Wednesday, Part 2

There's a for sale sign in front of my house! Guess i better get busy getting things in showplace shape on the inside. :-)

Zac and i met the PT this afternoon - Gina Epifano in Raleigh. I quite liked her, she was thorough and her plan is very sensible. The video was a big help since Zac showed almost no injury or reaction on exam, and she was really trying to get it. Gina, like the holistic vet i saw before, feels Zac has a muscle memory thing going on, that he's protecting that leg or got a habit of skipping in certain movements. It's actually really predictable, the video made that obvious last night when i was editing it up. If he's moving on a counter-clockwise arc, he'll skip just before he takes the last step or two to turn and arc back the other way, and it's worst when he's going downhill. So, the plan is to do a bit of stretching and a couple of exercises -- a large trotting figure 8 on flat ground and an uphill S-shaped trot. Since Zac will heel to the ATV, it should be pretty easy to do and we'll start tomorrow. Hopefully those exercises will get him used to using his leg in that motion and change his habit, and we can work up to the motion and speed that brings out the skip in a few weeks. We'll do these exercises for a week and then i'll consult with Gina again by email for the next step in the plan. She said since she wasn't getting any reaction out of him, there wasn't really any point to re-examining him to check for improvement. I think it's really great that she'll do it by email. I don't need to put him on strict rest and he can do light work, just needs to not do anything too wild. That's not hard, i've been hovering over him to keep him from acting like a crazy dog for almost a year now. So, all in all, very good news. I want to get that skip under control so he doesn't injure himself compensating, but at least he's not actually *hurt* at this point.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Well, hopefully anyway. My house is going on the market tomorrow. I tried this about 4 years ago and it sold almost immediately. Stayed sold for a good 30 days, right up to the point where the buyer's bank found some fine print on the loan program he was using and decided he couldn't have the money. Something about he couldn't buy a house on a private road. Fast forward about a year of having it on the market and not selling, and i pulled it off. Fast forward again to last week and something just made me decide to get it back on the market. Maybe it's having more energy from the great things Weight Watchers has done for me, maybe it was the black bear Peggy saw less than a mile from my sheep (i don't live where my sheep are, to clarify for those that don't know that), maybe it was finally getting the mulch down in my flower beds at home, i don't know. I just know i am ready to get my butt in gear and live at my farm, where my sheep are. Time to consolidate! I know the real estate market stinks right now but maybe the right person or family will come along. It's not an expensive house (will be priced at $104,500 i think) but it's a nice place and in good shape. Anyway, wish me luck! Here are some pictures, if you know anyone looking House

Also in the wish me luck department -- Zac and i are off to a veterinary physical therapist this evening, in hopes she can give me some ideas and suggestions for his chronic right rear leg skip. He was diagnosed with an iliopsoas strain (muscle high up in the hip/groin) last September by an orthopedic vet, a rehab vet, and also the holistic/acupuncture vet i've used in the past. With lots of rest and therapy, he got quite a lot better but then in May reinjured it slightly. It's never gotten to 100% since the orginal injury though, and i feel it not only impacts his performance, i worry that he will injure the left side because he's compensating for the right. I got some good video of the skip when i was working him last night and am taking my laptop in to show the PT. It doesn't ever show up trotting around on leash and i want her to see it. She comes very highly recommended by a couple of friends and i hope she can give me a good treatment plan. I'll post a note this evening on how it goes.

Demon Dog

IT's RAINING!!! Wow, can't believe it, it's been so long i wasn't sure what that stuff falling from the sky was. I wish it would just rain all night and all day for about 3 days. The pasture is shot, the ground is like asphalt, and the pond is getting lower all the time. But right now, glorious rain! Okay, enough of the happy dance for the moment.

It's been a fun but busy weekend here. Yesterday i went over to Denise's for a little dog workin' get-together with a couple of other folks. It was hot as stink but a nice breeze and short sessions kept it tolerable. Jet and Zac both worked very nicely. Billy was his little superstar self. He kind of amazes me. I've done very, very little training on him. I just sort of bring him out and let him have a little go here and there, and he's just moving along in leaps and bounds. He'll run out 50-75 yards pretty decent, balances nicely, is willing to even do a little driving. I was telling the gang, he's pretty darned boring to train really. It's surely a good kind of boring though! I'll try to get some video of him soon if i can get someone to come out and operate the camera. I'm not putting any pressure on him at all and expect he'll easily be ready to run Nursery this winter or early next spring. I probably could push him along and get him ready for this fall but i want to take time training him and see how much he'll just train himself on the sheep and in different situations. He's still just a puppy at 11 months old.

