Team Shirts!

Peyton & I are playing at a local USDAA trial this weekend and we're pairing up with our friends Lisa and Riley for the Performance Pairs Tourney. Our team name is "Three Blondes & The Odd Spot" - since Peyton is the only non-blonde, we thought it was a good fit. Poor Peyton...hope he doesn't take the name too personally. :)

It should be a really fun trial and since we're also entered in a pairs relay with Lisa and Riley, it could be quite entertaining. I'm not sure how Peyton will handle having his very best Golden bud in the ring! Fortunately Riley is a really well behaved dog and is very capable of ignoring the annoying spotty dog when he needs to. :)

We decided this trial was a perfect excuse to have t-shirts made. Lisa happens to be a designer and I love-love what she came up with. So cute!

I loved Peyton's design so much I decided to design a "team spotty dog" shirt for me...

I know it's a little early, but any good "please don't chase your golden friend during our run" thoughts you can spare this weekend will be most appreciated. :)

Neigh!

Well I'm finally (almost) done going through the thousand or so pictures from my Indy trip and I thought I would share one of a special non-spotty! This is T-Go - my horse during my college days at Purdue. Unfortunately when I decided to move to Florida, I wasn't in a position where I could bring him with me so he now lives on the farm in Indiana where I used to train. He's got a great home and I have no regrets about having to leave him behind - at least I still get to visit him!

After spending nearly 20 years in the horse world, I still find it a little surprising that I don't really miss it that much. It was definitely hard at first, but after I brought home a certain little spotted puppy, I found dog training to be just as much fun and equally challenging - although in a different way. It's definitely *safer*...I can't recall how many times I was thrown, kicked, and ran over by a horse! :)

Anyway, I do miss T-Go...he was a really neat horse and a lot of fun to ride. He's a Thoroughbred and probably around 13 years old now. Here's a picture of his current owner (and one of my former trainers) riding him. You can see a few more pictures of T-Go and some of his horsey friends over at my photography blog - www.simplyspottedblog.com.

RDO Day at SOTC

We're celebrating AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day at SOTC this Sunday, September 27th from 11 am - 3 pm! Lot's of fun activities planned including agility, flyball, obedience, and rally demos - and maybe even an appearance by one of the spotties. :)

For more information and directions to SOTC, please visit www.sotcdogtraining.com. Hope to see all of my local friends there!

The spotties are doing great - classes started back up this week so we've been keeping extra busy. Peyton and I are entered in a local USDAA trial next weekend...it's been a while since I've done USDAA and this will be Peyton's first time. We're teaming up with our good Golden friends Lisa and Riley for the Performance Versatility Pairs Tourney - I think we'll have 10 or 11 runs over the 2 days so it should be busy and fun!

Pongo continues to do very well and aside from some being a little wobbly when he walks, he seems to be feeling pretty good and is almost back to his old spotty self. :)

And just so Indy doesn't feel left out, here's a few pictures of her enjoying some ice cream from Pongo's birthday...yuuuum!

Happy Birthday Pongo!

Today we celebrated Pongo's 15th birthday! First we took a little trip to Wendy's for a hamburger and then we headed to Dairy Queen for some ice cream! Needless to say, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to celebrate this special day. Although the past few weeks have been a reminder that we really need to celebrate *every* day.

Pongo agrees...and he thinks we should celebrate tomorrow with pizza. :)

Ice cream definitely makes Pongo smile...

I think this might be the canine equivalent of brain freeze!

Pongo does Agility!

Ok maybe not, but he is *walking*! Yesterday morning he surprised me when I took him out and he took off across my backyard. He did it with such purpose and determination, as if to say "I've had enough of you hauling me around!" :)

When I brought him back inside, he proceeded to walk in circles around the room - he was so cute and acted very much like a toddler just learning how to walk. I think he was quite proud of himself!

Of course, I still have to keep close eye on him as his balance isn't that great and he gets tired pretty easily, but I'm hoping that he'll continue to improve so that he can get back to enjoying some of his favorite activities - supervising the kitchen and his evening walks!

Here's a little video from today - there are lots of smiles at our house...thank you everyone for the good thoughts and prayers for my spotty boy!

Hello Sunshine!

Today was (thankfully) a dry day at the SOTC trial. Peyton and I had two really nice runs, and although we didn't bring home any Q's, it was a much better day!

We started the day at 8 am with Excellent Standard. It was a really fun course and Peyton was having a fabulous run until I had a blonde moment after the weaves and pulled him off a jump. Have I mentioned that I need to be more patient and handle each obstacle? Then we had a few bobbles at the end that we're entirely my fault - probably because I was still mentally cursing myself for causing a refusal. :) But I was really, really pleased with this run - Peyton's contacts were awesome, his table was the best we've had so far in a trial, and he was just a happy spotty.

