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Steam actually did better than I expected him to last night. He was a little unsure at first and had to watch everything. I didn't do much formal heeling with him but did "let's go" at a slow pace with some "watch", not pushing him to do too much this first time. I couldn't get him to tug at first, but then he was able to do his scent work and some play retrieves with the gloves. Then we did group stays which Steam handled very well although he had a bit of a confused look on his face. I think it was good for him to have a chance to stay in one spot and take everything in. After stays we worked retrieves and jumping. He got pretty excited about retrieving his dumbbell, he has the cutest retrieve! Then I called it good and took him to the car and let Slider work the rest of the class. That is my plan so far, to work Steam as long as his attitude stays good and then quit before he starts fading. I'm not sure how long this will work though as I think Steam might be able to work the whole class soon which means I won't really need Slider to come with us. I was hoping this would be a fun activity for Slider since he loves obedience class. He was pretty mad about only getting to work part of the class. As I was walking Merc to the building for his class, I could hear Slider doing his mad bark in the car and I felt bad for him. We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll try to find something else for Slider to do on a different night (but closer to home). Poor Kirby had to stay home but I don't think he minds staying at home as much as the BCs do. Kirby kind of likes hanging out with Russ, especially if there is food involved. :-)
I brought Merc in and he was a little over the top at first which I got a little frustrated with... you'd think I would have learned from last week not to do that, he truly is just a baby dog with infectious enthusiasm. The part that frustrates me is that he wants to go visit everyone and he doesn't quite get that not everyone wants to see him. Anyway, we get settled down to working and lo and behold, I have myself an agility dog! So as not to overdo the start line stay with so many exercises, Jill suggested we sometimes start by wrapping the first jump. Merc hasn't done that many wrap jump starts but he figured it out quickly, after a couple of times with me rewarding it, and starts diving down into the wrap turn and flying after me. I don't think he back-jumped once on a wrap. He pulled off a few jumps to run with me but soon was working far enough away (when supported properly) that I could send him a bit and get my front crosses in. Then we get to the rear cross exercises and after a couple of times where he wasn't sure, he started doing lovely rear crosses with nice turns over the bar. Since we have not even started serpentine training, I didn't do any of the serp options but he was able to do every other exercise! He reads deceleration pretty darn well too and collects nicely. I was mainly jumping him at 24" with a few 26" bars and he was doing very well with that. We had several knocked bars but that was mainly due to my handling or him figuring things out. It was spooky how well he did and more than a little exciting to me! I learned not to get him too jazzed up though or he starts biting me as he runs, that is so Merc. :-) He did so well he got to work the entire workshop. We also worked some startline stays plus his down stays while I walked the exercises and he did well, not perfect, but pretty good all things considered. And when he really gets moving, the boy can cover some ground! OK, enough gushing, you get the picture. I am super pleased and excited! I thanked Jill for her patience and understanding. :-)
Thankfully the rain had stopped by the end of workshop so all the dogs could go running in the field. Steam and Slider looove to run with JJ. Merc likes to run with the boys some but also hangs out with Steal and Blynn's cute girls. Kirby likes to pester people for treats and play a bit with his dog friends. It was so nice for the BC boys to run and burn off some energy! They enjoy this play time so much! I saw Kirby rolling in the grass which isn't too unusual for him and there isn't usually anything icky to roll in, just dead worms. Steam also rolled in the grass. Then as I'm loading up the dogs, there is this weird smell. After I got the dogs loaded, I smelled my hands and shirt, is it on me? Don't think so. The car kind of stinks but not too bad. The smell is familiar but I can't place it. When I get home and get the dogs unloaded and into the light, I can see that Steam's head and neck along with Kirby's back are brown and are super stinky/shtanky - ick! Plus along the way, Slider had stepped in dog crap so he is spreading poo everywhere he walks. It is too late for full baths so I wipe Steam and Kirby off as best I could and then take Slider into the bathtub and rinse his foot off. Thankfully Steam and Kirby don't smell quite so bad now that they are dry. I sure wonder what they found to roll in...
Earlier this fall when my agility instructor Jill was talking about having some workshops in December when we weren't having regular classes, I asked/begged her to include some jumping skills work since Merc would be old enough to start jumping. Jill, being the best, scheduled a jumping skills workshop and a box work workshop. Last night we went to the jumping skills workshop and I have been looking forward to this for weeks! I was bummed as the night drew closer and the forecast was for such cold temperatures. Jill decided to hold the workshop anyway and I'm glad she did, it was fun! The workshop had 11 stations with a different Susan Salo jumping exercise at each station. We had 10 minutes at each station and then we rotated to the next one. Jill did a fabulous job of using the entire 2 rings at Argus and used net fencing or baby gates between each station and she devised a very organized way of moving between the stations. After a 1/2 hour of demonstration on what we were supposed to do at each station, it was time to work.
At first Merc was quite distracted by the dogs working near him and his inner golden retriever was coming out and wanting to say hi to everyone. I got a little cranky with him and gave him a few pinches in the butt to remind him he was there to work with me. I wasn't happy with my cranky part, but I was happy that Merc settled into working pretty quickly and then gave me good attention the rest of the 2 hours which was a LOT for a 14 month old. We didn't work each station for 10 minutes since that would have been too much for a pony his age. After I was happy with the work he had done at a station, we played and worked a little obedience or took a potty break until it was time to rotate. Many of the stations were schooling stations and not about jumping full height so those were done at 8 inches. Where we were to add some height, I stuck mainly with 20" for Merc since he is still learning to jump. There was one bounce jump drill where I put it up to 24" and he did fine with that. Not that he was perfect at everything but he did very well and I was very pleased. When things didn't go perfectly, Jill reminded me that these drills were about helping him figure out how do it right while not letting him think he made any mistakes. Reward the good, ignore the not so good, show him how to get the goods. :-)
And the cold? Yes, it was cold with the outside temperature dipping into the teens but since we kept moving we stayed plenty warm. Getting warmed up at first was hard and I did keep my big coat on the whole time. Then we took a short break half way through and that was enough to get too cooled off so it took a while to get warmed up again.
