Things That Change Our Lives

It's no secret that Ann Braue has made quite an impact on my life.
I'm a BIG believer in "everything happens for a reason" but even back in 2006 when I was first introduced to Ann, I really didn't know how this one person would make such an impact on my life and how extremely fortunate I'd be with the opportunities that she's given me since.
As I've previously posted, last year I went to Ann's Summer Camp in America. At the time I was really overwhelmed at her generosity of allowing me to run one of her amazing dogs "Scream" at camp. I was sooooooooooo frightened I'd "break" him LOL. But Ann had faith in me and my handling abilities and of course her BRILLIANT dog!!
For a World Class agility competitor, Ann is such an incrediably grounded person, who is so open to helping and incouraging people. And for that I'm so very grateful.
Today it was really brought home to me how lucky I am to have met someone like Ann. I was on Facebook and "Scream's" breeder Gayle York, posted his and the rest of her Bluefire agility BC's runs (who I might add won and placed in mutliple runs throughout the weekend!!) from the recent Nationals in America. And while I was watching Ann and Scream in particular I had to stop and go WOW!! I actually know this person and even BIGGER wow, I actually got to run the dog I was now watching take out 1st place in the Challenger round, 2nd place in the Hybrid, 3rd place in the JWW and 3rd in the Final!!
I'm just speechless that I've been so fortunate.
So thankyou Gayle for breeding border collies I'm truely in awe of :-)
And thankyou Ann for firstly being my friend, secondly being so generous with your dogs, and thirdly teaching me sooooooooooooooooooooo much about agility that I never knew :-)
I've posted a run from the Nationals which totally blew my mind to the abilities of Ann as a handler and Scream as a truely amazing dog.

ACWA Jumping Trial

We had a Jumping Trial last night and Epic was a little trooper!!! We've not had much success in Jumping for some reason.......not sure why?? and we've not had a qualification for several months. WELL she ran her little heart out and went CLEAR!!!! YAY!!!!
When we arrived home I excitedly got out my video camera and went to watch her run ......OMG......where is it??????
It seems the person who was videoing.....may have forgotten to actually record it .... DOH :-(
So I had seen Linda videoing some runs last night and proceeded to email Sue to see if she may have got it.......YAY!!!!! Thanks Sue and Linda!!! And here it is :-)

Epics Results

Well Wednesday Epic had her followup xrays. It's been one month since I first discovered her boney lump, just below her carpus.

We took several views, so Rebecca (radiologist) would have multiple to compare with her originals.

As I'm totally impatient I again dropped them off at her house.....went home and waited for the phonecall.

My mobile began ringing at about 9.30pm. I took a deep breath and answered. One of the things I love about Rebecca is that she has such a calming voice, so within seconds I was relaxed and felt like I was going to be able to deal with whatever she was about to tell me.

So here it is.............................

Rebecca is confident that the lump hasn't grown. OMG YAY!!!!!! If she was going to be HIGHLY critical, then there is the smallest chance that it may have grown by around 1mm.....BUT she is more confident that it is the actual positioning of the recent xrays, compared to the originals.

She has said that she thinks "short term" continuing to train and trial her won't be detrimental. And it was here I asked what did she class as "short term??"

Rebecca has recommended that we take followup xrays in 6mths, so that she will again compare them with the originals and give me a better prognosis re the "short term vs long term" question. At this stage she still can't rule out DJD vs trauma so it's just wait and see :-(

She has given the all clear to compete with her at the Nationals, but has recommended a rest afterwards. And she's basically said to "treat" her clinically at this stage, so if she's not painful and not lame continue as we are.

I'm still going to Deb Nook and Charlotte Stead as I really feel Epic is benefitting from both. And I just ordered a special carpus icepack to put on her leg to reduce any possible inflammation that may occur after competitions.

It's 7 weeks till the Nationals and I'm a little behind in my preparation. I've started to retrain my running Aframe to have her come down lower into the contact zone to reduce the "impact" on her carpus, but there is a HUGE list I had really wanted to work through before the Nationals arrived. Most is based on teaching her extension.....though she has started knocking the first bar in competition.....so now we have to fix this too. LOL!!!

I'm so happy that Epic and I still get to play and have fun in agility and I'm hopeful that longterm, she's just going to be a "special" dog that has a weird boney lump on her leg LOL

Bush Bashing Dogs

Ive just spent the weekend out at my parents 25acre property. What can I say it's doggie heaven.

I currently have Dancer for the next few weeks (Helena is off to England to see Crufts!!) And she was VERY excited to be coming out for the doggie weekend away :-)

I've added a photo ....with the girls posing nicely. Jestah on the other hand decided there was WAY too much posing going on and he would just "observe" from the bridge in front of the house :-) After his antics last night of getting himself somehow (don't ask me how) caught in the chicken coup and having to be "rescued" he probably thought it was safer up by the house, rather than getting involved in the younger girls shinanigans.

Wednesday is the day Epic gets her followup xrays......can't believe it's been four weeks already.

Sometimes it looks like the lump is smaller and other times I'm not quite so sure.......the other thing I'm not sure of, is whether she is occasionally lame. If she is it's EVER so slight. And I don't know if it's because I'm constantly watching her and seeing something that isn't there?

Either way I should know by the end of the week what her prognosis is.

I've tried not to dwell on it and I'm taking a deep breath that it will be okay.