By katie, on May 25th, 2012%
If you read last June and July it’s all about limps and anxiety. Ironically this April and May would have been all about limps and anxiety too, but a totally different story. This years story is about progress and recovery.
 June 25, 2011  June 25, 2012  May 15, 2012 
These photo’s from last year clearly show that Maizey was feeling stressed even in the front yard. As I read through posts from last year my sadness and frustration all came back to me.
This year is is a totally different story, as I think the photo’s show. She still has a long ways to go, especially when it comes to other dogs, but her general level of anxiety is much, much less. Hooray! Her recovery time is better and even on high stress days she can still enjoy getting out for a short walk as long as she has her stroller.
Last year she couldn’t even be in the front yard without her stress level sky rocketing, this year she’s not only enjoying being out there, she’s doing so quietly! Since we’re not fighting with the anxiety I started using timeouts for her barking at the fence and she almost never does now. A funny side effect is that when I say, “That’s enough”, her timeout warning cue, Magnus comes running. He thinks it’s good recall cue since if she comes off the fence with the warning she always gets a treat and of course so does he. That boy just cracks me up.
I’m worried about fireworks season coming up so we’ve added Amitriptyline to her Fluoxetine. We did a two week trial which wasn’t long enough to tell anything so we’re trying another two weeks. I hope to be able to use it on an as needed basis, for just the most stressful times. We’re still using Composure Liquid and it’s a life saver. For the first time I feel hopeful about my girl.
I appreciate how many tools we have in our anxiety tool box now. Not only is her stress level lower, but we have many more skills and resources to draw from on the bad days. As a trainer it’s something I’m always advocating for shy dogs- train a variety of skills and try a variety of supplements so when you need it you have options. One thing that was so frustrating last year was not having enough things to try when things got tough.
On top of all that good news Magnus is doing great! His back is all clear, we’re back to training, I even let him zoom at the park the other day. It was his SI joint that was out, but now I think this all started last June with a pulled hamstring. That’s the only thing left that’s sore on him now. So were still seeing Tena, the physical therapist who he LOVES. Now that we’re actually down to what we think was the original cause of all his back problems I hope we can clear it up for good.
As if all that good news weren’t enough I passed my CAP 1 certification. I can’t remember if I really posted about this, but before Magnus got hurt I was taking a class to earn a certification for Kay Laurence’ Clicker Trainers Competency Assessment Program. When his health fell apart in March we had to put taking the assessment on hold until he was healthy again. I’m happy to say the delay between the class and the assessment didn’t hurt me as I passed with distinction. It’s a huge honor to be able to take this class in person, there are only a few assessors in the states. I’m very pleased with passing and even more pleased with how great a team mate Magnus was.
It’s nice to have good news and happy pictures to post. And now in a bit of shameless self-congratulations I have to post a copy of my CAP certificate. 
By katie, on April 22nd, 2012%
We took a lovely, although unusual, walk yesterday and lest you all think all the dogs do is be bored anymore I thought I’d better post some pictures.
Things are rolling along here, work is busy, busy. Real life is. . . Real, with a capitol R. Magnus is doing pretty well. We haven’t had an appointment with rehab therapist in almost two weeks now. She felt he was doing well enough to cut back to every other week. I’ve been a bit worried about his eyes. We don’t have a recheck for another few weeks but if they keep looking like they do we might be headed in sooner than that. Oddly enough, he was the cause of the unusual aspect of our walk.
 Magnus' best imitation of a speed bump in the road He hates to be hot. When he gets to hot he will just lay down and refuse to move. It’s a little funny, but just a little. It was the longest walk we’ve taken and his back seems fine, but I when he pulled his lump in the middle of the trail routine I was a little worried we’d pushed it too far. Maizey has been walking more on the last two walks so I put Magnus in the stroller. It was pretty funny actually, I thought he’d hate it, but he just rode along like a pasha being escorted to his castle. Of course the Princessface had to ride in style too so they both ended up in the stroller.
I tried to tell them it was humiliating to take two dogs for a “walk” where neither of them were actually walking. They didn’t care. So I kept teasing them yesterday I was going to go out and get a “real” dog who could keep up with me. I don’t really care though and man am I getting good exercise pushing all that extra weight around!
I’m a bit concerned that all our winter of limited activity has made Magnus’ stamina be weak. I sure hope at one point we can take a walk without worrying so much. Until then I guess I have a another reason to be glad I have the stroller. I’m seriously considering investing in a bike trailer. If he’s going to want to ride some then I want to actually get some exercise and that we we could go farther.
While I’m concerned Magnus’ stamina has decreased, I think cutting back the length of our walks and the methodical way we’ve been increasing just 5 minutes ever two to three days has helped Maizey’s stamina increase. She’s doing really well that way. Spring is proving to be a stimulating time for her and I’ve increased her Fluexetine back to .75 mg a day. If we need to go up one more time we will. There is just more sensory input in spring and as usual she’s found several things more triggering. It’s been super rainy, the neighbors building projects, all compounded by the windows being open more when the weathers nice all set her off. Last night she retreated to the bathroom for the first time. I sure hope we don’t seen a huge dive from her like last year. We’re headed to the vet on tuesday to see what we can do preventively. I’ve been playing Through a Dog’s Ear for her. I can’t tell it has a huge effect but it makes me sleepy so it can’t hurt!
