or spleen. We briefly discussed the cost and then I asked her when I could expect to hear from her and she said by 3:00 and we said goodbye.

I hung up the phone and then I cried. Big, gasping, gulping sobs. I felt like I’d been sucker punched in the gut.

I managed to make it home, and grabbed Delilah and headed out for our walk. Thankfully she headed up to the woods and as we walked those paths that Sampson loves, I prayed.

Now some of you may not believe in God or prayer and that’s cool. We are each here on our own paths and with our own belief systems. Personally I believe and I believe in prayers, so here’s what said, “I’m not going to barter with you because we both know how well I hold up my end of the bargain, but I will beg you. Please, please let him be okay. Please don’t let it end like this.”

The worst 38 minutes of my life took place on that walk.

My stomach was in knots and I’m so glad it wasn’t freezing cold because I would have looked like Jack Frost with frozen tears on my face. When the call finally came I had all I could do to speak coherently.

The ultrasound showed a slightly leaky heart valve, which is the heart murmur my vet heard. She’s not overly concerned about that. It also showed the slight Arrhythmia. There were no masses or abnormalities on his heart, liver or spleen.

The only thing they found was a “weird little nodule” (her words) on his adrenal gland. She said it could be the start of Cushings disease or it could be nothing.  She took his blood pressure and drew some blood to test and needs a morning urine sample and then we go from there. If it’s not Cushing’s, we will monitor him and recheck that adrenal in a month or two.

When I hung up that phone, right then and there in the middle of that rocky, acorn, leaf strewn woods, I dropped down on my knees and thanked the Lord for answering my prayers.

As a writer, one would think one could find words to express gratitude, but all I could come up with was “Thank you! Thank you!” while I sobbed anew, with Delilah sticking her face in mine because she knew I was upset.

So here’s a new twist on an old riddle. “If someone cries in the woods and no-one is around to hear it, is there still a sound?”

HELL YES!

When I picked Sampson up last night I had the chance to speak with my vet again. She said Sampson’s blood pressure was a bit high, but she’d like to take it again when I’m there with him and he hasn’t been at the vet’s all day. I also need to get that urine sample from him and once we get all those tests back, we may not know what it is, but we will know what it’s NOT.

Then we can reschedule the ultrasound just to cover all our bases. For all we know, Sampson could have had that weird little nodule on his adrenal gland forever. She also said the Arrhythmia and the murmur aren’t anything that require meds or treatment at this time. We just need to monitor him.

And so it is in life. Things change, stuff happens but through it all, people still love and care for each other and so I want to thank all of you. For the comments, texts and messages and for checking in on Sampson and me. For caring for my dogs and me,  it’s new territory we’re delving into and I’m so glad to have you all along for the moral support.

 

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.



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