The Mysterious Limp Part 1

Chili puts everything into her play time. She’s part Boxer and plays like one. With that, she’s come home from time to time with limps and scratches from playing. It’s just Chili. Typically, it takes a day for her to get over it. No worries. However, one day she had a little limp that wouldn’t go away. Actually, it would go away, then come back, then go away, then come back.

The little limp got worse so I decided to take her to the vet. We went to our usual vet and I was asked to walk her once up and down the street in front of the office. She wasn’t limping so the vet felt her leg, couldn’t find anything, then after talking about Chili’s symptoms, recommended that she be put on Cartrofin, or Metacam. I’m familiar with Metacam and refused it right away. My opinion, it’s nasty stuff. I’m also familiar with Cartrofin but wasn’t convinced. I was afraid to walk away without doing anything for Chili, so I agreed to the Cartrofin. She would get one shot now, and return for a series of shots over the next few weeks.

I went home feeling angry at myself. I wasn’t happy about my decision. You’d think I’d know better than to go against my gut, but when it comes to the vet, I sometimes lose my mind. After our whole experience with Ruby, I could never bring myself to completely trust them again. I couldn’t shake the feeling. The next day, I phoned another vet and made an appointment. The moment I put the phone down, I felt light. In the meantime, we decided to take her out of daycare and leave her at home in the hopes that the rest would help. Not a popular decision with Chili. Besides, she wasn’t even limping at daycare. She had better things to do than worry about a sore leg. She couldn’t be trusted roaming the house so she had to be crated. Brad had to come home on his lunch to hang out with her and let her out. I felt so bad for her. A social girl really shouldn’t be crated and alone, but I didn’t have any other options.

The assessment by the next vet was thorough. He had me walk and run her back and forth numerous times in the parking lot. He flexed and felt every part of her leg after every pass. Of course, Chili didn’t limp once and didn’t give any indications of pain. Figures. We opted to bring her back for X-Rays. The X-Rays were digital so I was able to go in right away to look at them. There was Chili, still out, laying on the floor, with her tongue hanging out. I wish I had my camera. As she came around her tail started thumping every time she heard voices. It doesn’t take much to get her excited. We took a look at the X-Rays and could see dark areas on the bones in her leg. I felt weak. I couldn’t even hear the vet talking. My thoughts went to Ruby, and how devastating it was to lose her to cancer. I could barely speak the words, but I had to ask, was it cancer. He assured me it wasn’t.

Although there was no definitive diagnosis, the vet did think that she might have panosteitis. Panosteitis is most common in large breed dogs between the ages of 6 and 18 months old. Chili was already 2 ½. Panosteitis is a bone disease that is often painful and can last anywhere from 2 months to 18 months. It is characterized by lameness that comes and goes and can go from leg to leg, although with Chili, it was just the one leg. Typically it has to run its course, but once it’s gone, it’s gone, and there are usually no other problems.

He did offer us a possible treatment option, Therapeutic Laser Treatments. He was considering purchasing a laser machine but wanted to test it out first to see if it really did provide results. It wouldn’t cost us anything, and wasn’t invasive, so we agreed. I would keep my fingers crossed that this would help. She had the first treatment right then. We would be in ‘monitor mode’, which wasn’t my favourite, until the end of the treatments.

Give Us a Break

Have you ever been walking your dog and just known that a judgement is being made about you? I’ll be completely honest and admit that I’ve made judgements. I’ll admit that when I look back on them, I was naive and lacked the knowledge to make any kind of judgment. I’ve also been on the judged side. Who hasn’t? Most times it’s a silent judgement, and sometimes it’s been not so silent.

I know that not everyone takes responsibility for managing their dog’s behaviour. I also know that not all people who own dogs, love dogs. They only love their dog. Then there are those who just don’t like any dog. These people and many others are out on the trails every day. I see every trail situation as a training opportunity. You have to look at it that way. If I stuck to the shadows and the back trails, we would never have achieved the progress that we’ve made. I’ve felt so thankful for those dog owners out there who have stopped when they’ve seen me struggling with Chili and asked if I would like to practice the ‘walk by’ again. They recognized that I was doing my best to teach her the right way and they took the time to help. Then there have been those who have screamed at me, yes screamed; or told me to ‘control my dog’, which I was doing; or told me that I should get some training for my dog, which I had done and was continuing to do.

