 As you may know with my last post, Wattson had a mast cell tumor.
A few days ago, I noticed a small lump near Wattson's left eye, the same area where his last surgery was. So the next day we were off to the vet. Our Vet aspirated the lump and then examined the cells. He found one mast cell, we had a few options, and decided to go with immediate surgery (the next day), suggested by our vet. His surgery was minor compared to his last one, but still an inch long incision. The tumor is going to be sent off to a pathologist to see if the margins are clear, in other words to see if the cells haven't spread even farther, which in that case he will have to operate again. The next step would be to remove his eyelid, but hopefully the margins will be clear. When mast cell tumors spread, the condition is called mastocytosis.
I set up the kennels for Wattson as he came home from surgery today. He has his litterbox in one, and his bed and food in another, so that he can walk from kennel to kennel and have more space. As I'm typing this, he's a little out of it from his anesthesia, and I'm here to supervise the tough kitty.
I'll post again with the updates of the pathologists answer.
So many changes. Some good, some bad. Busy busy busy with all these changes, no time to update this blog!
Huh, where can I even start. I'll start with my 13 year old cat, Wattson. He means everything to me. He is the sweetest cat I've ever met.
He has always had a little pink bump in his ear, the vets said it was nothing. In late May/ early June, I noticed it was much bigger than before, with little scab like marks on it. We took him to the vet within a few days. Our vet had to send a piece of the mass to a pathologist, and when the results came back...
Wattson was diagnosed with cancer.
The word "cancer". My little baby cat, that had done nothing wrong, that purred when he went to the vet, that never hurt anyone, the happy go lucky cat that I'd had for 8 years and love to death, has cancer.
What was next? He had to have an entire piece of his left upper face and ear removed, his ear was sown to his head, and an incision was stitched together up through his forehead. His eye nerve that controlled his blinking was damaged in the surgery, making it so he couldn't blink. Twice a day eye gel kept his eye moist. Post surgery he was okay, but had to wear a cone, and live in Amy's crate with his litterbox, scratch pad, food and water. He couldn't be out since he could open his stitches if he tried to itch it. He was on plenty of pain meds, then he got his stitches out 10 days later, but still had to wear a cone since it wasn't fully closed.
Now he's happy. No cone, no eye gel, since the nerve has grown back mostly enabling him to blink his 3rd eyelid and mostly close his main eyelid. In 6 months, if there is no signs of cancer, he will be in remission.
Hopefully, remission will be in the near future. <3
So we were entered in an NADAC trial that I came to last year. Last year we entered tunnelers and she ran around the ring completely ignoring me! But yesterday we entered Touch and Go, Weavers, Regular, & Tunnelers. At the beginning I knew she was slightly nervous and it was incredibly hot.
Tough and Go - Great! She refused the AF so we trained it and got an E, she also refused the DW but I didn't train it.
Weavers - Nice & slow, yet only missing 1 weave pole and 6 seconds over time, we got NQ/3rd. 2.45 YPS, way to trot Tarra! LOL She's so funny!!
Regular - Great AF and she missed the weaves and then refused the DW, so we trained it and got a perfect RC! WOOT!!! E of course!!
Tunnelers - Well, I thought this would be our best run, but she just wasn't feeling it, she went out the first tunnel, and went back in the other way! ;P We made it mid-course and I knew we were done so I took her out. After 6 1/2 hours she was just too tired! She did love tugging afterward though. ;) She NEVER tugs at trials - this was huge! She has to be incredibly comfortable to tug!! So she did go really slow, I mean she really did trot the courses, but it's much better than last year! xD
Video coming soon!
So lately we've been using the CU Give me a Break game to help Tarra and her training. It's REALLLYYYY helped! I can't believe it. She worked without any reinforcers today and she was really tired and still wanted to go! She was working a 9 obstacle course including a DW, AF, a pinwheel, 6 weaves, 2 jumps and a tunnel. I'm so proud of how she worked! She definitely went around a few of the jumps but she stayed with me XD. I'm just super excited with her progress! We also do need to work in a ring rental before her trial....
SNOW SNOW.... and more SNOW!!
We went out and tried the Round 1 course for my agility contest. It was soooo fun! I've never taught Tarra the backside of a jump, so she was a little nsure about that. Then with the bonus course, omg she handled that like a pro! I was really surprised with her distance! Looks like our work with the weave sends really paid off! Now we need to work directionals + distance on the tunnel. Speaking of the tunnel.... AMY went though the tunnel today! AMY, YES AMY!!! Crazy right? For the past few weeks I would just toss small bits of kibble/treats and she'd put one foot in the tunnel. Today she went all the way in, so I straightened it out and she went through! Now we just have to work on curving the tunnel. I'm SO proud of her!! It was a good day. :)
Today we rose the 4' AF up to 5'7, AKC height. We won't be trialing in AKC for a few months, but her fun matches are AKC so I want her to be comfortable at AKC height.
It was a huge height difference, but since Tarra is obsessive about the AF, I thought she could handle it. *correction I KNEW she could handle it. and she did. epicly.
She jumps the apex like its nothing, but often when she jumps the apex, she only lands once on the down ramp, all the way into the contact. Yeah It looks purdy cool, but I think it's too dangerous for her, so I like it when she puts two strides on the down ramp.
Overall it was a great session, she was such a good girlie! And we did a quick sequence beginning with the AF and ending with a tunnel. Of course she ignored me and exited the tunnel and ran straight up the DW - which I'm happy she's comfortable enough to take the DW when I don't cue it, but she missed her contact since she wasn't running full speed. Oh well, she jumped the contact and ran to play with Halli.
