I'm not a big reader, which would make my Dad shake his head in dismay if he was still alive since he was a reading specialist for much of his teaching career... I enjoy reading but I don't take the time to just sit and read. It is easier to turn on the TV and get a bunch of little things done around the house while watching. So, the stack of books that I would like to read keeps growing. I rarely read anything "deep", mostly just fun books, a few that are somewhat educational. I will never be accused of being a "well-read" person. I'm a simple girl.
( Read more... )
After our run, we went to practice more in Chicken field. Slider really is improving with more practice, imagine! ;-) I need to come up with a different away whistle, I don't like the one I'm doing as it doesn't come out easily. More practice needed as I drive to work. I only brought Slider today as he needed some best boy time. Although I love all my dogs very much, I miss all the road trips alone with Slider, that was a very special time for us.
When I got home, it was Merc's turn for progress. We moved on to the 1 and 7 o'clock 2x2 stage (stage 7) with the two bases competition-spaced. We'll stay at this stage for a couple of days. Something in Merc's brain has clicked on and he is starting to have a better understanding about his job and he is really trying hard. He didn't need any food rewards to keep him motivated today, he worked great for just the tossed toy and tug. Previously I only played with the 2x2s with Steam and Slider who already knew how to weave so it is interesting teaching a dog to weave this way. I was very encouraged today.
I have thought about feeding a raw diet to my dogs but:
a. I do not want to have to prepare it myself which would be the most economical but what a pain in the ass and it would take time I don't have.
b. I can't afford to feed a commercially prepared raw diet to all the dogs (wish I could).
c. Traveling with dogs on a raw diet seems like a pain in the rear when you don't have your own RV since you are dependent on motels that have refrigerators in the room and then stuck trying to keep things cool while on the road.
Recently on the Performance Corgi email list, diets were being discussed and a friend of mine (yes, you Shelley) shared the diet she uses. She uses the same dry food I do (Orijen) but adds a prepared raw diet to it (Nature's Variety). That got me thinking about adding raw again so I started looking around at the various prepared diets and decided I did like the convenience of the Nature's Variety medallions. I don't mind handling raw meat but if I don't have to deal with that mess then so much the better. The medallions I can spoon out of the bag to put in another container to thaw in the 'frig and then spoon the thawed nuggets into the food when I am preparing it. I am starting out by decreasing the dry food a little and adding one medallion per meal for the BCs and 1/2 per meal for Kirby. After we see how they do and how much their weights change (I'm glad I just weighed them all last week!), I'll figure out approx. how much more this is costing me and if it isn't too bad then I can increase the raw a bit, or not. By keeping them on some dry, it won't be a drastic change in their diet to drop the raw for a few days when traveling (if needed).
I usually mix a bit of water and canned pumpkin in their diets to make them feel a bit fuller but I may go back to frozen green beans, or rotate between the two. I used to use green beans but got out of the habit when my old girl Chelsea got sick and wasn't digesting them so they came through pretty much whole, just when a certain perfect tri puppy was going through the poop eating phase... so we switched to pumpkin so there were no more special treats to be found in the poop. OK, sorry, TMI. :-)
Anyway, so far, no big surprise, the dogs love having the added raw. We just started with this new diet this week. The cat is looking very jealous so I may start giving him some too.
One funny thing from the diet discussion was when people would say, they fed XXX brand of kibble and their dogs do just fine on it and it is less expensive to buy. However, the amount they fed their dogs was 2-3 times as much as those who were feeding more expensive kibble so they weren't really saving that much at all. I didn't bother pointing that little issue out but I wondered if they would get it. Oh well.
Edit later in the PM - I haven't heard Merc cough at all since I got home and his training went well. Steam really wanted to work but he kept coughing so his training time was cut short. Poor boy. :-(
On Sunday, as I was taking Slider and Steam out to the field for their practice gathers at Fido's, Steam coughed, but he was also pulling on his leash so I thought he had just choked himself a bit. He didn't cough again while we were working. Then Sunday night when we were home he started coughing more. He was very cozy Sunday night in bed and wanted more attention than usual (even though he is quite the bed bug), and more coughing, sounding just like Merc. Great. Something is definitely going on.
