Long time no post

Yoshi was finally able to go to two AKC trials in the last month and a half and he did very well. He Q'ed 4 out of 5 runs the first trial and then Q'ed 5 out of 6 runs the second trial. He got his NA and his NF and has two NAJ legs. He already got his first OA leg too. I am thrilled with how he did.

His distance is getting really amazing. We have been able to accomplish a lot of layering and distance sequences I never thought we would do. Its awesome. I am really looking forward to see what he can do in 2009. I still cant believe he is running again and doing it so well since at the beginning of this year I thought his career was done with before it ever began. Lets keep hoping that the good luck keeps coming.

There are videos of the runs on my Youtube channel. My user name is FASTSheltieAndBC

Yoshi Does...

distance work?

You're kidding right? Noooo I am not. Yoshi did DISTANCE work AND layering! Yes jaws are dropping. I about had a heart attack right then and there. Little maniac is finally doing his job.....

No I didnt get it on film......typical.

But he did it!

Ummmm....

My manic dog just let me do a rear cross into the weaves tonight.......three times......

I might have to go back tomorrow just to get this illusion on video....

Im pumped...time to really get with it...and Foxys training is going to be going up a notch too.... I got my game face on now =) LOL

Dont be suprised if theres video tomorrow.......wooooooeeeeeeeee

Last night

Heres from last night. I think we are starting to improve, and we will definitely be ready to hit the rings again this fall. We have been improving fairly fast since hes only been back a month. Still need a few things to work on, but we have at least 3 months left before I would send in an entry for a trial. His jumping has gotten a lot better, hes not flying off the teeter, his weaves are getting better, hes great on the a frame and dogwalk, and now all we really need to keep at is more foundation jumping, more weave work, and work on "out" and then getting him to come in to me.

Video

Video of things I said we needed to work on. He was lagging a little more than normal due to it being so hot. I added some running contacts to the end just so I could see them for myself..lol

Here We Go Again

So Yoshi's class had some good points and bad points again..lol

Lets start with the bad to get those out of the way:
1. Still needs foundation jumping training, but I will continue this for a while..so its not exactly "bad" but just something I need to work on with him through a period of time.
2. I totally have to retrain weaves, he has forgotten how to weave 12 poles. So back to the channels we go.
3. He has no "out" for get out. He is very hard headed and stubborn with this and this is going to be a very difficult process.
4. Still need a little bit more control.
5. He refuses to come back in to me to gather control... so heeling work..which he totally hates and will shut down almost everytime I try to work with him on it..
6. We need work on the teeter. As of now, I havent done any 2o2o with him on the teeter, but Im starting to have to easy easy easy him constantly on it.... soo I need ideas...if I need to teach him to slide the teeter into 2o2o, or hold it while it goes down (this is what he somewhat does...but might need to teach holding a little longer if I do this option)
7. Can I still wish for no barking????

BLAH on Shelties lol jk

The good points
1. Starting to raise a few bars up to 16"
2. He jumped absolutely beautifully one time over a 16" jump. It was textbook perfect...I wish I had a picture of it.
3. He got some somewhat difficult courses when I could figure out where to be as a handler.
4. He does pretty well when I "pull him away from an obstacle to take another." This option is started to be very accurate for us..so I will always have to remember that when course walking.
5. He is running great with no lameness and not acting sore at all. Once I do some of this retraining, he is going to be ready for the rings in fall I am assuming.

Before we trial we definitely have to get our weaves back, do foundation jumping up the wazoo, go back to being able to jump all 16" jumps on course, be a little more solid on teeter, and get a little bit of progress on coming in and going out. I think that we definitely have enough time to work on that...3 months or so before it starts cooling down (I plan on September maybe start trialing). He will be in great shape, and hes coming back really easily with everything else. We just are going to brush up our 2o2o and the things I mentioned above and I think we will be back in the game again.

Yoshi Class

Yoshi has his Tuesday class, and he did really well during the first part. Some of our "old stuff" started coming out, and completed a sequence beautifully. However, he started falling apart little by little, and totally tried blowing me off for threddles, or whatever they are...so we really need to work on those. The worst moment we have was our weaves, he just started skipping them so badly... that I had to keep trying to take him through and he started shutting down on me. So we need weave work again.... BLAH.

