One Week

The babies are a week old today & have doubled their birth weight !

The Daily Puppy

Introducing the Theme

One day old ♥

Liz has picked a theme for the litter & I LOVE it !

Mountains/Peaks in either Waterton or Glacier National parks.  Judy, ( Kona's mom ), & Liz thought it would be perfect as they had to drive through the parks to bring Boy up here from where he was visiting in Montana.  He actually lives in California & it was a stroke of luck he was this close when Kona was in season!  Also the grandfather of this litter is Begbie, he was named in honour of Mount Begbie!

I of course have scoured through & found my first 2 choices for names already :)

#1 choice is Citadel , isn't it perfect! It is masculine & I love it!
#2 choice is Kinnerly, I hope I don't have to pick a third, but I do like Blackiston & Vimy Ridge as well .

Man I am counting the days until I get to actually hold a puppy, for now I just stare at the pictures trying to believe that one of these beautiful babies will be mine!

Puppies!!!!!

We have puppies!!! OMG !!!! puppies!!!!

They were born on Sat August 24 2013 , 3 boys & 2 girls, which was actually Andy's birthday.  What a wonderful birthday present!  Now that they are here I can breath, up until now it was still very scary, things do happen, actually it is still scary.  The puppies are gaining weight which is a good thing. Kona is being a good momma so I suspect everything will be fine.  It will be another 3 weeks before I can actually see them, well I will be able to see them because Liz & Andy are fantastic photographers & take millions of pictures for us to view!!  The puppies will eventually have their own little blog so to speak, once Andy & Liz get their life back into some sort of routine.  If you want to follow along you can at Blazingstar Flatcoats & just click on the puppies page.
I can't believe my dream in almost here, wow, it's been almost 4 yrs since I told Liz to put me on the waiting list.
She smiled & said ok, I'm not sure she realized how serious I was lol! Now I'm like a flatcoat stalker! It will be strange to have a different breed here.  Kort will have his nose out of joint for awhile, I have to make sure he has alot of one on one time.  Brad is happy, that means he has puppy time. Tate, well , Tate is just happy!! He is happy just being alive, man I love that dog.  But rest assured there will be alot of one on one time for Tate as well:)

So without further ado, here are the first puppy pictures!

5 little babies ♥

awwwww♥

the one on the far left & the second from the right as boys, not sure where the other boy is hiding :)

A Tweak on A Tweak

ok, 2 versions, which do you guys like?

 the first one says, PLUS a little Lync

The second one says AND a little Lync with 2 happy faces

I know I'm anal, but it's still fun :)

Some tweaking required

I originally was going to do a contest as to whether or not I needed to change the name of my blog seeing as a Flatcoated Retriever baby was going to make it's  appearance pretty soon.  I had some great suggestions too, I really liked Herding & Birding, but One Collie has been the name of this blog for 4 over 5 years, so I decided to tweak it a little bit, just like after Kort joined the family.
So I have tweaked it again, It will be ready to be put up when there is a puppy for me for sure, lots can happen unfortunately, so here is my " new, tweak" hope you like it :)

of course it will be tweaked a bit more so his picture is on there as well :)

Kort Update

Our Go!DogGo! Agility trail is over for another year.  I spent the weekend volunteering seeing as Kort couldn't run.  I love volunteering, even when I am running my dogs, I volunteer in every level except for just before my class.  Volunteering is a wonderful way to learn the sport, especially when you are watching the levels like Masters & Excellent, you have ringside seats to see the expert handling of the dogs.  As usual there were those who did not volunteer, at all, this seriously annoys me.  I guess some people feel others can do all the work, but that is another blog post for another day.

Wine for me & 2 toys for Linc :)

Today near the end of the trial I was given a special gift from Sarah who runs Go!DogGo!  She wanted to let me know how much my volunteering was appreciated throughout the weekend, I of course got all choked up & started to cry, I'm a crier, especially when people say nice things.  Sarah mentioned that I came to volunteer even though I didn't have a dog to run, that is when the crying started, anyway, I was very touched by the gift , we are a close group of people & we really do feel each others pain.