She's so silly. I love her!
hello weebly. long time no see,eh?
Okay so first of all, unscramble this: TOCSANTC
CONTACTS!! Amy's 2o2o Aframe and her quick-release Dogwalk are coming along quite nicely for her. And of course Tarra's epic running Dogwalk is going great. :) Honestly I never thought we'd get to this point, after an entire year of RCs! Now just to start working on turns...
So yeah, I'm purdy happy with her progress.
Next is her running Aframe. She never misses her contact, but it's not at full height. I think tomorrow I'll raise it and see how it goes, she's very confident on her AF so I don't think it'll be a problem. My criteria for the AF is different then the DW, though:
Dogwalk - Run full out through the entire dogwalk and drive forward.
Aframe - Stride however you like, but must end in a low hit, whether back feet are seperated or together.
I've also come to the conclusion that 1 NADAC trial a year just ain't right! So looks like we're gonna have to get into some AKC, which means..... the TEETER. ugh.
Until then we'll stick with JWW. :)
Speaking of AKC, we have an upcoming Fun match. My goal was to have her running DW and AF under control, which looks like that will be possible! Then I'll see how she does with a competition dogwalk at the fun match. She refuses it? Ok, we'll have to work on other DWs if we want to do Touch N Go at our trial in 2 months. :)
That's it for now! :D
Sorry the fun match was 5 days ago and my computer was being evil. 0.o
Anyways, we got there as they were finishing up JWW, eek! The jumps were at 12" and they were working there way down, so we just ran at 12". No warm-up, had to rush her into the ring and just go! I brought out her new Kong wubba toy, which she had absolutely no interest in, even though she normally loves them. She was stressed. JWW actually went pretty well, we didn't do weaves since I didn't have a walk though.
She pretty much sniffed her way through the course but she was running with me so it was okay. I lost her right after a tunnel but regained her focus fairly quick. :) We finished the run on a good note.
I still had 1 more ticket left and the JWW ring was closed, so we made up a course in STD. It was: tunnel, 12 weaves, panel jump, jump, tunnel, loop back around and do 6 weaves then the tunnel, 12 weaves again, and ending with 2 jumps.
She's NEVER seen competition weaves, and I could tell she felt a little akward. She found something extra smelly in the middle of the weaves and stopped to smell it, lol. I regained her focus and we finished the 12 weaves, as she walked through them. XD
When we looped back around to do the 6 weaves, she got the entry and sped up, when we went to the 12 weaves again, she was sooo much faster! I think it just took her a minute to get used to these crazy poles! ;P
This was all in ONE run, and I had no reward with me, she's never done so many sets of poles in 1 course, so I was super happy! She ended that course perfectly as well!
I brought out 4 of her new toys, the ones I know she likes, and she was too stressed to tug. But after our runs I brought out my last toy, I tiny little no-stuffing baby chick toy with a squeaker. She went NUTS and was working the warm up jump and tugging like a pro, complete focus and that happy stress-free face I love seeing.
I am such an idiot for doubting that toy and not bringing it out for our runs! UGH!
Overall it was very successful and I plan to finish up our DW Running Contacts and AF before our next fun match in a month, then we'll have another month before our trial. :)
Here's the link to our fun match vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nsWWOjLTus
Thanks for reading! :D
She is crazy. Actually, all of the Pups are crazy. Now they are even crazier because we switched their food to Natural Life, they love it! Anyways, Tarra's focus has improved alot since the run thrus, she also seems to trust me more now, not sure if it's because of the run thrus or not. And I'm working on Amy's Aframe 2o2o, pretty proud of her for having like no official 2o2o work! Halli.... Idk even know what we're doing right now besides Crate Training LOL Also they're mostly on break since Tarra's fun match is coming up and they're all getting a few days off. :) I paid for 2 JWW runs for the fun match. I'm really hoping she doesn't sniff and I can keep her under control, but I think we'll be able to do a warm up this time so hopefully we can work on the sniffing during the warm-ups. That's it for now, I'll post again about the fun match! :D
This past Monday we took Tarra to some mini agility run thrus a few hours away. I brought her absolute favorite motivators: destroyed Kong Wubba, destroyed stuffed toy, soft treats, cheese, and cat food. She'll take a toy over treats anyday, she's really not that enthusiastic working for food unless we're shaping something. BUT I always bring treats because I know that she'll take treats even if she's stressed. Tugging is a little bit harder when she's stressed.
First Run: She completely ignored me and sniffed this amazing smelly dirt that she's never seen. Then she sniffed her way out of the ring, lol. So we tried with her on leash, and I got her to do a few more obstacles. But she was refusing my treats.
Second Run: Time to bring out the big stuff: cat food. Talk about a transformation! No sniffing, focused, no refusals, did a course of 10 obstacles. She never gets cat food so now I save it for trials/run thrus.
The next three runs just got better and better. Off leash, focused, and on her last run I didn't have the cat food in my hand, we ran the course, and I hooked up her leash and we left the ring and immediately she got a huge jackpot of cat food. :)
In total we only used 1 can of cat food. Who knew.
Overall I consider this a huge breakthrough! This is a dog that is easily stressed in new locations, and here she is running a course with no motivator, in a new location, indoors,on a new flooring, and plenty of distractions!!
I'm SO proud of my baby dog!! (yes i consider her a baby)
here's the link to the vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NzigzQ1kU
I know we still have ALOT of work to do, but we've got a few months to fix those problems and more fun matches to come! :)
Tarra enjoying her treats:
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