Well the trial is over & I am beat. It was a trial full of emotion for me. I had Tate entered in all 8 events. Tate loves agility, it's his thing. His happy face when on the course warms my heart. It is funny how things turn out, & I believe everything happens for a reason.
On Sat. morning Tate was in his first event which was gamblers. He was going along well, but was ignoring my directions to go out & jump & there was no bounce in his step, he was refusing jumps as well., I was annoyed at him, if you know Tate he tends to blow me off, Tate is a funny boy, always doing his own thing, & only if he feels like it. I thought this is what he was doing.
In the afternoon he was in standard. We did 3 obstacles & he just stopped & sniffed a jump. I knew then that he was not well :( I told the judge he was done & took him off the field. Poor Tate has not been eating well either, & on that day it had been 2 days with no food. He does this sometimes, always has, so I wasn't too concerned. The problem is he is so thin he can't afford to drop any more weight. He has a vet appt. on Fri so we will see if there is anything yup.
After the second run I took Kort for a walk & cried my eyes out. It is hard to see Tate like this, especially doing agility. He is only 9 but he is an old 9, I think his agility career is over.
I cried because my young dog is gone, & in it's place is a dog with a young heart, but no longer the young body to do things he loves.
I cried because I was mad at him as I thought he was blowing me off when clearly he wasn't. I hate that I get so serious about a dumb game. After my cry I went back & talked with Amanda, she suggested pulling Tate from the rest of the trial & putting Kort in his place. You can do this in AAC agility, but if the dog runs at a lower height then he should be it is called FEO, For Exhibition Only, that means that even if Kort Q'd he wouldn't actually get the win.
Kort is just coming back from 6 months off of agility & he is not in trial shape so we entered him in 16" instead of his regular 22" he jumps.
Kort amazed me ! He listened , followed my direction, & any boo boos he made were my mistakes in handling. He dropped a bar in one of his jumpers runs so clearly you can see he is not quite ready to compete officially.
I have a plan to get him in shape, I am borrowing a bike from Wendy & there is a monster hill nearby that we are going to do twice a week.
So like I said , everything happens for a reason, Kort will be a fun dog to run , & hopefully Tate will just be happy to tag along for the ride & visit with his friends :)
Amanda videoed us all weekend , thanks Amanda, you rock !!
Here is Kort, my new agility superstar :)) ......
7 comments:
Oh my gosh Jolene Kort looked fantastic!! I am so sorry about Tate. I just know how hard it is to have your Taters not feel well. And, to feel like he's too young. I will keep you all in my prayers and that he feels better quick. What a great thing that you can put another dog in so you don't lose money/time/experience to show. How cool is that? He looked sooooo good!
Kort looks so good and really listens and looks to you!! I got tears in my eyes watching these vieos--I love Kort♥♥♥ I hope Tate is okay and there's nothing wrong.
awww thanks guys ♥ I just love him to pieces, he loves me soooo much & is a real momma's boy so he loves to please me even though I am slow & make lots of handling mistakes, he makes "me" look good :)
Kort is awesome. :) I am glad you had fun running him.
Getting old sucks- even for a dog. But at least he is back to eating- keeping him well is more important than agility any day. :)
And yes, I am awesome. :)
Sounds like a tough weekend. Ups and downs. Im so glad you got to run Kort. He looks great! Sorry about Tate.
Not that this is the same thing. But when I was a kid and heart worm medication had recently come out. You use to have to give it everyday. We had a tri-colored collie and he stopped eating. We tried to wait him out but he would have starved himself. So we got canned dog food and would spoon feel him. Put it in his mouth and hold his mouth shut so he had to swallow. Sounds mean but he wouldnt eat. My mom finally figured out is was the heart worm medication. Once we stopped it, he started eating again. Im not sure what we did about not getting heart worms. I hope Tate is ok.
thanks Diana....
Tate is finally eating again, I am also wondering if he is just sick of traveling? Maybe he just wants to be a t home sleeping :)
I'm sorry about Tate. When I retired Levi, my smooth blue boy, I cried and cried. He was 9 at the time, too. It's just so hard to stop doing what we love with our best friends.
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