More vets - and more physio

Another trip to Smart Clinic and we are making progress and are able to update exercises a little and start doing stepping over poles on a curve - not sure Molly is very impressed with this

Physio

One of Mollys exercises is stepping over poles walking slowly to make her start to use her back legs properly and think about using them.

As always with Molly she enjoys herself in her own way and once she thinks she has done enough she destroys the course and runs off with one of the supports!

This is one of her attempts from earlier in the week.

Meanwhile - Chance has been working on her weaves as agility has stepped up a pace now and our competitions include weaves - which we are struggling with a little so putting in lots of work.

Cardiff

To make sure Molly was healing up OK and hopefully prevent future problems I wanted her recovery overseen by those good guys at the Smart Clinic who I trust greatly.

Our first trip today and a long day as it was a bit of a traffic nightmare.  It was also not great news as the vet was hugely concerned about the effect back pain and rest had had on her knees which had made her knees very much worse.  Lots of stretching exercises to try and loosen her up and get her moving a lot better.

KC agility

A really nice day for Chances second Kennel Club agility competition.  She has lost her confidence on the dog walk and struggling with weaves a little but she did well and they were pretty well the only things we messed up all day.

The Willows

Molly is much happier now and in a lot less pain.  The vet who checked Molly out did not find much pain at all but did find a couple of very subtle signs that she was not quite right neurologically so we decided to do an MRI scan.

It was an anxious wait for me and Chance although we did find a nice park just round the corner for a nice walk.

The results showed she did have a disc protruding into her spinal cord which is what is causing her problems.  Not great news :(  The vet changed her painkillers and prescribed more strict rest to let the area heal up - and hope for the best.

A problem

All was fine and normal all day today - right up until yesterday evening when after tea Molly came in from the back garden staggering slightly with her back legs and generally not quite sure what they were doing.  We sat down for a while to calm down and then she seemed much more aware of her legs but in a lot of pain.  

Today she was still in a lot of pain so we went to the vets and were prescribed strong painkillers for severe back pain.  The vet was also not happy with my description of her staggering so referred us to Willows to be properly checked out.

Agility confidence

Chance and I are definitely finding our feet at this agility game.  

Guilty!!

How often do you hear someone say they know the dog knows it did wrong - they can clearly see it.  So look at the photos - which dog do you reckon shredded the duvet?

Chance - Was it me?

Molly - Or maybe me?

Made your decision?

The answer is neither dog did, the duvet was already shredded when they went into the room.  Nobody was telling anyone off - but Chance is a sensitive girl and did not want to even go close to the mess.  Molly on the other hand is a free spirit and quite happy to sit in the middle of it all - I am sure she would have been equally unconcerned if she had done it to be honest.

So - do I believe dogs know they have done "wrong"?  No I don't - I do however believe they can associate our behaviour with certain situations and react accordingly.

..... and Chance and Molly - after the photo got a biscuit for their modelling skills. 

Clear Round

Chance and I have been working hard at our agility and finally took the plunge to enter something.  This is our second competition - a small friendly show BitsNBobz and we managed a clear round in the steeplechase.

Not perfect on my part but so proud of my girl 

Flyball

We have been learning to play flyball, particularly learning how to turn on the box.  This is our first full run without netting

Grumpy

Shortly after getting rid of the cone Molly started to get really grumpy especially with other dogs - especially Chance :(

A blood test suggested this was pancreatitis flaring up so I tried to modify diet to make it even more low fat but she was still very grumpy and not her normal self at all.

More blood tests revealed SIBO and very low B12 so she had a month of antiobiotics and lots of B12 injections.  Thankfully this worked pretty quickly and I soon had my happy girl back :)

Cone of Shame

For some reason after a walk Molly started to lick her leg obsessively and as ever with Molly it became a problem.

The following day she had managed to make it really sore looking and would not leave it alone so we ended up at the pet shop as soon as it opened to buy a cone.  Several frustrating weeks where I tried a variety of shirts and more comfy cones to protect her leg and she defeated everything but the proper cone so ended up wearing it constantly for a while!

Her pancreatitis ruled out using steroids or metacam but thankfully eventually things resolved and she could be trusted without the cone.

5th birthday

It is Mollys 5th birthday today.  She would probably prefer a muddy run around the fields - but she hurt her eye yesterday so I would rather be more cautious and we have done some training and put it together into a video.

The video is not perfect - but I love her happy tail and enthusiasm.

Clicker fun

Molly likes to do her physio exercises - she usually balances the wobble board with her front legs but decided to try with her back legs this time

Chance meanwhile is learning to roll out a rug - I am sure Molly will take full advantage when it is rolled out.

Agility

Chance and I are making a serious attempt at agility now.  We have had another one to one session and have lots of homework and I was lucky enough to find a few jumps for sale at a reasonable price.

One of us is really quite good - and the other one needs to work out what they are doing with arms and legs and which direction we should be going in!!

Self control

Another of Molls slightly bouncy moments is when putting the lead on - so we had a short self control session to try and get this under control - not bad for her first try.

More sea

As the weather was so nice we had another trip to the beach - I think it is pretty safe to say they both enjoyed themselves very much indeed.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

People sometimes ask me why I keep Molly so short coated - hopefully this answers the question neatly - she really does love getting manky!!  

Thankfully although she rolls a lot it is not in really horrible stuff all that often so usually just needs drying and brushing.

I must go down to the sea again

Living in the centre of England the sea is a bit of a rare treat.  I had a week off though and having checked the tide tables they were good for us to take a trip to our favourite seaside town - Hunstanton.  I have not been for years, long before having Molly and Chance so this was their first ever trip.

The first bit of the beach was really rocky and Molly decided rock pooling was her primary hobby and was off hunting the rocks and pools.

The cliffs had their usual collection of nesting fulmars.

Lots of running through the rocky landscape.

Chance was a good girl and stayed with me mostly.

Then we got to the more open part of the beach and Molly chased gulls and oysercatchers.

It was a good job the tide was going out as she was very bold about where she went in search of things to hunt.

Looked like a gremlin as she was heading back to us.

Chance meanwhile had a toy to play with and was loving the wide open space to run on.

Molly ran fast enough to get airborne.

Time to head home and just time for a couple of poses.

Boots standing in for me - so the closest I come to a photo of all three of us.

And finally two happy soggy girls.
 

Tribute

A dog owning friend had mostly been concerned about her lovely dog when she was diagnosed as terminally ill.  He is now living with a close friend of hers and what finer tribute to her than to go on her favourite walk with his new family and some friends.

No more words - just photos