Spay surgery

 Terra had one last heat cycle at the beginning of July, then had a spay, gastropexy, and dental done on August 14th. She didn't fuss with the incision at all and it healed quickly. She developed a vaginal infection immediately after, but antibiotics took care of that. I've already noticed male dogs paying a little less attention to her.

Growth/size update.

Showing her teeth in sleep.

Licking her puppy friend.

Recovering post-spay.

Updates from past few months: nose work, heat, Christmas, cats

Terra is moving along in nose work. We make the exercises easier for her if it involves going into tight spaces, but she constantly impresses me with her dedication and endurance when searching.

She had her third heat cycle just before Christmas. It made her a little more clingy toward the end. I'm thinking of having her spayed around the time she turns 3 this summer.

We spent a week at my parents' house. She was on Trazadone and Gabapentin the whole time. Initially she was doing better than usual. After my sister and her husband arrived, she was overwhelmed by the number of people, even though she usually likes them. She spent a lot of time in the back yard or closed into my bedroom. She barely ate and lost about eight pounds. Her biggest stressor was still my dad, whom she's always been scared of.

The last bit of news is that Terra has caught and killed two feral cats. One was in the dog yard already when I let them out, and for some reason was caught by surprise. The second was spooked by something outside the yard and jumped the wire fence, practically right into Terra's mouth. Both times it was a challenge to get the dead cat away from her afterwards. She is now obsessed with them. Peggy, who knows that she is safe as long as there is a fence between them, often sleeps right on the other side of the wire. Terra will stare at her, then bash her face into the fence as she pounces forward. I'm working on discouraging the staring, but I will never ever trust her around small animals other than dogs. I'm muzzling her when we go for off leash hikes just in case.

Road trip

I took a road trip up to the Pacific northwest to visit dog friends and go yarn shopping. I didn't want to bring both dogs since they have very different needs. I ended up choosing to bring Terra, as I thought it would be good for her. She barely ate and only peed twice a day, but she did better than I'd expected with entering new spaces and settling down to sleep. I think in the end it was a net benefit.

Whatcom Falls Park

Reservoir at Mt Tabor Park

On the beach with friend's Corgi, Owen

With Owen

Conformation lesson with Vicki

Terra has gotten comfortable enough with strangers and new places that I've decided to give conformation a try. She might still shy away when the judge approaches - it will depend on the judge's demeanor and how much time she's gotten to watch the person. The Northern California Irish Wolfhound Club is having their annual match on April 28th, conveniently close to me. The judge is a woman. So that will be the perfect opportunity to ease us into it.

We did a private lesson with Vicki Ronchette to test her skills and give me pointers. Terra did great - the tiniest lean away the first time Vicki came up, but no problems after that. She warmed up to Vicki very quickly and was soon leaning on her and headbutting her instead of stopping and stacking. She has pretty good front foot placement for a free stack, and doesn't move them while I fix the back feet. We tried out a short, skinny slip lead that has stoppers on both sides, so it won't tighten or loosen up more than needed. Terra wasn't used to the feel and would lower her head if I trotted her while it was tight. We tried it loose and she moved very well.

I'm feeling optimistic about the match (but will pull her, even leaving the ring if she needs me to).

White and scary Christmas

We spent Christmas break up in Truckee with my family. Terra is still scared of my dad, even though he did everything right and I tried to do counter-conditioning. That didn't go great because it was hard to keep her under threshold while in the same room with him. She did best when she was on the far side of the room, with her back to a wall or piece of furniture for security. She even spent a little time hiding behind the curtains that close off the entryway, with just her face peeking through to see if it was safe.

On the first night, she woke me up with all the symptoms of bloat except for a swollen and hard abdomen: pacing, panting, drinking water, and unproductive efforts to vomit. I was so sleepy that I didn't think of it, and fortunately she was already improving by the time I thought of bloat 30 minutes later. It seems to just have been bad indigestion. She had diarrhea later that day and the next. She didn't eat until two days later.

Outside in the snow, she was a different dog. She ran in circles in joy at being off leash. I took her for a long hike every day.

Back to nose work

I'd said that I was fine with just having a cuddly dog who didn't do anything, but it turns out I lied. I want to do something with my dog. Our nose work practice had sputtered out earlier this year, but now I'm back to it with private lessons with Jennie Kiefer.

Terra is doing much better now. We are pairing the tin with food (though usually Terra is too timid to reach for the food on her own), and the tin is always out in the open. A few times she's had trouble because the odor was at her chest height and she was blocking it with her own huge body. However we're seeing steady progress in her desire to find the odor as well as her ability to follow it to source.

I don't need to compete in nose work with her, but I need some sort of structured activity that we can do together, that gives me goals to work towards. I'm feeling hopeful now that we're back on track.

Poodle feet

I was practicing grooming stuff. She gets burrs and foxtails and clumps of mud stuck in the fur between her pads, so I think this will actually be more comfortable for her.

I left the tops fully furred.

First heat cycle

Terra started spotting on August 18th. She quickly learned to clean herself, and the blood was only a problem when she got up from a nap, during which it would apparently pool near the opening to her vagina. That was when big drops would end up on the floor - or splattered all over if she was vigorously wagging her tail to welcome me home.

I didn't notice any behavioral changes while she was home. Unfortunately her heat coincided with me having an intact adolescent male boarding with me. I sent her off to stay with my parents during the second half of his board, as he was getting worse in his behavior. Terra has always been wary of my dad, but this time she started barking at him when he would make noise from his office or enter the room she was in. She likes my mom, who provided all her care.

The spotting had stopped by the time she returned on September 3rd. On September 13th she had gooey discharge but that cleared up after just two or three days. All seems back to normal now.

I put a note in my calendar for February 18, 2019: "Terra heat sometime around now." I hope she's regular.

I made her these adorable panties for the most part they weren't needed.

Birthday!

Today is Terra's first birthday! My baby girl has grown so much!

3 months old

6 months old

9 months old

12 months old

We've made a lot of progress in her socialization. She now greets most of my visitors with a wagging tail (with the exception of some men), she's eager to get out of the car in new places, she has good dog social skills (except some small dogs she overwhelms when she wants to play), and she's a great house dog and hiker. I'm eager to see how she continues to progress as she matures.

New collars

Martingales from 2 Hounds Design. Love them.