BLAZE QUALIFIES FOR THE AAC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS!

Here is Blaze and Me with his National Championships Qualifier Ribbon and his 4th place Jumpers Ribbon.June 1st to the 3rd, Blaze and I competed in the AAC Ontario Regional Championships. Blaze qualified to compete at the AAC National Championships in Halton Hills Ontario in August. It was a great weekend, with the best dogs in Ontario competing for a chance to be at the Nationals. These weekends are always somewhat magical, with a feeling of camaraderie, and everyone sporting positive and motivational attitudes.

Saturday's competition was hampered by the extreme heat and humidity, and many dogs and handlers were having difficulty coping. One of our Judges collapsed on Saturday and was taken to the hospital, and recovered fine. Blaze hates running in the heat, and I knew we would have trouble. In our standard run, I unfortunately misdirected him twice, costing us time and 10 faults. Our gamble run was not good, I could tell the heat had got to him, and he just gave up. Our jumpers run was quite good, except I was in the wrong position at one of the last turns on the course, and pushed him right past a jump. This put us over time and gave us 5 faults. My fault entirely. Poor Blaze! We finished Saturday's runs with 178 points, more than half way to qualifying, but lower than what I was hoping for. I was not sure if we would get the necessary 300 points by days end on Sunday.

Sunday started out a little less hot, and virtually no sun, so it felt cooler. Our first run was the gamble run, and our opening sequence went great, with Blaze getting the mini gamble twice, and he stayed with me on the course. He did get the main gamble too, but sadly he was about 1 second over time. I was happy with how he worked for me, and it gave me a good feeling about the days upcoming runs. Our best run of our agility career was our jumpers run on Sunday. It was a twisty, turny, course, in which I was able to use our new front crosses to our advantage. Blaze went clean and 9 seconds under time. This is a feat we have never accomplished before, and this is just the type of chemistry between dog and handler I want to create on a consistent basis. He placed fourth in this run, in a class of 27 dogs. Pretty awesome by our standards. Our final run of the day was the standard run, and I messed him up on the course twice. We ended the weekend with 369 points, enough to get us to the nationals. Blaze placed 12th overall in a class of 27 dogs.

Next, we are off to Halton Hills in August to compete at the Nationals. It will be our first National competition, and it will be a real treat to compete with the nation's best agility dogs.

Arlo - Diagnosis: Liver Shunt

Arlo in May 2007 after his liver biopsy

In late January of this year, we discovered Arlo had elevated liver enzymes. He was treated with antibiotics, a liver antioxidant medication, and retested. The liver enzymes were lower, but still elevated. It was decided that his liver may be healing, and we retested him again. The enzymes were back up. Two weeks later, they were even higher. Not wanting to fool around, we were directed to a specialist for a liver biopsy: the only way to diagnose a liver problem.

At the specialist's, it was suggested he may have a shunt. A liver biopsy confirmed this suspicion in May. I have never heard of liver shunts in the GSD before, and none of the vets I work with in regular practice were suspecting a shunt. None of my shepherd friends nor the long term breeders I know have heard of this in the GSD before. Astonishing.

Arlo will have surgery at the specialist's on June 26th to determine if his shunt(s) is repairable or not. Most large breed dogs have shunts that are not repairable. The odds aren't good. Many dogs are managed medically with liver shunts, some with normal lifespans. However, if his is the repairable kind, his liver can actually regrow, and he can be a normal dog. His liver is only about 1/3 the size it should be for a dog of his size.

You would never know this dog has liver disease, as he is healthy and active and in good shape. My suspicion is that liver shunts are more common in the GSD than we know, yet many dogs are just never diagnosed.

The good news is that Arlo is in the hands of a specialist who sees more GSDs than any other in Ontario. Very comforting.

I only hope this surgery doesn't leave him in worse condition than he is in right now.

For more information on Liver Shunts, please see this site: What are Portosystemic Shunts?