It was a bit easier to be at the trial this time then when I was at Spruce Meadows.  I am slowly starting to feel less of the pain.  There are some that don't understand why I am still "dwelling" on this.  Why I can't just move on, get over it.  I can't tell you how many people have said, well at least he doesn't have cancer, or at least you still have your dog.   Not just one person either, many.

Who decides what time limit you have to feel bad?  I understand people do not want to always hear about how sad you are, it's depressing to continually hear the same old sad story, people would rather you just lie & say, "I feel awesome, thanks for asking "  I get that, really I do.  I have family that I just don't ask them how they are doing anymore, because I really don't want to hear the same thing over & over.
I do not hide my feelings very well, so please don't ask me how am I feeling if you don't want to hear the truth, that I feel shitty, & sad & depressed, & I still cry alot, but I'm working on it.   I am not giving myself a time limit, I will feel how I feel for as long as it takes & I could care less how that makes me look.

I had Brad bring Kort to the trial on Saturday as Dr Devall was there doing appointments.  She was so pleased with how much Kort has improved from his last visit to see her in Calgary.  When I say improved I don't mean his Spondylosis has disappeared, but his core is strengthening .  We do however have a new problem .  I mentioned to her how I hear something crack when he is getting up from his down position while doing his exercises.  She checked him out & feels it is a neurological problem, rather then structural, super :(  
There is a spot on his lower back that is the problem , possibly some nerve root issue I think she said, we are just monitoring it right now , I have some new exercises to get him working his right back leg & foot, if it gets worse, or he starts seeming to be in pain, we will have to think of doing a CT scan.
We go back to see Dr Devall in Sept, so hopefully there will be even more improvement.

So that's about it in a nutshell, I'm happy that all the exercises are paying off for Kort  & I hope whatever is going on with his back leg improves as well.  

Spruce Meadows Weekend

We Found The Buffalo!

Watching Amanda in Team Obedience

Perkins got to play show dog

Tate got a new Cool Bed & Rawhide ,yum!

Kort wanted to know why he couldn't play Agility :(

Scenthurdle!

My sister , niece, & nephew drove up to watch!

Beautiful Venue

Count Down

2 weeks to puppies :)

Daddy

Mommy

Tate's Turn

16 weeks

Today was Tate's turn for a bath, I had bathed them at the beginning of June & it was time again.  I find neuter coats much worse to keep care of, the hair is thicker & fluffier so it mats much faster. Both of  their coats are different, Tate gets funny dry undercoat that sticks together, & Kort's is lovely but very thick.

Even though it's only been 2 months since their last baths the changes in Tate were scary. He couldn't stand through the bath, after struggling to keep himself up, I finally persuaded him to sit, then from there he laid down :(
First time ever he's done that.  I even tried to hold his butt up but he just kept pushing down.

He's 11, I know he's old, but I am not ready for him to be old.  I don't feel we have done enough & experienced enough things together, I got Kort 5 yrs ago thinking it would be company for Tate, keep him young you know, having a puppy to play with, but Tate didn't want anything to do with Kort, as a matter of fact he spent most of his time downstairs away from Kort, for like 2 years, not even kidding.

I'm going to start doing things more one on one with Tate , getting him out all alone, just me & him. I need Tate to know he is loved, that he wasn't replaced by a younger dog , I worry when Linc gets here, I wonder if he will feel pushed aside again, I couldn't bare it if he did :(

This month just sucks, can't wait for it to be over, maybe my favourite month of September will seem happier & I'll be less depressed about the state of my dogs, fingers crossed .

6 months

1st Birthday, Robin's Egg :)

At his first Agility Trial, 2 yrs old

1st Agility Leg!

So many memories & good times ♥

Kort Update

My buddy ♥

Yesterday I drove to Calgary with Kort to see Dr Veronica Devall.  I have been taking my dogs to her since Kort was a puppy & she was located in Edmonton in 2008.  I took Tate to her back then before I even had Kort.

Dr Devall is a Veterinarian, a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Therapist, Veterinarian Acupuncturist, & a certified Spinal Manipulative Therapist.  She is the first Canadian to be certified as a Veterinarian Animal Chiropractor & Pain Practitioner through the International Veterinary Association of Pain Management.  So you can see she is highly qualified & respected!

