Quick update on Mika's lameness

So Mika's had several chiropractic appointments now. She's still very slightly lame, off-and-on, but there's been a gradual steady improvement. Her chiropractor told us that his job is mostly done (except for occasional adjustments, but not every two weeks anymore). What needs to done now is muscle work, according to him. So I've reinstigated daily massage for Mika, focusing on her shoulder muscles. I've also been doing FitPaws egg ball work with her almost every day, and have been taking her on regular walks. (Mika is one of those dogs who doesn't really enjoy walks, but I've been making them enjoyable for her by playing find-the-treats-on-the-ground games with her.)

So she's doing pretty well :)

It's a good life!

Wall-e running in his new Julius K-9 IDC harness! (With the extra Y-belt attachment that I ordered.)

 

Happy b-day Wall-e!

It's Wall-e's 5th birthday today. Wow! It still feels like he's the baby dog.

Here he is enjoying a walk at the pond; I edited the leash out.

Products we've been using/going to use

Excuse my lame title, I'm not feeling very creative today :)

So Mika and Wall-e have been getting a new joint supplement since April 30. It's called Lakota Canine Joint Care Formula. Wall-e has been on other joint supplements in the past for his old knee injury (Glyco-Flex I and Dr. Maggie's), but I have never put Mika on a joint supplement regularly. (I slipped her the occasional supplement as a treat when there were no other rewards around, but that's it.) I can't say if this supplement has been helping or not (and it's just a preventative for Wall-e anyway), but time will tell. It's meant for arthritis, but mainly because of it's anti-inflammatory properties, which works for Mika's sore shoulder anyway; and there's a good chance Wall-e could develop arthritis as he ages because of his old knee injury, so this supplement could prevent that.

I also need to get a harness for Wall-e; he's been coughing more often. Sometimes during training (not too often -- maybe once every couple of weeks -- but more than he used to), and after lunging at cars on walks. I'm currently walking him on a collar. I posted on a Facebook group asking for recommendations on harnesses for Wall-e, and these are the ones I'm now considering:

ComfortFlex 
Walkeez  
CTC Shoulder Harness  (couldn't find it on the web site, but found a picture of the harness on the Facebook page)

I need a harness that won't break, won't restrict his movement, and will encourage him to continue pulling for conditioning :)

Happy holidays

52 Weeks of Mika 7/52

7/52

Went on a walk through the little forest near our house today!

35mm, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Edits: crop, contrast

(Click the photo to make it bigger. :)

A stroll by the pond with Wall-e

Doin' the sheltie rub

Hee hee. One of Wall-e's many happy faces.

Showing off his muddy paws

"Zoom!" Chasing a treat up the hill

I wish that leash didn't have to be in the way, but I don't have time to photoshop right now. And Mr. Wall-e can't be off-leash because those darn cars are just too tempting :) The crazy boy would be off and running in a second!

Mika's first walk to the pond in 2011

Mika and I went for a very nice walk to the pond yesterday. It's the first time we went this year because it's too far for Mika to walk to in the winter (Mika often doesn't even want to step out of the house in the winter!), but now that it seems like spring is upon us, I can start taking her for longer walks again.

We surprisingly didn't see any other dogs at the pond. The pond is a great place to work on her reactivity because we almost always see at least a couple of dogs, but today we didn't see any. We did see two dogs on the way home, though -- and both were her highest-level triggers; big black dogs!

The first was a black bouvier. I don't think Mika had ever seen a bouvier before, but I anticipated a big reaction from her because they're a bit similar-looking to Briards, which is Mika's absolute biggest trigger (luckily we rarely see them). When I saw it, I crossed to the other side of the road with Mika and told her to sit-stay. She did, and I fed her cheese as the bouvier passed by. She was SO good!!! She didn't even get tense, but rather stayed relaxed (well, as relaxed as Mika can be when she's getting treats) and focused on me.

The second dog we saw was a black pit bull mix, almost certainly with some lab in it as well; it had the body of a lab and the head of a pittie. I saw this dog at the last minute and had to pick Mika up so that we could move away fast enough. Mika saw it right after I picked her up and she *almost* went over threshold, but she contained herself as she gnawed on a piece of cheese -- what a good girl -- and when I put her down, about 20 feet away from the other dog, she sit-stayed and didn't bark once.

Very proud of my awesome girl!!

P.S. Next time we go to the pond, I'll try to bring my camera and take photos. The pond would make for some beautiful shots.

Do your dogs pull on the leash?

The age-old dilemma; pulling on the leash. To pull or not to pull, how to train, what tools to use; people have been discussing the "behavioural problem" of pulling on the leash for years.

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately as we see other dogs on walks. It's interesting, and sometimes upsetting, to see how people attempt to train their dogs.

