"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."
Patience is a virtue, right? It's also a struggle for me. I have had to learn this past year that no matter how hard I work, some things are just destined to take time and cannot be rushed. I can't compare my journey to someone else's parallel journey, because in reality there is no such thing as a parallel journey - we all drive on different roads. The key is to keep driving! Swerve to avoid the potholes, but stay on the road. Don't always take the highway. Enjoy the back roads when you can. The key is to always keep it in drive and not reverse, and keep on keepin' on.
Friday, March 1, 2024
Ending on a good note is NOT overrated!
Happy March! I had a couple good days of agility classes this week, and today I took Dolphin to do some field training. I took a big step backward after our icky training session last week. I thought about it a lot (because that's what I do - obsess!) and decided to break down his retrieve and steady to shot and fall into tiny increments. yes, I have a plan!
No shot to a retrieve today, that's my plan to start. We put out a chukkar for Dolphin and when I released it he actually broke on the flush! Wow, he hasn't done that in forever. It was a very good learning experience as he discovered I was NOT happy with his performance. The next bird we put down was a pigeon, and he was rock solid perfect on it (even with the big gun shot in the air). I am thinking he is very much like his daddy Pretzel and he knows the difference between a pigeon (no retrieve) and a chukkar (usually retrieve). So the final bird we put out was a chukkar. This was a naughty bird that got up and walked, I threw something at it and it wouldn't fly, so I had to chase it to make it fly. Big gun shot in the air, and Dolphin was perfectly steady. YAY! He must have learned something from that first bird!
I should mention his honoring was all over the map, but better than last week. We had a couple decent honors...he is stopping on his own but it is a struggle to get him to stand still and face the pointing dog while I approach.
After we were done with the bird work, I took a dead chukkar and whoa-ed Dolphin. I then threw it, with no shot, made his stand a moment, then tapped him to release to a retrieve. We did this 3 times and it was way way way better than last week! He was steady while the bird fell, and while he did put the bird down once or twice he did bring it to me every time. BIG progress over last week's hot mess. I am going to do this for the next few weeks with a dead bird, then add a blank shot, then add a big gun shot in the air, and when I fee confident that he is steady and still good on his retrieve, we will try a live bird scenario. That's my plan, back to kindergarten and baby steps.
It was a cold, rainy, ugly day, so I spent the afternoon indoors doing some rally run-throughs with Noodle. We did a couple Master Rally courses, our first time putting some master signs all together. It went pretty well, we ran in to a few glitches that I hadn't planned on with some of the newer signs (new to me!). I have a week to get to training before Noodle makes her rally master debut next Saturday.
Today was a complete opposite of yesterday - glorious sunshine and *gasp* 70 degrees! Say what? I headed to the bird dog club with my friend to do some training. We both had 3 dogs, so we worked in pairs together. Dolphin was first, and he had quite the educational day. We had some lively chukkar tied to tubes so they could only fly a few feet. The first bird Dolphin encountered was a trainer for sure - he went on point and it flew up and tried to fly off but couldn't, and this caused him to break. He jumped forward and grabbed the bird. Bad boy! He had quite the lesson on that one, hopefully it made an impression. The next bird was a quail under a tip up. I accidentally flushed it, and he was steady while it flew away. Third bird was another chukkar tied to a tube, and he was steady as a rock on that one. His honoring was meh. I am beating down my frustration and trying to remind myself that it took a while to train Noodle to honor also...
Pizza and Noodle were spectacular - did not place a paw wrong. Pizza's honors were amazing as usual, but what was even more amazing was watching Noodle run like she was at a field trial, and slam on her brakes to honor from a big distance...twice! This made me so happy, and also reminded me that I was able to train this with Noodle who used to be completely rotten at honoring, so I can train Dolphin. It's not a race, it's not a race....
I got some photos of the girls, but no picture of Dolphin as I had to focus more on training and not being the field paparazzi.
I had Noodle's blood test today to check her albumin and protein levels. We had weaned her down to 1/2 a Mycophenolate every other day. Unfortunately, her levels dropped a bit. Her Albumin is just barely below normal at 2.6 (normal is 2.7-3.9). Her protein is barely normal, at 5.5 (normal is 5.5-7.5). I am not sure whether to increase her Mycophenolate back to every day, or whether we try another 6 weeks to see if things get back to normal. I have an appointment for Noodle with my vet on Monday and we will be discussing what the next step should be.
