Always Brio

Berkley’s First Rally Trial

Berkley came with Riot and I today to play Rally. He was entered in the Novice B class. He did really well, but we came up one point short of qualifying. He got a 69 and 70 is qualifying.

Riot was the last dog in the class before and Berkley was the second dog in the ring in his class so he didn’t get much of a warm up. In retrospect I probably should have brought him in the building to acclimate him to the environment when we first got there.

Berkley got a quick warm up outside and then into the building with one dog in the ring ahead of him. I knew he was antsy about being in the building and what was going on, so given that, I think he did really well. He had some nice heeling and some ooo… what’s that over there moments. He sits were a little slow and I had a really hard time getting him to do a finish right. Towards the end of the course I think he had had enough and twice switched to my right side.

Not horrible for his first time in the ring and I do thing he was enjoying himself. I’ll have to see about finding a few matches this winter for him. I do think he was happy to be out doing something today.

First Rally Lesson

All three dogs had a rally lesson Friday night. 

Berkley reminded me why I never took him more places. He’s such a pain in the butt in the crate.

We ran though a novice rally course twice with him. He did really well. With a little refresher on heeling and lots of praise, he got through and probably would have qualified if it was a trial. 

Berkley needs work on fronts and finishes. But expect to see him debut in rally sometime this fall.

Starting Training

It’s about time someone starts paying some attention to Berkley. So tonight we started reviewing finishes. Hopefully by fall we can bring him out in the rally ring. I need to stop babying him and get him ready for the obedience ring too.

Too Many Doctors

Poor Berkley had a rough day today. 

First he had to go back to the vet to have his eyes and ears checked from a couple of weeks ago when they were all red (some sort of allergy). The Benedryl seems to be working because his eyes look great and his ears are clear. Yay!

Then later he went to see Nellie. Nellie looked at his x-rays from October and says his hips are probably the cause of most of his pain. She says she sees few things in his lower back that are probably due to him compensating for his hips. He did seem painful last night so we didn’t do acupuncture. Instead his just got the chiropractic treatment and I was shown how to work his hips a bit at home to help alleviate some pain. 

Since I haven’t been giving him much Rhymadyl and he doesn’t seem particularly painful, we don’t have to go back and see Nellie at any particular time. Just when I feel like I’m giving him the Rhymadyl at more frequent intervals and he seems like he’s in more pain then we’ll go back for another acupuncture treatment. 

Berkley’s Acupuncture Appointment

Berkley went for acupuncture last night. It was the first time he’s gone to see Nelly. She’s going to do three treatments on him and then evaluate him from there. Some dogs the acupuncture does a lot for and others not so much. Depending on how he does, we maybe able to decrease or stop the Rymadyl on a daily basis. 

He did really good. He was a bit scared, but let Nelly do everything she needed to do. 

Gaining Acceptance

Riot has been home a month and just now is Berkley not walking away if the little guy comes near him. He’s even beginning to tolerate puppy kisses and will let him get a few in before he lets out low warning growl. I still don’t think he likes the little guy, but he’s beginning to accept him.

Old Man Berkley

October started out with a bang. Berkley whimpered a few times early the morning of the 1st. At first we thought he had just been scared by the puppy running around, but eventually he came up to the bed and crawled in my lap and just laid there whining occasionally. Berkley doesn’t just lay there unless he’s being petted and even then he’s usually nuzzling into you. 

So we did the morning routine and went downstairs, he ate his breakfast fine, went outside fine. Then we noticed when ever he tried to get up, he’d cry out in pain. I couldn’t find anything obviously painful so we called the vet.

They couldn’t get him in for an appointment until much later in the day and I wasn’t leaving him alone like that so we dropped him off to spend the day at the vet. He had bloodwork done and x-rays done.  Diagnosis: arthritis pretty much everywhere. His wrists, elbows, ankles, hips, shoulders and back. He also may have a partially torn cruciate. All of this was probably agrivated by chasing Riot around the night before.

This was the begining of a very bad month for us and they vet. Between the three of them, we were either at the vet or on the phone to the vets office almost every day of the month.