The Dogs of our Life...

Broken Renegade

2010-07-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

We had quite the scare over the long weekend. We decided to take Renegade and Jasper over to the nearby park for some exercise before a day of chores and errands. Jasper was enjoying sniffing and stopping, not so much enjoying the walking and exercise part. Renegade was enjoying galavanting and fetching. We cannot really let Ren play "moving" fetch as he tends to break himself in his zeal to get the toy. So, we put him in a stay, walk several yards away, toss the toy, and then release him. Well, this strategy failed miserably in the attempt to keep Ren from breaking himself this walk. He hurdled the log, ran 20 yards past the toy, ran back to the toy (at which point I asked Keith if he was limping), got the toy and by the time he got back to us he was clearly only using 3 legs.

Keith proceeded to examine his legs and was ignoring my pleas to check his pads (I assumed he had a thorn in his foot). He informed me "something is really wrong"! After my panicked response, we sent Keith and Jasper for the car and left me sitting in the shade with Renegade trying to keep him quiet. He really wanted to follow dad, but was also clearly in pain. Jasper clearly did not want to "run" with dad back to the house to get the car... He wanted to sniff the roses.

After what seemed an eternity, Keith returned with the car. He then had me feel where he had felt "something wrong". I freaked! You could feel what sure felt like a bone poking out the side of Ren's left front leg. We got him loaded in the back of the minivan with Keith keeping him company. Luckily, my vet actually was open on Monday (July 5th). I got them on the phone and told them we were on the way.

We arrived at the vet and the vet agreed it felt like his arm bone had totally fractured. We gave him morphine to get x-rays to determine the extent of the damage. Much to everyone's surprise, the x-rays came back with no fractures! Further examination revealed an "entry wound". Turns out he had a 3 inch stick embedded in his leg. It had gone through the muscle and passed between the ulna and radius. Picture below of the stick - the key is for scale.

Seemed like good news to just have to remove a foreign object instead of having surgery to repair the break and 8-12 weeks of rest (with Ren that would have been torture for all of us). The vet did surgery and removed the stick. Report was that it came out cleanly, the muscle was going to need time to repair and the nerves were likely irritated but not permanently damaged. We brought the patient home for some R&R.

Later that night I had another scare as he recovered enough to get up and start walking around. He had no motor function below his elbow. He wasn't able to bend his wrist at all. He was dragging the foot around like a dead fish. After a conversation with the vet she convinced me that it was likely just irritated and that we wouldn't worry for a few more days. However, the "worst case scenario" although she only gave it a 1% chance was amputation so of course I worried! Luckily we woke up the next morning to find him using the foot.

Now 4 days later he's back to 90% and wanting to be more active than he should be. He's trying to rip the bandage off so he's wearing the cone which slows him down a little bit at least. Looks like he'll be back to full speed by next week!

On a side note, I'm really glad we practiced "handling" and restraining Ren so much when he was younger and smaller. He was a perfect angel about being lifted and carried into the car and the vet clinic while he was clearly in a lot of pain.

Kale, Cauliflower, and oranges...

2010-01-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

OK, this isn't really about the dogs in my life, but I just had to write about it anyways. Thanks to facebook, I was able to read about several of my friend's experiences with CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). Basically, you join a farm group and get regular boxes of local, organic fruits and veggies. After some searching, I found one that seemed to make the most sense for us - the big selling point - they deliver to your door! So, I signed up with Farm Fresh to You.

Basically, every other Friday we put our empty box on our porch

And at some point during the day, the empty box, magically turns into a box full of new fruits and veggies!!! (OK, I have to confess, a van pulls up and takes the empty box away and replaces it with a new box full of our stuff)

Our CSA has several options that includes your choice of mostly fruit, mostly veggies, a combo of both, and different sizes. We belong to the regular size fruits and veggies option and receive deliveries every other week. Here is our delivery from this week...

The cool thing about this is that we are eating healthier and trying produce we never would have tried other wise. Every other weekend we make several meals using our delivered produce instead of going out to eat or eating left overs. Tonight's meal was a Leek and Goat cheese tart (Super Yummy!). This was our first recipe that we tried out of the cookbook I just bought called "Local Flavors" by Madison. I think we're going to enjoy many more recipes out of this cookbook. Tommorrow we're going to try a cauliflower and brussel sprout dish (yes, I'm skeptical, but I've found that I've been surprised frequently by what I like from this experience) and a bok choy, feta, and potato pie recipe.

The new cookbooks I've purchased are another bonus - I found I needed a new source for recipes, as the current cookbooks we had were limited on recipes involving things like kale, leeks and bok choy. So, I found a few cookbooks focusing on local produce and organic recipes. Tons more options for the produce we receive in our boxes.

The only downside I've found to the boxes, is that you do tend to run out of ideas of what to do with certain produce during its "season". We've had leeks coming out of our ears the past several weeks. However, if you spend the time, there are surprisingly many different things you can do with leeks. Can't say that I ever intentionally ate a leek before we joined the CSA, but I have an appreciation for them now - same thing for kale and bok choy! I've also found it encourages us to stretch our minds as to what to make - after an overload of oranges, Keith made Duck L'Orange to use up our oranges - was a wonderful dinner that we normally wouldn't have made except for a special occasion.

I always enjoy checking to see what's going to arrive in our box the friday before the delivery and have been having fun planning what to do with it. I always consider it a major success when I find a recipe that utilizes 3-4 items from our box!

We're eating healthier, trying new things, and cooking at home way more than we were before. Can't really see a downside to this!

The dogs wish they were more a part of this whole process, but unfortunately the lettuce seems to be the only thing we don't regularly finish and they're not fond of lettuce. Also, the food we've been making has been so tasty, they haven't gotten to sample as much as they would like. Although they did get to enjoy left over crepes after last weekends scallion and bok choy crepes. We had a few left over crepes that weren't going to keep well. Keith got 4 paws up for this meal including the presentation from the dogs!

January Black Diamond Hike

2010-01-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

We've done a lot of hiking over the holidays. We ended our holiday hike fest with a 7.6 mile hike at Black Diamond Regional Preserve near Antioch. I had done this hike during the summer - it was very hot and not too much fun then. Here's a picture from that hike - the hills are much prettier green than brown!

Today was a much better day for the hike. It started out very foggy, but cleared up enough that we could see some of the views by the end of the hike.

It probably would be worth coming back in April when it wasn't foggy and there was water in the creek.

Today we hiked with friends and their dalmation Izzy. Ren and Izzy both agree that running is fun, chasing cows is more fun (so they were on leash when we passed the cows in the fog above). Posing for pictures is ok as long as they get cookies for doing so.

Ren spent most of the hike doing his usual cavorting and finding every puddle he could.

He also took some time to pose for some pictures for us with the pretty scenery once the fog lifted.

He had fun climbing on every rock and tree we asked him to...

He took some time out to play keep away with Izzy

Towards the end of the hike, Ren and Izzy were very interested in the cow skeleton we found (and the people were equally disgusted)

A few more poses before the end of a challenging, but fun hike. The humans rushed off to find sustenance while the dogs napped peacefully in their crates (the humans were too hungry to get a picture of this).

All versions of these pictures, plus more available at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wkrehbiel/sets/72157623132988432/

Ticks, ticks and more ticks

2009-12-31T15:26:00.000-08:00

So, over the past several years, we've become "immune" to the grossness of ticks on our dogs. We go hiking, they get ticks, we pick them off. The alternative is to not go hiking which is pretty much impossible with Renegade in the picture. I'd have to take up marathon running to get him enough exercise on a leash. We do use frontline which in the past has kept the ticks from burrowing in, but this year it doesn't seem to be accomplishing that goal. We've found a couple of burrowed ticks that appeared to be dead, but most burrowed ticks are happily sucking away.

It is a particularly "good" tick season this year from what I can tell. And Ren has proven that he is a tick magnet. He gets a zillion more ticks than the other dogs doing the same hikes. All I can figure is that he covers a lot more ground, or his blood smells better? We've been pulling off 50-60 ticks per hike from him the past week (most just crawling on him 5-10 partially or fully burrowed). Zack meanwhile averages more 10-12 crawling with 1-2 burrowed.

The good thing about ticks is that they tend to migrate to the dog's head for some reason so you can pick most of them off before they burrow in as long as you check the dog's head regularly. However, sometimes a few get past us and we find them later all burrowed in and engorged. A few also always stop at the belly so we have to check that regularly too.

While Ren hates the tick check stops during the hike (especially when we make him do his "bang" command to check his belly), he thoroughly enjoys all the petting/attention after the hike as we make sure he's tick free.

Today's hike seemed to be particularly tick-full and I had my first 2 ticks try to burrow into me. We've occasionally found a few crawling on the humans, but not often, this is the first time I had them actually on my skin and starting to burrow. I'm completely grossed out and checking for ticks every 30 seconds now...

I should have gotten a picture of ren when we got out of the car and he had 10 ticks just perched on his head, but I was too focused on getting them off to think about that. Or a picture of the 6 ticks in his belly (including two in the same location) on our hike last week, but once again, more focused on "saving" my baby than taking pics!

All in all, ticks are gross, but haven't caused any problems so far for the dogs. The alternative of having Renegade under exercised is not appealing to me so we're just going to have to deal. Also, it's much better dealing with ticks than it is with the foxtails and rattlesnakes we encounter on summer hikes.

A snarl is not always a snarl

2009-12-21T22:36:00.001-08:00

I've been quite remiss in posting updates. I promise a more thorough update in the coming week. However, in the meantime, I've been reminded by a friend that a photo is not always what it appears. We have 3 goldens clearly playing...

However, if you ask yourself what their intentions are given only a photo of a single dog's face... - taken out of context, they all look quite ferocious.

Given the picture, I don't think there's any question of the fact that they're all having fun! However, it is important to remember that a dog's body language and posture is all context specific!

Update at the Krehbiel House

2009-10-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

I've been sadly remiss in blogging lately, so I figured I'd do an update.

Keith: Keith has been in korea a lot lately. He did a 2 week trip last month and is currently in Korea again for what we hope is only a 2 week trip, but could turn into a 3-4 week trip. He's developed a love for kimshi, and a love/hate relationship with Soju. It's not fun to have him gone so much, but it's great that he still has a job right now when so many don't.

