The weekend is far enough in the past now to relax and write about it. I had been looking forward to this last weekend all summer. I went to an out of town agility trial (CPE). I was going down with my best friend (and Meg's rescuer) and her two dogs (Roo, who is very near and dear to my heart, and her small dog Eloise, making her trial debut). Eloise wasn't feeling well enough to go, so it ended up being the two of us, Meg, Roo, and Daisy, a beagle-mix puppy in my friend's rescue. Daisy had been adopted out at one point and was returned to the rescue nearly comatose; she ended up being diagnosed with a liver shunt (no fault of the people who had adopted her) and needed surgery. There was a lot of fundraising, and she had the surgery a week ago today. It seemed to work perfectly, and Daisy was her normal self (an absolute pest
).
We headed out Friday night an hour or two later than planned (as is normal with us). We made it about a mile down the road when all of a sudden, everything in the back came crashing down. Meg and Roo bolted for the front seat (about the two most sensitive dogs on the planet), and Daisy was in her crate on it's side. We finally found a place to pull over - a very sketchy, abandoned garage that looked like something out of a horror film. We all tumbled out of the car and unloaded everything, then reloaded in a hopefully more secure position.
Can you spot the naughty beagle puppy?
We made it to the motel with only one required bathroom stop for the dogs, and only about 2 hours past my normal bedtime. The two big girls are experienced motel dogs and immediately settled in.
The evil puppy spent a fair amount of time sniffing around (nothing like a hound in a hotel room to make you realize how many nasty scents are everywhere), then threw up twice. Then we finally got to bed.
Saturday morning arrived too early. Roo and I are the only morning people in our crowd, so we leapt out of bed while Meg and company groaned about the early hour. When Daisy finally got up...something was clearly wrong. She was a bit dopey looking, and seemed to not be seeing or hearing right (but really, how do you tell if an adolescent beagle is deaf or just ignoring you?). She walked outside and went potty, and then ate her breakfast with her usual vigor.
The trial itself started off stellar for me! We got 1st and Q in our first two classes (Jackpot and Standard), and I was especially proud of a great rear-cross on the flat into a tunnel! Rear crosses are our weakness since Meg hates to let me out of her sight. Our third class, Colors, didn't go as well; it was a great run, but I got in her path coming out of a tunnel and sent her past the next jump, which she promptly jumped backwards to return to me. We ended the day with a stellar run in Snooker (my favorite game!), and a third 1st and Q.
By mid-day, it was clear Daisy was not well. We finally determined that she could hear fine, but clearly was blind. She also slept most of the day, which is very abnormal for her. My friend collected numbers for evets from the locals and got on the phone. The first vet seemed confused about what a liver shunt was, so we ended up driving over the border to Mass to a different vet. The vet herself was a pretty intense person who originally wanted to do $1400 worth of treatment to stabilize the puppy. After explaining the situation (rescue dog without an owner, and a vet back home who works on the rescues at a great discount) and a call to the vet who originally stabilized her, we were sent on our way with meds and fluids, and orders to make sure the puppy saw the surgeon again on Monday. We get back to the motel until close to midnight, but Daisy was clearly feeling more awake and "with it".
Sunday morning gave us back the same obnoxious puppy we had on Friday, and she clearly had her vision back. And she was NOT pleased to be sitting in a crate for most of the day. Day two of trialing started out not as great for me. The first class was Wildcard; I needed 19 points to Q for level one, which should have been easy. I decided to get the minimal amount, and then use the extra time to work on the weaves in the ring (not required for my level, but I wanted the practice). Meg was clearly pumped, and was "humming" to me the entire course - so much for my soft, sweet dog! Unfortunately, I clearly can't count past eighteen, so we didn't Q. We had all the time in the world, but I screwed up. Meg also missed the first contact of her life, galloping ahead of me on the dogwalk and driving for the jump after it. I thought it was a fluke until the same thing happened in Standard. Meg in her high-drive trial mode is not the dog I have in training, and apparently trial Meg thinks contacts are for losers.
In our Full House course, I made her wait up on the dog walk, and I got ahead to really point at the end of the dog walk. I felt like slowing her down wasn't the best idea in the world (I've worked for 18 months to build that speed!) but I just didn't know what to do. 2nd and Q because of time.
Our last class was jumpers, and although we really bungled a rear cross which slowed us down, we did get a third and Q. As we got packed up, a very nice vet who was at the trial gave Daisy another dose of fluids for the drive home.
