Radical Canines

Summer 2021 has been a whirlwind to say the least. Since the end of April, a lot has happened! This is a long one so buckle up!

In May, my little sister had her bachelorette party in Upstate NY. The boys came along and were complete troupers. They loved running in the big open field near the house we rented. Rugby and Rumor were able to enjoy some (muzzled) off leash freedom together and it was nice to see their dynamic. At this point it’s active avoidance but I will definitely take that as progress. After this trip Rumor showed a little bit of lameness, which I attributed to a cut on his foot. The lameness resolved relatively quickly and I didn’t give it a second thought. A few weeks later I went to NC for the in person lab portion of my CCRP certification. It was an amazing experience and I met some wonderful people. Unfortunately when I came back Rumor was lame again and it didn’t resolve right away. We followed up with X-rays of his shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. The good news is the jolly green giant doesn’t have any signs of dysplasia or arthritic changes which is awesome for a dog his size! We did however discover an enlarged heart which after further testing was diagnosed as Mitral Valve Insufficiency. In people when the valve gets too weak to function they replace it but this doesn’t work in dogs. So Rumor and his giant heart get to do pretty much anything that makes him happy until his giant heart can’t keep up anymore but he’s doing well.

In June, Rugby and I played out first competitive round of freestyle for the summer (he took Rumor’s place since Rumor isn’t tolerating freestyle with whatever is going on in his shoulder). We went into having only worked on the individual components but not working on specific sequences. It was rough to say the least and really showed me that not having a set in stone plan was a recipe for disaster. Rugby was high as a kite, running into me, blowing off vaults and discs in general. Not our best showing by far but a necessary education in the required preparation. We got to work and two weeks later Rugby and I placed 3rd in the USDDN SuperOpen qualifier earning us an invited to the 2021 National Championships in MO and the 2022 World Finals in Poland. The next day we won Open Overall at the AWI qualifier earning us an invited to the AWI finals. Rumor also earned a USDDN SuperPro Alternate. June wrapped up with a wonderful weekend that involved my little sister getting married, and a early morning marathon drive to NY to compete in a UFO Qualifier with Rugby where he placed 3rd in both Overall Combined and Freestyle.

July involved a one day event hosted by GSDD and a trip to OH to visit with friends, knock another state off the list and play some disc. Rugby and I finished in 6th both days after some difficulties in toss and fetch. Overall July was pretty low key.

Our August brought some fun dock diving for Rumor where he earned his Dock Senior title and Rugby earned a 3rd place in Novice at the event finals which was fun. August also included a phenomenal clinic with Abby Cline and Sam Valle working on tricks and freestyle skills with Rugby. The month wrapped up with another USDDN qualifier complete with multiple yellow jacket stings for me and at least one for him directly before and during our first round and then him out of his mind causing us to stop mid routine and reset before continuing our second round. Despite this we still managed to pull off a respectable 3rd place finish in SuperOpen.

The beginning of September was supposed to send us to IL for the AWI Finals, unfortunately as we were getting ready to head out the door, Rumor started an odd huffing. With the amount of Kennel Cough that has been present throughout the region I had a feeling and opted to cancel my trip to the finals just in case it progressed to full on coughing. It was an unbelievably difficult choice to make as this was supposed to be Rugby’s first finals event since his return and our first AWI together. There were tears and I was devastated but it turned out to be the right choices. Friday morning Rumor’s huffing turned into coughing fits and gagging typical with Kennel Cough. By Sunday Ryder was coughing, though his only lasted a few days, and by Monday morning Rugby sounded terrible. We’re a week since coughing started, Rugby is coughing only a handful of times a day, Ryder hasn’t coughed since last weekend and Rumor still has a fairly regular cough though it’s improving. I expected Rumor would have it the longest and worst with his crummy heart but Rugby’s seemed to hit harder even though it was shorter in duration. Overall everyone is doing well but we are quarantined from dog events until Rumor stops coughing and then an additional 2 weeks after. That means the demos we were supposed to participate in and the event we were supposed to help host at the end of September are no go’s. I’m hoping things clear up soon enough for our October demos and the USDDN National Championships in MO but time will tell.