Taking Some Time Off From Agility Due to Injury

by Tyssen

It's about time Jada quit hogging the computer! Joni rarely lets us on there, but when she does Jada has to take a few hours trying to remember every last run she's had in the last 8 months. My agility career seems to be dead in the water compared to Jada's. Yeah, she has 22 DAYS of trials, while we've had 4 days that consisted of a grand total of 6 RUNS. That's it. Only ran in March and April only. But then I've been in 20 dogs shows since then, so I guess that makes up the difference.

First we'll cover that skimpy trial updates. My March trial I ran 3 times and had 3 Q's and in April I ran 3 times and only had 1 Q. The two NQ's were Snooker (got distracted by a great smell and followed it into a tunnel - didn't go IN the tunnel, but stuck my head in,which was enough for an NQ) and Jackpot (yes, I'm related to Jada! But I DID do it, at least - just was 1 second over the time! So there!). So that was it - sums up my 2010 agility career in one teeny tiny paragraph.

I would have done more CPE this on Labor Day and in October, but I hurt my leg in August and Joni is not letting me do any agility for several months until she's absolutely 100% sure that it's all healed up. It's fine....but I can't convince her otherwise.

I hurt my leg when Joni got me a Premier Easy Walk Harness.
Image from: http://www.premier.com/View.aspx?page=dogs/products/behavior/easywalk/productdescription

I walk just fine on a leash and collar, until I see some of the dogs in my neighborhood and I just can't contain myself. That occasional pulling was making my ruff break off and leaving a collar line. That's not good for dog shows! So she got this harness, which I really liked. This harness has a ring in the front of my chest, so if I pulled any it felt funny and I stopped. That is....until I forgot one day that I had this on. I was at the end of my leash when I thought this bulldog hates me was out in his yard. I started to bolt over there - forgetting this new contraption that was on me - and when it stopped me it pulled at my chest and my body twisted some - and my left back leg twisted and got hurt badly. I fell down and held it up and was crying for Joni to help me. She ran over and rubbed my leg, which helped a little. I got up and didn't want to put it down. She laid me down and rubbed my entire leg some more. I was limping a little, but then it felt fine. But the next day I just hurt all over for a few hours. It was fine after that day....until I'd come down on my back leg wrong and I couldn't help but let out a little yelp and hold it up. Joni took me to the vet, but all he said that I sprained it. She later took me to a dog chiropractor. I wasn't sure about this, but he really did help me alot. I've had one or two small incidents since then when I came down strange on it and it hurt a little, but it's getting better. I suppose it's smart to let me heal totally and not run agility for awhile. But do you have any idea how hard it is to sit there at these 2-3 days trials all day long and do NOTHING? [groan!]

In the meantime Joni has gotten rid of that stupid Premier Harness and got a Walkeez Dog Harness from the Clean Run site. I love this one! It's soft and padded and doesn't hurt me!
Here's a photo of it from their site - although mine is black on black - no red or any other colors:


Image from: http://www.releashme.com/index.html

I've been doing lots of UKC shows. I'd love to do some AKC shows again, but we have to wait until my ruff grows out more.

This summer we went to the UKC Premier show in Richmond, Indiana since I was in the Top Ten. I was the #5 Keeshond for 2009 and was invited to the Top Ten show there.

The show was lots of fun. Wednesday was the Top Ten Preliminaries. There were a few other Keeshonds there, but I ended up getting Best of Breed. Groups were next, but not like normal groups. These were huge groups of all sorts of random dogs, not by their groups necessarily. There were about 45 dogs in my group - and I was the first dog they picked out of it to advance to the Top Twenty Finals. Pretty cool! The next night was the Top Twenty Finals. I had to go into 3 different rings with Judy and have 3 different judges go over me. At the end they called out the Top Ten out of the Top Twenty - and I was Number 4 overall! Not too shabby!



I had nothing to do for the rest of the show. Judy had brought along another Kees she had for the regular shows, along with Reuben the Pom and Rhade the Elkhound. So after my big night I just hung out and relaxed with Jada. We had a fun week there!

We've been to several UKC shows since then to get some breed wins for next year. Right now I'm ranked at #5, but that could change between now and the end of the year! Not sure what will happen next year since they changed the Premier show back to Michigan and Joni has to work that week. I might just be going up there with Judy only, maybe. ???

We have a new Cousin!
Yep, our cousin Beckett has a new pup living with him as of this summer - a tiny 12-inch tall tri-colored sheltie named Reuben. Hopefully nobody confuses him with our Pomeranian buddy Reuben! Little Reuben was 6 months old when they got him. Joni has been taking him to agility class so he'll eventually be running at trials with Jada and me. Yeah, he sure better not get more runs than me in!