Our next run was Open JWW and I had just enough time to tell Peyton how brilliant he was on the way back to his crate, walk the JWW course and then head back over for our run. On a good note, our day was done at 8:30 am, but I really think a little more time between runs would have helped. It's never good to start a run when you're still out of breath from the last! This course was just nasty today. We had three rear crosses in the opening and even though we worked them out, it wasn't very pretty. We had one bar down so no Q, but I was still happy with the effort.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love running this dog? I'm just having sooo much fun with him - I have to keep reminding myself that he's still a baby dog, and even though we have our share of baby dog issues, he's really coming along. Sometimes I think he knows where we're going before I do! This was only our 4th AKC trial, but we have moments where it feels like we've been doing this for years.

Pongo also seems to be feeling better today. He's starting to be a bit more demanding and well, kind of a pain (said with a grin), so we're hoping that's a good sign. :)

Rain Rain Rain

Our SOTC agility trial is this weekend in Palmetto and the story of the day has been rain, rain, and more rain. Seriously, a LOT of rain - so much that a good portion of both rings were under water and we ended up switching to just one ring after our Excellent standard run. I had to come home to take care of Pongo, but I heard that they just now running the final class, Excellent JWW. Yikes!

We started off the day with Novice FAST. I had a nice little plan in mind, but scraped it once I saw that a good part of the course was under water. I wasn't really impressed with any of the options we had to get points, so I decided instead to just use this run as a little warm up. Peyton was a little on the high-side, but not too bad...

Next was Open JWW - this was a tricky course to begin with, but add a little water to the mix and yuck. He actually handled the opening very well, but put on the breaks when I sent him to the jump after the weaves. Not sure, but I think he might have questioned my reasoning for sending him into a lake (did I mention he's *not* a fan of water?). Then as I tried to get ahead, I sent him to an off-course jump. Bad handler! Had I been a little more patient after the tunnel, I think I could have salvaged this run for a Q, but he took another off-course. Oh well, I was pretty happy he got his feet wet, literally. :)

Our last run of the day was Excellent Standard - this ring was in much better shape, but at this point I think Peyton was a tad bit stressed. Actually, it wasn't a bad run - it just felt very disconnected. I think we ended up with just one refusal at the weaves. On a good note, he held all of his contacts! Too bad that's a sign that he's not running as happy as usual. :)

As for Pongo, he's been doing about the same. He can stand on his own as long as I get all of his feet placed where they need to be and he can walk with a little bit of assistance. He seems like he feels okay, although I think he's pretty frustrated that his legs aren't cooperating. We had a little incident today though and I hope it's not going to be a big set back. I left the trial in between our JWW and Standard runs to go home and check on him and found him sprawled out on the tile in "his" room, struggling to get up. Apparently he was feeling rather ambitious and escaped his pool area - even though I put all of my dining room chairs around it thinking it would keep him in. I just feel terrible! :(

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Overall, I'm really pretty happy with Peyton's runs, but it does bother me to see him stressing. I know a lot of it has to do with his trial inexperience, but I'm sure my stressing over Pongo isn't helping. Tomorrow I'm hoping that I won't have to be gone too long and will be definitely be putting Pongo in Peyton's crate so I don't have to worry about my little escape artist!

On a sour note, it's raining *again* and we're supposed to have more rain tomorrow, so we might have to find some flippers before our runs! :)

Pongo Update

Pongo is home! He ended up spending the day at the vet's office so they could work on getting his sodium levels back down within normal range. Because he's shown no improvement movement-wise, they started him on a treatment plan for vestibular disease...they're still not exactly sure that's the issue, but for now it seems like a good possibility. We'll see...

Tomorrow Pongo is heading back in for an acupuncture treatment with Dr. Funk. I've had good luck with acupuncture, so I'm hoping it might be able to help him. While none of my spotties have had acupuncture before, I did have a horse back in Indiana that had treatments done on occasion, also with good results.

Pongo is currently resting in...a swimming pool! I've had one sitting in my garage for years unused (the spotties are not fans) so I'm glad to finally have a use for it. I'm hoping that it helps keep him comfortable and secure.

Peyton is obsessing over Pongo at the moment. Normally, he won't give Pongo the time of day (he thinks he's bor-ing), but he's been trying to sniff and lick him all over since we got home. Poor Pongo is less than amused...I finally had to put Peyton in my room so he'd leave him alone. And Indy - well, she's just annoyed that no one is paying attention to her.

Speaking of Indy and Peyton - they also got to see the vet today. My primary vet, Dr. Funk, stopped by to do their annual heartworm tests and also adjusted both of them (chiropractic - not attitude - in case you were wondering). They both actually did pretty good. Peyton has a love-hate relationship with Dr. Funk...he really likes him, but is less than enthusiastic about getting worked on. Today he tried his best to convince Dr. Funk with lots of big toothy smiles that he was in perfect health. :) And Indy, well let's just say she didn't bark as much as usual.