Grayeagle: Keith, Ren, Zack and I went on our annual Grayeagle trip in September. We had a great time and it was a much needed relazing week. I think we hiked somewhere around 25 miles in 6 days. Zack slept for a week after, while Ren as expected had more energy when we left than when we got there. Gray Eagle Lodge (http://www.grayeaglelodge.com/) is a wonderful dog friendly place with good food, hiking right from your cabin, no tvs, no cell service, and beautiful scenery. Pics from our trip are posted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wkrehbiel/sets/72157622399936576/

My mom was kind enough to fly out and stay with Gerkin during our trip and we decided that Jasper would be happier laying on the couch sharing popcorn with grandma than being left behind in the cabin every day when we went on hikes with the other dogs. (Ignore the fact that the picture is of Zack :D This is how Jasper spent the whole week)

Jasper: Jasper is still enjoying life, still cancer free, but not as physically able as he'd like to be. He is now only going on shorter walks and can't do the big hikes any more now that he's 10. We've been struggling with thyroid and other random medical issues with him (seizures and hair loss) for a while now. We were trying to avoid running a full thyroid panel on him (vs the more usual t4 test) as it required us to take him totally off the thyroid supplement for 2 weeks. In the past, low thyroid probably contributed to his seizures and we didn't want him having any more seizures. We finally decided we needed to do it, so we gave him some herbs to prevent seizures and got through the 2 weeks with only one minor seizure. Results are now back and he apparently is making lots of t4, but doesn't have the ability to convert the t4 into t3. So, we're going to start him on t3 supplements instead now. We'll see if this helps...

Zack: Zack is still enjoying life as my main demo dog for classes. He loves to mooch off all the people during puppy play time. Other than that, he's not as active now that he's 8. He still likes to hike, but can't do back to back days of big hikes.

Ren: Ren and I have been enjoying the new sport of K9 Nosework (http://www.k9nosework.com/). Basically it's drug detection work turned into a sport for dogs. Eventually he will be searching for the scent of cloves, birch oil or anise in indoor, outdoor, and vehicle search situations. They hold competitions where you have a set time to accurately identify where the scent is hidden. We're up to the point where we're starting to have him search for the birch scent instead of his toy. There are a few videos of our training sessions (pre-birch scent) available at: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos (look for the ones prefixed with Ren nosework).

Fostering: I'm now starting to foster for border collie rescue. I have a really nice 3 yo border collie (might be a mix) named Hank staying with me right now. If you know anyone who's interested, let me know!

Gerkin - 12/92-10/09

2009-10-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

A few months ago we got the sad news that Gerkin had lymphoma. It wasn't a big surprise as he had been "off" for a few months before that and we had gradually been working through various tests with the vet to figure out what was wrong. Because he was 16 we didn't want to do anything invasive. We ended up treating him with prednisone and a chemo drug we could give at home that didn't seem to have any side effects. This treatment bought him an extra month and we did our best to make this a happy time. However, finally it was time to say goodbye.
While it's definitely a sad time, I was smiling a lot as I went back through old photos of him to write this post. He was one in a million. There will never be another cat like him. I got Gerkin in the spring of '93 while living in Rochester, NY. I remember his kitten phase - he liked to shred toilet paper (it had to be kept in a drawer instead of on the roll until he was at least 3 years old), he loved to watch cartoons upside down from his spot under the tv, he LOVED ice cream, he was completely uncoordinated and usually face planted any time he tried to jump on something, he loved drinking water from the tub faucet even though it meant he ended up totally soaked cause he put his head right in the flow of water.

Because I got him while I was in college and was moving from school in Michigan to co-oping at kodak in NY every 3-6 months, he was extremely well socialized and loved new people and going to new places. He made road trips almost every weekend with either me or my roommate Connie. One of his most annoying (but quite hilarious) phases was when he figured out that he could play the messages on our answering machine. He would hit play over and over (and I'm guessing he occasionally deleted messages we never knew existed). He then took it a step further and started answering the phone when it rang. If we answered one phone, he would run into the other room to answer the other phone and would then listen as we talked. Since my roommates and I were interviewing for jobs during our senior year of college, the phones and answering machine all ended up in drawers as well since saying we didn't get a message cause my cat answered the phone before the answering machine could pick up or that he deleted messages before we got him didn't seem like the best way to get a job.

After college, Gerkin quickly became part of the dog pack. He slept with the dogs, played with the dogs, and generally thought he was a dog. Yes he knew tricks/commands. He had a pretty good recall, he could sit up, give kisses, sit, and was good at the "lay down or get off" command (yes it was a choice - if you ever petted Gerkin and got his tail in your face while he had you scratch his back you'll remember why this command came to be). Over time, I realized that my allergies were significantly worse if I snuggled him, so he became Keith's cat. They were inseparable if Keith was at home.

He was brilliant in his job as a "cat tester" for rescue dogs that we needed to see if they could be placed with a cat.

He was an amazing cat who thought he was a dog...

He is remembered with love and smiles.

Aren't air currents cool! And so are Flip Video cameras!

2009-09-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I took Ren to a seminar called "Intro to Nosework". Going into it, I knew it had to do with scent work for dogs and that the people running the seminar were trying to get a new dog sport going around scent work. I attended the seminar and became completely hooked!

Basically, they are taking drug detection work, modifying it a bit (dogs search for the scent of cloves, anise and birch oil instead of heroin, marijuana, etc). They search boxes instead of suitcases, but also do inside searches, outside searches, and search a group of vehicles to find the scents. The website is: http://www.k9nosework.com

We're just beginning, so Ren's just looking for his toy (bright green bumper). I'm really bummed that I'm going to miss the next seminar next weekend where they start us on searching for the real scents instead of the toy, but am glad they'll be back again a few times in the upcoming months.

It's fun training this skill, but it's hard not having someone to check in on your work every week or two to make sure I'm not doing it all wrong! So, in the meantime, I decided that I needed a new video camera (our old one uses tapes and the batteries run out of juice quickly, etc). So, I purchased a new Flip video camera. It's about the size of my blackberry! Super easy to use. I took some video of Ren searching for his toy in our living room. It's really neat watching how the air currents must move in the room based on how and where he chooses to focus his attention.

Blogger.com seems to only allow for one video per blog post. I'm too lazy to string them together into one movie, so you can check out a few videos of ren searching at:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F9EA51DFF8E7C731

Hike at Brushy Peak

2009-07-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

So, today I decided to go for a hike at Brushy Peak. Brushy Peak is another park in the wonderful East Bay Parks system. It's actually just north of livermore, about 15 minutes from my house. The only reason I've never been there, is that unlike most of the east bay parks, leashes are required for dogs. Today I decided that Ren could use some more practice walking on a leash and I wanted to explore. We hopped in the car and drove over there. I had glanced at the trail maps on their website and kind of had an idea of the hike I wanted to do. However, when I got there, the trail map available at the trail head was quite out of date. It only had a few trails on it and several said "Future Trail" on it. It was really unclear what actually existed and what was planned - and turns out several trails now exist that weren't on the map at all. So, I took off walking and decided to just see where I ended up. I chose to start up the Brushy Peak Loop Trail. The map clearly said that it was a "future" loop, so I thought I'd see how much of it was done.

Here's Ren not enjoying being on a leash

As we started off, we had some nice views of the windmills. You could actually hear the noise from the windmills turning.

One benefit to hiking in an area where they have windmills installed is that it was quite breezy. Made the warm day not quite so warm. Ren's ears are flopping in the breeze

As we were walking, Ren was doing a pretty good job walking on a leash considering that we rarely walk on leash at all and almost never when we're off pavement (and yes he knows that when we leave pavement the leash usually comes off). Additionally it was squirrel central. Here is a picture of one just off the trail (OK - I didn't have the camera with the good zoom so he's hard to see - having fun playing Where's Waldo)

The trail kept winding around and eventually we hit a spot where I had to make the choice to take an unmarked trail that headed back in the direction of the parking lot, or to take the marked Brushy Peak Loop trail that headed up to Brushy Peak. The view of Brushy Peak is quite nice

I opted to head on up the trail to the top of Brushy Peak and gamble that the fact that the trail name was Brushy Peak Loop meant that at some point we would loop back towards where I started. So we climbed up to the top of the hill pictured above. We had some nice views of Livermore on our way up to the peak (wish I had taken the nice camera with the big zoom)

It was kind of anticlimactic at the top - kind of flat with lots of trees and rocks and a view of a farm on the other side of the hill

Now is when I started to get concerned. When you take a loop, you would expect to go up to the peak and then probably go back down the hill on the same side of the hill as you came up. Instead the trail took me right up over and down the other side. Now I was wondering if this "loop" was a really long loop that involved many miles. Additionally, there was the possibility that the loop still was not completed and I was going to have to back track all the way back up the hill and then down the hill, etc. I opted to keep going and see what happened. The trail went down the far side of the hill and then luckily did turn back around through a valley towards the direction of the parking lot (yeah!). As we kept walking, Ren started being particularly naughty on his leash. A few more twists and turns and the reason became apparent (note the water in the distance)

We got down to the water and Ren was very disappointed to see the sign

He tried to convince me that since the ducks were allowed that he should be too!

However, there were all kinds of signs and info boards about the ecological preservation efforts going on, so he wasn't successful in his endeavor to convince me to let him swim. We finished off the hike, found the car and all in all had a good hike. We went 4.6 miles with a little more than a 700 foot climb. About the distance I was wanting today! Not sure if I'll go back frequently due to the leash rule, but I imagine it's quite pretty in the winter when things are actually green so it might be worth a repeat visit then.

Typical Krehbiel Hike

2009-07-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

Today we did a nice 6+ mile hike at Sunol with about 1500 feet elevation gain. Was a great way to tire out the hounds and the humans. We got started a bit later than we hoped so it was a bit warm... Overall was a typical hike for the Krehbiel crew. Jasper stayed home with a stuffed kong as 6 miles is WAY too much for the old man to handle right now.

Started off the hike with lots of running

Zack quickly lost his off leash privileges as he felt it not necessary to listen to us with a stream a few hundred yards off the trail...

Lots of stops for water breaks for the dogs

Zack has now earned his leash free privileges back and is enjoying the view - although we prefer the view in the winter when the hills are green and not brown and full of foxtails and rattlesnakes

Ren is always up for climbing on rocks - even when it scares mom!

Keith found a spider - turns out it was kind of dead

We had a coyote stalk and yell at us for part of the hike - was really neat having such a great view of her for so long (just wish we had the "real" camera with us). Keith also got some video of the coyote, you couldn't see her, but you could sure hear her carrying on. Video won't load here though (sigh). The coyote is the brown smudge right in the middle of the picture.

When they get hot - it's important to run ahead to every shady spot to wait for mom and dad

And if there's not a shady spot - we still run ahead

But sometimes we need to stop and ponder the great view

It's amazing what my dogs can do when I take the time to teach them things!

2009-06-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

So, lately I've been noticing that Ren's stay isn't so great any more and it's been annoying me. I've also noticed that Jasper is stopping to sniff while on leash walks and not moving along without being pulled along which drives me crazy. Both of these behaviors have been bothering me for a while and I've found myself getting quite annoyed with the boys about it.

I had a bit of a mental break through last week while hiking with Ren - I needed to move some cows off the trail and wanted him to stay while I went ahead and shoo'ed the cows away (cows tend to move if a human approaches, they go on the offensive if said human has a dog with them though). He was not staying at all - not even for me to take one step away. I was really frustrated because this group of cows was not in a place I could go around them (my usual work around) unless I wanted to go up and down a small cliff. So as my frustration hit a peak, I stopped and thought about the situation... I realized I was being completely unfair to Ren!

