Stitches....

Well I bit the bullet and had Wicca spayed on Monday- oh, what a week it has been....
The first day was great- she left the incision alone- it looked great and she didn't seem to mind taking it easy...
By Wednesday I noticed that the incision was red and "bubbled" up around the incision.....I found a cone and Thursday morning thought that I would make her wear it while I was at work...Ha!
Wicca wanted nothing to do with the cone and when I finally caught her she had it off in seconds...so tightened the collar, did some adjusting and tried again...This time it lasted a few minutes before she triumphantly threw it to the ground....Grrrrr.....
So I put three stuffed bones in with her- a beef chew and a Peanut Butter Kong and left for work for the morning...Wicca wins again!

I have a vet appointment this morning at 10:00 to have the incision looked at- It looks to me like she has been pulling or attempting to pull the stitches out...I have tried and for the most part succeeded in keeping her calm- no jumping, no stairs, no running....but for you corgi people you know just how hard that is!

To top it all off- Sam is driving me crazy....he can't play with Wicca so he takes it out on me!!!!

-amanda

Agility and Corgi's don't float...

Well I took Wicca out to do some agility this morning and good news- her jumping is finally improving. She is keeping most of the poles up even with speed and bad approaches. the bad news is that she is really testing me right now on her contacts. I took her right off the field today because she blew her wall contact- it's the first time she has outright broke the rules.....but she got the picture- I brought sam out and made her sit and watch and then she got to try again....Sam was very good- we worked on front crosses, contacts, and tunnel discrimination...He is such a cute little dog....

In the afternoon I found out that contrary to popular belief corgi's don't float!!!! I took Sam and Kate out for a walk with some friends around a really nice little lake- Kate loves to swim (it's one of her passions in life) but Sam generally does not like water- as far as I know anyway...But Sam does love to play fetch and after a few throws that Kate swam out to get Sam decided that he wanted the stick too- so in he jumped....And promptly went head first into the lake and sunk straight to the bottom- I was just about to grab him out when he re-surfaced and paddled back to shore...Poor Sam! He was very upset and embarrased...We were cracking up at him at this point- his ears were pinned to his head- he was soaked to the bone and was heading for the car before I called him back...Poor Guy!

I played fetch with him after on the grass and that seemed to make him feel a little better....but I think his career as a Labrador Retriever is over.....
-amanda

Summer Holidays

We just got back home after being on holidays at a friends acreage and wow- we had so much fun! I took the two corgi's and left Kate at home (her idea of a vacation- no corgis)
They had a blast- we go there a few times a year so they are pretty good in the dog runs and adjust really well to the different schdule. We did agility almost every day- played hard in the field, did some sheep herding for the first time and just had an overall good time. It is good to be home but I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow....

Sheep!

Wicca loves sheep!
This weekend we got to play with sheep for the first time and it was amazing. She has never seen sheep before so I wasn't sure how she would be- but she caught on right away...She got so excited watching the first dog that by the time it was her turn she was frantic.
Her first go round was alot of chasing! She was thrilled that she could move all those sheep by herself. I have worked on directions and her lie down in preparation but that went out the window- and I resorted to telling her to "get out" (something she knows from agility) and being really firm on her lie down. By the end of her turn she was starting to gather the sheep and respond a bit better to me.
Her second go round was alot more controlled and I was able to direct her fairly well since I was finally understanding where I need to be and where the dog should be in relation to the sheep. We had her bringing the sheep to me- walk up/lie down, walk up/lie down. She was a bit stubborn and her lie down wasn't as solid as I had thought!!!!
Her third time was amazing. She was really keyed on the job and was going around them like a pro. We didn't use the border collie at all and she was even able to get them out of the corner...She and I had a blast and it was really neat to see the instinct come out like that...So needless to say I am hooked.....

What next...

Well tonite after our walk I was taking Wicca's collar off and a big clump of hair came with it! I looked at her neck and she barely has any hair- there are spots where you can see her skin- the rest is all patchy, and dry. She doesn't seem particularily itchy- I checked for fleas and didn't find any evidence on her....
I will phone my vet in the morning and see what he thinks...My friend thinks that it is still left over problems from her parvo experience...I just don't know what to think anymore....
-amanda

What a Day!

Well, I bit the bullet and went to calgary on sunday for scenthurdle and boy, am I glad I did. Wicca is more than ready to be back and had a blast...
She raced really, really well...I was a bit nervous- we haven't raced or practiced since the lethbridge show (before she was sick) and I didn't want to let the team down but she was right on. She was very excited to be there and grabbed the right dummy every single time- her only problem was when she was neck to neck with another fast dog from another team- she started veering outof her lane to chase him but I just yelled to her to fetch it and she forgot about the dog and zoned back into her dummy...What a good girl...She loves that game so much...it is amazing.

I also decided at the last minute to enter in an agility funmatch in the afternoon and I am really glad I did. She did great- it was a a modified ckc novice course and I jumped her at 6inches- no knocked bars...she held her contacts really well even though it was a fast course and had no problems working out ahead of me....there was a tunnel trap which she pulled off beautifully (my good handling for once) and over all I was really impressed with her....I can't wait to get her at a trial...

On that note we are still plugging away at our weaves....they are coming....

-amanda