We spent Mother's Day weekend with my parents. Chimera was more active there, and ended up yelping due to his leg injury a few times. I wish one could explain to animals that they need to take it easy when they're injured.
On the bright side, I took him to a get together and he spent the evening calmly lying next to me on leash.
We also took a trip to Home Depot and he was a model citizen, walking perfectly next to my cart.
After REDD's trial at Fetch Sam in March, one of the Novice entrants was eager to participate in a video event and finish up her dog's title. One other trial entrant, a brand-new beginner, and I all signed up to bring up the numbers of the event. We scheduled our joint recording session on April 22nd at ARF and had a fun time together. She did indeed get her dog's Novice title for that run!
Chimera doesn't have the Advanced level behaviors down yet, so I signed up for the Intermediate Encore class. Since I didn't care about whether we got a leg toward our Encore title (I'm just focusing on the core title track), I was able to totally relax as we went through the course. I didn't even train for the course ahead of time. As we went through, I thought that Cai was a little off-kilter since we hadn't been reviewing the signs that were on the course. However now I know that both his shoulder and his iliopsoas were giving him problems, and that's why he wasn't as responsive as usual. I believe that most of the missed/confused cues were actually because of the pain rather than lack of attention, because it's not the norm for him.
We still scored 148 and qualified. Here's the video:
Chimera has been adjusting better than I expected to his restricted activity. He gets bored here and there but mostly is willing to sleep the day away. He potties promptly when we go out on leash and enjoys his leash walks. We're doing some low-movement training like putting his front paws into my sandals (he manically paws at them because he's so excited to be doing something), scent articles (just indicating, no retrieve), and match to sample (he still doesn't get it).
In the meantime, Healthy Paws has come through and are counting my 3 recent payments for chiropractic adjustments toward my $500 deductible. (Or rather, they're counting 80% of those payments.) Like nearly all pet insurance companies, they don't count the exam fee toward the deductible or cover it. I'm happy that we've got the process going, as now there's no reason they shouldn't cover 80% of any upcoming laser therapy or other rehab treatments we do for his iliopsoas (after I cover the rest of the deductible). I'm happy with my decision to get pet insurance because now I don't have to worry much about the expensive rehab!
We had our third appointment with Chimera's awesome new chiropractor today. After his first appointment a couple of months ago, I had seen a huge improvement in his movement and signs of pain. However shortly after the second one he had deteriorated again. I had meant to call them and let them know, but I just dropped the ball. Dr Wallace found that his left shoulder was worse again, but also that he had a new iliopsoas sprain on his back right leg. Thank goodness we caught it early. I read Dr Patricia McConnell's blog and her Border Collie Willie has been having problems with his iliopsoas on and off for years. It can be an awful injury.
She referred me to a nearby clinic that does laser therapy and we made another appointment with her in one month. I got pet insurance for Cai about six months ago and they should cover some of this. It will be my first claim with them, so I'll update here how it goes.
In the meantime, Chimera is on strict rest. He is not allowed to run, jump, or climb stairs. No fetch or retrieve training because he runs to get the object. He will be crated when I am gone, pottied on leash (to stop him from doing his usual sprint back to the door when he's done), and he is banned from getting in the furniture (I will probably have to use tethers a lot to keep him from jumping up). No heeling because he does a beautiful head-up position, which makes him lean back and puts pressure on the iliopsoas. His only exercise will be on leash walks and training that keeps him mostly stationary.
I guess I'll finally work on his stays, and maybe make more progress with matching to sample.
I forgot to update about Chimera's visit to a new canine chiropractor on March 22nd. We saw Dr Wendy Wallace at Walnut Creek Veterinary Hospital. I was quite impressed by how gentle and attentive Dr Wallace was. She gently ran her hands over Cai's neck, back, shoulders, and hips, and used very subtle pressure to shift things around. He was in so much pain at the base of his neck, at his left shoulder, and at the base of his tail that he growled and tried to snap at her. I had to hold his head still so that she could fix him up. Apparently he could immediately feel the improvement because when she was done, he still presented his back to her and let her pet him.
That night he was already back to his prompt response to cues to sit and lie down. (I only tested them once each!) Over the next three weeks I still only sparingly asked for those behaviors, but he was back to offering his default downs when he wanted something. But within the last week he started getting snippy while I was brushing him. Fortunately yesterday was our recheck.
