Meet Wren! (And a Recovery Update)

Guess who got a new puppy?

Not me...

But my parents got a baby cockapoo named Wren.  They all came to visit us in Vermont.  My boyfriend and I were watching Wren and did a photoshoot with her and Delilah.

Delilah literally...

Runs into Wren...

And just keeps going.

Delilah's recovering really well from her surgery- her exercise restriction has now been lifted and we're allowed to go on hikes and longer walks.  When we go on walks she actually trots along on all four legs like a healthy dog rather than hopping along on three legs or having to turn back early like before the surgery.  Between the surgery and the raw diet we started about two months ago, this is the healthiest she's looked in the two years that I've owned her!  Her coat is thick and soft, she's building muscle tone and a layer of fat, and she can actually walk and run!  I'm just so happy she's not in pain anymore, the surgery was completely worth the cost!

She is still worried about using her hind legs.  My boyfriend and I think it's psychological.  She won't jump on the couch anymore, unless she's not thinking about it- like if I throw her toy on the couch she'll leap up after it.  But otherwise she won't jump up on her own.  She is also refusing to sit and lie down on cue, I think she's scared to bend her legs.  I asked the surgeon about it and he said he thought it was fear, and that the legs themselves don't seem sore or stiff.  We have another check up in about a month and after that we're hoping to be able to start private agility lessons!  

Recovery: The First Month

It's been a month since Delilah's bilateral luxating patella surgery.  She's been recovering well.  In the past couple of weeks she's started using her hind legs.  When we first got home she'd only walk on her two front legs- this has resulted in a very muscular chest and forelegs.  She lost some muscle mass in her hind legs though so now we're trying to encourage her to use them again and increase her exercise.  Last week she was allowed to start going on short 10-15 long walks.  Something exciting about her walks is even though she's still a little stiff and sore, she's trotting along on all fours like a healthy dog, not hopping on three legs like she used to!  I also bought her a kiddie pool to play in.  It's rained so much that the pool filled to the top and actually became deep enough for her to swim in, so I think that was a good activity for her.  We have an appointment next week for a check up so I'll post an update after we find out how she's doing!

One day after surgery- not putting any weight on hind legs.

One month after surgery- front legs more muscular, hind legs less so.  Putting weight on all four now.

Someone got caught licking her stitches, so that someone got to wear a "cone of shame."

Trying to hunt a bird in her cone of shame.  The bird is utterly unconcerned.

First walk, two weeks after surgery.

Swimming in her kiddie pool. Yes, she is that small! XD

Post Surgery

Delilah's surgery for her luxating patellas went well.  We were able to take her home tonight.  She's exhausted and has been making these sad little whimpering noises.  Both of her legs are completely shaved and it looks like she has naked chicken legs.  I don't think she'll be getting off of her bed tonight.

Summer Fun

I've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, but yesterday I finally got some time to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather!  I went Stand Up Paddle Boarding for the first time with one of my friends, and didn't even fall off!  And then we had a fire at my house in my new fire pit and I got to spend some time with Delilah.

Last winter I had bought Delilah a sprinkler but didn't have a chance to use it.  We used it for the first time yesterday and she loved it!  At one point she picked it up and started running around the yard with it.

She was also very interested in the fire- she just kept staring at the smoke and chasing the ashes.  Considering her compulsive disorder, I think that might be something I should discourage, but I was able to call her away from the smoke and have her do other things like chew on a raw bone or do some tricks, so I let her chase the ash for a little bit while my friend was over.  And Delilah barked at my friend a little at first, but then settled down really quickly and went back to chewing on her bone and chasing the ashes.  She even came to sit by us at one point and didn't react!

Delilah's surgery for her luxating patellas is tomorrow.  It was supposed to be last week but there was a miscommunication from the clinic (they had called me to confirm the appointment, but never called to reschedule even though they thought that they had).  I'm really nervous but also very hopeful.

Two Steps Closer

Yesterday I was approved for Care Credit and I made an appointment for a surgery consultation for Monday June 5th.  If all goes well at the consultation Delilah will be going straight into surgery that day.  I'm very nervous.  But we're now two steps closer to a more active and pain free life for Delilah.

For anyone not familiar with the blog, Delilah has bilateral Grade 3 Luxating Patellas.  That's a big reason why we stopped agility.  She sometimes has trouble with walks too.  She hops around a lot on three legs.  She's only about 2.5 years old, and if we don't do surgery her knees will probably get worse and she'll develop arthritis.  She will likely be having both knees done during surgery.

