A Kink in her neck and over-reacting

At the trial Wicca saw Susan again, a Sport Physio/Rehab person. She has had a stiff neck lately and I was a bit concerned again about her shoulders. Well, she has a kink in her neck- most likely caused from heeling. Geez. I have been practicing a fair amount lately (I have Wicca entered in Open Obed in a few weeks) so obviously this has caused some problems. Susan reccomended heeling on the right side, aswell as the left. I am just going to lay off the heeling for a while all together.

I have written before about how stressed I am about Wicca's health. Yesterday just about did me in. She had a REALLY hard time weaving yesterday. Like, could not get an entry if it was on the "on side." This is due to a few things- one, her neck. Because of the kink in her neck it was not comfortable bending her head that way. Two- the footing. It was very deep, and she was not the only small dog to have weave issues.

Her neck is not even caused by agility and yesterday on the way home I was telling Sarah that I was going to stop doing agility for a few months. Sometimes I am not even rational. That's why I didn't blog about it at all last night. I was not thinking straight. When your dog is hurt, and the sport that you and your dog love is causing the hurt it's a pretty emotional thing.

However, in the case of her neck the issue isn't even agility. Susan worked out the kink and Wicca already is feeling better and has a better range of motion. She also gave me some really great exercises for her shoulders. I was concerned yesterday because at the end of the day she seemed to be favoring her back right leg. I think she slept on it funny, and I was over-reacting.

Wicca actually had one of the best weekends physically- she didn't knock many bars, and didn't have any crashes or ouch moments. Her new running aframe is going well and taking lots of pressure off of her. I need to take a deep breath and stop worrying so much. She is fine. She is healthy. She is not lame. She is not going to die.

I am however going to put her on a weave pole diet until her neck is feeling better. l This means that I will pull her from the agility trial in November. It will be a good break for her. My plan is also to do only light training- and just work on getting her into the best shape physically that I can.

Also Sarah had a good though- I am going to use a bigger crate at trial. Her "house" crate is large (german shepherd size) but at a trial she is in a small normal corgi size one. She can't really stretch out all that great. Too bad she can't be trusted in a soft crate, it would be an easy fix then. :o)

So that's the plan. Get her neck back to normal, keep her active, but don't over do it. No weaves, or contacts. Just light handling. We'll still have plenty to keep us busy!