The foundation jumping work I think is really going to help, his worse thing about jumping is he doesnt know where to take off, he takes off too early or too late about 75% of the time.

Next week, we are going to get a little more intensive with the foundation jumping stuff.

Class Last Night

So Yoshi's class last night was errr...interesting.

Still knocking 12" bars down..pathetic..but we are clear to start using the agility facilities for our Foundation Jumping exercises an unlimited amount of time. Sooooo our jumping issues will soon be getting resolved.

He ended up blowing me off big time (big shocker huh?...ha) I ended up having issues with getting him to even pay attention to me to do a 270..he kept barking and going way far away to another jump...even calling his name wasnt working. I eventually had to turn my back on him and ignore him. He then realized that he had to pay attention to me and he listened fine the next time. =) I learned something new...he hates me "quitting the game" like that... Now I can have that trick up my sleeves if he decides to start doing those antics again.

However, we did have some pretty nice moments. He's still fast as hell and sometimes I wish he was slower, but when hes paying attention and not barking his fool head off, he had some great moments. His running contacts are still par. We even attempted a gamble (which Yoshi is TERRIBLE with distance and doesnt even know "out") which he didnt get totally, he started going back to me but I was able to push him out (even with the dog walk between us as a "barrier")

I put a Gentle Leader on him while we were on the sidelines. I was able to get him to be more controlled there and I had a lot better results with this. The Gentle Leader is now having more than one purpose for me. So Yoshi needs his own. I will be using this until he learns to settle down a bit better while he has to wait.

As for the at home stuff, his barking at people has become a problem. I have resorted to spraying him with a water bottle. It for the most part has worked, but we still have awful moments. Everyone thinks hes a dog that wants to bite now because he barks like he does (not dog people...non dog people think this)

If I dont get any more improvement here soon. I will have to resort to a citronella spray collar. I just cant have him barking like that over here right now. When a house is bought, I have a feeling he will be a lot more settled and wont be as freaked out since we will have some more privacy. Lets keep our fingers crossed that a house will be coming to me in the near future. He just has gotten really reactive and jumpy at the apartment setting.

Yoshi's First Real Class Back

Yoshi finally went back to his regular Tuesday class, and while he ran great. I am terrified of how he runs right now. I only jumped him 12" and he just flings himself and doesnt regard the bars as much. His speed is actually even FASTER than it was before, which I really didnt want. The dog doesnt have much distance, he ends up barking if I put too much distance away from him unless its a jump or tunnel. We have a LOT of work cut out for us. A good point about the crazy speed he was showing. The first time he blasted through the weaves, I was actually amazed. Fastest he has ever done twelve poles, and I saw some single strides in there. Weird dog I am telling you.

Things to work on:
-JUMPING- he is flinging himself badly, we are NOT going to do the tire jump until he shows better jumping style. STRICT Foundation Jumping gridwork 3 times a week.
-DISTANCE
-DISCRIMINATION
-QUIT BLOWING ME OFF AND BARKING AND WASTING TIME- he is so busy wasting his time barking at me that it messes him up big time. I never have encouraged barking and I am really fed up with it. He was way overstimulated last night. I am almost thinking of giving the dog Ace the chill pill or something...sheesh!!!
-CONTROL- I have no clue yet how we are going to achieve this.

I am trying to work out a deal with Rachel where I set up grids for his foundation jumping exercises at her place. I really think he is going to end up jumping a lot better if I really stick to those exercises. We will wait and see. Hopefully I can work something out with Rachel! I cant afford to buy the metal jumps that work best for these exercises so we will see what I can get worked out!

Wish us luck..we are going to need it!!!

Of course, I am thrilled he did do what he did. I never thought wed be back doing agility... it was great to be back..(I am completely lost as a handler now...figures..lol)

Waiting...

..On our strengthening DVD to come to us! We will be plenty busy when it comes. He is still doing great (with the exception of skin allergies which when we have a slow day at the vets office then I will get him looked at and get him on some antibiotics)

I am also waiting for that $70 jumping DVD to come out..its got Yoshi's name written all over it.