This has been a pretty rough week for her, starting on Saturday. She had quite a few days of loose stools and not feeling well. It's so up and down, it's hard to predict since nothing has changed to cause her to fluctuate like this.
Pretzel's biopsy from under his jaw came back and it is cancer, and a very aggressive one. They are not sure whether it is a form of melanoma or a sarcoma, but the section they took to biopsy was nothing but cancer cells
NOT good news. This tumor is even more aggressive than the one removed from his mouth back in October. What's crazy is that to even speak to the oncologist about these results, I have to pay $250 for a phone call and wait until April 2nd. That is on top of the large cost of the biopsy. I find that crazy, and horrible to have to wait a month to get information. Thankfully I have a few friends who are vets and they were able to look at the biopsy report and explain a lot of things to me so I know what is coming. My poor poor Pretzel, life has not been kind to you. You are the most loyal, steadfast member of my family. You were by my side through so many major life changes, you were the one thing that remained constant. It's so hard to know the end is coming. It just seems surreal.
For the second year in a row, Noodle qualified for the AKC Rally National Championships! This year, she qualified in Excellent. I don't think we will attend this year, but it's cool to have qualified.
Agility class recap - yesterday both Noodle and Pizza had class, and both were awesome (Pizza was abolutely amazing!) Dolphin had class today and he was awesome. Afterwards I took him out to the bird dog club and put out a couple pigeons. He was pretty lackluster, I think the pigeons are getting really boring to him as he knows they are just for training.
Pizza is STILL not in season. I expected her to come in season last Friday, but she is stubbornly holding out, and day by day is wrecking all my plans. I am worried, so much is happening with the Weimaraner National Specialty in April, and my friend's availability to help me whelp the litter, if Pizza doesn't get going soon it is all going to blow up in my face. The best laid plans...
I decided to do something different today. I entered Noodle in a Rally trial, and I decided to try our hand (or paw) at Rally Master. I have been practicing the new signs the past few weeks, and figured why not? The day went WAY better than I ever expected! We weren't perfect, but we had some really good moments and some things I worked really hard on in training worked out, which is the best reward.
Noodle started the morning off with Master. It was a difficult course, but Noodle did great! We have some work to do on the figure 8 with distractions, but overall it was so much better than I hoped for - we ended up scoring a 95 and
Next was Rally Excellent. Noodle improved her score to a 97. Lastly we had Rally Advanced. This was our best course yet - we managed to pull everything together seamlessly, and ended up with a score of 100 and first place!!! This maes double QQ #6 towards our RAE title, and our first QQQ towards our RACH (if we decide to pursue this). The best part was Noodle was such a good girl all day, and it was a loooooong day. It was a nice day and a break from my usual routine.
Pizza is still not in season. I am slightly panicked...
Here are our 3 runs for today, probably only interesting to someone deeply into Rally, but here you go!
I took the day today to just get the dogs out and have some fun with no training. Today it was Dolphin and Noodle's turn. They had a great time running the fields. As what usually happens, even though I intended to do no training, sometimes training happens. Noodle went on point (her usual paranoia, as there was nothing there), and lo and behold Dolphin honored her from a good distance. Shocked the heck out of me, for sure! You just never know with this boy.
It was incredibly muddy, and it made the woods a major slip hazard, but both dogs had a great time. They were covered in mud, so I encouraged (and it took very little encouragement!) them to pop into the creek to get some of the mud off. Great idea, although now they were WET and running through the muddy woods, so the mud was inevitable.
I am worried about Pretzel. His tumor is getting bigger, I definitely can tell from 3 weeks ago when we did the biopsy that it has grown larger. It was the size of a golf ball 3 weeks ago, now it is larger. I sent the photos in to my oncologist, but she is not willing to move my appointment up. I was told to just take him to the emergency room or to my own vet if the tumor is obstructing his breathing or swallowing. Not helpful. Not at all.
