Stopping to smell the flowers…
It’s been about 6.5 weeks since Ticket’s second surgery, and I’m very happy with her progress. She still has a limp, but it’s subtle most of the time. It can get worse with exercise, but is back to “normal” the next day, so nothing persists. Xrays show good healing. I’m finally feeling like she’s making progress in the right direction.
We’re moving on to increasing her activity, adding strengthening exercises, and starting to add some sprints. One game she loves is where I take her in the backyard with her tug toy, tug for a minute, then give her the toy, which she will run around the yard with, before bringing it back for another round. Not running full out, and no hard planting and turning, which is what I’m still trying to avoid. I have permission to do jump work from a sit in front of a low jump, so she’ll see her first agility equipment. 🙂
In rehab, we’re upping the difficulty on the treadmill. She’s back to doing the incline treadmill, and she does intervals with the water level lower, so she gets increased range of motion on her knee. Something else we’re trying that seems to be helping is neuromuscular electrostrimulation (NMES) on her quadriceps. With the disuse for an extended period of time, sometimes there can be neurogenic inhibition on the firing of that muscle. So you do electrostimulation on the nerves on the muscle, to help reeducate it. It’s not something I’d find particularly comfortable, but she has done fantastic with it–lays on her side and lets us zap her. Since we’ve been doing that, I really feel like her walking has improved, for what it’s worth.
I am hoping to start working with her on some “easy” agility stuff in April–straight lines, low contacts, and see how she does. I’d love to be showing her by May, but that is highly dependent on how she handles the increased activity. Mentally, she is very VERY ready.
On the way to Nationals…
Trip and I had a fantastic time at AKC Nationals, and Ticket enjoyed coming along for the ride. Trip was clean 4 out of 5 runs. Friday, she ran clean in both warmup standard and Time to Beat, but seemed a little slow. Maybe the stress of travel an the event–never could find anything “wrong” with her, but it was similar to what she showed me at a trial 2 weeks previously. Didn’t really find anything when she was massaged either. Saturday, she had bad diarrhea, for no apparent reason, and was definitely not running like herself. However, she gave me everything she could, and we made it through both Round 1 JWW and Round 2 Standard clean. Standard was particulary tricky, and I was SO proud of how she handled it.
We were in 18th place at the end of the day on Saturday, one spot out of Finals. I felt pretty confident that if we ran clean, we were in, as the odds that ALL those dogs ahead of us would be clean in Hybrid was small. To add to my stress, we were at the END of the class–244 out of about 254 dogs. It was quite a wait, though I did my best to manage it. I used to get so nervous before a run–if I had a QQ on the line I’d feel physically ill. Eventually I had a breakthrough, and it takes a lot to make me really feel those butterflies anymore. Especially with Trip. Round 1 of Nationals last year is the last time I remember feeling that fluttering nervousness in my stomach. And to be honest, I miss it a little bit. I almost have the opposite problem now, of getting excited enough about a run.
This year, I felt nothing for the warmup day, and the first two rounds. As I walked onto the line for the last run, I felt a familar little flutter. But I put Trip in her sit, kissed her on the head, and told her I loved her, just like I had every other run that weekend. And it was gone. She ran great, and felt like her normal self. She was perfect on the parts I worried about. We made it through…until she took off early, and dropped the LAST bar. At that point, I knew were in Finals if she were clean, and we lost it in the most heartbreaking way possible. I was devastated, but I just kept telling Trip what a good dog she was. Because she was. I admit, I went and had a good cry to get over it. And I got over it. Because I still have the best, most perfect dog ever. And we had an incredible Nationals, where I tried to enjoy every time we walked out onto the line. She gave me everything she had, despite the fact that she wasn’t feeling great.
And now, we have other things to focus on. I decided I’m taking Trip to World Team Tryouts one more time. I was planning on bringing Ticket, but I just don’t know if she’ll be ready. We’ll be shooting for a win-on spot of course. But if we don’t manage that, then we’d still like to be on the team for EO. I hear Belgium is lovely in the summer, and Ryan and I need a vacation. 🙂 So now the focus is on international coursework, building up lots of value and reward, and getting Trip in excellent physical shape. And we shall see. I’ve never been more confident in our ability to handle any course thrown at us. So bring it! 🙂
Ticket is actually showing some improvement now, 4 weeks after surgery #2. She is walking better, with less of a limp, though it certainly increases with muscle fatigue. However, she also seems to have better exercise tolerance. So, even after working very hard on the underwater treadmill, she is only slightly more lame, and it doesn’t persist. That’s an improvement from the first surgery, where I was never able to improve her exercise tolerance. She just hit a wall, and couldn’t increase more. And when she was working hard on the underwater treadmill, that was all she could do for the day. She is also using it better at faster speeds, but will sometimes carry the leg there. Still, every improvement is a step in the right direction.
I’m working on weight-bearing exercises with Ticket. Shaping her to lift the opposite rear leg. Peanut ball work. And I’m going to start adding some incline work on the treadmill, and see if I can get her to walk with greater range of motion. We’ll see how that affects her. But really, this is the first real improvement I think I’ve seen, and I’m going to keep hoping we’re finally getting where we need to be.
On an unrelated-to-Ticket note, Trip is doing well. We leave for Nationals in 8 days. Trip is ready. She is running well, nailing her dogwalk contacts, and I feel good about where we are. She had a “unhappy” moment at the trial this weekend, and seemed tight in her back, so I’m focusing on taking it easy heading into Nationals. She’ll keep getting laser, acupuncture, and massage, and hopefully that will keep her right in Tulsa. I’m excited to be running her, and I’m focusing on making this *her* Nationals. My motto for this Nationals is “All In,” thanks to Drew Brees and Nine Brand. 🙂
Challenges and adversity confront us everyday,
They motivate and inspire us to always find a way.
Sometimes it is the hand we’re dealt or just the circumstance,
But together we can rest assured we always stand a chance.
Our attitude and courage are as strong as they have been,
And once again we will rise up to proclaim that we’re ALL IN.
Good luck to everyone competing in Tulsa, and I hope we see you there!