I honestly could not remember the last time I had given Ren a reward in the stay position (that's pretty bad!), and the only reward he has gotten recently for staying is permission to go fetch his toy after I release him. However, he's also regularly been breaking his stay to go get his toy as well, so he's been equally rewarded for not staying.
He is 4 years old, and his stay used to be brilliant, but you take any dog (or human for that matter) and take away all your paycheck and then give you some rewards whether you do the work or not and desired behavior will deteriorate! Especially in the cow situation where Ren is slightly worried that the cows are going to get him and his security blanket is abandoning him.

I also realized that the behaviors that I do reinforce regularly are quite brilliant. He's awesome at heeling past cows as close as 5 feet away. His come command is stellar. His leave it and slow down commands are pretty darn good.

So, I decided to actually work with Ren to help him stay while I moved the cows. I went back to the basics. Ask for the stay, take one step, return and reward with a cookie. Take 2 steps, return and reward. Take 3 steps, return and reward. I did about 10 repetitions of rewarding and then tried to actually move the cows while he stayed. He broke his stay. I realized that I hadn't added in the arm waving and the yelling part. So, I went back to 1 step away and wave my arms, return and reward, 1 step away and yell, return and reward, 1 step away, wave arms and yell, return and reward. Another 10 repetitions and I was able to move the cows about 1/3 of the distance that I needed them to move. We repeated this process 2 more times (to get the cows to move the final 2/3 of the distance) and he got better each time! Not too bad for a process that took about 5 minutes. He went from not staying while I took 1 step away, to staying while I went 15-20 feet away, yelled, and waved my arms and had cows moving (which is scary) and repeated this 3 times in the 5 minutes.

This made me rethink things with Jasper's stopping and sniffing behavior and I started rewarding jasper for coming along after a quick stop for a sniff. My rule is that you can sniff all you want as long as the leash is loose. That means you have as long as it takes for me to walk the length of the 6 foot leash to sniff and then you need to move along. After 1 walk doing this, I've noticed a big change in his behavior!

I'm sure I'll need to remind myself of this lesson again in another year or two... But just remember, if your dogs aren't doing what you want, you need to ask yourself if you've really taken the time lately to help them understand what you want!

He doesn't know he can run away

2009-05-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

In the ongoing saga of helping Renegade work through his reactivity problem with other dogs, I had a bit of an epiphany this week. Ren is "stationary reactive"! What does this mean? Well, he's reactive on leash which makes sense since his flight option is taken away (i.e. he can't run away) when meeting other dogs. He's also reactive if he's in a sit stay when a dog approaches (flight option also removed because we could never break our stay!). However he's also reactive when off leash and not in a stay if he meets a dog in a situation where everyone is standing still. Hmmmm.

So, I realize now that's why he's never reactive when we're hiking - we're moving and just pass by dogs while in motion. And if we stop, it works really well to play fetch with him while the dog passes (even if this causes the dog to chase him) - fetch involves Ren moving. I had kind of assumed that getting him focused on his toy took his focus off the other dog and that may be a part of it, but I think him moving is the bigger part.

When he is moving and we pass another dog, he tends to just avoid the other dog. Lots of head turns away from the dog, body turns away from the dog, and any other way he can find to get away from the other dog. Usually the other dogs respect this and all is good. If they don't, he keeps avoiding until we have passed the dog. Not overly stressful for him during these situations usually from what I can tell.

While discussing this observation with my friend/vet last night, she made a comment about the fact that when he's stationary he doesn't know he can run away. That statement made all kinds of light bulbs go off in my head! Who would have thought that I had to teach him that he can walk away if he's not in motion??!! I'm not sure why he doesn't choose to avoid/walk away in those situations - maybe he's too far over threshold and goes into the bad place in his brain before his brain can come up with the idea? However, this gives me a specific behavior to train! I've used my clicker to shape him looking at another dog, and taking a few steps towards another dog. Why not do the same thing but shape him to walk away from the dog? I can start with familiar dogs that he's totally comfortable, shape the behavior and put it on cue, and then start using the cue with strange dogs at a distance, and then slowly decrease the distance.

It will be interesting to see if this helps us with his reactivity or not!

It Can't Hurt To Try

2009-05-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

So one year ago Ren had a melt down at a 4 day agility trial and his reactivity went from a minor problem to a major problem.

A few months ago, I made the decision to quit agility with Ren. I decided it was too stressful for both of us and that it was unlikely I'd ever be comfortable with the idea that he wouldn't ever have a big reaction at a dog at agility. However unlikely, I wasn't willing to risk another dog's emotional health knowing Ren had the potential for big reactions (even though he hasn't ever done damage, his reactions are far from ok).

So, the past few months I have been amazed at the progress he's made. I think part of it was that I had been putting him over his threshold (comfort level) at agility trials and the stress was keeping him from progressing. The other big part was the stress I was having feeling like I had to achieve a certain goal. The lack of pressure has allowed us several months to enjoy lots of hiking. I've really focused on what a good boy he is in most situations - he's brilliant on hikes and really doesn't seem to worry about the other dogs we encounter (although we do tend to avoid direct encounters when possible) - instead he focuses on his toy.

However, I've been really missing agility... Keith doesn't seem any closer to agreeing to a new puppy (although I'm not giving up on that). So, a few weeks ago Keith pointed out that Ren is only 4 years old and has a good 5-6 years of potential agility career and asked me what it hurt to try to help him overcome his problems.

So, I've decided that it would be good for both of us to try to work through this. I definitely needed the no-pressure time we've had the past few months to realize what's really important - Ren and I being happy with whatever we do even if it's not agility. However, I figure it can't hurt to start working towards getting him more comfortable with other dogs while he's on leash and in high congestion areas. Who knows if we'll ever get to the point of doing agility, but we'll just have to see what time brings.

So far we've been focusing on doing more on-leash walks. I'm still amazed at how much more comfortable with other dogs he is on leash than he was 6 months ago. I'm still not going to let him "say hi" to other dogs, but he is completely relaxed with most dogs we pass, and only has some minor stress signs with a few dogs. We've also started integrating his toy as a reward more on these on-leash walks as it seems to be the key to him remaining relaxed on off leash hikes. I also plan to occasionally pop into fun matches and agility trials and work Ren at a distance from the congested areas. Just getting him comfortable being on the outskirts of a trial situation. All on-leash at this point... Not sure what my criteria would be for taking him off leash in a trial situation, but we'll cross that bridge if we ever get to it.

Yes my dogs see a chiropractor!

2009-04-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

So, I consider myself a very logical person who wants to know the why and how of anything I do. If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would even consider taking my dogs to a chiropractor or having them get acupuncture I would have said it sounded insane.

Then, when Jasper was 4 yrs old I kept noticing that Jasper had something wrong with him. I had a few vets look at him, had every part of his body x-rayed (hips, elbows, spine, wrists, shoulders), and everyone told me I was crazy and there was nothing wrong with my dog. However, little things kept popping up (he refused jumps higher than 16" in agility, he dragged his back feet when he walked, etc) and I persisted with my search for discovering what was wrong with him. Eventually I went to see a vet in Walnut Creek who does dog chiropractic and acupuncture. She quickly identified that he was very sore in the lumbar sacral area and suggested chiro and acupuncture treatment. We got a 2nd opinion from the orthopedic surgeon who concurred on the diagnosis. The ortho person told me that Jasper should never play fetch again or go hiking. Only leisurely walks on flat surfaces. This didn't seem like a good answer to us, so we pursued the chiro/acu option. A year later, he was competing in agility, hiking, playing fetch, and doing much better! I became a believer. There is no possibility of placebo effect with dogs. Nobody told him he should now be able to jump 20" in agility. He also started being able to jump in the back of the jeep without a running start.

Now all 3 of my dogs periodically see a chiropractor. Ren goes fairly often as he likes to fling himself off cliffs, and do other silly things that result in limping, tight muscles, etc. Zack and Jasper go in a few times/year when they seem a bit sore. We've switched now to use the chiropractor who comes once/month to my vet office and my regular vet is certified in acupuncture. So, it's all 5 minutes from home!

Zack also is getting regular acupuncture to help with his allergies. I was skeptical on this one too... However, we've tried literally every other option to help with his allergies (allergy shots, antihistimines, herbs, supplements, etc) and were still having to give antibiotics every month or so when he had a bad flair up. Since he's been getting acupuncture once/month I think we've gone over 8 months now without having to give antibiotics!

I finally decided to see what in the world I was doing to my dogs and recently visited a chiropractor myself. I've noticed that my posture is dramatically improved and my muscles are much loser and I can move more freely now. However the big surprise is that I am now sleeping normally! This was not something I expected at all. I have struggled with sleep issues for years and when I'm in a good stretch need 11-12 hours of sleep at night to be able to function in the day. Bad stretches require that much sleep plus a nap during the day and I never feel awake. Now I'm waking up before my alarms after just 7-8 hours of sleep and feel energetic. I can't remember if I've ever been able to function on this little sleep in my whole life!

So - call me crazy, but yes my dogs have a chiropractor and an acupuncturist!

Jasper's male pattern baldness

2009-04-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

So, just an update on the saga of Jasper and his health issues...

We are now 18 months post radiation treatment from his cancer and there are no signs of the cancer coming back! This is excellent news as the original prognosis was 12-18 months after the diagnosis. I have the impression that usually the cancer had already spread by the time it was found and thus the short time. Since we've now gone 18 months with nothing showing up, I think that means we caught it before it spread and that is great news! He's been living like a king and loving it since then (note the cat who also thinks he's king in the back of the picture)

Jasper had a seizure several months ago - not a grand mal seizure, but still scary for me. We've got him on some herbs to try to prevent seizures. He had a few weird moments that might have been seizures right after the initial seizure, but nothing confirmed. He had a biopsy on his foot last week (see more on that below), and that night had another seizure. That's a big bummer as it kind of eliminates the freak seizure theory I was hoping for. Still not enough for us to decide to do an MRI as both seizures were fairly minor and were spread so far apart. We'll just keep hoping that it's nothing serious.

So, a few months ago Jasper started having hair loss on his left front foot.

The original thought was that it was a fungus, so we treated that. It seemed to clear up in one spot and then migrate a few inches in another direction, but it seemed to be getting gradually better and moving down towards his toes (and running out of room to go). However, then it reversed direction and went back up his foot and got worse. So, we decided to do a biopsy. The hope was that the biopsy would identify the fungus so we could better attack it. However, the biopsy came back with no fungus or other bugs found. It did identify hair loss and some other things (vet terms I didn't understand, but didn't seem useful). My vet said all their potential diagnosis that fit with the findings didn't fit with his presentation. The fact that it's only on one foot and not symetrical or on his torso didn't match what they thought it might be. So, the report has now been sent on to a dermatology specialist and we're waiting for his take on the biopsy report to decide what to do next. Jasper is glad to be out of his cone and sock after the biopsy and we decided to resume hiking with him today (but kept him out of puddles and water). We were keeping him out of nature before trying to prevent further infection, etc. I took a picture of his bald foot today. The bump in the middle is from the biopsy, but that only affected a spot smaller than a dime. Notice that even down by his toes there's not much hair there. The long hair that is left is giving a comb over effect making him look like he has more than he really does.