Some people's dogs don't pull (like Mika). Some people's dogs pull and their owners don't mind (like Wall-e). Some people's dogs pull and their owners yank them back. Some people's dogs don't pull and their owners still use collar corrections if the dog even steps slightly ahead of them. And some people's dogs don't want to walk and are dragged along by their owners (I don't see this often, but I do see it too much). I see dogs with buckle collars, dogs with martingale collars, dogs with harnesses, dogs with Gentle Leaders, dogs with chokes, dogs with prongs. There seems to be no end to how people train their dogs and what tools they use.

Let me talk about my own dogs and their leash "manners." Mika doesn't pull unless she sees another dog; in that case, I wouldn't give her time to pull because I'd already be asking her to "Gimme a check," which is her cue to focus on me and trust me to keep her safe. When Mika was a puppy, she did pull. I was taught at puppy kindergarten class to start walking in the opposite direction whenever she used the leash to go taut. It didn't work 100% at the time. I think she just doesn't pull anymore because she just doesn't find walks all that exciting, and she also doesn't like the feel of a tight leash; at the very rare times that she does cause the leash to go taut, she shakes herself (her key sign of stress) and stops for a couple of seconds. In addition, Mika just likes to stay close to me. She doesn't like being far away from me on walks.

Wall-e, on the other hand, looovess walks and just can't wait to see what's ahead. When I first got him, he didn't pull. Then again, when I got him he was nervous to walk down the street! (He had never seen the suburbs before.) I never had to train him to keep a loose leash because he already did. He probably started pulling at around the same time he started chasing cars (at about nine months). But then I was all about building drive and I didn't want to decrease any enthusiasm. I only started to seriously train him to walk on a loose leash at the end of December, after reading in one of Suzanne Clothier's book that the first step to overcoming any kind of problem with a dog is walking on a loose leash. So we started training loose leash walking, but even though I was using positive reinforcement, Wall-e just wasn't having as much fun as he did when he pulled. I missed seeing him racing at the end of the leash like a little furry sled dog (and yes, I missed desperately trying to keep up with him). So after about three weeks of training him to walk on a loose leash, we went back to our old ways.

I think that letting a dog pull on their leash is perfectly fine. (Well, maybe not for the St. Bernards and Mastiffs. :) As long as the dog still has focus on the handler and checks back often, without being asked, the handler and dog can enjoy their walk while still staying connected. My only worry about pulling on the leash is that it could cause injury to the trachea over time, which is why I'm looking into buying a sport harness. I have a no-pull harness that we got for Mika when she was about a year old, but I don't want Wall-e to stop pulling; I want a harness that will still allow Wall-e to pull without causing him injury. He enjoys pulling and I don't want to get rid of that for him.

So, what about you guys? Do your dogs pull on the leash? Are you okay with it?

It's MELTING!

It's the highlight of the week...the snow is melting!! It's only the second day of March and already I'm seeing some patches of grass! It's SO EXCITING!!

Yeah, I pretty hyped up in spring; I have to say that the beginning of spring is one of my favourite times of year. There's so much anticipating and excitement about the coming year with the dogs. For me, the year only really begins when the snow starts melting!

We went on our first long walk of the year to celebrate. (although I had to cut it a bit shorter than I wanted to because I ran out of treats for Mika. I need treats for her on walks to prevent her from reacting at dogs or barking at people in excitement.) I've taken Wall-e for some long walks this winter when it wasn't really really freezing (Mika couldn't/didn't want to stay out for that long even in mildly freezing weather), but I haven't taken both of the dogs for long walks at the same time since last fall. Did it ever feel good to begin getting back to our old routine!!

Let's just hope we don't get a huge snowstorm...we haven't had a lot of snow this winter and it'd be terrible (for me!) to get it all now!

The power of long walks!

This morning, at about 7:00am, we went for a good looong walk. When we got back home, Mika lay down on the couch, Wall-e lay down nearby beside the table, and I joined Mika on the couch with a good book. And that's what we've all been doing most of the day -- just relaxing! Amazing what a nice long walk can do to tire dogs out, even high-energy Wall-e. It's my summer vacation from school and it's very nice to have a break.

~Nat

Lots of walking

Now that the weather is so nice, we've been going for lots and lots and lots of walks! We walk on average 1 hour during the weekday, and 2 hours on the weekend. Not all at one time, just lots of shorter walks, 5 to 45 minutes at a time. Today we went around the block on our first walk, to the public park on our second walk, and to the school park and the small forest on the third walk. Wall-e loves sand! It's really weird -- as soon as we step onto the sand where the play structures are, he starts racing around crazily.

~Nat

Fun times at the park

Mika absolutely loves going to the park! She used to not like going for walks, but that was back when we just went around and around the same streets over and over again. Now, we explore every inch of the park. Mika sniffs and sniffs and sniffs some more, often darting around in every direction trying to decide what and where to sniff! Mika used to have a really bad barking problem (at dogs and people), but it's gotten so much better this past fall and summer. Whenever dogs or people pass by us, I call Mika towards me and tell her to Sit and Stay, which she does, and I give her a couple treats until the dogs and/or people are far enough away. Then, I release Mika with an Okay and walk a bit in the opposite direction, where she once again begins to sniff!

~Nat