Ya'll didn't tell me

you were magical blog followers!!

All your juju and good thoughts have worked wonders. Tweed has been limp-free since Thursday. I upped his exercise a bit and even with running, jumping and some (Ru-free) hiking, he's weight bearing on all legs, and no limping at all. He gets to go back to class next week. Hazzah!

Look how happy he is! Piper doesn't look so happy though...


I shall reward you all your efforts with totally unstaged (ha ha) photos of dogs in a blueberry field on a sunny day!

This is not my good side. Beeyotch. Lucky for you I'm in a good mood.


It'd be nice if his tail was the same colour as the rest of him. Every summer it bleaches out, and doesn't catch up to his darker coat until Spring, just in time for the process to start all over again.

This is Piper's impression of a carpenter's level.



Mr. Woo = two functions only: "Sit" and "Hunt." He managed to offload his bear bell in some undergrowth about 4 days after I implemented it. But we have been working very hard on stuffing his face with homemade fish brownies every time he answers a recall, and I'm getting about 50% success. Which is better than 0%, which is what it had deteriorated to,


Dexter is only half interested in what I have to say, apparently.


Anyway, thanks again for all your marvelous healing thoughts!! We are so happy to have a fully functioning Tweed again :)

Now I have to go throw the ball for Miss Piper.

I could blog about this dog

all day, and I don't even know his name!


He's a border collie X Aussie, like Tweed, and he shares Tweed's passion for making funny shaking faces.


But he is much, much funnier than Tweed can ever hope to be.


ha ha!

Tweed is not speaking to me at the moment.

F*ck off.


You may recall a couple of blog posts ago I mentioned off the cuff that Tweed had injured himself whilst chasing Ruger through the forest in Belcarra.

Well, he is still injured. For about two days he was a tripod, and then his left hind leg came down, but while his toes are brushing the earth, his foot is by no means supporting very much weight at all. We went off to see our friendly new veterinarian who diagnosed him with a serious case of "Uh, dunno."

He may or may not have arthritis in his knee. He may or may not have a sprain. He may or may not have a partial cruciate tear. He may or may not ever play agility again.

(*insert sad face here*)

As he is still not weight bearing on that leg, he is restricted to on leash walks only, lots of rest and is on some anti-inflammatories for 14 days. Should he still be gimpoid by the end of this regime (and we are on day 8 of the problem) we should probably sedate him and x-ray the knee.

The on-leash business is making him Very Angry.

F*ck you.


While his siblings romp, frisk, frolic and cavort, he plods along behind me in silent fury.

Yay! Running is So Much FUN!


Even strangers are mocking him.


The rage is building. Today he did something he's never done before - he slipped his lead while I was preparing to take a photo of someone else, and ran off!

GO F*CK YOURSELF!


He did the zoomies for about 3 minutes before I used Mad Mommy Voice to full effect, and then he hobbled back to me and let me re-leash him.

I feel really badly for him. And I feel really sorry for me - my hopes of placing high at Nationals just ran off with Tweed. And I feel really badly for all of you, because if he needs TPLO surgery, the only way I can conceive of paying for it is by selling off my camera gear.

It's a sucky situation all around. But hey, there's always a different way to look at things, right? I mean, at least I'm not bleeding from my head.


But I guess that's because I DON'T STICK MY HEAD REPEATEDLY IN THORN BUSHES.

*ahem*

What?


Really he's bleeding from his ear tips onto his head, because those ridiculously flappy things get caught on the thorns all the time.

And speaking of ears, I do believe Dexter...


... has been coveting Piper's ears.


That's because he wuvs his big sister.


They're really good friends. They're always togeth - GET OUT OF THE SHOT, TWEED!*


It's difficult, being so sexy.


NOW DO WHAT THE FOOD LADY SAYS, AND STAY ON YOUR LEASH, TWEED!


*Because I know someone is going to point out that Tweed should be on-leash in that photo too, I would just like to say that we are being very strict about the leash business, but Tweed needed to go "Number Two" and he didn't want to do it on leash, so he was trundling off into the bushes to take of that - at a *walk*. The other off-leash photos were all taken when he slipped his lead and pulled a runner. I'm taking his knee problem very seriously, because I want him to heal up!

Happy Birthday to my Big Red Dog

If my Briggs had lived, he'd be 13 today.

This is a photo a friend of mine took at Briggs' first agility trial. He was about 2 years old here. The photo is framed and sits in my office.



He was such a fine specimen of a dog. Dexter has big shoes to fill.

Happy Birthday Briggs. We miss you every day.

Bell of the Ball

Hello. My name is Mr. Tricky Woo. And I have to wear this goofy and irritating bear bell on my collar now.


HAH! Take that, Wootie.

While Jingles tinkles merrily away on our walks, he also cannot disappear because the absence of the ringing is rather apparent. As he starts to wander off, he gets called back - see, Wootie will only take off if he's already out of sight. But if you notice him leaving, he pretends he wasn't going anywhere in the first place. This is one VERY sly dog.

