Obedience training for Loki

For a laugh - and because the show is about a mile from my house, and because I've put Grace in the breed show as she can't do flyball any more..... I've entered Loki in beginners and novice obedience!!!! I must be mad - he's not had any obedience training as such, but he takes after his dad and just does natural heelwork, that I thought..... why not. At least then I'll see what he is capable of and whether it's worth finding a good trainer to work with to get him up to proper show standard - or not!!!!

Agility Training

We all had agility training today. Lottie was a little superstar, not putting a paw wrong - not like her - even when I got my commands a bit late, she managed to correct!!!!

Loki on the other hand was a little monster!!! He hasn't beren this naughty since he was a pup!! I just hope there's a bitch in season locally!!!!

Grace was allowed to do a tunnel, a low dog walk the weaves and a pretend jump - you'd have thought she'd done a full course, she enjoyed herself so much!!!! It was lovely to watch.

GRACES' REHAB Parts 1 & 2

PART 1

On November 16th 2008 Grace got up in the morning looking very very stiff with a very hunched back and in a lot of pain. She made it out to the garden and back in again, then collapsed and didn't even try to walk again for 36 hours!!!
Obviously as soon as the vet was open, we were there. The vet admitted Grace straight away.
Poor Grace spent her 11th birthday in the vets.
There were 2 possibilities for Graces collapse:
A spinal stroke or
A prolapsed disc.
X-rays didn’t show anything, so it was decided she would have an MRI scan.
The scan was booked for 2 weeks later and by the time that came round, Grace was walking almost normally and if you didn’t know what had happened, you wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong.
Two days after the MRI, Grace collapsed again.

PART 2

The vet decided not to keep her in this time, thinking she might make more effort to walk if she were at home, which she did.
She was on 6 weeks cage rest, which meant that she was allowed out to the garden for essentials only then back in the cage, 4 times a day!
Grace was surprisingly good throughout her prison term!! Normally if she is caged she barks – constantly! Providing I didn’t go out with the other two, she was as good as gold.
As she approached her 5th week of cage rest, I began letting her have 5 minutes potter in the garden so that when her rest finished she would be more able to cope with little walks. She had lost a lot of weight which was all muscle. I also started letting her stay out for short periods in the house, making sure that she was unable to get on the furniture – yes I do allow the dogs on the chairs!!
On January 1st 2009, Grace was allowed to start physio and hydrotherapy to try and get her back to some semblance of normality.