Now, on to the subject of this post - the Demon Dog! Black Bart, the wild man. First a litte background - one evening last week, i thought i had put all the sheep up, and cut the whole gang of dogs out to run and play on the pasture while i was doing some work around the farm (key word: thought). A few minutes later, i look up and here comes Bart and Gael and who knows who else, bringing me 5 sheep. It took me 10 minutes of chasing and yelling to catch that little snot! Had Gael (the original Demon Dog) not been out there, i might have been able to just work Bart a bit and caught him that way, but things were a bit ummmmm, wild with both of them out there. Every time i'd get Gael down and then get balanced up and almost catch Bart, the sheep would shift and they were both off again. Then lambs started squirting off and Bart thought that was grrrrrreat fun, working single lambs and grabbing them. I don't know where the heck the other 4 dogs ended up, except for perhaps heading for the hills with all the yelling that was going on! Okay, so fast forward to yesterday, and you can probably guess what frame of mind Bart was in when i let go of the rope and let him go around the sheep. Let's just say i wasn't exactly part of the picture and it wasn't quite as calm and sweet as the previous times at Denise's. :-) It definitely keened up my sweet 6 month old puppy! I had a long piece of pvc which he was very much ignoring until i kinda sorta cracked him on the head with it - it wasn't really intentional and it wasn't hard enough to hurt his feelings, but he did somewhat notice i was in the same universe with him afterwards. He did settle down a bit and worked very well afterwards, just as keen as could be but balancing and covering and looking like a million bucks. He wasn't having any of that being caught stuff again though and i practically had to tackle him to get him off the sheep. I was grinning from ear to ear. There are good dog problems and bad dog problems, and a too keen dog is surely one of the former! I'm very excited about him and can't wait to get him training. I've always felt some regret that i couldn't do a better job with Gael - she was way too hot for my experience level at the time, and i just never could get a handle on her tension, but she was tremendously tough and talented and i've wanted to turn the clock back and try again. I think i might have another one that's "a lot of dog" and i can't wait! He's all about some sheep now, spent every chance he could today trying to get through fences and under gates to get at the sheep. Yep, i've got another Demon Dog and i'm a-lovin' it!

A Good Dog and a Good Day

The Shoofly pack looks and feels a little different tonight. I sold Moss today, back to his breeder Denise Wall. He's such a good dog and i think they're going to be a special team. As much as i love the little snot, i know he's going to be even more special to her and i'm thrilled to be able to let her have him. You can tell by the grin on her face that she's pretty thrilled herself. :-) Moss went right to work for her today, even with me sitting nearby chatting with other friends. Denise said when she got him home, he just hopped out of the truck and blended right in with the other dogs like he'd never left. He was a special one to Denise and her family when he was a baby puppy, and now "Fatty" (his puppy name, because he was such a solid pup) has come home. I expect to be singing the blues this fall when he's kicking butt in Nursery for Denise and not for me, but i'm just so happy for her to have him. I like when my friends are happy!

I took the rest of the Shoofly Pack over to Becca Shouse's for the bc-boards picnic this afternoon. It sure looked weird to open the van doors and not see those wild light eyes of Moss' looking back at me. The picnic was a lot of fun and the dogs had a good time working Becca's sheep. Personally i had a good time drowning my dog-leaving sorrows in banana puddin', yum!

Bart's New Game

Bart learned a new game. First you swim out to where the stick is.


Then you open WIDE and grab it.


Get a good hold and start swimming back in.


Keep your ears out of the water!


Watch out for Jet, she steals sticks!


Ahh, now a good shake and start all over again!


(Who knew he'd ever even learned to fetch?! I've never taught him or played fetch with him. He must have been watching Gael fetch from the pond. I decided to take just him and Jet out, since i was trying to get some pictures, and he decided to show me what he'd learned on his own.)

Oh no! Goodbye Redbud

Well, it finally happened. My beautiful red bud tree, the "signature tree" at the farm, which looks like this in the spring:

Now looks like this:

It's been leaning more and more every year and gravity finally caught up with it. It's funny, i thought the branch on the right would have been the first to go. It's gotten low enough that i smack my head on a regular basis when working dogs in that area. Wonder how long it will be before it gives up and breaks off too? The sheep are sure enjoying stripping the leaves off!

Gael update

I took Gael in for her repeat bloodwork today and it looks good! Her alkaline phosphatase is still elevated at 589 (was over 6000 to start, then 4500, and 1542 two weeks ago) but everything else is back to normal. She'll stay on the liver support kibble, Sam-E, milk thistle and Actigall, and we'll do another blood draw in a month. Good news!

Now to put her on a diet. All the good spoiling she's been getting has made her fat. :-)