Our friends over at Josh and Jessie’s blog had the idea to post pictures that their mom caught of them sleeping. They invited everyone to search through their pictures to find some of their own to post. I knew exactly which picture I was going to post.
OK, Here is my first attempt at posting a video on this blog. Let’s hope it works. I can’t figure out how to separate the two runs on the disk either, so you’ll all just have to deal with watching both of Zoe’s runs on Sat. Sorry. The first run is her Ex Standard run and the second is her Ex. Jumpers with Weaves run on Saturday.
LOL Watch out world! Up till this weekend Layla has not been able to jump on our furniture. When we went up to Barbara and Jim’s house on Thurs. night though, she just made herself right at home on their couch, hopping on and off like she’d been doing it forever. When we got to Cynthia’s house she did the same thing, playing with Muffit and Tatum. Well, last night when we got home, I was suprised when I sat down on the couch and was joined shortly by my little shorty girl. Hehe So, watch out world, she thinks she’s pretty big now!!!
We’re home, and we had a really nice weekend at the agility trial. Raven finished her Novice FAST title, and probably would have qualified in her Ex JWW class too, except for the fact that I forgot she was running in Excellent and nearly missed her turn. I realized my mistake in time for her to still be able to run, but it was rushed and I think my mistake made her nervous from the start. She had a refusal at the first jump and then she went on to finish the run nicely. I was really pleased that she was able to recover that well. I think the year off has helped her alot.
Zoe and I still didn’t get that last Excellent FAST leg that we needed for her title, but that’s ok. She’s still running well, and we’re having fun. I did alot of thinking over the weekend about whether or not I wanted to continue to compete with Zoe in AKC and try for a MACH II, and I think I’ve made my mind up that it’s just not worth it for us. Zoe’s going to be 9 in June, and it took us a good solid two years worth of trialing to get the first MACH, and I just don’t think I want to be pushing her that much as she approaches 10. Not that she’s ready to retire by any means! I just think we’re going to switch over to another venue for now. DOCNA is the most appealing to me because the courses tend to be a little more open and flowing, and it also offers alot of options in jump heights as the dogs age. I think it will be a nice change of pace for us.
Layla had a great weekend too. We went back to visit Barbara and Jim at Sheltie Rescue to finish her adoption paperwork on Thurs. night. While we were there she got to play with the two other 4 mo. old Sheltie puppies that are available for adoption as well as Abbey, Barbara and Jim’s own Sheltie girl. Then she got to go play with her friends Tatum and Muffit at Cynthia house. They ran and ran and barked and had a great time. Friday and Saturday Layla came with us to the agility trial and she got to do some attention work in the new place as well as socialize a little. She even did some targeting by our crating area. The biggest thing she learned was how to do stairs. Didn’t take her long to figure out the stairs at Cynthia’s house and at the trial site, and by the end of the weekend, she was prancing up and down them like she’d been doing it for years. LOL Once again, I forgot the camera, but fortunately Cynthia had hers, so when she has time, maybe we’ll post some pictures of the crating setup at the trial.
What do you want, mom? Can’t you see I’m busy!!!
This week is going to be hectic! We’ve got a bunch to squeeze in before we leave on Thurs. to go to Farmington for our first agility trial of the year. It’s a three day trial, but I’ve only entered the first two days. I’m pretty nervous about running with Raven again. It’s been almost a year since she’s trialed. She was getting stressed out at trials so we took so time off competing, tried to concentrate on our training, and did some fun little demo things to try to build her confidence. I guess it’s about time to see if it’s helped her.
Zoe’s pretty steady, so running her doesn’t make me nervous, we just have fun! I’m hoping that Zoe can finally get that last FAST leg that she needs to finish that title. Distance work with Zoe has always been a weak point. LOL
Layla is coming along to just get used to the trial atmosphere. This will be her first trip! I think she’s going to do well, (I hope). She’s a really good little traveler on the short day trips that we’ve taken so far.
Rogue and Twist are going to stay home to keep Penny, Lucy and their dad company for the weekend. I doubt that Rogue will be very happy about being left with him, but I just don’t see any sense in stressing her out more than normal in a trial environment, till we can get her medication regulated. If we can get things figured out for her so that she is comfortable at home then we might start taking her on the road a bit again, but until then we’re just slowing things down for a while.
So, we’ve lowered the dosage of Fluoxitine back down to 5 mg. per day now, and the good news is that at this dosage, she seems to have settled back into her normal self. That’s not to say that she’s not anxious, but at least she’s not sitting there with her teeth chattering and she’s not going after all the dogs to instigate a fight. 
I think we’ll keep her at this dosage for another month or month and a half and see how she’s doing.
With the warmer temperatures the last week or so, the snow is melting on the ATV trails that we hike on, so it’s a muddy mess now. Not fun to walk in, or to try to brush out of 7 long haired dogs. I hope it either dries out soon, or freezes back up so we can get back into our routine.
I don’t like snow, but at least it’s still easy enough to walk in. On the bright side…the snow is gone in the yard, and we’re back down to the grass, so we can play in the yard a bit now! Woohoo!
We’ve been walking as much as possible this winter to keep everybody busy. I thought I’d post some of the pictures from our walks. It cracks me up because on nearly every walk, Penny and Zoe end up together, Raven has Layla hot on her heels, Twist and Lucy head off to make their own trails, and Rogue stays with me.
O.K. So Rogue has been getting the higher dosage of 10 mg. per day of Fluoxitine for nearly two weeks now. I wish I had better news to report, but I don’t. Instead both my husband and I have noticed that she is getting more anxious and reactive instead of less. 
She has also been acting more aggressive towards the other dogs in the house, not just targeting Zoe. We haven’t had any altercations, (thank goodness!) but I think that’s due in part to the fact that the other dogs just can’t figure out what in the world she is doing. They just look at her like: “What is wrong with you?, and What do you think you’re doing?”
I am battling with my impatience to see progress vs. what I know is a long process to find appropriate medication and dosage and be able to work through the behavioral modification protocols that we’ve been given. Sometimes I worry that my impatience will taint my observations, but when my husband asked me to call the vet to discuss this, I decided that it wasn’t just me seeing negative changes in Rogue.
I contacted the vet in SL today and voiced my concerns and we both agreed that we should back the dosage down to 5 mg. per day and observe her behavior at that level. I also emailed Dr. Overall to get her opinion of what we’re seeing. I’m sure that with her experience she’ll be able to tell me if this was the right decision. Wish us well!
Anyone who knows me and my crew knows that I’ve never had a Sheltie with those lovely little tipped ears like they are supposed to have. Zoe, (it has been pointed out to me) has quite large ears, one of which stands straight up and one of which has a bit of a tip. Not that I didn’t give it a try when she was a puppy to get them to tip. Lucy had other ideas though, and would promptly chew on anything that we used in her ears and make a bigger mess of the situation. So…oh well, Zoe’s ears are big, but that’s just all the better to hear me with. LOL Twist and Rogue both have prick ears with not even a hint that they’d consider tipping. Raven started out with lovely little tipped ears and then finally decided…much to my dismay to try to imitate Jessie our Aussie’s ears. And now Layla. So far, here is what we’ve seen with her ears.
We started out with two tipping ears…
Then she went for the left ear being prick and right ear tip…
To both being prick…
To right ear prick and left ear absolutely flopping Raven style…
And today, we’re back to both ears prick again! LOL What will tomorrow bring…