So, the final tally: 5 Qs, two new titles (she is now Random Rescue Meg, CL1-S, CL1-H), two tired handlers, two tired agility dogs, and one very not-tired, feeling great beagle puppy. Daisy has seen her surgeon again, who says the surgery was successful, but her liver is just overwhelmed right now. She's still on some meds and a low protein diet, but is doing great and will be looking for a home soon. Keep your fingers crossed for her though, okay?
Daisy in a quiet moment.
Kudos to anyone who actually read that - it got way longer than I meant!
). We headed out Friday night an hour or two later than planned (as is normal with us). We made it about a mile down the road when all of a sudden, everything in the back came crashing down. Meg and Roo bolted for the front seat (about the two most sensitive dogs on the planet), and Daisy was in her crate on it's side. We finally found a place to pull over - a very sketchy, abandoned garage that looked like something out of a horror film. We all tumbled out of the car and unloaded everything, then reloaded in a hopefully more secure position.
Can you spot the naughty beagle puppy?
We made it to the motel with only one required bathroom stop for the dogs, and only about 2 hours past my normal bedtime. The two big girls are experienced motel dogs and immediately settled in.
The evil puppy spent a fair amount of time sniffing around (nothing like a hound in a hotel room to make you realize how many nasty scents are everywhere), then threw up twice. Then we finally got to bed.
Saturday morning arrived too early. Roo and I are the only morning people in our crowd, so we leapt out of bed while Meg and company groaned about the early hour. When Daisy finally got up...something was clearly wrong. She was a bit dopey looking, and seemed to not be seeing or hearing right (but really, how do you tell if an adolescent beagle is deaf or just ignoring you?). She walked outside and went potty, and then ate her breakfast with her usual vigor.
The trial itself started off stellar for me! We got 1st and Q in our first two classes (Jackpot and Standard), and I was especially proud of a great rear-cross on the flat into a tunnel! Rear crosses are our weakness since Meg hates to let me out of her sight. Our third class, Colors, didn't go as well; it was a great run, but I got in her path coming out of a tunnel and sent her past the next jump, which she promptly jumped backwards to return to me. We ended the day with a stellar run in Snooker (my favorite game!), and a third 1st and Q.
By mid-day, it was clear Daisy was not well. We finally determined that she could hear fine, but clearly was blind. She also slept most of the day, which is very abnormal for her. My friend collected numbers for evets from the locals and got on the phone. The first vet seemed confused about what a liver shunt was, so we ended up driving over the border to Mass to a different vet. The vet herself was a pretty intense person who originally wanted to do $1400 worth of treatment to stabilize the puppy. After explaining the situation (rescue dog without an owner, and a vet back home who works on the rescues at a great discount) and a call to the vet who originally stabilized her, we were sent on our way with meds and fluids, and orders to make sure the puppy saw the surgeon again on Monday. We get back to the motel until close to midnight, but Daisy was clearly feeling more awake and "with it".
Sunday morning gave us back the same obnoxious puppy we had on Friday, and she clearly had her vision back. And she was NOT pleased to be sitting in a crate for most of the day. Day two of trialing started out not as great for me. The first class was Wildcard; I needed 19 points to Q for level one, which should have been easy. I decided to get the minimal amount, and then use the extra time to work on the weaves in the ring (not required for my level, but I wanted the practice). Meg was clearly pumped, and was "humming" to me the entire course - so much for my soft, sweet dog! Unfortunately, I clearly can't count past eighteen, so we didn't Q. We had all the time in the world, but I screwed up. Meg also missed the first contact of her life, galloping ahead of me on the dogwalk and driving for the jump after it. I thought it was a fluke until the same thing happened in Standard. Meg in her high-drive trial mode is not the dog I have in training, and apparently trial Meg thinks contacts are for losers.
In our Full House course, I made her wait up on the dog walk, and I got ahead to really point at the end of the dog walk. I felt like slowing her down wasn't the best idea in the world (I've worked for 18 months to build that speed!) but I just didn't know what to do. 2nd and Q because of time.
Our last class was jumpers, and although we really bungled a rear cross which slowed us down, we did get a third and Q. As we got packed up, a very nice vet who was at the trial gave Daisy another dose of fluids for the drive home.
So, the final tally: 5 Qs, two new titles (she is now Random Rescue Meg, CL1-S, CL1-H), two tired handlers, two tired agility dogs, and one very not-tired, feeling great beagle puppy. Daisy has seen her surgeon again, who says the surgery was successful, but her liver is just overwhelmed right now. She's still on some meds and a low protein diet, but is doing great and will be looking for a home soon. Keep your fingers crossed for her though, okay?
Daisy in a quiet moment.
Kudos to anyone who actually read that - it got way longer than I meant!
