New QAA!

CONGRATS to Elmingo's Prime Suspect (Meg, Prime x Darbi 2008) for winning a very tough qualifying here in Colorado.

This makes Meg Qualified All-Age!

Her brother "Turq" (Backwater's Smokin' Turq) received a RJAM in the same Qualifying.

Way to go!!

Also, Libby was second in the Derby this week-end.  She ran a great trial, but could not beat Riot, who we also train.

Libby now has 4 starts, with 3 placements and a JAM.  I'm very proud of my consistent little Wibbs.

Just what I needed

Nothing like a picture of a handsome puppy to life one's spirits.

This is "Spur", from the Prize x Darbi litter.

It Gets Worse

Devastating news today.

Miikka came up lame a couple days ago.  She's never been lame a day in her life.  I was very worried that it was a cruciate as it was her back leg and she wasn't putting much weight on it.  She was walking on her toes almost.

I was throwing the frisbee for her the day before.

I took her into the vet yesterday and he did a work up on her.  He said it didn't appear to be a cruciate, but he sent her x-rays in to a radiologist to determine the cause of her lameness as nothing obvious stuck out at him.

The diagnosis came back today.  Achilles tendonitis.

He said BOTH back legs showed severe wear and tear of her achilles tendon.  He also said she had two old, small fractures in one hind leg.  I was floored as she had never shown any signs of lameness before.

And this is where it gets bad...

He said she needs to be on an activity restricted "diet" for the rest of her life.  No frisbee throwing, no training, no hunting.  She can do some swimming and go on walks once her bad leg feels better, but that's it.

I cried.

I need to wrap my head around this, and do lots of reading and research.  He said if I continued to work her in any way (including fetching a tennis ball), then she could have complete achilles rupture and she would never be able to walk normally again.

It just sucks.

Poor Peanut

Some people have asked where Miikka has been at trials this year.

Miikka has been retired.  It was a devastating decision for me to make, seeing as she was in the prime of her life and is a very talented dog.  I'll admit I cried when I finally decided.

Kenny and I came to the conclusion that she has chronic hearing loss.

When Miikka was about 2, she went stone cold deaf after hunting for a few days.  I thought it odd, but never gave it much thought after that.  This has happened almost once every fall while hunting.

The problems with her slipping whistles started when she was 3.

We've never been able to overcome it.  She started to panic (popping, etc.) in training when going out past about 250 yards and it started to make perfect sense to us...that was her hearing limit.  She was great to that point.

Kenny doubted my diagnosis, but he took her hunting last fall and she came home...stone cold deaf.  For about 2 days.

She is still doing some light training with us, and we'll never get her in trouble again for slipping a whistle.  It's not her fault.  She loves the work.

So, be careful hunting your dogs.  Keep them behind the gun.  She was a hunting "creeper" and had the muzzle blast go off over her head many times.  I just didn't know any better.  There's a study out from Mississippi State University all hunters should read.

http://www.msstate.edu/web/media/detail.php?id=1812

Water Puppy

Little Asia (Elmingo's Shanghai Surprise, Prize x Darbi 2011) is having a blast in the water.

The weather has warmed up enough in Canada for her to show off her little water wings.

The Rocky Mountain trial ended up being a very fun one for me.  Darbi, as I mentioned in the last blog, finished with a third in the Open.

And Libby finished the derby with a JAM.  She hadn't been trained hardly at all since her spay and was a bit wild, but I'm still proud of her for finishing her third derby in a row.

A few things to work on this coming week including Darbi's newfound CREEPING habit that she has developed.  Man alive, she must have been out 15 feet in front of me by the time the flyer was shot in the last series.  I almost fell over and admittedly laughed out loud.

Darbi n Me

Just a quick note.  It's been a LONG week-end, and still one more day to go (Derby tomorrow).

Darbi and I were THIRD in the Open today.  She was so much fun to run.  She crept quite a bit in the last series, and I almost died laughing...but we'll need to work on that.

:-)

Tough Night

Tough night at our house.

Ahti and Miikka.

Derby List

Way to go Rett and Zink for winning ANOTHER derby and making the derby list!!!

5 starts and 4 placements for Zink so far and he's just starting out.

Zink is out of the 2009 Shaq x Miikka litter.  He's Libby's littermate.

Poor Wibby

Libby has had a rough week or so.

She had her first heat cycle in mid March and I noted it was an abnormal cycle.  Short, and not much swelling.  I wanted her to have one heat cycle before spaying her because she has an "innie" vuvla.  They are no big deal and will most likely will pop out after one cycle.

I noticed a week or two ago that Libby had some mammary development.  I chalked it off to a false pregnancy, but thought it odd to have such development after just one heat cycle.

Last week-end, at the field trial in Lincoln, I noticed one "boob" was quite big and when I felt it there seemed to be a hard boiled egg in there.  I phoned my wonderful vet in Fort Collins and he told me to "take her in right away".  Off to the emergency vet we went and she was put on lots of antibiotics and anti-inflamatories.  

She ran the derby the next day and got a 4th place.

Well, I took her in for a re-check a few days later and while the hard boiled egg had subsided, she still had redness around the one mammary gland.  We decided to spay her sooner rather then later.

I picked her up this afternoon and the vet (who's a reproductive specialist) said it was a very good thing we spayed her when we did.  Her uterus was "abnormally large" and he was getting worried about infection.  While he said it was not pyometra, she was probably suffering from an extreme split heat cycle.

He'd only seen one other case like hers in 15 years of doing reproductive work in dogs.  Especially weird because she's so young and it was her first heat.

So Libby is living up to her nickname of "Lucky".

She is at home resting as I type this.  You can see the one infected mammary that was shaved a week ago.  She is going to be a spoiled little girl for the next week or so.

Beautiful Day

It is absolutely gorgeous here today.  28C.

I am getting a ton of stuff done around the house.

The girls and I took a break to go play in the ponds for awhile.

And now the view from my front door.  So peaceful.

Nebraska Musings

I had a great time in Lincoln, Nebraska!!

I ran 4 dogs in the Open and got a second place with Arson!!!  Thanks to Brad & Diane for giving me the privilege of running this great dog.  Two Open seconds and an Amateur WIN in two week-ends with three different handlers is pretty cool.

Click on the picture above for a bigger view of the last series.  There was 13 dogs invited to the last series and only two did it without handling, double handling or picking up.  Of course, one of those two was Arson!

The pic is not a view from the line...the line was quite a bit to the right and about 40 yards up from the first channel of water.  The long right hand bird (about 375 yrds) was shot first and it was visible under the arc of the flyer.  Both long birds retired.  Getting dogs to look tight past a flyer station and across a huge piece of water was very difficult for some handlers.  The left hand bird (about 275) was shot second and the short flyer on the point was shot third.  Dogs were handling and picking up on both long birds.

Of course, the white van was NOT there during the test.  :-)

The Derby was also fun.  I started 3 dogs and got a 4th place with my very own Miss. LIBBY and a JAM with Goose.  That's two starts and two placements for the Wibbster.

I learned a lot, made some mistakes and had great fun.