Darling Daisy and Runnin' the Team

Let's start with Darling Daisy, the 14 year old retired lead dog who still resides as self appointed Queen of the Kennel.  Daisy behaves like a happy, healthy, pain-free dog in all regards, but no matter how hard we try we can't get any weight on the old girl.  As a younger dog she was a lean, muscular dog at 75 lb.  Currently she weighs only 65, and her coat is dry and rough. 

So, I took Daisy to the vet for a workup.  The lab results came back with considerably elevated liver values.  There are a couple of possible causes for that, gallbladder issues or liver cancer.  To rule out the gallbladder we've put her on Usordiol.  We will repeat her blood work in a month and see what we learn.  Keep your fingers crossed, I'm really not ready to lose a 3rd dog in such a short period of time.

Today Ted and I ran two teams.  It was pretty obvious that they've been taking time off the past 2 weeks, but overall I have no major complaints with their performance.  We have some training issues to address but as we continue to work the dogs will learn the things they need to know.  Here's the training journal entry for today:

11/12/10:

First team:  Five miles, doing4 laps from house to Rod and Julie's place. 

Grace & Just (L)

Capella and Orion (S)

Seams and Cassiopeia (W)

Grace was snarky with Just at launch, and several times during the run as well.  I think she needs to run beside a stronger headed dog for a while.  Still hesitates to respond to cues.  Did good with "gee" going around the lower loop, but had trouble with "haw".  Ted had to jump off and pull the leaders around to do that turn the first time.  They got it on their own the second time, but it took 'em a bit to figure it out.

On the third lap Just was lagging as we went up the hill.  I don't know if he was tired or just fed up with Grace's attitude.  Everyone else worked well throughout the run.

Second Team:

Two ½ miles, two laps over the same route.

Rose & Torus (L)

Beau (Single Swing)

Nels (Single Wheel)

Nels spent the first half mile looking back at the four wheeler with a slack tug.  After that he did a pretty good for the most part, though there were some lapses.  Beau ran beautifully.  Rose did well beside Torus for the most part and let him guide her on cued turns.  On the turnaround Torus would not take the haw cue to do the second lap, and I had to abandon the four wheeler to guide him into the turn.  Afterward he did fine.