Home training while recouperating - Impulse Control

We did our own bit of training today taking inspiration from the Susan Garrett 'It's Yer Choice' video that a friend sent us as something to do while Grey is under house arrest not exercising. I probably made quite a few mistakes with not having enough room to back up. We managed to get to the point where we're practising on lead walking close to food on the floor.



We've had a few walks round town and the upside from this enforced free running ban is that we're doing lots and lots of positive experiences around his usual trigger points: kids, prams, motorbikes, vans, lorries, shouting people etc. No lunging today which is great.

I had an update on Gunner today. He's gone in for his MRI tomorrow. So hope they come up with a diagnosis to help him. Also heard that another young slovak is up for possible rehoming. It really is a shame with such few numbers in the breed in total that they come up for rehoming because people can't cope. They're difficult dogs to manage, especially the boys. There are strong grounds I believe for adapting the official breed description to underline the fact that they're working dogs, need loads of stimulation and exercise and are not couch potatoes.

Grey's Results and Further Testing

Grey is doing really well. All pain has now gone. He's down to one set of broad spectrum anti-biotics (Cephorum), pain killer (Tramadol) and a pro-biotic ( Protexin). We had a second opinion on Friday regarding Grey's treatment and results. They said that it would be a good idea for him to be seen by a specialist to see if we can get to the bottom of what is showing up in his results as some kind of immune response to some kind of stimulus like an infection, virus or something else. What I don't want to risk is this going the way of Gunner's pain problems which were also linked to an infection that went undiagnosed for a period of time. We're being referred to AHT in Newmarket.

Gunner is waiting for his MRI scan to see if they can find out why he has been collapsing every two weeks. We heard from another slovak owner who has a 5 year old male from the same sire as Gunner and Grey that he also has collapsed four times in the last year in a manner that sounds really similar to Gunner's episodes. This is obviously a real worry and with such small numbers in the gene pool, it's really important for this data to be shared amongst owners and breeders. It may be that the cases aren't linked at all, but alarm bells do ring when you hear of other dogs with the exact same mystery symptoms.

We heard back from the breed club health rep the other day that Grey's details were part of the list that has been compiled re the slovak bite fault issue and that guidance has been sent to the Kennel Club. I've requested to see this advice.

For now, I've been working on doing bits of training with Grey to try to keep him from being bored. We've done more lead walking on the halti. My friend sent me this Susan Garett video to work through which I'd forgotten about!



In general he's really wanting to go and run now. But we've been told he can't until further notice. He's had a few mad runs round the kitchen island after we've got home from a lead walk. Bless him. He's going to kick up his heels after this.

Day 7 of the mystery illness - how to manage a bored slovak?

Woke up this morning to Grey sat on the bed barking at a cat sat on a wall in the garden. No yelps or squeals today. Generally he's quite bored and finding ways to amuse himself in the house like collecting up a range of objects into his bed. He's eating and going to the loo fine. He's still quite a bit more reactive to noises outside even when in the house. He's also stood a few times barking at me which he doesn't normally do at all in the house.

I waited until the morning school run had finished and the green was all clear to take him out on the halti. We went to say hello to his friend the decorator who's now working on a house near us. He really loves this guy. He was much safer and manageable on the halti. We just mooched across the grass with lots of sniffing.

Off to the vets this afternoon.

I'm now giving him his dinner in frozen kongs to keep him busy longer.

Day 6 of the mystery illness - normal service is resumed

I woke up this morning to Grey hovering above me licking my arm to wake me up. So pretty much back to normal in terms of inside the house. he has only had the odd yelp for going down stairs. otherwise, he's behaving as he would have done before he was ill. He's had just one painkiller tablet and his antibiotic this morning.

This now raises the next issue of what to do with him while he thinks he needs to go out and he's not really allowed out to go running. And lead walking a dog that doesn't lead walk very well is an obstacle to get over.

What equipment should I put on him?

So for now we've been amusing ourselves with lead training with treats and keeping an eye out for things that might set him off in terms of reactivity. Don't want him rearing up on the collar etc.

We've been following the Dogs Trust videos for 'close' in the back yard and looselead walking with the premack principle on the green. Roll on tomorrow for test results.

Lovely lovely Dogs Trust - Dog Training Made Easy videoss

These are just fab! Nice and easy to follow videos from The Dogs Trust. There are even some of our friends in there. Obviously they can always call on us if they need someone to show just how easy it is to get your dog to pull you on the lead and bark their head off in car. it's taken us two years to reach this perfection!

Day 5 of the mystery illness - ups and downs and ups

Today has been such an up and down day. Last night he had basically refused to wee or poo all evening. We had to carry him up and down the stairs and out into the back yard, where he just stood looking sad with his back curled up so he looked like an oversized beddlington terrier. I woke up at 4a.m to him crying so I gave him some more painkiller tablets. I managed to get him to lick some water from my hand while he was in bed. This morning at 7.30 he was no better. He was very distressed if one of us leaves the room. Again wouldn't wee or poo when he was carried outside. He ate his tripe brekkie no problem and had a new antibiotic. Then he turned around for a while. We'd left the front door open and he took himself off up the front steps to look out the gate at the front. So I asked him if he wanted to go out for a wee and he did. Popped on his fleecy harness on, checked there were no dogs around and lead him over onto the green. He greeted two lady neighbours wagging and pleased to see them, then onto the green cheerily had a wee, a poo and decided to lie down on something he thought smelled nice. He seemed very engaged and actively came back to the house when I asked him if we should go find his dad. He then snoozed for an hour or so. I gave him his next pain meds at 10. A bit later he was back to crying and whining and being a bit lost. So I popped a Ttouch body wrap on him and did some Ttouch on him. He wanted to lean into me and generally be sure where we are. So after he tried to sit on the bench with me at the dining table, I moved to the dog duvet with him with all my paperwork! He seemed calmer and slept a while stretching out.