70 degrees and sunny - time to do some field training! Noodle was first on the roster, and dayam that girl was about perfect! Her first bird was solid, I had to chase it down and then wait for my gunner to load, bird was shot and she waited a long time for me to release her, and then did a perfect retrieve to hand. She then did a be-yoo-tiful honor on her bracemate. Second bird was solid, I asked the gunner to purposely miss to see if she would jump forward on the shot, but she didn't. Her second honor was not as good, I think that once she gets an honor in the subsequent ones go a bit downhill. Something to remember for future events!
Dolphin did pretty good. His first bird he pointed from a long distance from me. As I approached I cautioned him "whoa" and it made him leave point and relocate sideways a couple times. Interesting, since he hasn't done that since last year. Last year I had determined he was doing that because of the pressure of me approaching. I think the reason is the same, he had gotten more confident but the past month I have had to train him harder because of mistakes, and I think that pressure was causing him to move sideways again.
On his second bird, he was again at a pretty long distance from me. Instead of cautioning him "whoa" I started praising him, telling him what a good boy he was. He never moved a muscle! Perfect! After I analyzed the situation in my head (as I always do, for better or worse), I realized that cautioning him "whoa" was so unnecessary because he wasn't moving at all. Why caution him or give a command that he is already doing? No wonder he was feeling the pressure. It's such an obvious concept, but apparently not obvious enough to my thick head.
Dolphin's honoring was so-so on the first one, and yucky on the second one. Patience! I will repeat repeat repeat until he eventually figures it out. Ain't got no timeline...just need to remember that.
In other news, PIZZA IS FINALLY IN SEASON!!!!! I am stressed about the timing and scheduling, but utterly relieved it is finally happening so I can start planning. This is going to be one crazy ride, so stay tuned.
Yesterday Pizza and I did one last fun training session before she hopefully becomes a mother. We had a blast! We did about 30 minutes of agility, then played with some retrieveing, and even did some stacking so I can remember what her lovely shape looks like before she becomes large with puppies. We had a great time.
Today was Pizza's first progesterone test. She was pretty low, at a 0.2 which is to be expected as she just came in season 2 days ago. I am stressing about scheduling for next week and beyond, but am trying to make myself just put it aside for now and wait and see what the numbers look like next week. I am excited, nervous, all sorts of crazy emotions...
Pretzel's tumor is growing rapidly. It's about the size of a tennis ball now. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all. I love on him and all I can feel is that giant tumor under his jaw, and my heart bleeds every time. I can't put into words what this dog means to me. I am sure if you have followed along for the past 12 years you know.
Today I took Noodle and Dolphin to rally run-throughs. Noodle was really good, we got a lot accomplished. Dolphin was oh so bad - completely uninspired. I know it is partly my fault because I haven't spent as much time training his as I have Noodle. But he just doesn't love it, so it makes it hard for me to get motivated. He is his father's son, he will reluctantly do this rally and obedience stuff for me, but at the bare minimum, and not exceedingly well.
Not much to report here. Pizza had her progesterone tested again this morning, and she is still sitting at 0.2, so no change there. It was a cold day, spitting snow, but I took Dolphin and Noodle to the bird dog club to run around. We went exploring in the woods and all 3 of us had a blast! After a full hour of running, you wouold think they would be tired, but of course by evening they both got their second winds. I am trying to keep them in tip-top shape as we have a field trial and our national specialty coming up...and the national specialty is going to be CRAZY busy for both dogs. I can't wait!
I missed my agilioty classes this morning to take Pizza to Ohio State for progesterone test #3. She is STILL sitting at 0.2, but her cytology shows fully cornified cells, which means she is progressing towards ovulation. The vet feels like her numbers are still so consistently low because we started testing her very early in her cycle, which makes sense. She was barely in season when we did our first test last Friday. We will go again in 2 days and I hope and pray we see progress!
Dolphin got to do some field training today. We are still not shooting any birds over him, but we planted some loose quail and he was wonderful - nice solid points. I used what I learned last time and instead of saying "whoa" when he went on point, I called out "good boy!" to let him know that his stopping on point was exactly what I wanted, and it worked - no movement from him and noe of that sideways re-pointing. He was steady and solid on both birds. Afterwards, I did a couple retrieves with a dead bird and he did pretty well. We need to work on him holding the bird a little lighter without crushing it, but his enthusiasm and retrieves were pretty decent.