Can I say BLAH again on how frustrating my life is and how stupid I am??? Ok I thought so =) lol

Still Doing Good

So we are now up to fetching...and running...and even chasing after things with Foxy. I watch them like a hawk but if I am throwing the ball for them then she leaves him alone for the most part. No lameness whatsoever, just an out of shape Yoshi! LOL So I am thinking if all keeps going well within the next month... we might be going back into our agility training. We just need to start getting into shape for now and also need to start strengthening him for his jump retraining. I just am so happy that hes coming back. It seems like more and more is looking up for us hitting the rings this fall. =) He is happy, I am happy, I just am glad that we are getting to be somewhat lucky.

Of course I am paranoid and I think he is limping at every little movement..but then I chill out and look at his steps and he has been fine.. LOL I will probably have a heart attack everytime he goes through a tire jump if I am already being so overprotective!

Have You Ever Seen Such A Happy Face??

Well today I gave Yoshi a bath and scrubbed him good to get rid of the itchies as best as possible. I then spent over an hour drying him with my dog dryer... then I decided to take pictures of him as he hasnt been the most happy camper during his crate rest periods. Soooo I broke down..and I let him run a teeny bit =) He was THRILLED! I have never seen the dog look so happy before in my life. I only let him run about 5 minutes just to see how he held up as he has been fine for walking and such. Tomorrow I am taking him in to get rechecked to see how he is holding up..but he looked to be moving great! I am really starting to hope that we are definitely on our way! I am going to take him out in a couple hours to walk him and see if I see any lameness or anything. I really think the Cetyl will be good for him and I really think we could beat this without surgery now. He really looked great! Of course if he is going to show up lame, the test will be when I let him run which is kind of why I let him go ahead and run a bit today the day before his recheck.

Now on to showing you his happy face and his snazzy grooming job I did (yes he has grown a MASSIVE coat compared to what he had!)... I have never seen so much joy before in my life!

Small Update

So we are still just walking around the neighborhood behind my condo. He hasnt shown up lame or anything and the last time I walked him I bumped up the pace a little to a brisk walk so I actually put a little pressure on him.

Either this week or next week I am going to take him back in for a recheck and to look at his skin allergies. He has FRIGHTFUL skin allergies... which is alarming as the dog is only 18 months old. Anyways, hopefully by then we can start going on small jogs and I can start throwing the ball for him and stuff... I really want to get him back into decent shape and start really testing him if he is out of the woods or not with this injury. I also am itching to start retraining him so we can hit the rings again one day. We are definitely going to do major jump retraining. I think everything else, he will just have to have some refresher courses..but jumping he is going to have a lot of work cut out for him. Lets just keep hoping he stays sound though.

I bought some Cetyl-M for him because they sell it at Petco. I was going to get him Glyco-Flex III (really strong stuff) but that was if he was going to have the surgery..the Cetyl-M should be fine as a maintanence thing for him.

Oh Happy Happy Joy Joy

Do a little dance with me...... The vet cleared us to start going on walks.. Yoshi might not need surgery!!!!!!! His leg would not pop out under a lot of pressure!!! It was a little looser than the other, but it would not pop out at all! I have been so excited I could just burst. So we will start slowly building back Mr Yosh-man and if he stays sound and everything shapes up like theres a chance it will... then we might be hitting the rings in the fall!!!!!!!! I AM THRILLED! We are not out of the woods yet, but it definitely looks good right now!

Can we say that I am SUPER EXCITED????????????????????????????????????

Vote for him!

vote for yoshi i really need a new vacuum cleaner!!!

http://www.bissell.com/Page_id/47159/Place_Your_Vote.aspx?ImageUrl=http%3a%2f%2fimages.bissell.com%2fimages%2fIncludeContent%2fMVP%2fPeriod11%2f2863.jpg

Updates- but not much to update on

Still under 100% crate rest. I take him in this month to find out if we need to do surgery and if he will ever have a chance to run in agility again.

If we need to do the surgery, it will cost me about $2500...........

Hes gained some weight and isnt too happy..I just hope this mess is done soon.

As for now I made a video of the only show we ever got to go to... *sigh* If I didnt have Foxy I would have gone insane already...this has truly been hard.

A possible end to a very short-lived career

Yoshi's trialing career might be over before it ever began. The injury he received is a trauma-induced luxating patella. Waiting is the name of the game for now to see what happens and if surgery is needed... but it does not look too good as of now.