Eros

Poor Eros, he is only 17 months old, and he has already had two visits with the vet to induce vomiting for foreign body ingestion............... Interestingly, neither of these episodes were related to my own negligence,

Both incidents happened while he was at work with me, in a veterinary clinic!
The first incident involved the thorough shredding of a coworker's coat and package of new cigarettes and subsequent ingestion of said coat and unknown quantity of cigarettes.............. With the help of some apomorphine, we got the coat and tobacco out pretty much right away.
Today, I arrived at work with a 6 foot X 1 inch leather leash......... at the end of my shift, it was a 14 inch X 1 inch leather leash..............The rest was missing, supposedly in his stomach. We decided to make him vomit to see if we could get some of it out. Approximately 1/3 of the leash came out, but the rest is still in there we are presuming.................

Both incidents were innocent mistakes, how could my coworkers know that my dog likes to ingest weird objects? Poor guy, I feel so bad for him, I just hope the rest of the leash passes without incident, he did break it up into small pieces.................

BCC House League

This winter, Blaze and I participated in an Agility House League where we normally train for agility. It consisted of 1 day once a month, with you and your dog running 3 fun agility runs. We were on a team with 5 other dog/handlers. The team's collective scores determined the final placements. There were 5 teams in total. We had many new dog/handler teams participating in the house league, and it was great to see so many new handlers out there. I remember what it was like to be a new handler! My team was great, with 4 new handlers. All of our team members showed up for all events, and all of the new handlers did awesome! I was very impressed to see such great handling and attentive dogs. They will make some great dog/handler teams once they start competing. Overall, our team "The Underdogs", came in second place. What a great event. There were great prizes for all the competitors, and we ended the house league with a fantastic pot luck lunch. I hope the summer house league is as much fun!


Blaze and his second place ribbon.

Winter Gets Me Again

THE ENEMY.................. LARGE VOLUMES OF SNOW

THE SUPPOSED ALLY.........................THE YARDMAN SNOWBLOWER


THE VICTIM................................
Who would've imagined that a machine designed to HELP you would cause you so much grief! The snowblower really only has one job........move snow. If you can get the thing started without giving yourself a heart attack from stress, then all you have to do is point it in the direction of the snow, right? Well, things really aren't that easy. I can't believe what a hard time I had trying to clear some (a lot) of snow out of my driveway. That's two hours of my life I'll never get back, and it's a good thing machines aren't sensitive about being called various derogatory names repeatedly...................

"The Monkey"

Eros. Also known as "The little black monkey" . He runs around all crazy, loves to jump on anything and everything, and goes tearing through the house like a monkey in the jungle. He is mischievous, and gets himself into trouble like a monkey. Because we've had so much freakin' snow, the snow banks around here are huge. Well, Eros figured out that he can jump from one big snowbank inside my property, to another big snowbank OUTSIDE the property, and hence end up on the street!!!!! My heart almost stopped when I realized he was out on the street. Yesterday was garbage day, so he had shredded our garbage all over the street, and distributed the contents of our recycling bins all over the street as well. All before I even realized he was on the street. Then he went to visit my neighbour, who brought him back. I'm lucky nothing happened to him! Immediately after this, I shoveled a wide trench next to the snowbank inside my yard, thinking this would fix the problem. NOPE! He just gets on top of the bank, and jumps clear across the trench, to the snowbank on the other side of the fence (road side). Needless to say, he'll need constant supervision while outside until the snow melts significantly. He also managed to grab hold of and chew my tracking line. That's alright, I really wanted a new one anyway, but couldn't justify it, already having one..........................
Sometimes puppies test our patience, even for the most patient people!

WINTER: 11 / ME: 0

Winter Sunrise
Total times our mailbox has been taken out by the snowplow: 2

Total times stuck in a snow bank: 2

Total times having to shovel a 50 foot long trench next to my 4 foot high fence because the snow has drifted up to the top and my dogs could literally walk over the top of the fence: 5

Total times one of my dogs has ended up on the street because the snow banks are so high and he just jumped from one snow bank to another: 2

Total times late for school: MANY

Getting to live in a place where I never have to see another flake of snow: PRICELESS!