The good news is that currently he's happy and energetic. I just wish we could figure out what was going on with the foot!

Hiking

2009-03-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

We've been having beautiful weather here the past few weeks. mid-70's and sunny! The hills are green and the wildflowers are starting to make an appearance. In another week or two the hills are going to have a great show of wildflowers.

Today we decided to take a hike at Sunol Regional Preserve. I pulled out the trail maps and decided to try a hike we hadn't done there before. We opted to do the Maguire Loop Trail. We parked on Welch Creek Rd and started at the Lower Maguire Loop. Ended up being about a 5 mile hike. We took our time and finished in about 2 hrs 15 minutes. Unfortunately we forgot the camera, so we missed all the potentially great shots of wild flowers, happy dogs and great views.

The Lower Maguire trail winds and loops up through a pretty wooded area up to the meadows below Maguire's peak. Then you interesect the loop trail. We opted to go counter clockwise around the loop. There was a decent elevation gain, but nothing that killed me. As you come around the other side of Maguire's peak you can see the reservoir and Hwy 84 and Mt Diablo. Great views! We saw a few big groups of people out hiking and a handful of couples out hiking, but nothing like the usual business when you hike the trails from the regular parking area at Sunol on a sunny weekend.

The dogs had a blast running about. Several people wanted to say hi to them, but they were on a mission and didn't bother to stop and say hi as they ran past to continue on the hike. Ren found a "nest" of ticks to lay in at one point. I think we pulled at least 50 ticks off of him when we noticed the infestation on his head, and several more at intervals after that. I'm sure we'll find some more tonight once we have a chance to settle down and go over him thoroughly. Zack also had several ticks, but nothing like what Ren was covered in. We've found that picking them off and doing periodic "tick check" stops while on the hike helps tremendously.

Ren also found a few mud holes to wallow in, so both dogs got baths when we got home. It's really starting to get warm on hikes - it's going to take some adjusting to get them used to the heat - and I'm going to have to start getting up earlier to hike before it gets warm. They went through a whole camelback bladder of water.

We hiked at Del Valle yesterday, and we're going back to hike at Del Valle with friends tomorrow - going to have a very happy Ren Ren after all the days of hiking.

Zack will probably stay home tomorrow as his back seemed to be bothering him periodically today (he sees the chiropractor on Tuesday), and Jasper still isn't allowed to hike as he still has stitches from the biopsy on his foot.

No further word on the biopsy results - they're being sent to a dermatology specialist as they didn't make sense compared to his presenting symptom (hair loss on one foot).

The Princess and the Pea

2009-03-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

In the process of vacuuming i relocated all the dog beds and blankets into a single pile

Along came a Jasper to try out the new bed

But he just couldn't get comfortable

Later that night Renegade figured out the problem - there seemed to be something stuck in the pile

He dug and he dug and finally located the item

We had our very own "pea" in the bed in the form of a tennis ball

Ren happily rescued the ball

Both of our "princesses" were then able to happily enjoy the pile of beds

Princess Jasper

Princess Zack

And they all lived happily ever after

(at least until I get around to putting the beds back and folding up the blankets and putting them away)

Sunday afternoon roll in the park

2009-03-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

So, we were a bit bored and trying to figure out what to do Sunday afternoon. For some reason, rollerblading sounded fun to me! I managed to convince Keith to join me and then we decided we should bring Renegade along!

First step was to get the skates out and figure out if we still knew how to skate (it's probably been 8 years since we've been out). This is one of those times it paid to grow up in Michigan where ice skating was a regular winter activity.

Wendy's skates

Got the skates on, got down the driveway without wiping out! Took a few turns around the road in front of our house, Renegade got REALLY worked up about this and ended up running into the street after me, so I sat down (on purpose really!) to get him out of the way of a car coming down the street and be able to hold him without him pulling me into the road again. Surprisingly this was the only time I sat down the whole adventure!

Keith remembered how to skate better than I did (OK, he always was a better skater!) so he got to be in charge of Ren. We took off down the path skating. Renegade was in heaven! I think the only time I've seen him happier is if there's water and fetch involved. He was a bit confused at first about why daddy was actually "walking" the right speed, but then really got into it. Keith is tempted to try ski-jouring with Ren now (imagine hooking yourself up on cross country skis to a dog in a pulling harness). They worked out a fairly good system for how to slow down and stop and Keith actually had pretty good control of getting Ren to pull him and then getting him to slow down.

We did pull off to the side whenever we passed a dog, but Ren was brilliant with other dogs today - no worry at all from what I could see - even at much closer proximity than I've been working him at lately. Not sure if it's just his continued improvement or if he was just so excited about what he was doing with mom and dad that he didn't worry about the dogs (which is what happens with swimming).

Excited happy dog as we come back home!

We didn't go too far today as Keith and I weren't in shape and we didn't want to overdo it with Ren, but I definitely think this is going to happen more in the future!

Happy tired Ren after the adventure

"Are your children spoiled"

2009-02-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

I just ran across a link on the internet that had me chuckling at the similarities between kids and dogs!

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/are-your-children-spoiled

So not sure if this is plagiarizing, but here's my modified version for dogs (not that different, thus the plagiarizing!)

10 Signs Your Dogs Are Brats:

They resort to barking, whining or jumping when they want something.
They throw themselves on floor and won't get up.
They constantly throw tantrums or even snap at you when you give a consequence.
They ignore you when you ask for a command.
They are rude to other people or dogs
They are constantly trying to be the center of attention.
They always want whatever everyone else has. Once they have it, they want something new.
They keep a messy room and never help out around the house despite your pleas for them to do so. (OK, I just had to leave this one - I have visions of all dogs helping with the vacuuming, dusting, putting their toys away, etc)

What to Do if Your Dogs Are Brats:

Reward good behavior and punish bad behavior.
If your dogs act inappropriately when they want something, don't give it to them and make a big show of putting the thing away.
If they won't get off the floor during a tantrum, pick them up and put them in their crate or a timeout place until they calm down.
If they ignore you when you tell them to do something, don't let them do anything else until they do the command you asked for.
Don't give them whatever they want. Make them earn things with good behavior. Good things for a dog include attention, the leash, treats, play with humans, couch time, meals, or anything else they like.
Praise your dogs profusely and give them rewards when they do the right thing - this means noticing them when they're right!
Make sure they're getting enough exercise and stimulation. That includes physical, mental and emotional stimulation. Play by themselves in the backyard does not provide mental and emotional exercise! A long walk may address the physical aspect, while training focuses on the mental aspect, and snuggling on the cough addresses the emotional aspect.

Computer Programming is just like Dog Training!

2009-02-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

So, when I switched from being a software engineer to dog training, many of my software engineering friends thought I'd get bored and be back within 6 months. It's now been 7 years and I do not regret my decision one bit. In fact I've found many similarities between the two pursuits...

My husband (or anyone who knows me very well) would NEVER describe me as a patient person. However, when it comes to writing a program or working with a dog, I find patience is easy to come by. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I can be patient with a dog, but not with humans or other things in my life. I've finally found the answer!

Training a dog is lot like writing a computer program! If a program is not working it's cause you missed a step or told it to do the wrong thing. If a dog is not behaving the way you would like it's because you are inadvertantly rewarding a behavior you don't like.

Dogs respond and react "honestly". There is no ulterior motives, revenge, or dishonesty in their actions. They have things that they find rewarding in life (this varies from dog to dog) and things they find punishing in life (this varies too). Once you've figured out the reward and punishment formula for a dog, then things work just like a program!

Using learning theory as a programming language, it's not that difficult to program your dog to behave as you would like.
- Behavior that is rewarded will increase
- Behavior that is punished will decrease (BTW, I don't condone punishment using pain, fear or intimidation - instead I use removal of rewards and privileges)

So - if you have a dog doing something you don't like - they are doing it because it has been rewarded (in their minds, not ours). If you wish to modify this behavior, you simply stop rewarding the behavior you don't like, and start rewarding something you do like! It then just takes repetition to end up with the behavior you do want.

So, for example, my dogs sit about 6 inches from my husband while he makes his toast in the morning. This is something I've observed recently as I'm not usually up when he makes breakfast. It's clear that the dogs have been rewarded for this behavior (as they don't even bother coming in the kitchen when I make toast). Some probing and spying discovered that he shares his toast and lets them lick the peanut butter knife clean. Aha! Now we know why the behavior is happening. So no it's time to rewrite the program (OK, my husband probably won't do this as he likes the current program)
1) DO NOT give dogs toast or peanut butter while you make toast and they are 6 inches from you.
2) Reward dogs with toast or peanut butter when they leave the kitchen while you make toast
3) You could additionally give them a time out each time they came in the kitchen while you made toast to decrease the likelihood of them coming in the kitchen.
4) repeat until dogs understand new program.

The problem most people have with "programming" dogs is the lack of patience to do #4 as long as it takes. The thing is, that dogs don't speak english any more than a computer does. They only learn through action/reaction. So, the first 4, 5, or 20 times that you perform step #1, they're going to assume that you are having a bad day, are extra hungry yourself, or just forgot them. Since you have fed them for being 6 inches away in the past, it's going to take a while for them to figure out you've changed your mind and even think to offer you the behavior of leaving the kitchen. Once they've decided there's no point in sitting 6 inches away and decide to leave the kitchen, you can choose to reward this. At first your dog is going to decide that you remembered how much they like peanut butter and come back to sitting 6 inches from you (not realizing that leaving the kitchen made the peanut butter happen). Over time they will figure out that it is leaving the kitchen that makes the peanut butter happen and will stop sitting 6 inches from you and will instead sit outside the kitchen.

The point of the reptition above is that so many things happen in a dog's life that is not conditional on their behavior. Humans feed the dogs because it is 5pm, not because the dog did something (well depends on the house). Humans put the dog in their crate because they are going to the grocery store or work, not because the dog chased the cat. It takes repetition for the dog to realize that it is their behavior causing the consequence vs random life events causing the consequence.

Another good example: I always love the clients who don't understand why their labrador retriever jumps and barks whenever they pick up a tennis ball. Hmmm, usually this is followed by the human asking the dog repeatedly to be quiet and/or sit. Which is then followed by the human throwing the ball. The "Program" from the dog's perspective is:
Step #1: I throw disgusting, wet round object in the vicinity of the human
Step #2: Human picks up wet round object
Step #3: I bark and jump until the human asks me to sit or be quiet
Step #4: If the ball is not thrown fast enough, go back to #3
Step #5: Ball is thrown
Step #6: Go back to Step #1

My new program for the owners goes more like this:
Step #1: Dog presents disgusting, wet round object in the vicinity of the human
Step #2: Human picks up wet round object
Step #3: If (dog barks or jumps) then put wet round object away (drawer, shelf, pocket, etc)
Step #4: If (dog sits and is quiet) get wet round object out
Step #5: If(dog barks or jumps) go back to #3
Step #6: else when dog sits and is quiet then throw wet round object
Step #7: Go back to #1

I wish I knew a little more about neural networks because I'm guessing there are a TON of similarities between dog's learning and neural network programming.