We will wait 8 weeks before a reevaluation. Until then, I may contact some orthopedic specialists and talk over the phone, or in person about my possibilities. I will find one I feel comfortable working with and get a second opinion.

I dont know what I am going to do with the dog.. meaning how to keep him quiet to get him to heal, and what I might have to do if he might not get to do agility again. This dog cant stand slow work. He has two speeds: fast and faster. If worse comes to worse and he cant run agility I have NO clue of what would be an alternative. He wont like the drilling of Obedience or Rally, he really didnt like Freestyle, Flyball too much strain, Disc dog...WAY too much strain, theres not much else besides herding and I dont know of any close by places that are much good. I am hoping and praying he can make a full recovery..if not we are so screwed. I wanted two dogs that I could enjoy equally and it looks like Yoshi is now going to be left out of having fun and I absolutely hate it!

I am not interested in running Preferred or any of those types of classes for a variety of reasons, so I would prefer not to have it suggested to me. Its a personal preference of mine, but to be honest one of the many reasons is...my dog runs hard no matter what..hes going to put so much strain on his body even if i put him in Preferred at 12"..he is such a die hard sort of dog with so much drive that is not "light on his feet." Hes going to do the same as he would in 16" class, hes going to put as much strain on his body as he can to go as fast as he can. There would be not much of a difference in running the full height of 16" just from knowing how my dog is. Again this is my decision and I am 100% firm in staying with my choice of not running preferred.

He will be put on a joint supplement, I will learn massage and stretching and such. I just guess we will have to wait and see if he can make a full recovery to his 16" class one day.

Either way...I have terrible luck! 4 days before our first AKC..... give me a break!! =(

I probably wont be posting much on this blog in the next few months. I will give updates from vets and such, but nothing else.

Pictures To Choose From

Here are the pics.. for some reason I cant get the picture button to work so I just had to post these pics up...click on them and you can see the full pic!

Well... Possible Good News..and Help Me Decide On Pics

He's starting to get a lot better!! I think that he might be okay to run this weekend if I give him a few more days. I am going to take him to Rachel's later on on Thursday or Friday and run him on the equipment to make sure he is 100% better and can run on equipment. I figured the extra couple days of crate rest will really help him as well. I am not letting him do much as of now, but he did sit up on his hind legs and he can run now. Hes starting to get his energy back too...so I am thinking that he will be ready to go either this weekend or next weekend at the latest as long as it wasnt something really bad. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that when I put him on the equipment that he is fine, and we can start our AKCs this weekend!!!!

I am having problems deciding which pictures to get from the CPE trial....

Ok I cant get the links to show up..I will post the pics in a bit after work and class....

Looks Like....

The show is going to be a no go for me and Yoshi... hes a tiny bit better but no way I am going to let him run. I guess I am out $80 in entry fees... *sigh* Now I just am going to keep my fingers crossed that he might get better in time for next weekend...


This is so discouraging....... =(

No progress

Well hes still limping. If hes not better by the weekend, I might be taking him either to my vet or a vet who might be more specialized in injuries and such. I might have to pull him out of all competition for the spring.

We will wait and see what he does in the next couple of days........ I havent seen any improvement yet though.

hmmmmm...

We had class last night and Yoshi did pretty good (he had problems with 12 weave poles as he has done nothing but 6 in the past month, but I am in no way worried about that) and he knocked one bar, but that was all knocked bars. However, he did jump to early and crash into the tire. He got out of it fine and I got him to do it again and then he did fine on the next exercise. However, after I got home and I fed him and when I let him out he was limping a lot. I felt all over him and he never whined or cried out, but this morning he is still limping. I let him sleep upstairs so he could move around and not be stiff in the crate, but he is still limping quite a bit. I am not sure if we are going to be running this weekend if it doesnt stop bugging him, not sure if it will phase out and hes just a bit sore and cautious on that leg or if hes going to be lame for a week or two from it. I guess we will have to wait and see over the next couple days what it does. He gets up and stuff on his own so I am guessing its not hurting that bad. I am just going to have to keep him kind of quiet I guess, and try to walk him to not let him get stiff too much. I dont know what else to really do....

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Well this weekend did not go as hoped for. It was a bit of a disaster to be honest. Totally not like what our classes are or anything.

