Dusty Approaches Seventeen Years

One week from tomorrow, 2/8, my Dusty will turn seventeen years of age. That is amazing. He's in relatively good health, although I do think I'll get him in to the vet before his birthday. It seems lately each week in my life he ages a few years in his doggie life. He frequently doesn't sleep through the night any longer, but the good news is he's cognizant enough to wake me up to tell me he needs to potty. And the OTHER upside is that he CAN potty by himself. At nearly seventeen years, that's quite an accomplishment!
He still knows who I am and still knows who and where he is. Another accomplishment at his age. The reason for the early vet visit is his deteriorating appetite, and he is losing weight. He still eats but it's only a couple of mouthfuls, and it takes him forever to eat these days. It seems he's having trouble negotiating the bowl. We've gone away from raw completely (too upsetting for his tummy) and gone to a broth/high quality canned food with some kibbles thrown in.
But he still wags his tail at me when I get home from work, and he is still somewhat playful. He really enjoys celebrating the poop pickup with the other dogs and follows me around barking.
I'm glad this winter has been so mild as I think it would be very difficult for him to negotiate snow and ice at this point in his life.
He's been my best friend for a very long time. I am beginning to see a transition from this world to begin the entrance to the spirit world. I don't know how much time we have left together. My prayer is for me to make him as comfortable and happy as possible, and my wish for him is to fall asleep when it's Time and just not wake up. But who knows how our Time will happen? Erik was going through old VHS tapes and came across Dusty's High In Trial herding run. It's set to "our song" - appropriately titled "Companions". We watched it together, and I'd forgotten that Dusty could run so fast back then. What a sweet video it is, I'm so glad he found it. That video is about 12 years old - we were BOTH so much younger then! And I was still single. Dusty's been through all of my grown-up transitions in this life, and a faithful companion the entire time.
I'll write again about him in a week - it won't be a big celebration, but certainly a day to honor the most special dog in my life, my sweet Dusty.

It MIGHT Be an Exciting Year

Training has begun in earnest for Pinch and Moto. Our 2012 goals (not set in stone, of course, since life happens):
- Both boyz get their Started titles in Herding; and
- Moto gets his Open title in Obedience;
- Pinch gets his Novice title.

It's very difficult training two dogs with completely different temperaments. My thanks to Renee for helping me remember this. At a fun match this weekend I wanted to take too big of a proofing step with Moto which could have had disastrous results. Pinch - definately a cool thing to do, but would've destroyed Moto's confidence. It was the putting of a mesh screen behind the Broad Jump, to help the dog to not cut corners when taking the jump. Had Moto stepped on that in a new place he probably would've thought ALL Broad jumps had scary things that would come out and get him. Sheesh. Good thing I have people there to remind me I can't train all dogs the same way! But his performance was great! Now by great I don't mean OTCH-worthy, he was upbeat and happy and he tried. That's all I want from him, is to have fun in the ring and for us to be a team. We accomplished that. We'll dip our toe into Open some time this Spring and I'm looking forward to it.
Pinch tried Utility for the very first time at a fun match. I was impressed and thrilled! I have high goals for Pinch in Obedience. I still have lots and lots of work to do and I just don't ever seem to have enough time. We'll try some Wildcard classes and UKC Novice and if all goes well, maybe late Spring I'll put him into Novice. I want him to be as prepared and ready as he can be, as I hope to have a long, thrilling Obedience career with him.
Herding is, well, interesting. Moto has an innate understanding of the stock, but his performances are hit-and-miss, depending on how he's feeling that day. Some days he's very keen and others, well, let's just say if the sheep get away from him, he'd rather just call it a day. Moto was simply spectacular yesterday. He really IS ready for the Started class. It's just about building up his confidence and exposing him to different situations. He can do it, he just needs to be reminded he CAN do it, and do it very well.
Pinch has tons of "want to" but needs to be taught more of the basics as he lacks the understanding of how to work stock. I'm a green handler myself so this gets dicey. Again, thanks to my trainer Cathy who stopped us when I was confusing my poor guy and helped get us back on track. He will do it, eventually, but I'm going to need help getting him there.
Moto may be ready to try in the Spring; Pinch, probably in the Fall. Since I'm not an experienced handler in Herding and I don't feel I "get it", I just hope for that wonderful qualifying green ribbon. Anything else is icing on the cake.
If we can accomplish these things, it will be an exciting year indeed!

Not What I Wanted to Hear

Blitz and I went for his annual appointment with his DM specialist. He's not had any flareups over the past year and is doing so well. I fully expected him to pronounce Blitz in remission and have a glowing report.
It was not a bad report, but it certainly wasn't what I expected. Since he is a professional and an expert in this disease, he's been carefully collecting statistics on Blitz as he is one of the worst cases he's seen.
He told me Blitz has definately declined, and that the muscle wasting has increased, especially in the facial region.
I was kind of surprised, but then he kindly took me on a tour of Blitz's body, and explained his findings to me.
I was bummed. I told him I felt Blitz was doing pretty well, and did he think Blitz would live a normal-length life. Pause. I don't LIKE pauses. He replied that because of my good care, the disease has slowed way down and because of that, I've given him LOTS of extra years. He then reminded me that he only expected Blitz to live to be 2. He is now four.
Blitz isn't dying by any means. He's not even close to it. But the reality is, he may only have a few more years.
Honestly, I shouldn't be saddened by this reality: Shiloh was in raging good health and his disease struck, quite literally, overnight. He was gone by age 10. Blitz was born with a horrific case of Dermatomyocitis (we didn't know it, and it wasn't officially diagnosed as DM until 12 weeks of age) and wasn't expected to live long at all.
So, I continue to take inspiration from Blitz: he doesn't know he has a death sentence. He continues to be the happiest dog on the planet. We all don't know when our time will come to leave this earth. So do as Blitz does: wag your tail, bark with joy, and be happy.
It's all any of us can do.

Dogs and Nicknames

Does your dog have a nickname?
Mine do. I don't know if this is something everyone does, or just some of us, or just....me. I don't think it's just me. I think you do it, too.
How did your dogs GET their nicknames?
Mine came in a variety of ways.
Dusty = Dustmite. That one is really obvious.
Shiloh was Scooby, then shortened to Scoobs. I shortened it because Scooby took too long to get out of my mouth, and he was so darned fast at reacting to anything. Shiloh acted on impulse before he thought, which got him into lots of sticky situations. This led to me saying "ruh-roh!" which of course is what Scooby-Doo said. That's how he got his name.
Blitz = Beedle Deedle. I don't know.
Moto = Boo-Boo-Bear. It's because he is so cuddly.
Pinch = Dipper. That's because when he barked as a puppy, he'd snap his jaws and bark at the same time, making it a two-syllable bark. Instead of the usual-sounding "woof", it actually sounded like he was saying "Dip-per!" It's cute. It stuck.
Along with each of their nicknames comes a little sing-song that each dog has. I did an experiment recently to see if each dog understood that a particular song was for them. I sat on the couch, not making eye contact, just looking straight ahead, and softly sang one of their nickname songs. Sure enough, that individual would brighten, wag their tail, and step forward. Dusty is largely deaf now but back when he could hear his song he did this cute little back-and-forth with his head and begin prancing; so cute!
Shiloh adored his song and would try to match the pitch of my voice when I sang it to him. The two of us would "sing" it together.
Blitz wags his tail and spins.
Moto makes a very low "whuh" and rolls over on his back.
Pinch, of course, snaps his jaws at me with delight.
I don't know how the songs were born. They just sort of happened. I don't try to make a song, they just seem to come along in their own time.
It just seems to come with having a dog.