On a Positive Note

2009-01-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

I had a brilliant day with Renegade today! It was a much needed uplifting experience for me.

I made the decision about a month ago to indefinitely end Ren's agility career (probably permanently) after an aggressive incident with another dog (a friend's foster golden) - no physical damage done, just a lot of noise and inappropriate behavior. I've been working with him on this problem for a long time and we've had our ups and downs. While I feel like I've made great progress with him lately, the possibility of him reacting like this in an agility context has me completely stressed out. As a result, agility has not been fun for either of us for quite some time. I finally realized that we were doing agility for me, not for him and since I was a big ball of nerves every time I was at class or a trial that maybe it wasn't the best for us at this point. While I'm going to miss seeing all the friends I've made on a regular basis, I do plan on coming to a trial now and then to volunteer and in time there will be another puppy :).

So, you may ask, where's the positive note? Well, we went out for a hike today and had so many great moments that I realized how much my decision had been affecting my ability to enjoy him and appreciate the progress he has made. I think that while we were making progress with his behavior at agility, my end goal was so lofty that I wasn't able to appreciate what he was accomplishing. So, I want to tell you about our day that left me a beaming, proud mommy!

I decided to hike at Sunol Regional Preserve today - just Ren and I. I decided to take the Flag Hill trail up to the peak of a "hill" and then loop back down the Hayfield trail. Well, either I'm way more out of shape than the last time I did this hike, or the "hill" grew :) I huffed and puffed my way up the hill with Ren cavorting around me.

Brilliant Moment #1: A trio of women with a dog were walking faster than me up this hill - not too hard to do. I pulled over to let them pass. I wasn't sure how much interest their dog would show in Ren, so I wanted to get a few yards off the trail, but that involved a bit of extra uphill I wasn't into doing right then. So, we practiced our "gamble" skills from agility and I sent Ren about 30 yards out to a big rock, ~6 feet tall, and asked him to get up on it. He sent out beautifully, jumped on his "table" and did a sit stay while the other dog went past. No worries from him, and he got a lot of smiles from the passing women.

I finally got to the top of the "hill" and remembered that it was worth the climb. Gorgeous views, blue skies and green hills. I regretted not bringing my camera. We then started the gentle sloping walk back down and further into the park. More gorgeous views!

Brilliant Moment #2: So, as of about 6 months ago, Ren would "react" at cows who gave him eye and postured at him. I put "react" in quotes because it usually involved a bark that had a bit of a "roo roo" in it along with a part that was not so much roo roo. He would run at them, but his run had a lot more vertical component than horizontal. Made me think that it was 75% reactivity and 25% play. We've been working on heeling past cows and rewarding him with his toy a lot the past several months. So, there's a young bull standing about 10 yards off the trail - with a barbed wire fence between us. He's moving towards us, giving eye and generally looking like he would have charged us if the fence weren't there. In the past, this definitely would have gotten something out of Ren. He gave the cow an occasional glance, but remained relaxed and almost acted as if he was wondering what the heck the cow's problem was. Yeah!

I had forgotten to bring water - didn't realize how warm it was. So, we took a short detour to the water fountain at High Valley camp to get Ren some water. I was wishing I hadn't worn a long sleeve t-shirt it was so nice out. Got to love hiking in shorts and a t-shirt in Feb. We then went out to see Cave Rocks - a 1 mile addition I hadn't hiked before. Ren found a cow tank/pond to go swim in (guess he'll be getting a bath tonight). At one point he also tried to climb in a small 2' diameter round water trough a few feet off the ground. He was going to get as much of his body in it as he could - I kind of wish I hadn't asked him to leave it (which he did brilliantly) so I could have seen how he would have accomplished that. He loves to climb into horse and cow troughs, but had never tried one so clearly too small for him to fit in.

Brilliant moment #3: On our way back to the Hayfield trail, we found a few momma and baby cows who decided to run ahead of us on the trail when I shoo'ed them off instead of moving off to the side to let us pass (don't they know trail etiquette?). Running cows 20 yards in front of us for ~5 minutes. Ren gave them an interested look several times, but then ran back to me without me needing to ask (Mom - did you see those cows running - did you see how good I am not to chase!).

We continued on down the hill. My legs were definitely tired by now, Ren was not sprinting anymore, but still trotting and galloping. I don't think the darn dog walked more than a few steps the entire 4+ mile hike. We got down to the parking lot and proceeded to look for some water for him (bad mommy). None of the water fountains were working, so a park ranger let me get him some water out of a cooler they had for a school program (thanks Ranger!).

Brilliant moment #4: A group of 4 kids (~5yrs-9yrs) wanted to visit with Ren. He's pretty good with kids in general, but I usually have to hold his collar to make sure he doesn't kiss too enthusiastically or jump on them. He sat there calmly without needing me to restrain him at all. He performed all his tricks for them and didn't even try to grab their stuffed dogs that they were waving at me to pet (talk about a miracle!). He then even laid on his side when I asked and allowed them to pet his belly for almost a full minute before he decided it was time to stand up again!

I really needed this day to see how much progress he has made and to feel better about my training skills!

Here's to many more and a much more positive outlook on life and appreciation for what I do have!

Hike at Morgan Territory

2009-01-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

We had a great hike today with friends Carolyn, Andy and Tim with their golden Charlie!

We went up to Morgan Territory. The weather down here in Livermore was cloudy, but not too bad. As we drove up the rode to the park, we headed into the clouds and fog. It was chilly and really muddy, but we had a good hike. The boys all had a blast. 4 goldens running amok. Keith also enjoyed frolicking in the mud as did Tim who thought it was cool that the mud stuck to his shoes and made his feet look big.

Tim enjoyed getting in on the picture posing action with Ren and Charlie - he's decided Ren's name is really "Red" which is quite appropriate given Ren's color :)

Charlie even got Jasper to play with him which is really unusual - Jasper usually reserves play for his brothers and rarely (can't remember the last time) plays with other dogs.

At the end of the hike we had great gyros at Demitri's in Livermore, then discovered that Ren's crown has fallen off as we got back to the car and tried to show it off. Must have happened sometime in the past 2-3 days.

Dog Vaccinations

2009-01-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

So, I just finished watching "Private Practice" - a child on this episode died from measles. His mother had chosen not to vaccinate against measles because she believed that the vaccinations she gave her oldest had caused his autism. Having dog "kids", I have my own opinions on dog vaccinations, formed from research, things I've heard from other dog moms and dads, vets, reading, etc.

It is considered fairly standard to give dogs annual vaccinations - specifically DHPP (Distemper, Hepatitis, Parainfluenza, and Parvovirus). Rabies vaccinations are given at ~4 months, then again one year later and then every 3 years after that. Little research has been done on how long vaccinations last and how frequently they truly need given. The only people that have done research so far are the vaccination companies who have little incentive to prove that vaccinations should be done less frequently. There are some movements and projects out there to try to change this, but it takes time and $$$.

One veterinarian has become a proponent of changing standard vaccination protocols. Dr. Jean Dodds has a lot of information available at: http://www.doglogic.com/vaccination.htm

The big question is, does it hurt my dog to give vaccinations more frequently than necessary. Once again, the answer is not clear. I know that I have one dog who has a very weak immune system - he has bad allergies and seems to catch every little cold/sickness he comes in contact with.

So, what have I decided to do about this?
I've decided that I am going to pay the extra money to have my dogs titer tested each year. This is a test that determines if your dog has the antibodies to protect their body against a disease. If they do have the antibodies, no need to vaccinate from my perspective. Jasper has not had a vaccination in over 3 years now (rabies and DHPP) and his titer levels continue to show that his antibodies are fine. Zack, has had his titer on rabies and parvo come back fine for 3 years, but needed a distemper booster once. I talked long and hard with my vet before doing this booster, but decided since I attend a lot of dog shows, take my dogs to be demo dogs at puppy classes, etc that it was worth the risk to him immune system to do the titer.

What about puppies?
One piece of information that I really like is from the american veterinary society of animal behavior: http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/images/stories/Position_Statements/puppy%20socialization.pdf
Traditional vaccination protocols have puppies get 4 sets of puppy shots 3-4 weeks apart by 4 months of age (starting at 6-9 weeks). The reason for this is that the puppies are born with the mother's immunity. Sometime between 6 weeks and 4 months, the mother's immunity wears off. When that happens, any immunity from vaccinations also wears off at the same time. So, by vaccinating 4 times, you try to minimize the amount of time your puppy is not covered and make sure that you don't give the vaccination, have it wear off with the mom's immunity and have a non-immunized puppy. With Renegade, the breeder gave no vaccinations before the puppies came home at 7 weeks. I vaccinated once at 9 weeks and once at 12 weeks. I then titer tested him at 16 weeks and he had the appropriate antibodies. He is now almost 4 and has not needed any additional DHPP shots (with annual titer testing).

So, the big question is - does it hurt them? I don't know for sure... However I feel with titer testing, there's no point in taking the risk. I do believe in protecting my dogs from the diseases and will give the vaccinations if the antibodies are not present, but don't really see the point if the antibodies are still there...

That said, titer testing is not cheap, so for those on a budget, it is a tougher question. (OK, I am on a budget, but all my budget goes to the dogs - no money for me or keith!)

Why I love my job!

2009-01-06T12:19:00.001-08:00

OK, I love my job because I get to spend time with dogs, and I get to see lots of puppies! However, as with any career there are good and bad aspects to the job. It kills me when the families are not committed enough to help a dog, or when a dog has a severe behavioral issue. I always feel great when people are able to teach their dog new things or overcome problems. However, now and then there are extra special moments that really make me smile. Kathleen, a client of mine, sent me an email today that really touched me. She has done an amazing job working with Beau - her adult golden and has recently gotten a new puppy Zachary who is now about 10 months I think. She is really committed to her dogs and training them well and she is one of those people who make my jobs easy. Her email was so cute I wanted to share it.

One piece of info that may help clarify her email is that CGC is the Canine Good Citizen Test that the AKC has created. Kathleen and Zachary recently completed our CGC prep class and did great on the test considering that Zachary is a very social, energetic young pup. He'll be passing the test with flying colors in no time I'm sure!