The AwkWalk

Through Meetup.com I discovered a support group for owners of fearful and reactive dogs.  They do group hikes that they call "AwkWalks" which are basically a structured group activity where you can practice training and counterconditioning your dog in a non judgmental environment.  Delilah and I went, and there was one other dog and owner, and then the organizer came without her dog.  Anyone's allowed with or without a dog, and the dogs wear color coded bandanas- blue if they're friendly and yellow if they need space.

Delilah did so well and the other dog was very lovely too (I actually know her from the daycare I work at).  It was really nice to be able to talk to other owners that face similar challenges with their dogs as me and Delilah.  We also talked about the different trainers we've worked with in the area and training classes we've done.  We're definitely looking forward to going on more of these hikes in the future!

Some Hiking Photos

Here are some photos I took of the hikes Delilah and I have been on over the past week.

Unfortunately this weekend looks like it's going to be too cold to hike (it's in the 40s right now!) but we were able to get a couple in at the beginning of the week.  We've seen plenty of signs of spring by now- lots of wild flowers are blooming.

I carry compressed air with me now to deter aggressive dogs, after Delilah almost got attacked a few weeks ago.  So far I have not had any more issues with off leash dogs.

Delilah's recall is going very well, a few times now I've called her off in the middle of chasing a bird or a leaf, which is pretty impressive considering how high her prey drive is.  I still don't trust her enough to be completely off leash, but she now has leash dragging privileges.

Reactive Rover Graduate!

Last week Delilah graduated her Reactive Rover class!  I'm so proud of her, she tried so hard to focus and work during class, even when she got stressed or anxious.  She was such a good girl!  I'm really glad we took this class, it was so interesting and gave us a lot of ideas and exercises to work on.

I talked to the trainer after the last class and asked him if he thought she was ready to take "normal dog" classes.  I was specifically interested in his recall class.  He said she might not do well in the recall class because there are some points when the dogs are off leash in class and he wouldn't want her getting trampled by bigger dogs, but that he does drop in class that teach the same skills, just on leash, that he said she would do well in.  So we might end up doing those.  Or we might just go straight back to sports.

Obviously, before we do any more training, she going to need to get surgery for her knees.  She has grade 3 luxating patellas and they have been getting progressively worse.  So the next thing we're going to focus on with her is that. 

After, if surgery goes well, we may do private agility lessons with the goal of being able to take agility classes if she is able to handle that environment without getting too stressed or overwhelmed.  If surgery does not go as well as I hope, we may start taking some nose work classes instead.  There are a few classes in my area and I've heard it's a good, low key sport for anxious dogs.

So proud of Delilah!

Run Free Sophie Bunny

A couple of days ago I had to euthanize my rabbit, Sophie.  She had been a little lethargic and "off" in the afternoon, and when I came back in the evening from picking my boyfriend up at work, she got progressively worse that night.  I took her to the emergency vet and they thought she had an abscess or a tumor behind her eye.  She was suffering.  She would have been 8 years old in May, so she had a long life and was very healthy up until the end.

One day she was burrowing in the pile of laundry.  I heard the pile collapse and I turned around and just saw her little nose sticking out.

The trio- only Delilah is around now.  Sophie was "just one of the dogs."

One of our Easter photos BD (Before Delilah).

Sophie playing with bubble wrap- she loved it!

Meeting Delilah when I brought her home.  Delilah thought she was a dog!

Sophie loved the dogs.  She was always so sassy and feisty.  Mia was scared of her, and sometimes when Sophie got bored and Mia was sleeping nearby she would thump and then watch Mia bolt up and run away.  If I was eating something that she wanted me to share with her, she would beg, and sometimes nip me if I didn't share right away!  She started out as a family pet that my parents got for me and my sisters when I was in high school, but after I moved out she came with me and lived with me in three different apartments.  Once we had a roommate who had three other rabbits and a cat.  Sophie became BFFs with the cat- they would chase each other around the apartment and just hang out together.  I'm really going to miss her.

Reactive Rover Update and New Diet

Delilah's Reactive Rover class last Friday went pretty well again.  There were three dogs including Delilah- it looks like one of the dogs that missed last class won't be back.  We expanded upon the Look At That game and now we're naming the behavior "look" and clicking and treating after Delilah looks at the trigger and then looks back at me.  I could tell she seemed a little more stressed with the third dog but she was able to work through it well.  At one point I knelt down and she walked up and stared me and I scratched her neck for her.  When she gets stressed she stares at me when she doesn't know what to do and she's trying to hold it together.  She's a very good girl, she tries very hard.