I brought along Kort's xrays for her to look at & she confirmed the diagnosis of Spondylosis.  I did not doubt this for a minute, even though I had been told xrays alone could not diagnosis it.
She agreed with me that jumping the higher jumps is not something Kort should do, ever, along with weaving.  He shouldn't do anything that makes his neck bend back  basically due to the location of his Spondylosis, it is different with dogs that have Spondylosis lower down along their pelvis.  Kort's front end takes all of the shock , his spine has had to make adjustments due to his straighter then average front assembly.  So as his spine adjusted , his muscle compensated & then you have a dog who is very sore. 

He can however continue with Scenthurdle which is awesome!! I love this sport & so does Kort, it feels wonderful to be part of a team & I was so upset to think we could no longer do this either.

At some point he may be able to do 16" jumps for Obedience, but I don't think I will as he will have to bend his neck to heel & look at me.  Yes I could retrain his heeling so he looks forward, instead of at me, but he has had 5 yrs of conditioning to look up, I really don't want to confuse him, he gets stressed so easily & I worry that this might confuse him to the point of  him being worried he is doing something wrong.  To me it is not worth it just so I can fulfill "my" dream.  I am slowly coming to terms with things, very slowly :)

We have to concentrate for at least 6 solid months of strengthening his core muscles, that will help with his topline, which has always been weak, being that he has a slight sway back.  I have tons of exercises that I need to do with him at least twice a day, he likes the treats he is getting :)

Kort will be seeing Dr Devall on a regular basic to keep his neck & spine properly adjusted, this will relieve any extra stress on his spine.

I am looking forward to helping Kort improve his quality of life, thank goodness he let out that yelp, I may have never known & blindly kept doing dog sports with him, scary thought really.
Makes me think I need to xray all my dogs spines before ever doing jumping with them.

I know I won't look at dog sports the same anymore.  That does not mean I will never do them, I am bound & determined I will train a dog to his UD & his Agility Excellent titles one day.   It just means I will take more notice of his structure & what he is suited to compete in, & I will always work on developing core muscles!!  This is so important.

So that is it for now, just wanted to post an update.  I am feeling better all the time, not back to normal by any means, but with every day I am feeling more optimistic & just happy that I am working toward making my buddy feel better ♥

Yes, I Feel Sorry For Myself

Sooo I went to Spruce Meadows this past weekend.

I went because I had entered Kort in Agility & my Scenthurdle team was competing on Sat. night.  I went because I didn't want to sit at home & cry, because I knew I would do that, knowing everyone was at Spruce Meadows, & Kort & I should have been competing. Instead I went & cried there, I cried driving to the show site, wondering  why I was torturing myself :(  Once I got there & walked around a bit I was ok, we set up my tent & then it was time for Scenthurdle.  I boxloaded the whole night for my team, the first time I have done that all night!  It was fun.  I made the decision to let Kort run in one race, the last race,  the jumps were 6" .  I needed to let him play, I needed it for myself as well.  He seemed fine, I hope he was fine.  My team rocked!  We won every race & came in first over all the teams!!  Yeah us!

The day of the Agility trial was different.  I was sad, it was hard to be watching the dogs compete in the class I should have been in.  I am bitter, yes bitter.  I have a 5 yr old dog that may not ever jump again,.  Some people will "get" how I feel, some won't.  I can't believe how many people have said to me, "well at least he doesn't have cancer, or at least you still have him"  This really annoys me, why does your dog have to die before you get to have feelings of grief , sadness & bitterness.  I am not a stranger to dogs dying , I have had many dogs that I have laid to rest over the years.  I know grief, so why can't I just be sad, why do people feel they have the right to say that to me?  Maybe because I put my feelings out there for everyone to read. Maybe that is why they feel they have the right to say things like that to me, I don't know.

Then there is Tate , it became very evident that he is old this weekend.  He does not adapt to new places as well anymore, he has the beginnings of cognitive dysfunction & it hurts me to see it, it hurts so bad I want to scream!!  I hate this, I don't want him to be old, I don't want to think about loosing him.

My new puppy will be born in a couple of weeks but between worrying about Kort & Tate I just haven't been able to enjoy the process :(
I should be crazy excited, but instead I am more worried about the 2 that I have.

No one said having dogs would be easy,  I can't imagine my life without dogs in it, but still , having dogs just hurts so damn bad some times :(