Here's her email (posted with permission):

In case anyone ever asks you why handling the ears and paws is part of the CGC (ie: "but vets and groomers already know how to deal with the dog."):

I had Zachary at the library for a meet-n-greet, looking adorable in his furry belled Christmas scrunchie "collar", and a little boy, maybe 3 years old who spoke little English except "doggie", came up to pet him. This little boy was fascinated with how Zachary "worked". He was very calm and gentle (Caesar would have loved his "energy") but very curious. He gently cupped Zachary's muzzle in both hands, like a kid holds a baby bottle, and looked in his nose and at his whiskers. When Zachary's mouth was open he peered at his tongue from just a few inches away. Then he tried to open Zachary's mouth wider. Zachary wiggled at that, so I showed the boy Zachary's teeth - and boy giggled and showed Zachary his.

The boy's dad sat down and was wondering what sort of dog Zachary was. He said he grew in Mexico with Rotties but the dogs were too big and strong. We chatted for awhile about dogs while the little boy continued his explorations. Had to put a stop to him trying to put his fingers near Zachary's eyes. He wasn't actually trying to touch the eye, I think he was trying to make him blink. Then he moved down to the paws. Zachary wouldn't shake for him, but I would get him to shake for me and then transfer the paw the little boy's hands, who held this big paw in his little hands and giggled. I was a bit surprised at this point, as Zachary isn't usually big on having his front paws held for any length of time. Then for a while he just stood next to Zachary with his arm around him as they were pretty close to the same size. Zachary just sat there with a happy grin.

Finally it was time to go and the little boy took one of Zachary's soft, floppy ears and slowly and gently opened it out, held it up, and whispered something into it. He was so close Zachary's ear fur was touching the boy's nose.

Believe it or not, my wiggly boy was the perfect ambassador for the golden breed through all this. It definitely helped that we had been sitting there for a good 15 minutes before the boy got there so the initial wiggles were out, and that we had been there the previous day as well, but still I have NEVER seen Zachary so calm and patient, although obviously enjoying the attention, and the leash was even loose.

So, if anyone ever asks you why handling the ears is part of CGC you can tell them that someday a little boy might decide to whisper something into them. :)

Cheers!
Kathleen

2009 here we come!

2009-01-03T19:58:00.001-08:00

As the new year came, I did a bit of reflecting on 2008 - some good, some bad, but things are looking great going into the new year.

Zack -
2008: still itchy, but still happy as can be - loves his job as demo dog for my classes. He's great at mooching treats from unsuspecting puppy owners.
2009: Hope we keep making progress on the itchiness - we're down to 3 drugs/herbs daily plus monthly acupuncture and monthly allergy shots. He also is going to join a Paws to Read program in january in Danville - a program where kids read to dogs at a public library.

Jasper -
2008: 1 year cancer free this year! Acting like a pup and having a blast. enjoying his cancer survivor title as it means there's a lot fewer rules. However, he did have a seizure for yet to be determined reasons.
2009: Hoping for no more seizures, going to have his 10th bday in February!

Renegade -
2008: Was really rough for him. He had a behavioral meltdown at an agility trial in april and took several months off from the sport. Just as we were returning to trials he had a slew of health issues including a root canal, a crown, a hernia, a benign cyst, some muscle pulls, and a bout of stomach flu.
2009: We're healthy so far, doing lots of hiking and doing great with dog encounters on hikes. We'll be doing a lot of dock jumping and agility this month and we're hoping it all goes well!

Keith -
2008: He settled into his job at Mattson, did a few trips to Korea and has been rock climbing a lot...
2009: Hoping his job at Mattson continues to exist, more rock climbing, and getting the house fixed up.

Wendy -
2008: My business has really grown this year. I put in a training field in Livermore at my vet clinic that has allowed me to offer a lot more classes without schedule restrictions like my classes through the city of pleasanton parks dept. Doing a bit less work for Splash Dogs towards the end of the year, but still competing with Ren and Jasper with Splash Dogs.
2009: Hoping the dogs stay healthy and happy, hoping the biz keeps growing, Hoping Ren can get back into a full agility trial schedule without more emotional meltdowns.

I hope to have some new pics up soon - my friends have been taking their cameras on our hikes the past 2 weeks, hoping they got something good!

Relaxing Christmas

2008-12-25T18:01:00.001-08:00

OK, I've been remiss in doing any posts lately, but I'm just so enjoying our lazy christmas - no plans, no visitors, etc! We did a hike with Izzy and her people this morning in the cold - we were the only people out hiking - all the dogs had a blast!

I promise a longer post for new year's, with some pics, but here's a few updates:

Ren: crown is still in place, he's over his stomach flu and enjoying all the extra rations because he got WAY too skinny after not having any food for 4 days. He's back to about 75% - he really wore himself out with Izzy today and has been sleeping since we got home which is really unusual for him.

Jasper: No more definite seizures, was happy as a pup running around this morning and finding good sticks to carry around.

Zack: Still itchy as ever, but loving his time as demo dog for my classes and was the ringleader taking Izzy and Ren on long runs off to the side of the trail this morning.

Gerkin: Still happy, healthy and annoyingly snuggly and I'm not sure how any cat can purr so loudly for so long - He's 15 this month!

Foster Dog: Biscuit (Ruby's sister) is back with us and in heat - talk about a pain. Hopefully she'll have a new family early in the new year. She really is a sweet girl.

Merry Christmas all - I'm back to doing nothing, playing with my ps3, and snuggling my dogs.

We are sick of going to the vet!

2008-12-09T11:19:00.001-08:00

OK, so Ren now has his bling back on his tooth. The crown is replaced and has been in place for 7 days now! My regular vet went through the paperwork UC Davis sent her and found some notes on the first crown placement stating that they had forgotten to check it with the mold and that it didn't seem to seat well on the tooth. Kind of explains why it fell off so quickly and why they were so quick to offer to replace it for free. The resident I continued to work with though was one of those people who really rubbed me the wrong way - he kept implying I caused it to fall off by tugging (even though the clinician said it was fine and the head guy said it was their fault)... Anyways, let's hope the saga of Ren's tooth is over.

Ren had his umbilical hernia fixed yesterday - turns out there was just a small hole, so it was a fairly minor surgery, but I'm glad we caught it before it turned into something serious. He also had a cyst removed from his neck. Now I have to keep him relatively quiet until this weekend. On leash only exercise (or the treadmill) and no wrestling with Zack or Jasper. He's going to drive us bananas!

Ren's also been having some muscle issues - we've been trying to minimize his excercise (no agility), having lots of acupuncture. He saw the chiropractor today who said he was a mess, hopefully the adjustments will hold and he'll be back to normal soon.

No more obvious seizures from Jasper - he's had a few minor weird moments where he gets clingy or paces and doesn't know what he wants - not sure if those are seizures or were stress from Keith being gone so long. Still just waiting and seeing.

Keith's back from korea and officially not going anywhere until at least January! (OK, now that I typed that I'm sure some major issue will come up and they'll send him before then...)

Update on Mr Moose

2008-11-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

OK, new updates on the case of Mr Moose.
Grandma is expected to arrive Dec 12th, let's hope he lasts that long!

Renegade was brought in for his mug shots (tell me this face is guilty!)

and we have a new suspect: Gerkin

We have a mystery at our house

2008-11-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

Who killed (disemboweled) Mr. Moose?

Subject: Mr Moose - about 4 months old
Status: Disemboweled, not likely to survive unless grandma arrives soon with the sewing machine
Suspects: Jasper and Renegade - both have a history of disembowelment and have been seen interacting with Mr Moose. Jasper seen interacting in the last 24 hours is our prime suspect

Update:
We have 2 new suspects. Zack, not frequently to be seen interacting with toys was seen in the vicinity of Mr Moose after his disembowelment.

And the Baby. The baby was found by Jasper under a hotel bed and he brought it home with us. The baby's history is unknown and prior arrests are also unknown.

We're hoping to solve the mystery and revive Mr Moose if Grandma arrives in time!

vet bills, vet bills, and more vet bills

2008-11-21T19:22:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a rough couple of years for the pocket book from the perspective of vet bills.

Last year we had Jasper's radiation treatment for his cancer. Luckily that seems to have been well worth the time, money and stress to Jasper as he's been happy as can be the past several months - acting like a puppy again.

This year, the big saga has been Zack's allergies and Ren's tooth.

Zack's allergies seem to be getting more under control from the perspective that we are managing his flare ups with very rare use of antibiotics. He's on monthly allergy shots, monthly acupuncture, temaril (an antihistimine), and several herbs and supplements. We're trying a new tactic of trying to clean out his GI tract assuming that his tummy gurgling and burping might be related to the skin allergies. It's too soon to tell if it's helping or not though. At this point, I'll try anything to help the poor boy. It's so sad when he gets really itchy and it turns into infection.

Ren's tooth - well, there's many blog posts about that. We're now waiting to hear from UC Davis that they've made the replacement crown to fix the poorly made one from before. Then, they're going to install it (at no cost to me). I'm skeptical, but this is the last step I'm trying before we just pull the dang tooth out.

Well, now we have a new stress and possible major expense. Jasper had a petit mal seizure today (or so we are speculating based on the symptoms). He lost motor control of his feet for a few minutes. We're hoping this is just a random, unexplained seizure and that we don't see any more. It's unlikely to be epilipsy as that usually shows up before the age of 4. However, if he does have more seizures, we'll be doing an MRI to see if we can further diagnose what's going on. The scary thing is that Jasper's mom died of lymphoma and also had seizures as a symptom. If it does turn out to be cancer, it's going to be a tough decision on if we treat it or not. We swore after his last bout that we wouldn't do anything else, but with it being a different type of cancer, it might change that thought. We're just hoping we don't have to decide these things. For more information on seizures in senior dogs see: http://www.pedigree.com/02All%20Things%20Dog/Article%20Library/fetch.aspx?artId=46&catId=2&sCatId=9&catName=Senior&sCatName=Health

Additionally, I found out today that Ren has an umbilical hernia. We need to operate to fix it, or there is the risk of major problems. He goes in for surgery on Dec 8th. Depending on what organs are involved and other factors I don't get, it could be a fairly major surgery and keep him out of agility for a few weeks. Much better than risking not taking care of it though. For more info on this problem see: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+1571&aid=442

Renegade Double Q's!!!

2008-11-21T19:18:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, Renegade and I did one day of an AKC agility trial. This time we went back to competing in Excellent B (our previous foray into AKC a few weeks ago was at the novice preferred level just to test the waters). This meant we were competing in the morning when the trial is the most hectic and were not at the end of the day like before when most of the dogs were gone. Ren remained calm and relaxed most of the time. He had a few brief moments of stress, but coped well. He did great at the agility part and qualified in both of his 2 runs which means he now has 5 of 20 double Q's towards his MACH (master's agility champion) title.

Let's hope this trend of being calm and not worried around the other dogs continues. We'll be doing one day of a trial in a few weeks again and then probably no more trials till the new year. I want to take his come back slow and make sure I don't stress him out too much...

For the first time in several months I see a glimmer of the light at the end of the tunnel and hope that he continues to learn that he does not need to be so worried about the other dogs.