Dr. Wallace wasn't surprised that he had started regressing, as it was a normal timeline for things to start getting tensed up again after an initial adjustment. Cai was doing better along his neck and above his tail, but still had pain around his shoulders
We had been practicing the Bucket Game in the meantime. I brought Cai's bowl and high value treats to our appointment. Before the doctor came in, I put him up on the exam table and we played the game until she came in. I explained how it work and she immediately took a liking to it. She agreed to wait until he was looking at his bowl before doing any adjustments, and would stop if he looked away. (She had already been this gentle and was watching for stress the first time we came, but she liked that this was an operant behavior that helped him focus.) We did have to put the bowl away and I held his head when she worked on his shoulders. On the bright side, there was less growling and snapping than last time, and I was able to use much less force to keep him still.
She asked us to come back in another 3-4 weeks, but she's booked up for the next 6 weeks! We're on the call list in case someone cancels.
Our newest fancy trick, taught via a little luring and pocket hand:
I'll clean up his positioning and then we'll use this as our "alternative position" in advanced Rally-FrEe, and for some Free Choice behaviors as well.
For the sake of my own health and trying to fix my sleep/wake cycle, I started a regimen of walking/hiking for 30 minutes right after I get up in the mornings. Of course I take Cai with me. My motivation for going out is quickly changing from "my health" to "Cai loves it." If it's raining in the morning, I now do 30 minutes of playtime and training with Cai instead.
This morning it is indeed raining, and we worked on some fun advanced training skills:
- Heeling while he's facing backwards. (This will be our Alternative Behavior in rally-free, as well as a great Free Choice behavior.)
- Turning 180 degrees to face away from me while in Center position. (The first part of the Advanced "Turn: Back Through" RF behavior.)
- Moving from Heel to Behind position on a verbal cue, and NOT confusing it with the backwards circle.
- Directed retrieve using those little rolled up Whole Foods bags that I always have on hand.
- Down from motion.
It was during this last one that I finally out the pieces together with a strange behavior that Cai sometimes does. For a long time now, he has occasionally yelped while jumping up from a lying position. This has never before happened during training, only when he was doing his own thing. So I could never tell whether he was feeling something funny, yelping, then getting up, or whether he was yelping as a consequence of getting up. Well today he did it twice as he got up from the down position on cue. And then he started offering playbows instead. And then I realized that our problem of Cai frequently offering a playbow instead of a down is likely not a cue discrimination problem, but a physical problem. Holy smokes.
He has a visit with a new chiropractor in two weeks, so in the meantime I won't be asking for any downs in training. I hope that this won't be a mystery problem that takes a long time to figure out...
REDD hosted their annual musical freestyle and (since last year) rally-free trial this past weekend, at Fetch Sam in San Jose. Chimera competed in the Intermediate RF class on both days, and we earned the 2 legs we needed for our Intermediate level title! (Which, confusingly, is called the "Excellent" title, or RF-E/X.)
Cai spent much of the trial napping in the car or sitting on my mom's lap. We did some fun engaging (like cuddling or giving butt scratches) both before and after our run, but I only did a formal warm up for a few minutes on the first day, and one minute on the second day. I gave him plenty of time to look all around and see who was present (and he got lots of treats whenever a new dog walked in).
We went in the ring and I was ready to have fun and not worried. I knew the course well since I'd helped to set it up! I felt confident that we would qualify, and I didn't care too much about the score otherwise. (Though of course it's nice to score high!)
Well on Saturday my little monster BLEW ME AWAY. He was completely focused the entire time! No looking away when someone made a teeny sound! No worry when he messed up and I had to recue! He was prancing and looking up at me the entire time!
We scored 171, our highest score ever! We only lost significant points on the Circle Around x3 which he doesn't like and I hadn't quite fixed it in time for the event, and a few points for the confusion on the Figure 8 x2.
On Sunday he did have a teensy moment of distraction when he noticed Sherry outside the ring, and a brief floor sniff, but was still much more focused than he has been in the past. In fact, he got revved up and started barking a bunch, which he has never done before. Mostly it was my mistake - I had him do a bunch of barks on cue before we went in the ring. Then I used it as the first Free Choice behavior. And the next sign was a back up, which he sometimes confuses with barking due to old cue issues. So once that pattern happened, he just started barking. Since it messed up the third sign, Spin to Front, we lost major points on that one. We also lost points on the bobbled Switch Back, which usually goes better. And then he left my side to start running for his treats, haha.
Overall I'm still very happy with our second run, since his attitude was so happy! We scored 157.
Chimera and I earned our Rally-FrEe Novice Skills Test title (R-FE/NS) with a score of 136/150. Here's our video submission:
Note that I performed sign #11: Into Left
Heel incorrectly, as the DOG should move into Left Heel. It's incorrect
if the handler moves. Oops! We also lost 1 point on many of the signs due to Cai finishing wide.
