10.28.07
My weekend…
Why dog train, when I can sit around and ride trains all day! Look what happens when the Mighty Mo leaves me….
It starts to become all about me!!! Ok, I promise this blog will get back to dogs at some point.
10.27.07
Look what I found!!!!
YEAH!!! I found this photo someone took of me and cosmo during the BH temperament test portion! Ok, I am bummed that there are no obedience photos, but thrilled to at least find one photo of us 
Cosmo is like, “Mom I am such a good girl why are you so stressed?”
Look for us at the NC UDC event
Huge thank you to Amanda for offering to show my girls and boy for me!! I don’t know how they will do, but I am confident that Amanda will make them look like super stars
My personal trainer is gone…
Yes that is Cosmo. I feel so unmotivated with her gone. Yes, here at von Schlottke my dogs serve as my running buddies too. With five dogs, I can rotate through dogs to prevent any kind of joint damage. Although, Cosmo is my most frequent running buddy since she seems to enjoy it the most. I can take her off leash on the jogging trails and she stays only a couple of steps ahead of me as we run. If I slow down she circles around pushes me forward with little nips and nose stabs, but if I slow down too much or struggling to keep up with her she will stop. She runs a little ways down the trail and looks back at me like “Are we running today or not?”
Then there is Jingo. I don’t mind running with him, but he can be a real a$$. He does well off leash, but towards the end he attempts to block me. If I start to pick up the pace, he will stay one step ahead of me and push me to the edge of the path until I am about ready to fall into the ditch. I am convinced he would push me off into ravine if he had his way. His other great method of slowing the pace down is getting right in front of me and hitting the breaks. This sneaky tactic tends to appear when we are running hills and at the most inconvenient times. I guess that is his point. Jingo is all about energy conservation….. and I think it explains why we fought so hard over the blind search. Oh, the other annoying factor with Jingo is he likes to pant over my head while I am doing sit ups. There is nothing more un-motivating than having a dog pant and drip drool on my head while I am busting my ass.
Snips is a great girl to run with, but I refuse to take her anymore because of age. I have no doubt that she could hang with me, but I worry that I might break her so she is only allowed on walks.
Baccara, enough said. She used to be one of the better dogs to run with until yesterday when she made me bust a$$ big time on my run. Yes, if it was not for my beautiful PLF, I probably would have a broke bone or two. It was raining and miserable and she kept bumping me, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. So I was trying to get her out from underneath me and when I least expected she got underneath me and I rolled down the path. I was ticked. When I got up, we locked eyes and she knew I wasn’t happy. So off we went again, but this time she received a knee to the jaw every time she started crowding. She didn’t like that, so she decided she didn’t want to run with my anymore and did her best impression of a mule. Ahhhh, and I did my best impression of a packing mule!! It was a battle of the wills as I tossed the leash over my shoulder and continued on my merry way. It didn’t take long for her to figure out, it would be much more comfortable to run with me. OMFG, talk about thigh workout from hell!!!
Then there is little Miss Coo Coo, who went on her first run today. She just turned a year and has earned the right to accompany me on runs. I was surprised she did very well and even acted like she knew about healing and staying on the left side. No pulling, BUT she got angry at the old man who rang his bicycle bell at us. I can’t say I blame her, but I was a bit shocked at her reaction. I think he was trying to “signal” for us to make room and Coudai was like “um no, you can make way!” I of course I corrected her, and the little old man got a kick out her attitude and pedaled past us laughing.
So, until Cosmo comes back; I think Coudai and Jingo will the be the chosen two for my runs. I think Coudai has tons of potential of being a great running partner after a few more reps. Although, I had to laugh at her today cause about a quarter mile in she hit the brakes. I think she was like, “WTF are we running for?” She was struggling with the concept of running, but once she figured it out all was good.
10.19.07
Pause-X
Errr, I am being bad going to miss training this weekend. I need a break, a break from everything. I do have other dogs to train, but with the mighty mo out of town I have lost my motivation.
10.14.07
The results are in…..
Starting last March Cosmo developed a sore spot on her shoulder. I spent several Ks trying to figure out what was going on. We tested for everything, and I mean EVERYTHING…. and all the results were normal. I even had the site biopsied, only for the results to come back normal and Cosmo sporting an additional hole in her face (please read post on my horrible vet experience). After everything had been ruled out, I started switching her diet up. She went from Canidae, to Solid Gold, to Evo Red Meat with no luck. I tried creams, cleaning treatments, antibiotic powders, and anything under the sun that could be rubbed into her wound. It would heal to the point it was almost undetectable and then burst open again. I hardly saw her scratch at it, but it looked awful!!! Towards the end it was looking like a nasty oozing wound that wouldn’t heal, and it was suggested to simply have it cut out. So I packed up Cosmo and sent her to Wilmington, NC to visit Dr. Jane Lackey at Scott’s Hill Animal Hospital for her surgery. I was worried, but she came highly recommended. Shortly into the surgery, I received a phone call that they found the cause of her problems. Cosmo was having some strange reaction to her microchip and all the tissue was highly irritated around it!!!
I couldn’t believe it, that was it!!! She had some bizarre reaction to her microchip!! Who would have ever thought. Needless to say, I am happy to finally have an answer to her problem and happy to say she is on the way to a full recovery. The surgery was a little more intense than I had planned for and large section of skin was removed to get all the nasty tissue and it’s edges out. Here are some photos:
One day post op:
5 days post op:
As you can see this has put us behind schedule for trialing, but that is ok with me. I am just happy I have an answer to what is going on and that my little mighty mo is going to be ok!!!
Tis the trial season….
Congrats to Viking’s Charlie Brown and Lyn for earning their BH this weekend!!
And also huge congratulations to Butch and Apollo for earning their VPG III this weekend with a 97 pronounced!!! Apollo is looking awesome and look forward to seeing more of his success.