I popped out at lunchtime and on my return found a much more alert and relaxed Grey. He was in bed with a nicked butter pat pot off the side. Woohoo! He's interested in thieving again! He then went outside to the garden and dug up his raw hide chew that he continuously has a bit of a chew on and then buries in the garden. To finish it off he went up the front steps and barked at something across the green. Don't want to tempt fate but a big improvement on yesterday.

He's had chicken for dinner tonight and more painkillers and his second antibiotic. He's now fast asleep.

Report back from the vets

Quite a mixed bag of news really. He's had a every test there is to have and is now home with shaved bits and feeling sorry for himself. The vet doesn't think it's cancer, so it's a huge relief. They don't know what it can be and have mentioned that it could be as a possibility immune related arthritis. His xrays look fine on all joints and spine. We've been sent home with more painkillers and anti-biotics until Thursday evening. So I guess more of the lying around moaning until then.

Let's not forget it's Gunner and Grey's 2nd birthday today. Here they are when they were reunited as adolescents and below a video I found on my phone from a few weeks ago up Botany Bay. Happier times. Both are not too well at the moment with also Gunner having fortnightly collapses. Happy birthday lovely boys.

Grey is really ill for his second birthday

Not the way I'd hoped we would spend Grey's second birthday tomorrow. He's been realy ill for the last three days. Started on Thursday night when he yelped suddenly when I touched his shoulder. This quickly progressed to him yelping when he moved to him being unable to lie down or get up on his own. He spent the night whining lightly and twitching. It was awful. Friday I took him to the vet and they said he has an enlarged lymph node on his right shoulder at the base of his neck. They said they couldn't find any evidence of injury or strain. Worryingly they said that in an older dog this could be linked to cancer, but given Grey's young age this would be really rare. But still, scary that the 'C' word was brought up.

I spoke with the vets again on Saturday as he wasn't getting better and was still crying. We added paracetamol in every 6 hours. By Sunday it was clear he needed some stronger pain killers. We went to see the other practice. Grey arrived full of adrenalin going into the vets. Had to be carried in because of the tiled floor. The vet said again that it's strange his condition in such a young dog. He gave him a morphone injection and we came home with stronger pain killers which he has needed to take. We're taking him back in to the vets first thing for xrays and a biopsy.

I'm totally worried about him and what's going on. Wondering if it is at all linked to the condition his brother Gunner had (diskospondilitis). It's just awful seeing my once full of life dog, just lying around either out of it on drugs or crying in pain. Hopefully will know more tomorrow.

In other news, Gunner is now having collapses every two weeks. How awful is that. Hope both these brothers get well soon.

Walk in East Blean Woods

We had a lovely time exploring East Blean Woods on our own over the weekend. The sun was out. Really nice to get some time away from work after a really busy easter weekend. Grey sticks very close in the woods.

Aren't you ready yet, mum?

Canix aka running with your dog!

We've started running! Yes, us, running! I had the thought the other day when I was out in my wellies as usual, that it's hard to run and keep pace with a slovak while wearing wellies and jeans. So while I was on my one and only day off in weeks at Bluewater yesterday, I bought a pair of trainers to add to the wardrobe of wellies and flipflops. Since having Grey I've found it hard to take him out for 2 hours, run the business and do some aerobic exercise myself.

I've noticed for a good while that he loves running with me if I run. So I had a flick through the Canix UK site and also saw that they say it can also improve leadwalking when not training as the dogs really know the difference. There I was sold. Another big reason I'm thinking of it is that the picnickers and daytrippers are back on my favourite beach stomping grounds, so having hold of Grey on some kind of line and occuppied probably is a good thing.

We've been out twice today. It went really well. This morning was mosty free running with me with no lead attached and he stayed with me loads and ran the whole time. Only jumped up at me once in excitement that his mum was, well, running! We passed the jogging guy who Grey usually has a half hearted little chase after and the guy is very good about it. I think he probably couldn't get over the irony of me then also being out with the mad hound and also jogging!

This evening I went out to Minnis where we often see packs of huskies training on carts. Have to watch his pads on the seawall walkway. But there is a rough grassy path (also very muddy) that was can run on too. But that's if we start getting really serious! I rigged up the Ezydog harness, his long training lead and the Ezydog bungee lead. I do need to sort out something nice to carry keys, phone etc. The treat bumbag was horribly annoying and bouncy. I think one of the specific hands free waist belts will sort this out. Thinking of ordering the Euro harness kit from here:

Interesting thing was that when I stopped running and had a breather, he was much much calmer and 'with me' if you know what I mean. So we shall see how long I can keep it up.