Dolphin had agility class today. My trainer and I decided that I am going to re-train him for a running A-Frame. It will help him to not have to slow down, and is also safer for him to not have to jam up on a stop for 2 on 2 off. His daddy Pretzel tore his shoulder years ago slamming down at the base of the A-Frame, and Dolphin is much bigger and heavier than him. It will also help keep him running without having to break down his speed and then re-start. This will officially begin tomorrow, so we shall see how this goes. New territory for me as I have never actually trained a "trained" running A-frame. I am kind of excited to learn something new!
I had a blast this weekend judging the hunt test in Cecilia, Kentucky. It's definitely one of my favorite places to go. I had the opportunity to run Noodle in 2 Master Hunter tests. On Saturday, she was pretty darn awesome. We had one nice solid bit of bird work and retrieve, and on the second bird I managed to kick it up and bean her in the head with the bird. She shook her head but stood still, bird flew off, gunners got it, and I tapped her for a perfect retrieve. That girl deserves a steak for standing steady through that (too bad steak is not on her allowed foods list!).
Noodle was even better on Sunday. We had two beautiful honors in the backfield, and a wonderful one in the field. I decided to trust my girl and my training, and I just let her run on ahead of me (and if you knwo Noodle, run on ahead means sprinting at full speed!). She hit her brakes when she saw the other dog on point, I was so darn proud...proud of us both! Getting here was definitely a team effort. Two more master hunter passes on her record, and a billion buckets of fun. Noodle got to run with a couple byes in senior hunter, so she had a load of fun today. I just love this girl - my ride or die!
Pizza's progesterone was at 2.42 this morning! LH surge! Time to make official plans! I will have her tested again on Wednesday morning, and if she is progressing I will load up and head to North Carolina.
Progesterone today is at 5.6. That means Ovulation! We loaded up and hit the road for North Carolina. Now I hope and pray everything goes smoothly. I anticipate a bumpy road, because that's just how things usually go for me (and you know my luck with breeding horses...sure hoping that doesn't carry over to dogs!). I rented an air BnB for the next 5 days, so Pizza has a yard to go out in and we have a house to spend all of our down time in. That's my big splurge for this trip.
This afternoon we got Pizza and her man together to hopefully do a live cover breeding. She flirted with him, allowed him to get very personal with her, but kind of freaked out when he went to do his thing. After several tries, we decided to just cut our losses and schedule a side-by-side AI tomorrow, so everyone can stay safe and stress-free. I also have a progesterone test scheduled for the morning tomorrow, to make sure she is continuing to progress and hasn't stalled out.
I had Pizza's progesterone tested in the morning. It came back later in the evning and was a solid 13.7, so she is progressing nicely. Whew!
We did a side-by-side AI and it went really well. The stud dog's semen was tested and it was amazing. Pizza struggled at first with the insemination, but quickly relaxed and everything went picture perfect (not that you'd actually want a picture of this!). It's getting REAL now!
The weather cleared up and it was a beautiful day, so I found a great place to take Pizza for a short hike. We did about 3 miles in some beautiful pine woods and had the place to ourselves. It was great to spend this one on one time with my girl. She is loving the exclusive attention!
I had the entire day free, and it was 75 and sunny! Gotta love North Carolina weather. My friend offered her hunting property for me to take Pizza and give her some freedom. It was a little over an hour away, but oh was it worth it! We walked for miles in the most beautiful tree-filled fields. I was careful to not liet Pizza get overheated, and it was almost like she knew. She monitored herself and we just had a casual walk through the fields for an hour or two.
Happy Easter! We did a second side-by-side AI this afternoon (thank goodness for the staff and people willing to give up a holiday afternoon to make this happen!). We probably could have done it natural as Pizza was MUCH more eager this time, but we played it safe. The numbers and timing were perfect again. Pizza and I hit the road home, and I spent probably the first 3 hours of the 8 hour driving thinking and planning, and planning and thinking...
