Spice Qs again in Jumpers (with weaves!)

This Thanksgiving weekend the weather was perfect at Spot On. Rarely do AAC Master Jumpers have weaves. This weekend the judge decided to put weaves in the course. It was a tricky exit as well. I walked the course for only Taari again. I ran her first and she didn't hold her stay at the start line (first time on the weekend). Then she took out the cones at a tunnel entrance. She doesn't like it when I rear cross a tunnel and spun around to tell me so. There were some good parts of her run.

I didn't practice the weaves much with Spice since his surgery since I never expected to see them in a jumpers run. I decided that whatever he did with the weaves would be fine I would just continue on if he stopped or pulled out. I was quite surprised that he did the weaves really well. He Qed with less than a second to spare. I will have to check and see how well he has done in the past with jumpers with weaves. I do remember that Qing with weaves in a jumpers run was hard for Spice.

Here is the YouTube version of the run. Below I uploaded it to my blog.

Spice gets his Silver Award of Merit

Judge Lane White, Spice and Teresa

On Sunday I ran Spice at the K9 Klubhouse trial in Pickering Ontario. Earlier in the day I wasn't sure how he was feeling. He wasn't perky but perhaps I had just woken him up. I walked him around and warmed him. Getting out his "magic" frisbee out always get him excited. The frisbee has a food pouch. When I threw it for him the first time he didn't run after it but after the first time he was enthusiastic about it.

While I was waiting ringside and playing with him (with the frisbee) he did a play bow and barked at me. He has never done this before - at least not that I remember and definitely not ringside. That made me happy - he was definitely feeling pretty good. He wasn't showing any signs of stress. This used to be a problem and mostly likely a large contributor to how slow he ran sometime. I know that I was a major cause of his stress. This was his second last try at getting his Silver as there is only one more trial after this one. I was a bit worried that I might cause him stress again. Well I obviously wasn't. I think that in the back of my mind I was thinking it would be nice to get his Silver but really he doesn't care so I just want him to have fun and it was great that he was feeling so much better let alone able to compete again.

I had only walked the course for Taari who I ran first. I thought that I would have plenty of time to decide how to run it for Spice since Taari was one of the first dogs and Spice was the last dog. I also thought that I could think on the fly with him as he isn't as fast as Taari. Here is the video of his run. There is one spot where I was out of position. Spice Qed and his speed was 3.79 yds/sec. This is his 5th fastest Jumpers run ever (out of about 64 jumper runs).

A big thank you to everyone who helped with Spice's recovery, our trainers, family and friends for your support. If it wasn't for the excellent care he received from his surgeon, veterinarian, chiropractor and massage therapist he would not be feeling as good as he does now. Getting his Silver is just icing on the cake.

Having fun

On Monday I did more training with Spice in my backyard and he was very enthusiastic. No signs of being sore after running jumpers on Sunday. He was taking off anticipating me throwing the frisbee and also not waiting for me to tell him to go through the tunnel or over the jumps. He was definitely having fun.

Spice got a Q in Jumpers

I will post more details later but I ran Spice in AAC Master Jumpers on Sunday and he got a Q. This was the first time I ran him in a trial in almost a year. He was 5 seconds under the standard course time. He did very well and was happy to be running.

The start of his story can be found here.

Spice is jumping

Today at the Spot On match I tried running Spice at 6" for the first time. This is the height I will run him at when he competes again as veterans are allowed to drop two height categories. First I tried him out on a short course with a tire, jumps and tunnels. Then later I decided to make the course a bit longer (18 obstacles). He ran really well. Spectators thought he looked happy. He showed no signs of limping when he was running. He was limping very slightly on the grass. I think that he may be cautious on grass as I have noticed that his limp is worse when he is walking on grass. I think that he still has the muscle memory of limping.

I have noticed that since I started running with him that he is improving. Less of a limp and he is distributing his weight more evenly.

Also on Tuesday of this week Spice went to the chiropractor and the ophthalmologist. His cataracts are slightly worse. I think that he should have no problems with jumps, tires, chutes and tunnels. We haven't tried a chute yet but the rest he is doing well.

Spice is running

Spice was fine after doing the tunnels and jumps with bars on the ground on Saturday (no signs of soreness). I took him with me to Taari's training on Tuesday night and had him do some more jumps and tunnels. He was running pretty good all things considered. It was a nice cool evening too. Tonight at home I had him doing a few jumps and 4 weaves. I wasn't encouraging him to run fast as I am being cautious. In fact on Tuesday night I made a point of doing more sending work so he could set his own pace. His magic frisbee (with the food pouch) got him excited though. I gave Taari a turn, Spice a turn and then Taari again. I wasn't going to do any more with Spice but he came out the door all excited wanting another turn. So we played a bit of frisbee. I didn't throw it as far as I normally do.

I am very pleased that he is having fun again.

Update on Spice

Spice is continuing to get cartrophen shots every 5 weeks. He saw his chiropractor on July 24th. She saw a definite improvement from our last visit.

I have been trying to walk Spice more. It is hard when working full time. He is at most getting 3 walks a day. He got a double length walk one night when I met some friends (40 minutes). I am continuing to do fit disks, Bosu ball (normal and inverted so it is like a wobble board), and ladders with him.

I have been taking Spice to some of Taari's trials to get a massage.

Overall he is improving. I haven't been massaging and icing him much but I think that I should start doing it more often again. He still has a limp at times but he does seem to be putting more weight on his good leg. Even more importantly he seems happier which I assume means less pain. It was definitely worth it.

Today he went to the fun match with Taari and just walked around. Later I had him going through some tunnels and jumps (bars on the ground). He was having fun. I will see how he is tomorrow.