 
So life’s rolling along, in more than just the metaphorical sense. I’ve got the puppy bug and have been dreaming of what it would be like to have a third dog. I’ve had three dogs before and know it’s much more work. I also know it’s much more love and fun so I’m thinking seriously about it. For those of you with three dogs what’s you’re greatest challenge and your greatest joy? I read a poem about Cav’s the other day that said one is never enough- I guess they’re kinda like potato chips!
 Can't you just picture a little black and tan face with these two? I can!
By katie, on March 14th, 2012%
Magnus must have heard my discouragement in my previous post, ’cause when we went to his recheck at the ophthalmologist today it was good news.
He’s magically cured!
 "My Crazymomlady won't take me for a decent walk! Can you believe she only lets me walk 1/4 of a mile??? I'm a wild boy! I need my exercise!! Can someone please have a talk with her?" Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. He still has dry eye, but the big concern was over the low pressure in his eyes and today they couldn’t have been better. The measurement was perfect. 14 in the right eye and 16 in the left eye.
Uveitis is low pressure in the eye. Normal for Magnus would be between 8-18. So 14 and 16 today was perfect. A vast improvement over the 2 and 3 it was last Wednesday. It’s a very bad thing for a dog to have since it leads to all kinds of even worse things like corneal ulcers, cataracts and blindness. Plus it just made him so miserable and look so pathetic.
We will probably never know why it was so low, but as long it stays normal I don’t care! The normal eye pressure means no Prednizone, another thing that thrills me. So after hitting a low point this morning I’m super relieved this afternoon. We’ll continue the eye drops he’s on for another week then cut back the dosage for a week after that and then recheck his eyes.
The eye drops have been good proof that dogs learn by association. Did you ever see that friends where Rachel has to get eye drops and it takes the whole gang to tackle her and get them in her eyes? That was Magnus and I last Wednesday. He gets 9 drops a day and basically he was having nothing of it after the first time.
Enter the best ooey-gooey treat dispensers ever. I bought three of these little bottles and put his absolute favorite canned food in them so after each drop he gets a good slurp of something super high value. It worked like a charm, he practically lifts his head up for me to put the drops in now. They’re made for carrying lotion and shampoo and things when you travel, I bet the people who made them never new they’d make great treat dispensers too. I’m looking forward to using them for Maizey when were out and about. I’ve always wanted a way to fill her mouth up with ground chicken liver, the treat of the gods. Now I’ve found it.
The next step in this saga is to get his back better. We’re going to do cold laser treatments, massage and Rymadyl, and the new rehab therapist we’re seeing will set us up with some good core strengthening exercises. Until then the no activity thing will kill us, but it will be worth it if there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
I suppose I should apologize for the dreary post this morning. It’s probably crazy how much these little dogs’ health affects me, but of course it does. My bleariness was not all from Magnus, this cold really is the pits and I’m ready to be over it now, hopefully another night of rest will help since I have a full day of classes tomorrow. Thanks again for all of your thoughts and well wishes. We have a great little bloggers community!
By katie, on August 7th, 2011%
You probably think all we do around here is relax lately, but you’d be oh so wrong!
The last two days have had very little relaxing in them for me or the dogs. We had a yard sale yesterday. It started out as a small affair and a way to get rid of those old things that aren’t trash, but are just eating up space in the closets. It turned into a lot of work!
Now it’s done I can get back to normal with things. . . except I have no idea what normal is.
Maybe an update will help me find my bearings.
Magnus last tricks class was on Thursday and we didn’t get to go because I strained my back sorting things for the yard sale. Magnus and I both spent the day on ice packs. You’re probably thinking he would need ice on that same dreaded strained front leg, but no. Ironically I haven’t seen him limp on that leg in over a week. No, now he’s come up with a new mysterious lameness in his rear left leg. It hasn’t been making us very happy!
It’s a strange limp since he will be fine and then just come up totally lame. He holds his leg straight out and won’t put any weight on it at all. It looks suspiciously similar to when Maizeys’ patella’s went bad and I would be much more worried, except he has had his knees cleared by three different vets.
At first I thought the pain was in his back, but now I’m worried it may be coming from his hip. It’s hard to tell since it doesn’t happen everyday and once I massage and ice his leg and back for a minute he seems perfectly fine.
I sort of think it could just be that over a month of limping has thrown him out of alignment and we just need to keep up with his range of motion work and slowly keep building up our endurance of walking to get more exercise. He has another massage this month so hopefully that will help him.
Maizey has continued with a similar level of improvement of the Fluoxetine. Tomorrow it will be three weeks since she started it and I’ll put all the details into their own post.
I appreciate what we’re learning with her Relaxation Protocol, but it sure does eat up my blogging time to post RP everyday. I only have so much time for blogging, though I wish it was more, and I’m sure you’re all bored of reading about my little Princessface laying on her mat. Other than yard sale news I really haven’t had time for much else, but like I said hopefully now I’ll be getting back to normal with some interesting things for you all to read!
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