Ceilidh's New Toy

Aside from Ceilidh's beloved Latex Soccer Ball, there's no other toy that she's particularly attached to. Until now. We got in some new Good Karma Rope Toys at the store and tried to figure out which Ceilidh might like without causing too much damage swinging it around. We settled on Ted the Turtle - not too many long bits. I must admit I was unsure if Ceilidh would really like it. But, just as Hope suspected, Ceilidh loves her turtle! We took the ribbon off immediately, of course - we all know what would happen to it if we left it on! Much to my surprise, in the evening Ceilidh likes to chew on the legs. They're starting to look a little frayed, but they're supposed to do that - the flossing effect, keeping Ceilidh's teeth in good shape. Let's hear it for Ted the Turtle!

I took a shot of Ceilidh's Ted the Turtle last night - a bit worse for wear - but beloved!

Is obedience supposed to be painful?

Fate has a way of keeping us humble, doesn't it? Last night at obedience training I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Dax and I have been practising regularly, I've been looking at premium lists and deciding which obedience trials to enter. I've also been getting a bit of a swelled head - thinking myself pretty hot stuff as the "expert" trainer on the FrogDog Ask The Experts blog. Especially when I've been getting some nice e-mails from people thanking me for my help and letting me know I was right!
Being right is a good thing. Paying attention to what you're supposed to be doing is smarter. During heeling exercises in class, our instructor (and a wonderful one, at that) explained that showing Dax a "big honking treat" right in front of her face would help her become more enthusiastic. She even encouraged us to get our dogs jumping up for the treat - showing some energy, style and panache!
It works wonders. Unless you let your mind wander during the exercise, which I did. And your dog mistakes your finger for the big honking treat, which she did. My "owie" is still oozing blood today. And it serves me right. One of my favorite obedience t-shirts reads: Obedience Help Line - Call 1-800-It's-my-fault

What happened to Halloween?

Friday is my day off. I was totally, totally psyched for trick-or-treaters. For some reason, it's usually Fran who gets to see them and I get to hear all about how adorable they were and how cute their costumes were and how they even dressed their dogs in costume to go trick-or-treating.
Trick-or-treat hours in our town are 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. So I got totally ready - even prepared a casserole early, so I wouldn't be busy cooking when the doorbell started ringing. Candy was ready in a bowl, top window of the screen door removed so the dogs could see the kids and not get out. I was ready!
And nothing. Hours and hours of nothing. One group finally showed up about 5:30, another one child about a half hour later.
After the second time the doorbell rang, Dax sat by the door waiting for the next time. She adores seeing the kids. It never happened. She was disappointed. So was I.

Big grins at the agility fun match

Dax is such a good girl! Yesterday evening we went to the Agility Fun Match hosted by the Lyons Dog Training Club. My goals were pretty basic - make sure Dax did the A-Frame (which she avoided like the plague at the trials we entered) and get the bar-setters and tunnel-straighteners to discourage her from visiting (okay, I went up and begged them to scream "no" at her if she came visiting.)
She was wonderful! The first run I decided to start with a jump and then the A-Frame to make sure we had time to get it done right. No problem. Dax jumped and headed straight for the frame like it was her favorite obstacle! She stayed with me the whole time, didn't even glance at the other people in the ring. We managed to complete the whole course. Almost. I was so happy she was with me I didn't notice that Dax ran over the broad jump instead of jumping it until we were well past it. I figured I'd fix it on the next run.
As it turns out - I didn't need to! She jumped the jumps, touched the contacts, listened to me and grinned from ear to ear. Me, too!

More than just a river in Egypt

So we look at Ceilidh and can't believe anything's wrong with her. If I hadn't seen the EKG for myself, I wouldn't believe it. But there's not much arguing with two separate tests with scarey flat lines that seem to go on forever before that reassuring little bump that says - not done yet!
And she's not. Not by a long shot. Because Ceilidh has no symptoms, her vet says we can work with medication, trying to get her dosage right, seeing what effect it has, etc. Another EKG in three weeks and we'll see where we are.
In the meantime, we intend to ignore the situation entirely, aside from giving her the pills. There's a lovely view from this wonderful place called "denial." Visit anytime!

Quality it is!

Here's the good news: Ceilidh's blood pressure is normal!

And the bad news: not only are Ceilidh's heart valves bad, they're really bad. And she has arrhythmia - her heart stops beating at times for several seconds.

There are pacemakers available for dogs, but if we had one implanted in Ceilidh, her activity level would have to be restricted. For a normal, couch potato dog this wouldn't be a big deal. But for Ceilidh, who only knows full-speed, this alone would kill her.

So we hope to be able to treat Ceilidh's condition with medication. The vet also said that any new stress factors are to be avoided. Keep doing the things Ceilidh loves to do - play with her beloved Latex Soccer Ball and go to Agility Class - but if I ever had any dreams of competing with Ceilidh, that's out.

Hopefully, Ceilidh will be around for a very long time, wanting to play, play, play...

Facing choices

I'm off to pick up Ceilidh at the vet in a few minutes. She spent the day getting checked out - the vet said the heart murmur she found last year had worsened considerably - from a grade 1 to a grade 3. Ceilidh's only seven years old, and we don't even want to consider the implications if she has exercise restrictions. Not the full-speed, party girl! We're dreading having to face the choice - quantity or quality of life?