Pongo would like to thank all of his friends for the good wishes...they really mean a lot! He'd also like to thank Dr. Capuano and the staff at Sarasota Animal Hospital for taking such good care of him.

Good Thoughts for Pongo

It's been a rough couple of days for my original spotty dog. Yesterday morning he woke up and couldn't walk without collapsing. His hind legs were going in every direction. It was a very bad day - his hind end has been weak for quite some time now, but he's never had this much difficulty moving. We had to carry him outdoors and even with support, he couldn't stand on his own. Overwhelmed by feelings of sadness, I spent the day trying to come to terms with the possibility that the time had come to say goodbye to one of my best friends.

This morning I woke up with hope. Pongo seemed a little better and could stand on all fours without my support. He couldn't walk, but he could stand. And he was trying soooo hard to get around. I couldn't leave him without him trying to follow. I also noticed a bit of a head tilt today, and a quick online search led me to the possibility of a vestibular disorder, which happens to have a very good recovery rate.

I took him to the vet and they started with a CBC and chest x-rays to rule out a tumor. The x-rays looked good, but his sodium level was abnormally high. They recommended keeping him overnight so that he could receive fluids to hopefully bring his sodium level down. I guess there is a slight chance that levels that high could cause neurological problems, and/or be a symptom of something else happening. As much as I didn't want to leave him, I agreed - so they'll do more blood work and a urinalysis in the morning. If everything comes back good, I think they'll assume it's most likely vestibular and we'll go from there.

One of my vets was kind enough to call me at 10 pm tonight to let me know that he was resting and seemed to be comfortable. That's my one comfort with leaving him - Pongo is such a good boy and he is always happy to stay with whoever will feed him. :) Of course, I still miss him.

The reality is the Pongo will be 15 in one week from today...I know that our time is limited and I realize that I am so blessed to have had almost 14 wonderful years with him. But when I look into his eyes I see that there *is* life left. And while I refuse to subject him to any treatments that will lessen his quality of life, if there is any chance that he can recover, than I feel like I owe it to him to give him that chance.

Even though his legs are failing him, he still manages to smile...that's my special boy.

Trial Bummer

We headed up to Ocala on Friday night for a NADAC trial - I was looking forward to some good training runs and the opportunity to work on startlines and contacts, two areas that are usually great in practice, but not so great in a trial.

Well, we started off with Open Regular and had a really nice run! I didn't ask for a stay at the start, but his contacts were perfect. He was running fast and happy and would have qualified, but he missed one jump.

Next was Chances - his startline stay was decent, but he bailed on the dogwalk contact and barked at a lone person standing on the far side of the field while he made up his own course with the jumps on that end. He was just a little on the wild side for this run.

Then was Touch N Go - for the first time in a trial, I stopped him when he broke his stay and we started over. I then proceeded to get lost on course and at one point I just wasn't paying attention and I thought I sent him into the tunnel I turned around and he was on the dogwalk. Before I could stop him, he leaped right off the middle! That of course didn't phase him at ALL, but I had visions of a broken spotty dog in my head.

Round 2 of Touch N Go was next and while we were waiting our turn I noticed that Peyton was really anxious and seemed to be worried about the dogs behind him. I decided to just do a running start since it was a hoop-dogwalk opening. Well, he got halfway up the dogwalk and stopped a started bark-screaming at the judge, who was only a few feet a way. It was a very loud rooooo-roooo-roooooo bark - the kind that only happens when he's really freaked out. I finally got his attention and we ran out of the ring - needless to say, that was our last run. In hindsight, I should have pulled him from this run, but lesson learned - trust your instincts!

Usually I am more than happy to share all of our runs here - the good, the bad, and the ugly, but honestly I don't want to look at them again so I thought I'd share a few pictures instead. These are from video so please forgive the quality - the first is of the barking incident and the second is of the dogwalk leap (I think all he needs here is a cape and we could call him Superspotty). Notice the proximity of the judge - Peyton didn't seem to mind when he was *outside* of the ring.

I've been trying to figure out why we seem to have issues at these trials and I think that there are a few things happening. First, NADAC courses are designed for speed and the games classes have multiple tunnels (aka puppy rockets). While these classes are FUN, I think that it's just too much speed for us (me) to handle right now. Peyton gets so amped on course that he stops thinking.

The trials are also usually pretty small. It might seem odd that Peyton seems to do better at large trials as one would think that all of the dogs and people would make for even more distractions and cause for worry, but I think when the trial is small, he notices that one lone person standing on the sidelines.

Yes, it kind of a training issue, but I think (and hope) at this point it's just an experience issue. Hopefully with more experience, Peyton will learn that tall men in hats standing next to the dogwalk are not going to eat spotty dogs.

I've also decided that for now, we're going back to running starts. Yes, it puts me behind and yes, there will probably be some openings that are not feasible without a stay, but I think at this point, it's waaaay more important that I work on building confidence in a trial environment than to try to qualify. Hopefully, Peyton agrees. :)