Since I put them bell on him on Sunday, he has been remarkably present.

We didn't even lose him on the hike today. He did try to scuttle off into the bushes once or twice, but since there were three humans, who were SUPER ANNOYED by his bell, one of us always noticed when the tinkling started to fade from earshot.

Well this sucks.


Bear bells: available for about $4.00 from your local outdoor sporting goods store.

Oh look, it's Ru. And Tweed's behind him.


We go hiking once a week in the deserted forests in the Belcarra area with Cheryl, who is a dogwalker, and goes there every day for her job. That's a cool job. But she has Ru, a TDBCR adoptee, who has a reputation for "breaking" dogs. While Ru is allegedly an old dog, he outruns everyone on the hike, every single day. Any dog foolish enough to try and keep up with him ends up a crippled gimp at the end of the day.

Not that I'm naming any names.


The forest can be scary. For it contains borderjacks.


... borderjacks who clone themselves, bigger than life.

How'd he do that?


Oh look, it's Ru again. And Tweed too.


And again.


Hey look at that ... again!


The result is The Tri Pod Formerly Known As Tweed. He's totally gimped this afternoon :(

Tweed's dumb. I'm pretty. Take a picture of me.


Look who is almost the same size as Piper!


Holycow!

Rogue says she is also pretty, and I should take a photo of her too.


We are still accepting guesses as to what her breed mix might be.

But be careful, for if you guess wrong ...


... the borderjack cometh.

Let Freedom Reign

We went to Campbell Valley off leash park today for some Big Air.

We were a little out of practice.

First we got some small air.


Then some FAIL air.


And a combination of the two.


Finally we got some Big Air.
(he did catch this on the way down)


We were really having a super good time!


And then ....

I saw this.


A couple minutes later, I saw this:


A few moments after that, I lifted my head and all I saw ...

was this.


For Wootie had, yet again, vanished.

Ever since his Runaway Woo episode a couple of weeks ago, Operation Scare The Shit Out OF The Food Lady has broadened in scope considerably. It now encompasses sub-operation Make TFL Really Stinkin' Angry, as well as Mission Return Wootie To The Pound. IOW, Mr. Woo is channeling The Littlest Hobo and is making a career out of wandering off - at high speed.

First we lost him while hiking in Belcarra earlier this week. We had a massive pack of dogs with us (here's about half of them)


...including my newest favourite, Fonzie.


and still, the little furry orange bastid vanished into thin air and was gone for the longest time.

Two nights later, I let all the dogs out for a last pee at midnight and all but Woo returned. I spent half an hour wandering through farmer's fields in my pajamas and a pair of gumboots, with a city girl's flashlight, whisperscreaming his name and getting nada in reply. When I got home, I found him peering out at me from behind my van and when he saw me coming he took off down the driveway and tried to hurl himself through the solid matter known as my front door. Because he KNOWS damn well I'm comin' for him.

There are so many ironies at work here. It is ironic that I have put reliable recalls on about 200 foster dogs in 10 years, but can't get Mr. Woo to so much as flick an ear in my direction when I call him. It is ironic that last night in agility class, I gave Mr. Woo to Auntie Fiona to run as she was down a dog, and he couldn't run a whole course with her because it was "too far from Mummy" and he kept running back to sit on my lap. It is ironic that my 5 month old puppy listens better than my 4 year old dog.

*shakes fist at Woo*

MORE BEATINGS, LESS LOVE!!!

Ha ha. You don't mean that.


Dude, you really shouldn't try her patience. You are going to be in so much trouble.


Did I mention he is long-line wise? He won't go anywhere if he's on a long line (which, incidentally, he sports when he goes out for potties now. The other end is bolted to the porch, until we get ourselves a fence) and, in fact, he won't go anywhere if he knows I'm watching him. But if I take my eyes off him for 10 seconds, he's gone like a bat outta hell and he doesn't come back until he's darn well good and ready. And what can I say? I don't have Dexter's eye, I can't watch him constantly.

This behaviour is all brand new - it either coincides with Dexter's arrival, or our move to the Sticks. I think it's the latter - Wootie was born to hunt, and the countryside is just too full of opportunity for him to indulge his passions.

Neither food, nor the Wootie Toy, holds his attention any longer.

How long do I have to keep this up? I wanna hunt me some wabbits.



Ahem. *I* come when I am called. *I* win the competition run in class every Thursday. *I* am a good dog. Pay attention to me. ME.


Did some say RECALL? I'm coming!!


Me too! Me too!


Oh well. I guess I'm not the worst trainer in the world. After all, I've taught Dexter to play with a frisbee!

Dexter, bring it here.


I said, BRING IT HERE!


Just kidding. Dexter is very good at fetch now.


Piper: Nature's Transit System


So ... anyone got a GPS system they want to lend me? I can't track Woo. Maybe a satellite can!!!