Next week will be box work night. I didn't go to the GD/LD seminars that were at Argus in November but Jill is excited about a GD 4 jump drill so we'll be working that. I'm excited! Hopefully it will be warmer... please...
This is what happens when you leave your border collie home alone with the new computer, he starts taking photos of himself and emailing them out...
Now on to the spindle cells. About a month ago after we had been working in the yard, I found the tip of a thorn in Slider's right shoulder. Slider had been hanging out with Russ while Russ worked on his roses and it did look like a rose thorn. I got the tweezers and tried to remove it but I was unsuccessful and the thorn went completely under the skin. I was worried it might get infected so I kept a close eye on it but since it was small, it was sometimes hard to find. I am usually successful in finding it when Slider and I have our morning hug and snuggle in the office chair (and my boss wonders why I am late to work...). One time I was having more trouble than usual in locating it but then thought I found it but the lump was back farther than I remembered. I kept poking around (poor Slider) and found the thorn in his shoulder in addition to this other tiny lump back on his side on his rib cage. Hmm, I don't like finding weird lumps. I've been keeping an eye on it (or finger in this case) and I haven't felt any growth in either lump but I was worried about that second lump. Since I was taking Slider in for the thyroid blood test anyway, I arranged the visit to include an appointment with Dr. Evelyn to have her check both lumps. Turns out Dr. Evelyn likes to aspirate lumps which is a good thing. :-) The non-thorn lump is pretty small, think tiny, baby pea-sized, and hard to hang onto which makes it hard to get a needle into to aspirate for a cytology sample. Dr. Evelyn gave it her best stab and it turns out she did hit it, however the cytology results were inconclusive and deemed "probably OK". The cells on the slide contained among other things, spindle cells. Spindle cells can mean nothing much or it could be the beginnings of a tumor. With the lump being so small, there isn't much point in trying to aspirate it again. Dr. Evelyn also didn't think it is worth it to remove the lump at this point since it could be just scar tissue. If it grows at all then it will be removed. Not the results that I was hoping for, I was hoping for "it's nothing and yes you are just paranoid as usual." So, now we wait and see.
I've been collecting a list of webpages about thyroid, being the addicted web-surfer that I am. Here are the ones that I have found to be the most informative. Feel free to pass along any other good ones you have found:
http://www.offa.org/thyinfo.html
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-ang
http://beardie.net/bcca/health/arti
http://clumberhealth.org/PDF/thyroid_ca
http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/DODDS-B
After we finished we had time to run over to Fido's Farm for a little bit of herding practice. I had time to work Slider twice and Steam once (sandwiched in between Slider's turns). Blynn had followed us over to Fido's and after we were both done practicing we let all the dogs run in the play field and they had a good time. The bonus part was that even Merc was tired out after all the running around!
Wow, I could not have asked for a more beautiful, sunny, late November day to spend out on the family farm in Sequim. I was SO looking forward to walking around the fields with the boys, which we did, but the elk herd that lives around Sequim was also hanging out on the farm which limited our field walking as I really didn't feel like getting too close and getting stomped. Russ and his Dad's chocolate lab Hershey joined me and our 4 boys on the first trip to the fields. If you remember the video I made last February, Hershey and Merc were 4 month old pups then. Now Hershey is a big boy but he blended in with our pack just fine, and he and Merc are still "buds" and had fun. I have a bit of video but will wait until we get our new iMac (which arrived today!!!!) set up before I work on it. After seeing the demo videos for iMovie, I don't ever want to work on stupid ol' Windows Movie Maker ever again! I also just quickly grabbed the camera bag this morning on our way out, not thinking to check to make sure batteries were charged... turns out one video battery was dying, the other one was dead, and the camera battery was dead too, and I only had the camera battery charger in the bag. I charged the camera battery enough to get a few photos of the dogs. While Russ and his dad worked on their deck project, the boys and I took a few more trips down to the fields for more romps. They never get enough, well, Kirby did get a little tired, but they all had a blast. 
Merc and Slider 
Kirby 
Slider 
Steam - I don't know what is on his head but it stinks! 
Merc 
Steam thinking the grass is tasty, with Merc and Kirby
I was going to take the dogs to obedience practice last night but I didn't feel like driving in the pouring rain and traffic so we stayed home. Today I am working; it is normal for me to work most holidays unless they fall on our "weekend" (Sun/Mon). My brother and his wife always graciously invite us out to their place on Vashon for Thanksgiving dinner but it is hard to get everyone loaded up and out there for a quick trip after work and then deal with the ferry schedule so we are staying home tonight. Russ is off this Fri/Sat and all next week. Just a few days ago my co-worker offered to work for me tomorrow so we will go out to Sequim for the day to have a late Thanksgiving dinner with Russ' folks. The dogs will be so happy to get to run on the farm! I hope the elk herd isn't hanging around so we have free run of the fields. I am happy we get to spend some holiday time with Russ' family as it seems much of the holiday time is spent with mine, which I love, but it isn't fair to Russ.
Then back to work on Saturday. Sunday we have an AKC agility trial and I hope it gets done early enough so that we can zip over to Fido's for some herding practice. I entered Slider in a herding training trial on Whidbey on the 6th...
Now to wait and see what his thyroid test results are. He's most likely too young for the autoimmune thyroiditis disease to show up but at least I'll have good baseline numbers on him.
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