Happy Birthday, Brycey!

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Bryce celebrated his 10th birthday on July 10th!

For a surprise, I borrowed my neighbor’s fenced yard and treated him (and the girls) to a little agility. Unfortunately, it was too hot for much of that so they spent most of the day indoors in the A/C, playing and eating cookies. Here are the happy threesome – taking time out from the festivities for a family photo:

Bryce and his sisters on his 10th birthday

Not knowing how many more he has left (true for everyone, but a more tangible concern for him under the circumstances) , I really wanted to make this birthday special so I splurged and bought him his very own 12′ tunnel – a matching blue with white ribs. What better present for my favorite agility toy? Here he is posing with it – under protest, in case you can’t guess that from the leash and the snitty face he’s making! He liked the tunnel very much, but wasn’t at ALL pleased about me making him POSE FOR PICTURES in front of it like some kind of dork. I discovered his ability to sit and stay in front of a tunnel is about as good as his start line stay at trials (hint: we do a variation on the good ol’ “drop and run”).

Bryce and his new tunnel

Speaking of dog shopping, darned if somehow the matching collar to La Raven’s little purple butterfly harness made it into my cart during a trip to the store the other day. She’s a growing girl and her hot pink collar was looking a little too babyish…

Aw c’mon! What’s the point in having a little foo-foo dog if you don’t dress them up :) ?

Here’s the stylish Ms Raven – looking fabulous next to some bright orange tiger lillies …

Raven and the tiger lillies

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Why I haven’t posted much lately …

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Most people who read this blog probably know this already, but for those of you who don’t …

The end of last March everything was going smoothly and life was good. Raven was settling into the family, and I was looking forward to spring agility trials and starting to think about fall. With Bryce closing in on both his NADAC and CPE agility championships, I was cheerfully trying to determine the best strategy for completing them.

That was also the time of year I have the routine annual stuff done with my dogs and cats – heartworm tests, rabies shots as needed, etc. Last year at his dental Bryce’s kidney values were slightly elevated so I opted to have bloodwork run on him to make sure they weren’t getting out of hand.

What I subsequently found out turned my whole world upside down….

My beautiful Brycey

Bryce has cancer.

Multiple Myeloma, to be exact – a profileration of malignant plasma cells, generally originating in the bone marrow. It is not a common cancer in dogs. He has no particular risk factors for it. It’s not an extremely fast-moving cancer. It is treatable but not cureable.

MM is more common in people. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lost a battle with Multiple myeloma. So did my mother – ironically. right before my birthday and almost 16 years ago to the day that I found out Bryce was ill.

My birthdays suck!!!

The good news, if there is any, is that at present time Bryce has no idea how sick he is. His appetite is as good as ever and he’s been playing with his sisters and generally acting like himself. We trialed through April and May, he finished 2 titles, earned a versatility award, accumulated some points towards his NADAC championship. He seemed a little “off” on a couple of times when the weather was unusually warm, but that may have been my imagination. Or it may have been because he’s nearly 10 and wasn’t acclimated to hot weather yet.

His treatment was delayed due to some intestinal issues, but that’s apparently under control now. Some bloodwork run last week shows that the disease is progressing and there’s a worrisome elevation of one of his liver enzymes so I expect he will go on chemo soon. We are working with an excellent oncologist and also with one of the best holistic vets in the area (neither of which I can really afford) – I can only hope that I’m making the right choices and that my bouncy little boy will continue to enjoy a good quality of life and still be bouncing around with all of us for quite a while yet.

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I should get a rebate …

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I DISTINCTLY remember buying a whole sheltie but it appears I only got a HALF of one! Evidence below:
raven is half the size of Jayda
Raven weighs half as much as Jayda. Her muzzle is half as wide. Her feet are half as big. She’s “half a Jayda”!

(Jayda says “… I shall call her … MINI-ME!”)

Here’s a prettier picture of the petite one at 9 mos.