Our vet appointment on Monday wasn't until later in the afternoon. I busied myself working around the house, getting caught up on things. I had hoped to do some training before the vet appointment since it was such a nice day but I ran out of time. I put all the dogs in the van and drove to the vet clinic. Merc seemed fine all day and was his usual cheerful and busy self. I told Dr. Evelyn about his coughing and how Steam had started and she presumes kennel cough, although of course Merc doesn't cough at all while we are there. However, Dr. Evelyn took his temperature and it was 104 degrees! Yikes! I had thought about taking his temperature at home but forgot about it since he seemed to be feeling fine. Kirby's temperature was normal and he got his exam and foot x-rays done. Merc got his exam but we certainly won't be giving him his booster vaccines until he is feeling better. Dr. Evelyn sent us home with antibiotics for Merc and Steam. I took Steam out of the van so we could check his temperature and he was normal. Poor Merc! I'm so glad I ran out of time for training as the big goober would probably have worked for me even though he was not well.
Since we haven't been trialing this past month, my dogs haven't been near that many dogs. And I don't remember any coughing dogs. As I pondered about the source, I emailed my obedience instructor to let her know why we wouldn't be coming to obedience class this week. Well, it turns out that her elderly dog Sparky had developed a cough. Her vet thought that Sparky just had an old dog type of cough, not kennel cough. Then Linda's other dogs developed the cough (at the same time Merc did) so then she realized what it was. Merc loves Sparky and likes to say hi to him when we are at class which explains why Merc would have gotten it first. All obedience classes were canceled this week and the training building is being disinfected.
So far, knock on wood, Slider and Kirby have not started coughing. I told them if they were going to get it they needed to start soon so they'd be done before the RHR USDAA trial in a week and a half. Merc's temperature was back to normal yesterday and Steam's was still normal. Merc is coughing less. Poor Steam is still working through it.
Here are a couple of informative websites about kennel cough:
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/kennel_c
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2
Merc and Steam have had productive coughs like in the video but certainly not what I would characterize as "frequent fits of coughing" or "lots of coughing" which is why I didn't think it was kennel cough at first. The other possibility is that it could be canine flu but I would think they would feel more ill if they had that and they really do seem fairly normal and are both eating well.
For now we are taking it easy and trying to keep them somewhat quiet. No training for another couple of days. We need to let this run its course and then we can get back to business.
Back on 18 January, I wrote about our visit to the dogs' chiro vet, Dr. Salewski, who noted that the outer toe on Kirby's right front foot showed evidence of a chronic sprain. This past Monday, 25 January, I took Kirby in for his annual exam and I talked to our regular vet Dr. Evelyn about x-raying Kirby's foot. She agreed that it wouldn't hurt to see what was going on. On the x-rays you could see some soft tissue swelling but nothing major going on with that toe, phew! In fact his right elbow and wrist all looked good, except those little corgi bow legs, which are normal for an achondroplastic dog, but they still look so weird on x-rays. Dr. Evelyn called with the radiologist's report last night and he noted the soft tissue swelling and mild arthritic changes (but not bad for an almost 10 year old dog). So, good news, not a career ending injury, we'll just need to take care of him and hope he doesn't keep tweaking that toe. And at least I know what he is tweaking now.
I started Slider with an away outrun and it was beautiful; he listened well to my lie down and lifted well. On the next outrun to the go-bye side we had a bit more of a battle as instead of flanking around obstacles like panels and pens, Slider usually chooses to flank inside and then slice. He took the first lie down/correction and corrected his path a bit. As suggested by Karen during our last lesson, I gave him another lie down to push the point home and he ignored me. I ran in and called him off the sheep and back to me. Then I sent him again and his attitude was better with no slicing so I let him finish. Today's practice gathers were just what we needed! Slider continued to do fairly well. For our last gather, I let him do a longer one and with my sucky depth perception, I didn't realize that although it looked like he had gone deep enough, he then came in a bit flat. He was probably anticipating the normal draw to the gate but with the sheep on grain, that draw wasn't as strong so he needed to flank around more. I was too late in realizing what he was doing so I didn't correct it soon enough. This is all goes hand in hand with Slider not feeling his sheep very well. We'll keep working on it.
After the practice gathers I took the boys out to Chicken field to do a bit more work. We worked the triangle exercises that Karen gave us and worked on whistles. I did a bit more driving with Steam but not a whole lot. Both dogs had already worked quite a bit so I didn't want to over do it. I ended up with the corner exercise where we put the sheep in the corner and I ask Steam to come up close to them. I think it really has helped Steam get over his apprehension about working close to the sheep. He also did much better about flanking between the fence and the sheep; he's still reluctant but he will do it and will lie down and not just dash through to get away from the pressure. Slowly but surely, he is gaining confidence and turning into a sheep dog!
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