Update on Ren's bling

2008-11-17T12:13:00.000-08:00

So, we went back to UC Davis last week...
It was good that we got treated like royalty there! I had the med student, the resident, and the vet above the resident all helping me. They determined that the crown was not made correctly by the lab. The head vet guy acknowledged that while the lab made the crown wrong, that they made the mistake of putting it on even though it didn't properly fit the mold.

So now, they're remaking the crown and are going to try reinstalling it next week. This is my last attempt at rescuing this tooth!

Renegade agility update

2008-11-10T14:27:00.000-08:00

Well, Renegade and I competed in an agility trial on Sunday. It was a CPE event which we had never done before. We competed in level 3 (with 5 being the highest) as we were able to skip levels 1 and 2 due to having advanced titles in other organizations. Renegade did awesome at the agility part of things. He ran 4 runs and was great in all of them. The only thing I could have asked for was better contacts. He got 2 1sts and a 2nd in the 3 runs that I checked in scores in. He even had better times than Beadle in 2 of his runs (OK Beadle had a lot of spins and extra running, but that's still great for us as Beadle usually is faster than us even with several major mistakes).

The best part was that there was not a single growl or snarl or lunge! He seemed completely relaxed except for the few times that a dog in a crate reacted at us as we passed by (that really stresses him out). I used cheese to lure him through large groups of dogs in close proximity, but didn't need the lure other times - although he got lots of rewards for hanging out with dogs walking past and being near him.

He had a funny moment when he finished one of his runs, ignored my recall and visited Keith. Dad was a good dad and turned his back to ignore Ren. Except he forgot he had Ren's new Wubba in his back pocket. Ren picked his pocket and triumphantly ran back to me! The good news is that Ren recalled back to me the next 2 runs - although I confess we cheated and left wubba in the car for those runs.

We're going to do an AKC trial in the same location next weekend. Should be a lot more dogs there and a lot more intensity and activity which will make for a bigger challenge. The good thing is that Ren got to have a positive experience at this site and I worked out a routine that included hanging out near the entrance to the arena for 10-15 minutes before his run just rewarding him when dogs walked by. This seemed to help him relax before we moved into the chaotic arena for our run. We also are crating him in the car which gives him a quiet place to chill out without other dogs walking past his crate. My big stress is that Keith can't come with us as originally planned - he'll be in korea again for 2 weeks. Let's hope all goes well!

Ren lost his bling

2008-10-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

So, 5 days after we got Ren's crown installed, it fell off :( So, after ~$2500 worth of dental work we were left wondering what to do... I talked with my regular vet (Thanks Brenda!), talked on the phone with the vet at UC Davis and was still left wondering. It's clear that there are 3 choices: 1) Put the crown back on, 2) leave the crown off and leave the tooth as is until it breaks, 3) extract the tooth. After talking to the vet at Davis, I was under the impression that he thought we should probably try putting the crown back on. However, he didn't seem to be hearing me that I will play tug with Renegade no matter what and there didn't seem to be much awareness of his drive, intensity, lifestyle and toy obsession. He also couldn't tell me that there was any reason to think the crown would stay on better the 2nd time.

So, we decided to get a 2nd opinion. I talked with Brenda some more and she told me about a few private practice DVM dentists in the area and we discussed the pros and cons. I decided to go see Dr Anderson at San Francisco Vet Specialists. After talking with her assistant on the phone, I had a good feeling about the practice, but also learned that she is also a part time clinician at UC Davis. I still felt it was worth her opinion as even with her association with Davis, she has extensive private practice experience.

So, on Tuesday, we made the trek to SF - luckily it was fairly traffic free both ways! I was very impressed with the office staff who helped me keep other dogs away from Ren and even offered to get me coffee or tea since there was another dog stationed near the drink station. Then, I met Dr. Anderson. She is truly wonderful and has restored my faith in people's willingness to do the right thing rather than the profitable thing. She truly listened to me talk about my concerns, talked through the options, gave her opinions, etc. She feels that it is likely that there was some issue with the crown install and does NOT think it should have fallen off. She has put crowns on schutzhund dogs who do bite work and had the crowns stay in place. She also feels Davis should stand behind their work and replace the crown free of charge - lucky for me she also works there :). She also, refused to let me pay for the office visit (WOW!). I offered several times to pay for the office visit, and also suggested that I'd be willing to pay for the crown replacement at her private practice if it meant I'd get better quality. Instead she is arranging everything for me with UC Davis, and is going to do her best to do the replacement for free and is arranging the schedule so she will be there to either do, or supervise the crown replacement at Davis!

Not everyday that you have an experience like that! Anyone looking for a vet dentist - go see Dr. Anderson at her practice in SF!

Ren's got bling

2008-10-18T16:36:00.001-07:00

So, Ren had his root canal, and all was good. Then Ren broke his tooth again...

So, we had the root canal fixed and decided to put in a crown.

That involved going to UC Davis 2 more times - once to have the tooth fixed and prepped for the crown and then again 10 days later to have the crown put in.

The 10 days in between were quite difficult as Ren was not allowed to fetch, chew, tug or otherwise engage with toys. Not so bad for a normal dog, but he was slowly going insane by the end. It made me realize that my goal to have a toy motivated dog succeeded and then some!

Now his crown is installed and he's back to normal activity - very happy to have toys back in his mouth! And we all think his new tooth is very beautiful. The interesting part will be to see if he can manage to keep this intact now...

One Year Cancer Free!

2008-10-04T18:29:00.000-07:00

So, one year ago this month, Jasper finished his radiation treatment for his cancer. He was miserable having to go to radiation 3 times/week for 6 weeks. It took a few weeks post radiation for his skin to heal, but then he was back to his old silly self!

This week he had his one year post radiation ultra sound and x-ray and was deemed free and clear of cancer so far! We're hopeful that this means we have many more wonderful days with Jasper.

Today we took a hike to Morgan territory and it was great to see Jasper acting like a puppy even at the age of 9! He even decided to pose for a picture for us - Zack and Ren love to pose, Jasper resists at every opportunity

Jasper's brothers Ren and Zack of course enjoyed themselves on the hike and Jasper wanted me to show off his cute posing brothers. For more pics of all 3 boys, visit my flickr page at: http://flickr.com/photos/wkrehbiel/sets/72157607739367820/

Let sleeping dogs lie...

2008-09-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

Dogs really are creatures of habit. It's surprising how quickly humans get used to their habits as well though! All 3 of my boys have their "usual" spots for hanging out during the evenings at our house. If they aren't in one of their usual spots, the red flags go up and I instantly worry about what's wrong, or what they're getting into.

This week, Keith is out of town and I had one of those moments. I did a scan for the dogs as I regularly do.
Zack of course was in his regular spot in the "boat". The "boat" is really a dog bed with a bolster around the outside. It kind of looks like a life boat which is where the name came from. At one point, one of our foster dogs ripped up Zack's boat, and our friend Debbie came to the rescue with the new blue "boat". She had bought it at a rescue fundraiser and was going to give it to another friend. Zack was pleased that I was greedy and snapped it up for Zack. It's now his favorite place even though we have repaired the old boat as well. If any other dog (ours or guest dogs) lie in the boat, he gives them evil looks until they move and give it back to him...

Jasper was in the middle of the floor with his current favorite stuffed animal (yes it's an anteater) between his paws. If it's not there, it's usually in his mouth while he sleeps...

Ren's usual place in the evenings is holding hands with Keith while he sits next to keith or is on the ottoman right next to keith on the couch. No, Keith, so I checked under my feet, and behind the couch, still no Ren. He wasn't outside on the deck either. Now, I'm worried, then I look around and realize he's right in plain sight - just not in his usual place. He's by the back door waiting for dad to come home :( Too bad he's gone till next Saturday in Korea... How pathetic is that

Krehbiel K9's top 10 places in California

2008-09-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

All 3 dogs got to vote, so some of Ren's top picks ended up lower cause Zack and Jasper didn't agree :)

10. Tommie's Deli - A local Livermore deli that always involves a walk from our house to get lunch and frequently results in mom buying the $2/lb lunch meat ends that Tommie sells as dog treats. No fillers, no additives, and quite tasty for the dogs! Of course they always get part of mom and dad's sandwiches as well. And people always stop to pet the gorgeous dogs! :D

9. Dixon, CA - Just outside of Sacramento, this is where we spend most of our agility weekends. There's not too much special about the city, just the fact that we get to do agility here!

Ren would have ranked this higher, but Zack and Jasper think it's kind of boring. Although if they would have the Easter egg hunts (hot dogs in the easter eggs) every trial as pictured here, they would have agreed with Ren!

8. Dr. Mills Office - OK, this one is weird, but my dogs LOVE to go to the vet. It's part of why I love her so much, but she makes sure the dogs are very happy and full of beef liver. Zack always smiles and sings, and Ren and Jasper are just as happy.

7. the Other Place - a great dog friendly get away in Boonville, near Mendocino. Keith loves going to the Anderson Valley Brewing Company, there's wine tasting, but that's not the dogs favorite part. They love the pond on the property, the couple acre fenced in yard with each private cottage and the miles of hiking available on the property.

6. Fort Funston - Leash free dog beach south of San Francisco. Doggy heaven! Looking through my pictures, I've discovered all my pics from here are from a film camera and not in digital. Guess that means we haven't been back in a while and need to add this to the todo list!

5. Sunol Regional Preserve - Miles of hiking, a creek to swim in, and only 20 minutes from home!

4. Lake Del Valle - Miles of hiking, a stream and a lake to swim in and only 10 minutes from home (do you sense a theme here?)

3. Tahoe/Truckee - Miles of hiking, several lakes and even better - SNOW!!!

2. Gray Eagle - Miles of hiking, oodles of lakes, dedicated mom and dad time and a swimming hole 20 feet from the cabin deck!

1. Carmel - People to pet us, an off-leash beach, restaurants that let us eat with the people (dog menus, picture taking and champagne buckets as water bowls!) The dogs are chastising me now as I only have film pictures from here as well - guess that means we haven't been back lately. This is going to the top of the list (although I have to check if our usual hotel - Doris Day's Cypress Inn allow 3 dogs or if we'll have to make it a day trip).

Tennis shoes vs sandals

2008-09-20T13:53:00.001-07:00

I was very sad today when my feet were cold enough to prompt me to put on socks and tennis shoes for the first time in many, many months (other than a few random occasions). My feet are feeling very confined today.

Then, I realized how lucky I was that my job and the climate here allow me to spend 5 months straight wearing flip flops, chacos or going barefoot!

Usually I end up wearing tennis shoes when I do agility with Renegade, but that's been limited this summer since we've only been to a few classes and we haven't done a trial since April. Figure that's why it seemed so weird today when I put on the socks.

On a positive note, we should be back at class regularly starting next week and I've entered Ren in a trial in Santa Rosa in November! Wish us luck...

