Bentley Update--And Boredom

 There has been a lot of this going on these days....

Lian (over at Knights Shelties--check them out!) asked me how Bentley is doing, and I do owe a quick update.  We kept him on crate rest (with just a few walks here and there--no jumping or running) for 10-14 days.  Obviously no sign of pain or limping because we weren't letting him do anything. 

Then we started working on strengthening--increasing walks (still short, though), and some ball work.  We also worked some hind end awareness in small bursts.  He showed no signs of pain, stiffness, etc...After increasing his walks and strengthening, we decided to put him in an agility-like environment.  Jonathan set up a jump box (no bars) and asked him to run and make some turns.  Again, no signs of any issues (except maybe him being a bit over-enthusiastic!).

We have still been holding him out of strenuous activities like running, chasing, etc...much to his chagrin.

This past weekend we decided to put the bars up to 8" for him and try doing something where he picked up a little more speed.  We set up two jumps to a tunnel, and then two jumps out.  I watched my husband run him and felt that he was jumping funny.  I can't decide if it's all in my head (maybe he was just jumping low/hopping over the bar because it was SO low), or if something is wrong.  So, he's back to crate rest and no fun.  We still have an appointment with the orthopedic vet on Monday, so hopefully he can help us figure it out one way or another.

I really hope that it's all in my head and that he will be cleared (entirely plausible as I'm a bit of a worrier!).  I'm worried about him!

Of course, we've been hit with the nationwide heat wave, and so both dogs have basically been confined inside all week.  They are not pleased, and the amount of boredom barking has increased tremendously!  I'm hoping we can get Lexi back to the beach tomorrow to burn off some energy.

Wordless Wednesday: Alum Creek

Summertime pt. 2

Here's evidence of our great weekend!  Lexi loved the baby pool that we got, and that combined with the sprinkler made for a wonderful few days for all of us.

I haven't posted anything about the cat recently because I've been worried about him, and it didn't feel right.  Those of you on Facebook have seen that he has been sick.

So here's the story:  the other day we got up and he had knocked down the bottle of Bentley's Rimadyl (I guess I didn't close the lid all the way) and 6 pills were missing.  We rushed Bimmer to the vet and he had to stay for 2 and a half days.  Apparently Rimadyl is toxic to a cat's kidneys, so we were really worried.  He went back in for his last blood and kidney profile test today, and he is totally clear.  Hooray!  Now he is sleeping off the entire ordeal and being extra cuddly!

Summertime Summertime

Going to try to be better about sharing our weekends as they are tons of fun--and about 99.9% of the time involve the dogs!

This weekend it was quite hot, so we went to the beach (photos of that to come in another post as I took MANY!), bought a kiddie pool and played in the yard with that and the sprinkler (pictures to come), and of course, went out for ice cream.

Makes me wish I had a permanent summer-break!

 We haven't been doing a lot of agility training because it's been so hot, and because Bentley has been on the IR.  I'll try to post soon about his progress.

Tricky Tuesday--Jumping Through Our Arms

Lexi's snarly face (she's eating a stick)

I'm bad, but I gave up on marching.  We were doing well a few weeks ago, and then Bentley got hurt and we were busy trialing for two weeks and I just kept forgetting to work on it.  Bentley seemed to be doing well at it, but now I don't want him to do it because I think it may put more stress on his rear shifting his weight back and forth.

So, I moved on to the next trick that I thought might be easier (for Lexi, at least) in our online trick challenge.  This one is "jumping through your arms".  I think maybe being an agility dog is sort of cheating, and having 2 people is also a shortcut, but that's okay.  Lexi likes it, and she likes being successful!

Car Safety

After reading about Elicia Calhoun's terrible car accident, I decided it was time to buckle down (pun intended) on car safety for my two.  A few people asked what I did, so I thought I'd blog about it.

Bad parenting!

My husband and I travel frequently--and the dogs ALWAYS come with us.  Because of that, we always take my husband's car which is a 2003 Mazda Tribute (small SUV).  The dogs are usually crated, but it was always such a pain.  Bentley is way more restless in a crate than out.

Previous set up

But, we really do usually do crate them.  It was a pain, though, because the crate wasn't secured, not to mention that the two of them were sharing one large (36") crate and Lexi was NOT happy about that (Bentley tends to get restless in the car).  So, we decided things had to change.





My plan was always to move to two crates and have them in the very back.  I liked that we could put the seats up or down and if the seats were up that was added security to help contain the crates.  However, after reading quite a bit about the crumple zone on most vehicles, I realized that the crates would likely be crushed back there.

So, we did some re-arranging and decided they should go in the center of the car.  I felt like that was the safer place from them to be.  We did have to make a few compromises.  The front seats now won't lay down very far, so no more comfy napping as a passenger.  Also, we knew we were going to secure them in somehow, so that meant no more taking my husband's car if we were going to meet up with friends/potentially have anyone else in the car.  It also meant packing another large crate that we would use in hotels, etc... since these are not going to come out frequently (but we have soft crates for that).

The biggest problem we encountered was that we had two 30" crates, but only one of them had double doors (side and front).  We decided it wouldn't be safe to just have one with one door because if we packed suitcases/etc...in the back, it would be really hard to get the dog out quickly (also a pain for rest stops).  So off we went to PetSmart to buy another 30" crate. (I can't remember the brand and will update this ASAP--but they only had 1 brand with double doors).

Lexi approves of both options!

We also bought new crate pads (since the crate size changed, and I wanted something easier to clean and that wouldn't make any noise when Bentley wandered around).  I really like these Kong ones.  They are machine washable, seem easy to just wipe off and have a bolster on the side that looks comfy.   I considered the lamb skin looking ones, but thought they looked hot especially if we ever use them at trials (sometimes we crate out of the car).  Also looks like they would get dirty easily.







Anyways, the issue with the new crate is that its door was on the same side (right, if you're facing the front door) as the other crate.  So my husband had to completely undo and then rebuild the crate with the door on the opposite side (easier than it sounds).  He also had to flip the door to open the other way because the door wouldn't open all the way.

New set up

 Next step was to secure the crates in place.  We found some nice ratchet straps at Home Depot for really cheap (something like this).  The hard part was finding something to hook to.  I ended up hooking them to the anchors of the seats on the floor.  I don't think that they could ever loosen, even in an accident because the crates cannot be pushed forward at all (since the folded seats AND the front seats are in the way). The only bad thing is if the car were to flip, the straps would not hold down the crates (there is nothing to hook the back to).  I am still thinking about what we can do about that (we have extra ratchet straps).

Ratchet straps

The very last thing I did was to create an ICE (In Case of Emergency) pack.  It was super easy to do, and made me feel much better.  The front says "Dog Emergency Information Inside" then at the bottom "Dog's Name: BENTLEY".   The bag is a pencil case, and they are attached using plastic zip ties.

 

Inside there are two pieces of paper, one has a lot of information including dog description, owner information, vet information and emergency contacts.  The second page has information regarding what to do if I'm incapacitated (ie: don't take the dog to a shelter, all expenses guaranteed by owner or owner's estate, etc...), or the dog is injured or lost.  I am happy to share my template if anyone is interested.

Today's photo