Ash!

I don't post very often about Ash as he is not doing any performance things and he is done showing as well. Rest assured though that he is enjoying his life to the fullest. He is probably the sweetest dog I have ever owned and we love him very much! On September 14 Ash had to go to Calgary for teeth cleaning as well as needing some extractions. He wasn't able to have it done in town as he was high risk to put under anesthesia. When Ash was neutered he would stop breathing. Ash is MDR1 mutant/mutant. This is a gene that affects Collies and Collie crosses. It makes them super sensitive to medications and anesthesia. Some Collies are normal/normal and some are normal/mutant so they are less at risk. Anyway we drove down the night before as he needed to be at the clinic early. The surgery went off with no issues, yay! He needed both lower right side back molars pulled. The one had extremely inflamed roots and the one beside it had a cavity down to the pulp. Poor Ash must have been so uncomfortable! He also had 2 lower front teeth pulled. One had started sticking straight out for some unknown reason and I'm really not sure about the other one but I bet it was also moving. It's been just over 2 weeks since the surgery and everything is healing nicely. He still has stitches but those will dissolve soon. I am now brushing Ash's teeth. He is my first Collie that won't let me scale his teeth so brushing it is! Hopefully he won't need any more surgeries in the future.

Barn Hunt

On September 11 & 12 I entered Lync in a Barn Hunt Trial. He had competed at the Open Level a few times before but not since Covid hit. He had never managed to Q in those trials. Going into the September Trials it had been 2 years since we competed. On Day 1 we had 2 Trials, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. At the 1st Trial he Q'd! I was actually shocked as I was not expecting to! Not only did he Q but he came 1st in his large dog class and then 1st in the entire Open Class! he found both rats in just over a minute! In the afternoon he Q'd again! I was so excited! He got 3rd in his large dog class this time. He found the first rat right away but it took him a bit of searching to find the 2nd one. On Day 2 he alerted pretty much right away, he ran in, veered left and frantically dug at a tube so I called it, Nope! it was not a rat, darn, that would have given him his Open Title. We won't have another trial close to home until next September now. I will have to decide if I want to go out of town earlier. There won't be any trials until Spring now so I have lots of time to decide. There was a Sprinters Trial this weekend in Strathmore but I decided to skip it. I'll have to wait until Spring for another trial now as well. He should get his Advanced Title at that one as he is just needing 200 points for it. This really has been an amazing summer for Lync. I might try him in Nosework for something new. Ash has already taken a beginner class so if I continue on with Ash in the classes I will teach Lync at home.