Sandwiches and the Greatest American Dog

2008-09-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

OK, so this blog post is going to be about my thoughts on the tv show the Greatest American Dog, but I couldn't resist a quick brag about my dogs!
I forgot to feed them breakfast today, and left the house at 2pm and forgot a 1/2 sandwich sitting on my coffee table. It was wrapped in paper, but in plain site and easy reach! I got home at 5pm and the sandwich was untouched by any of my 3 dogs who had ample opportunity and certainly plenty of hunger due to my negligence of missing breakfast!

So, the tv show The Greatest American Dog just ended. You can view full episodes from their website. I was concerned when I first heard about the show. Sounded like a good way for people to make their dogs be weird on tv again. I ended up fairly impressed with how the show went. The show was very pro-positive training and they came down pretty hard on anyone who yelled at or intimidated their dog. They also did what I thought was a nice bit where two of the judges had an argument on training methods (positive vs dominance/intimidation techniques). The judges never agreed, but did make up. I thought it was a good illustration of the reality of the dog training profession - two very different views of how to accomplish the same tasks and neither side being willing to compromise. Hopefully, it helped educate the public a bit on what to ask when looking for a trainer to work with. I was also pleased that the guy who took every opportunity to learn from everyone ended up winning (ok, I have to confess he was kind of cute too - both the dog and the guy ).

So, as a trainer and a dog owner, I had to ask myself how my dogs would have done on the show. Here's my analysis:

Jasper: We maybe would have made it past week one or two just cause he's so darn sweet, but we would have failed miserably at any of the challenges that involved focus or courage. Obedience would have depended on if he was feeling like listening or wanting to visit the people or sniff the flowers. He would have gone looking for love instead of staying while the elephant approached. He would have stopped to eat grass or roll in the grass instead of leading the puppies back. This show definitely would not have been the best way to showcase his talents! Now if it was a contest to see who could snuggle the most people, chew up the most sticks, or eat the most grass, then he would have been a winner!

Zack: Probably would have been my best bet. Obedience would have been a snap as they were allowed to carry cookies. Finding the food on the other side of the wall would have been no issue, agility obstacles wouldn't have been a problem. He wouldn't have been able to catch the frisbee - but you had the option of having another teammate do that task. Hitting bells, digging for mom, bringing back puppies, etc - again all no problem. Two tasks he would have failed miserably at are staying still while the elephant approached - no way, no how! and the zip line challenge. He won't even jump off a 2 foot dock to go swimming which he desperately wants to do. Not sure if this would have done us in or not as it was possible to fail at a task but still not get eliminated... Our relationship would have gotten major kudos and Zack definitely is willing to stay with other people unlike the other finalist's maltese.

Renegade: Well, if we could have gotten past the initial intro with all the other house dogs we would have probably done pretty well (that intro would have been dicey though). Obedience, agility, tricks, focus, confidence, relationship with mom all are great. He would have jumped off the zip line platform without a 2nd thought (especially if his wubba went first). Elephant would have been a problem, but not as much as it would have been with Zack. He does have a bit of separation anxiety from mom, but after living with all the other housemates for a few weeks, they would have been acceptable surrogates. (I mention this as one of the 2 finalists basically didn't win cause her dog didn't function well without her present). Now, we get to the problem! The bring the puppies out of the maze challenge. I would have had to refuse to try the challenge as it would have made me feel awful if ren decided the puppies needed growled and snarled at and ruined their future! Meeting new dogs, not his strong suit!

Wendy: Well, in the first place I would never really do something like this, but... I probably would have made others in the house mad by offering too much advice! Also, you NEVER would have got me on the stage dancing with my dog or doing silly skits with me in a costume!

Oh well, we'll never know...

I just know that I think all 3 of my boys are the greatest american dogs!

Ren's Root Canal

2008-09-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

So, at a vet visit to look at a lump on Ren's leg a few months ago, our vet (Brenda Mills) noticed that one of Ren's upper molars had some issues. She recommended we go to UC Davis for a root canal for Ren. We decided to go with the root canal vs just extracting the tooth since it is the first molar and one of the main ones used for chewing. Without this tooth, it would have been likely that he would have had more tooth decay issues later in life. Additionally, he was born without one of his left upper and one of his left lower teeth, so he's already down 2 teeth...

After dealing with the lump for a few weeks (which luckily ended up being nothing after a bit of a scare), I finally called to make the dentist appointment. They were scheduleing out several weeks ahead, so we finally made it in for our appointment last week.

The dentist agreed that a root canal was in order (something about complex fractures of the tooth that he thought had been there for a while) and they kept Ren over night (that killed me!) and did the surgery the next morning.

The surgery went well - they said there was some damage on the matching tooth on the left side, but nothing serious. They fixed the broken tooth, but said we need to do x-rays to recheck in 3 months. There was some minor infection in the root of the tooth which the root canal took care of, but makes the likelihood of long term success lower. See his pretty new tooth below - it's the molar that looks a lot shorter than it should with red gums on the top right section of the tooth (I should have taken a before picture! It was yucky looking)

He was really groggy after the anestesia, but was back to normal the next day. Since then he's been chewing like mad - I hadn't noticed he had stopped. I guess I had attributed it to him maturing...

I picked up all the hard bones that my vet suspects might have caused his initial damage.

He's a hard one to get chew toys for, as regular raw hide is WAY to easy for him, even pressed rawhide like the bone below, only lasts 10-15 minutes and causes tons of gas and soft stools.

I've ordered some new "tough" chew toys and hope that they're tough enough to stand up to him, but not so tough as to cause more damage! They're toys I've had before, so I'm hoping I'm not wasting too much money, although they're tough enough I suppose another broken tooth isn't out of the question.

Dental Dinosaur
Galileo Bone
Turkey Leg (this one is a new toy for us)

Agility and Dock Jumping over Labor Day

2008-09-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I took the camera, but never had time to get it out as I was too busy helping run the event. Keith got a shot of Zack and Jasper watching dogs jump in the pool from our tent...

Jasper had a blast and jumped over 9 feet a few times - even for keith!

Renegade did dock jumping and was consistently hitting 20-21' and tied his personal best of 21'11"!!! I know he's got a 22 footer in him, he's been improving by 6" or so each event this summer, we'll have to see what happens in San Mateo and San Jose over the next month.

We didn't end up doing agility with Ren, but got lots of good short training sessions in the agility area making it a positive experience for him.

Zack enjoyed using the exit ramp for swimming!

Back From Grayeagle

2008-08-28T16:07:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm home for 3 hours and am busy packing and getting ready to leave to go to the Bay Team USDAA (http://www.bayteam.org) Western Regional agility trial for dock jumping and agility. Almost 500 dogs doing agility!!

Gray Eagle Lodge was great as usual!! Lots of good food, lots of quiet reading time, lots of fetch in the creek by our cabin and TONS of hiking. Keith and Ren did ~32 miles over the 6 days. Jasper, Zack and I did less than that...

A few of my favorite pics:

For all our pics go to my flickr page at: http://flickr.com/photos/wkrehbiel/sets/72157606999606098/

Off to Gray Eagle Lodge

2008-08-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

We leave tomorrow morning for a 7 day trip to Gray Eagle Lodge
All 3 boys, Keith and I will get in the minivan for 7 days of hiking, lounging, eating good food and hanging out. No tvs, no cell phone service, no internet access!!! :D

Immediately after returning, I'll unpack the car, repack the car and then head out to a large dock jumping and agility competition in Prunedale (near Monterrey) over labor day weekend.

Then, I'm home for 2 days (and slammed with client appointments) and off to UC Davis for 2 days for Renegade to get a root canal.

I'll blog about all when I finally get back!!

Picture from Grayeagle last year:

Doggy Treadmill

2008-08-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

We've taught Renegade to run on a treadmill. This has been useful during rainy season when it's hard to get him out for enough exercise without getting totally drenched and muddy. It's also been nice to help him recover from muscle sprains, etc as it's hard to get him to do controlled motion and exercise off leash :) He tends to spin and jump and turn much harder than we want him to at times!

So, we've been using a treadmill that we bought off of craigslist last year. The problem was, we didn't really know what features to look for in a treadmill that you plan on using for dogs vs humans.
Problem #1 is the center mount pole - Not so great for him to run diagonally the way he needs to on this treadmill.

Problem #2 was that Ren is a VERY long dog (we think there must be dachsund in his history :D). We did NOT get an extra long treadmill. This picture is misleading as his feet are all the way at the front of the treast be a dachshund somewheredmill (which is not running). We were never able to get him much above 4.2mph as the faster he goes, the more he stretches out.

So, one of my friends/clients had a treadmill in her garage that she offered to me. The great thing is that it does not have the center pole:

It also is a full foot longer than our old treadmill. I haven't used it too much with Ren yet as it's been 90+ degrees in the evenings and way too hot in our garage for running, but we easily got him up to 5mph on the new one without worry of him extending his stride beyond the length of the treadmill!

Our old treadmill is going to be finding it's way to my friend Debbie's house for her to use with her (shorter) dog Chase to help exercise him while she recovers from a serious car accident.

Mud Puppies

2008-08-12T16:20:00.001-07:00

We went on a hike at Morgan Territory north of Livermore this weekend. It was much needed as the dogs exploded with energy. We ran into a friend out at the trailhead which is a bit odd as you have to take a one lane road 8 miles out to this place and we only saw one other group of people on our whole hike.

The first pond we found was a bit muddy and quite full of frogs! It was entertaining watching hundreds of frogs leap out of the way as the dogs ran along the shore.
Then we hiked for a while and the dogs got warm until they found the next "swimming" location. Not my first choice, but they sure enjoyed it! Glad we have a dog mobile that was ok to have muddy dogs in on the way home.

For more pics check out: my flickr page

Zen Ren

2008-08-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

So, Ren has been having reactivity issues. While he's always had some minor problems, he had a meltdown at an agility trial in April. I tried to continue agility with him, but his reactivity remained at post melt-down state. Agility class had been a "safe" place for him pre-melt down. I rarely saw any stress or reactivity from him except when a strange dog came right up to his crate while he was inside. Post melt-down he was reacting at dogs in the parking lot and was stiffening and giving "hard eye" to familiar dogs. I opted to remove him from class so he didn't practice reactivity in the agility context.

Now, 4 months later, after tons of work and anti-anxiety drugs for Ren, I decided it was time to try to return to class. While he's not cured (and never will be), I felt that his behavior around other dogs had dramatically improved enough to try again. I was a basket case heading into class. I don't know how I would have reacted if it hadn't gone well Anyways, he was the picture of a model dog. The only stress I saw was when we were close by and on leash near a new dog who was staring at him. Ren, just stiffened, but called off it easily. After that, he was completely relaxed from what I could see. He even remained calm while 2 different dogs (one an unfamiliar dog) approached his crate! He seemed to remember how to do agility - I seem to have a lot to remember . Ren was quite excited and energized to be back at agility which made me a bit nervous as when he's bouncing off the walls, he's more likely to react. But, he was a very Zen Ren!!

Let's hope that things continue this well at class and at trials when I decide he's ready!