Raven at 9 mos

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That’s my girl!

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Just last October, Jayda was leaving the ring and hiding in tunnels. The other weekend at Skyline’s trial she showed everyone the wonderful dog *I* know she can be! She got it together and kept it together all weekend – 8 out of 8 QUALIFYING runs, eighty points, 6 1st-places, THREE new titles!

Jayda and a big heap o' ribbons

So the lovely Ms. Jayda (aka the Q-Bot or the Big Black Q Machine) adds her NADAC Novice Jumpers, Outstanding Novice Chances and Outstanding Novice Agility to her growing collection of letters :). I’m also seeing gradual improvement in her speed at every trial, which is encouraging.

Is she over her fears? Hardly – getting her from the car to the ring and back can be a challenge. Two of her worst phobias are unfamiliar, open areas … and parking lots! But she seems to have learned that the ring itself is a “safe” place. In there, it is just the two of us, the obstacles she knows and the game she likes to play.

A few things I want to share with anyone in a similar situation – these seem to be working for us:

  • Jayda is NEVER “wrong” at a trial - if she takes a wrong course I just act like that’s what we were supposed to do and keep going.

  • If she gets distracted, I don’t stand rooted in one spot calling her – I get right in her face and help her refocus.

    This goes against the prevailing attitude in agility that “its the dog’s job to come back to you”. I think standing and waiting for the dog to re-engage is fine, IF the dog left to willfully pursue their own agenda (and even then, all too often it reinforces the behavior, especially if the handler subsequently removes the dog from the course). But if Jayda disengages, she doesn’t “need to learn her job” – she’s stressed, she needs my help and I give it to her. Go to her, get right in her face if necessary, anything to get her out of her own head and back on track.

  • I am SINCERELY happy for her successes, no matter how small…and I TELL her so – dogs know when you’re not sincere. Instead of a mechanical stream of “good girl, good girl”, I talk to her a LOT while she’s running and praise every little thing. Heck – I AM happy when she gets it right! She also gets lots of treats right after she runs (her favorite part of the trial :)!)

  • I don’t “micromanage” her – If I run her cautiously I’ll just slow her down and we won’t make time. I’d rather risk mistakes and keep her momentum. She’s teaching ME to “just go for it” better than my fast dogs ever have!
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Sisters …

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“Sisters!
Sisters!
Never were there such devoted sis-ters …”

Funny picture of 2 Shelties playing

Well I don’t know if “devoted” is the right word, but Jayda enjoys playing with Raven … when she isn’t being TOO much of a pest! Poor Raven – nobody wants her when she’s being a pest, unfortunately, her little walnut-sized puppy-brain hasn’t quite figured that out yet.

This picture looks like Jayda’s telling her something – captions, anyone?

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Raven’s Identity Crisis

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I suppose it was inevitible. Raven lives with 3 cats, Raven’s the same size as a cat … Raven thinks she’s a cat!

She likes the kitties a lot…

Raven and Jasmine

She would like to be a cat doctor when she grows up. A cat proctologist, to be exact… Jasmine doesn’t think that’s a good idea at all!

Raven tries to get Jasmine to play

(BTW, she also MEOWS like a cat if you step on her toes! Not that I go around deliberately stepping on my puppy’s toes, but the first time I did so by accident I was so surprised by the sound that I promptly did a head-count of the cats, thinking one of THEM had gotten underfoot unseen – nope, all asleep!)

Raven is very jealous of the places the cats can go … all the high places. Poor Raven is barely big enough to jump up on the sofa by herself (unless she gets a running start it can take a couple of tries). So what did she do the other day? Jumped on the sofa … then hopped on the BACK and started walking on the back and arm!

Well, the CATS do it!

Sorry, no pictures of that – I was busy swooping the little darling up and putting her somewhere safer. Not a moment too soon – she was eyeing a glass topped table by the time I crossed the room…

And so the fun begins!

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