In other news Delilah has about a month left of her Zignature kibble and then I'm going to switch her to a BARF raw diet.  I'm very excited to try this and see how it goes!  I just joined my local pet food store's Raw Club so I'll get 10% off of meat and raw food and if it's on sale they'll double the discount!  I've also been scoping out my local grocery stores looking for different organs and proteins.  I'm primarily going to feed her chicken, beef, and turkey but there's also fish, rabbit, bison, goat, and more around her that I can occasionally throw in!

My main concerns are about feeding the correct amount and proportions for her small size, choking on bones, and if eating meat on a regular basis will lower the value of food used for training.  I bought a couple of books about feeding raw diets called "Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats" by Kymythy R. Schultze and "Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats" by Beth Taylor and Karen Shaw Becker.  Both books have A LOT of information on nutrition as well as some recipes and diet plans that I could follow, so that's really helpful.

Reactive Rover and Homework

Delilah's second Reactive Rover class last Friday went really well. One dog is no longer coming to class and another didn't show so it was just Delilah and the black dog who has also been pretty good so we were able to get a lot of one on one attention.

We did the Look at That game for a lot of the class and the trainer started it by moving around the room and making different noises and movements to get the dogs' attention and we clicked and treated as soon as they looked at him. Then we took turns where one owner would walk their dog around the room and give them lots of praise and keep them moving while the other dog sat and got clicked and rewarded for watching the owner and the dog that were moving.

Towards the end Delilah started getting stressed again and started looking for spots on the ground. I was able to get her focus for the rest of class and I asked the trainer about it. He said not to drop her treats on the ground because that might be why she's looking for the spots. It's going to be hard bending down to give her treats in a timely manner lol. But I'll give it a try. Small dog problems haha.

We had some homework to take the dog out to different places (or around the neighborhood if they're reactive on regular walks) and play LAT with triggers.  Overall Delilah did really well on her walks and also at a few places I took her.  She had a couple of issues.  Once when I took her to a pet store.  It was a weekday morning so it wasn't busy at all and she did really well with the employees there.  But then when I was at the register paying for a Pet Corrector (to deter the off leash dogs I mentioned in my last post) a woman came up behind us and bent right over Delilah and started talking to her.  She reacted snarling and lunging immediately.  The woman was still trying to pet her!  I stepped in between and asked for space but Delilah never recovered from that so we left the pet store after paying.  I noticed Delilah doesn't like people leaning over her, talking to her, or making direct contact, but is perfectly happy to greet strangers that act neutral or make themselves small (standing sideways or crouching down).  Basically she does better with dog savvy people.

The other time we had an issue is I met a friend for a walk that Delilah hadn't met before.  She barked at first but we quickly got that under control and she was comfortable walking with the friend when we were outside.  I invited the friend in the house and Delilah started barking when she saw the friend was going to enter "her territory."  Since I was trying to be social and didn't want to work with Delilah while I had a friend over, I put her outside on her tie out with a raw marrow bone for her to chew on and she seemed happy about that.

We have another class tonight and I'm very excited!  Delilah doing really well in general and I hope this class is helping her.  It's certainly very interesting and I'm glad we're taking it.

First Hike of the Season and Off Leash Dogs Rant

First: Pictures!

Disclaimer:  This is a rant, sorry for being negative.

We went out looking for signs of spring but all we found was mud and ice!  It was beautiful though- in the 70's today!  First we went to the middle school's athletic fields and I jogged a mile on their track and let Delilah run around off leash (she must have sprinted 2 or 3 miles at least).  And then we went hiking at Indian Brook, a park across from my neighborhood.  I was hoping it wouldn't be busy on a Monday morning, but it was very busy!

They have a rule posted all around the park- only dogs under voice control are allowed off leash.  We must have run into 8 or 9 dogs, and all but 3 of them blew off their recall and charged up and scared Delilah.  She's very friendly and gets excited to greet other dogs but as soon as they start jumping on her that makes her scared (imagine being tackled by a stranger 10x your size!)  I try to body block or grab their collars.  The owners are usually idiots: "Don't worry, he's just playing!"

There was one dog that ran towards us, stopped with his hackles up, and hard stared and growled at Delilah.  The owner was calling but of course he didn't listen.  I stepped between him and Delilah.  I yelled at him to go away.  The owner called "Don't worry, he doesn't bite!  He's a good boy!"  He charged at us and I picked up Delilah and blocked him, kneeing at him to keep him away.  The owner grabbed him and said "Sorry, he's not used to little dogs" as if the situation were MY fault for hiking with a small dog!  How about you don't let your aggressive dog off leash?

So even though Indian Brook's only half a mile away from us, unfortunately I think we're going to have to drive to other towns to go hiking in less populated areas.  There are just too many irresponsible owners out there and I don't feel like I can keep my dog safe around them.