Saturday:

Raining off an on through the whole day..what a bad day to have a first trial!!!

Fullhouse- 1st and Q- Not a bad first run. We had one small miscommunication, but we got a lot of points and in great time. I was feeling pretty good about the weekend after this run.

Standard- 1st and NQ- Not too great with two knocked bars which caused a NQ. Almost had a fly off on the teeter which shocked me.. he usually is steady as possible on that obstacle... starting to see the "Maniac Mode" coming on to Yoshi.

Jumpers- 1st and Q- One knocked bar.. after that, a pretty decent run actually. I was not too happy about the bar as I could see his jumping slip further and further. We communicated a lot better this go round at least.

Colors- 1st and NQ- Another dropped bar which caused an NQ..starting to see a pattern here??? Maniac Mode in full fledge by this time. Hes not responding well to my rear crosses. Dont know if the rain and the slick ground is tripping him up.

Snooker- 1st and NQ- knocked bar ruined us here...

By the end of the day I was so frustrated I wanted to just cry..it felt like nothing really went right.. I dont even know how to describe what I felt. I almost did not want to come back the next day.

Sunday:

Better weather, though some rain earlier that morning which made everything slick at first.

I was going to do a totally different thing with him. NO rear crosses hardly at all.. almost entirely fronts to see if bars stay up. I might not be that great at front crosses for his speed.. so I might have caused some of these huge mistakes. However, the Maniac Mode coming out REALLY ruined him.

Wildcard- 1st and Q- A pretty great run...fast too.. he did run past the a-frame which has never happened before, but I saw way more than a couple of dogs do that..and wondered if they all did not want to go due to the slick ground in that area.

Standard- 1st and Q- A CLEAN standard run..YAY... I was so worried about keeping bars up that I did not do too great on me and his groundwork and I let him come in way too wide for the weaves which caused him to botch them.

Colors- 2nd and NQ- A knocked bar...Maniac Mode starts up again........UGH

Jackpot- 2nd and NQ- This run about made me cry... he was in total chaotic state of mind and pretty much stood there barking at me the WHOLE time... we botched our opening, we botched the gamble HORRIBLY. It was an easy gamble that he could have done any other day but he just totally refused to listen at all... I ended up having to pick him up and put him in his crate. I was close to tears on this run.

Jumpers- 2nd and Q- I did a front cross that he didnt like and I tried to slow myself down which made the mouth start again and caused an off course..but the bars stayed up... At least he wasnt as chaotic as the run before.

The knocked bars were AWFUL this weekend.. I tried so many different things and I could not get anything to really work. He acted like he has never acted before and it has totally discouraged me. Me and him barely did any right this weekend

The good: We Q'ed out of Level 2 Jumpers. We had a couple of good, fast runs.

The bad: The knocked bars were too often of an occassion for my liking. Me and him were not working together very well at all. My massive migraine was not helping me any so I probably was not the world's greatest handler. The mouth started up at the barking at me, which gets both of us in trouble. I dont mind if hes barking while running, but not barking AT me.

The ugly: Maniac Mode in full force, we had a couple of really terrible runs that made me wonder if I am stupid for even trying this out.

I dont know about these AKCs coming up.. I think its a disaster waiting to happen... Though dont listen to me right now.. I'm just discouraged at a not so great First Trial...........

*sigh* I know we all have bad days (animals included) I just wish the first trial would have been a bit more encouraging.. That was the whole reason to do a CPE. AKC is going to eat us alive if he and I do the same performances again.

Time to be on a positive note- We are going to do much better next time =)

Our Fullhouse run


Our Jumpers run..yes its raining


Our Wildcard run (see the crazy decision to not go on the a-frame? I really think he didnt like the slick...silly dog!)


The Standard run with botched weaves (bars stayed up though! YAY)


Pictures to come sometime soon hopefully.......

Makes Me Want To Scream!!!

Yoshi has got his bout of diarrhea again....UGH just what we need right when the trial is in a day. He has been off his food a lot lately and so I am sure he's just being him...a picky eater with a sensitive stomach. I hope he's over it by tomorrow so it won't be a mess at the trial.......*crosses fingers*

Looks like baths all around tomorrow for the two dogs.... I was just going to bathe Foxy..but Yoshi is going to need a bath now too.