Introducing Tax Man

After summer camp with Ann Braue, Karen Holik and Jenn Crank this July, my next trip will be FLORIDA!!! I'm VERY excited. It seems weird to be planning my next adventure when I haven't even done the first yet, but it has been an invitation that I couldn't possibly pass up. And you only live once right?? :-)

Gayle York has invited me to run her dog "Tax Man" at another camp :-)

Tax is from a repeat mating that produced Ann's Scream and he looks like SUCH a fun dog!!

Gayle and Tax sent me this special message and I couldn't stop laughing, so thought I'd share it to put a smile on everyone else's face.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :-)

Dancer Did It!!!!

This weekend was our State Agility Trial. We had 2 qualifying rounds where the top 7 in each class go into a final. I had both Epic and Dancer entered and before we left home Friday afternoon, the girls and I had a little "pep" talk :-) Now I won't bore you all with what was discussed.....but lets just say Dancer's list of things she had to focus on was ALOT longer than Epic's, and above all else she also had to pay attention and.....LISTEN......LOL...I'm laughing because listening ISN'T high on the list of priorities for Miss Dancer.

The first run of the evening went to Epic in Masters Agility. She had some really nice parts, extending where I would have hoped, and had some nice acceleration in the last half of the course. I would have preferred her to go deeper into the contact of the Aframe, rather than reverting to her "original" running Aframe, but this is a work in progress so I think I need a little patience. She had several knocked bars, which for Epic is uncommon. It's not uncommon for her to knock a bar here and there (I've been calling her "one-bar" Epic for a little while now) but to have multiple go down on all courses concerns me a little.

The second run for the night was Dancer in Excellent Agility. The judge was Richard Barville and he did a very do-able course. After the trial at Cloverdale where I let Dancer get away with breaking her start-line and then spent the next 24hrs berating and cursing myself for the stupidity of it....there was no way I was going to let that happen again. So.......I set her up on the start-line told her to stay and as I was walking away she started to lean forward. Now she didn't move any feet and her bottom stayed firmly planted on the ground.......BUT.....this is Dancer and if she thinks that she can get away with leaning , she will DEFINATELY think she'll get away with stepping forward. SO I stopped and looked at her and said "If you want to play the game of agility then you need to sit there until you're told you can go, so you have a think about that and let me know" then I turned my back and walked into position.....stopped....turned to face Dancer.....and OMG she was sitting there proud as punch waiting to have some FUN!!!

So that was how the run of a lifetime started :-) She kept all her bars up, did all her contacts, stayed on the table for the WHOLE 5 secs!! She hit her weave entry AND stayed in them ......and ......PASSED!!!!! She not only passed but she also WON the class!!!! AND got into the Finals!!!! And would you know it...I got every run that evening, EXCEPT that one LOL!!!

Now the excitement doesn't stop there folks :-)

I thought it was her 3rd pass in this class, but apparently she gained a extra card somewhere along the last 4yrs (yes this is how long she's been in Excellent Agility!!) so she actually has 4 qualifing cards, which means only one more pass and she's got her title!!!! Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!

The Final was a whole different story, and wasn't meant to be for Dancer, though she did some REALLY nice stuff. She broke her start line, I know I've just gone on about NOT letting her get away with that, BUT in my defense, IT IS a final. For me this is the moment I've trained for. So I'm going to let her get away with it. Finals are the place where people let their dogs get away with not holding their contacts to gain that extra 0.5 sec, so even though it's going to probably take me ALL week to get her startline back, I'm glad we gave it our all and I'm sooooooo excited that Dancer got the chance to have a shot in the final :-)

The AMAZING photo above was taken by Robyn Evans. Thankyou soooooo much for sharing it, you've really captured Dancers PASSION for the sport of agility :-) She also took many other BRILLIANT shots of the Finals hopefully this link is right :-) www.flickr.com/photos/westozagilityfotos

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.

Alternative Therapies and Power of Positive Thinking

Well it's been quite a rollercoaster week for Epic and I. Sunday I was sitting on the floor and she came over for a cuddle....when I noticed a lump on her front right leg, a rather hard boney lump.

So Monday she was taken to work for some xrays and there was definate boney changes. So the xrays were popped on a disc and sent through to Rebecca Lonsdale (a radiologist) and I very impatiently waited for a phone call.

I received the call later that evening (the bonus of being a vet nurse). Rebecca was certain it wasn't anything like a bone tumour...PHEW!!! But she wondered if there was anyway she could be continually hitting/traumatising the area.....Hmmmmm no???It's kind of in a weird spot to hit.... She does pounce into her 2o2o with alot of gusto in training though.....AND she has a running A-frame where she jumps off from quite high up. Now if this is the case.....it would be an impact injury where she is continually hyperextending her carpus :-( Thats not good news.....and Rebecca diagnosed Degenerative Joint Disease.... NO!!!!!!!!!!

DJD is a progressive disease......how progressive we're not sure yet and so I now wait 4 weeks before we take more xrays to see if there are any changes. So her agility career hangs in the balance at the tender age of 4.

The interesting thing is that she's not painful and there is no obvious lameness.
On Wednesday I took her to see Deb Nook (a vet who practises in accupunture and chiropractic) and we started treating her with needles....Epic goes back in two weeks for followup treatment.

On Thursday after work I got Clint to video me playing with Epic doing a 2o2o on a plank of wood..........OMG......did she just hit her leg on the corner........Okay so here's where slow motion is GREAT. When running on the plank itself she is definately hyperextending her carpus when trying to slow down into her 2o2o.....but I think she's also hitting her leg on the side of the plank when going into her position. (why didn't I put rails on either side to prevent her peeling off to the side???)

Friday I took the video to work and got Louise to look at them. And she also agreed it looked suspiciously like she was hitting just below her carpus. Rebecca rang to see how she was and I mentioned that maybe she IS hitting her carpus....GOOD NEWS......if it's trauma related......take the trauma away ie the plank....AND the bone should remodel and as long as it doesn't involve the joint the prognosis is SOOOOO much better.

Today I've been in contact with Charlotte Steed (physiotherapist) and Epic is booked in to see if we can strengthen her muscles to help with the hyperextension and put plans into place to slow the progression of DJD..... JUST in case this is what it is.

Epic has been given the all clear to still able to train and compete at this stage...it will be re-evaluated once the next xrays are taken.

And all my thoughts, are being put into BELIEVING it's trauma related.