My point, give me a break. You have no idea what I have invested in my dog to make positive changes. You have no idea how far she’s come, and she’s come very far. You have no idea how much I’ve had to assess my own actions, and change. Change is hard. I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved. I take responsibility for me and my dog. I know the good things she does, and I know the bad things she does. For the past few months, she barely lunges anymore. (I’ll tell you how we achieved that in another post.) When we walk and she’s off leash, I always put her back on when I see another dog approaching, or make her walk by my side when we pass people. In regards to the other dogs, I know that Chili sometimes has an ‘in your face’ way of greeting, we’re working on it, so to avoid a bad ‘hello’, I put her on leash. In regards to the people, Chili loves them. She’d love to run up and say hi and lick everyone. However, I know that not everyone wants to be licked by a dog and some people are afraid, so I keep her at my side.

Today, on our walk, a woman with 2 dogs on leash was walking towards us. She stopped, reigned in her dogs, and asked, “Is your dog friendly?” She was far enough from us that she had to holler the question. I didn’t know what to say, I usually don’t. This wasn’t the first time that this whole scenario has presented itself. Chili was on leash and I was asking her to look at me. There was no fuss and I wasn’t stressed. I certainly wasn’t worried about if her dogs were friendly. When I go out onto the trails I have no control over others and worrying about it doesn’t change that. I know I shouldn’t get annoyed by this, but I do. I should’ve asked her why. Although, if I didn’t like the answer we would’ve ended up in a shouting match that would stress both the dogs and us while going absolutely nowhere. So, our response, “She’s on leash, she’ll be fine, you just manage your dogs.” Not the most elegant response, oh well.

Honestly, me and Chili are the least of your worries. I am responsible for my dog. If you’re having issues, they’re yours, please don’t make them mine. If you’re unsure, face your fears, stop and talk to me, or even better, ask to walk with us. Be open, maybe we can learn something from each other.

The Roles We Play

Chili loves life. She’s always smiling and running around in a blissful state with the belief that the world is her cookie. Well, except for when she’s defending the house against a rabbit, squirrel, cat, or deer that happens to dare to cross into her yard. Even then, she’s happily defending her home and doing her job. Those who know her love her. Seriously, they do. She makes people smile. No matter what she does, she’s committed to having the most fun ever. As we walk and she passes by people, I imagine that if she could talk, she would say ‘hi’, ‘how’s it goin’, ‘hello’, ‘what’s up’, ‘wanna play’, to every person that walked by her. I often wonder how such a happy dog could cause us so much trouble.

We all think we know our dogs. Do we really know them, or do we know the story that we’ve created around them? Although Chili has improved incredibly, I know that she lunges at dogs, and I know that I have to facilitate greetings for her with other dogs. After the initial crazy, she’s ready to play. That’s what I know from my history with her. However, the girls at daycare know a different story. They don’t know one of lunging and problems, they know her as pushy but playful, happy and energetic, a big goofball who will play with almost any dog who will play with her. She doesn’t have any lunging or greeting issues. She’s the perfect dog to welcome new dogs into the daycare. So, which is the real Chili?

I find this whole idea fascinating. I like to think that daycare Chili is the real Chili. She’s allowed to be herself. They don’t worry about her and feel like she needs to be monitored. She’s watched just like the rest of the dogs, and when she acts up, she gets in trouble just like the other dogs. It’s all quite simple. Not like at home. I know I worry about her too much, but really, what am I supposed to do? Our story started when we adopted her and it’s been a difficult story to rewrite. Early on when she started lunging, we didn’t know how to manage it, so it went on and on. With consistency, we became more and more stressed and the story we played out was giving each other the heads up when we saw an oncoming dog, preparing to hold her back and riding out the wave. The story for Chili was that every time a dog passed, mom and dad became nervous and stressed so she would lunge. It happened consistently so it became her routine. It was our routine, our story. After a number of repetitions, we all learned our role in the walk.

The whole time, I always knew it could be different. I believed that Chili had it in her to walk by a dog calmly. I didn’t know how to make it happen, but I knew it would. So, we kept playing our parts. We had some success with the E-collar but it was inconsistent. It was great for the recall, but not so great for breaking her focus. As I look back, I’m quite certain I wasn’t doing my part with the collar and that’s why it wasn’t really working. I had to find a way to get her to stop staring at the oncoming dog. I knew the answer would come, I just hoped it would come soon. I had to find a way to change the story and change our roles. Daycare Chili would prevail.

Obedience Classes

As we stood there waiting for the class to begin, I couldn’t help but feel the energy in the room. Everyone was anxiously waiting for things to begin and doing their best to keep their dogs calm. Some were doing it with little effort, and others were putting their complete focus on their dogs to get the job done. That was me, one of the others. Chili wasn’t lunging or anything like that, she was just excited to be there and wanted to check out and smell everything.

Michele started out the class by talking about the ‘wins’ in our dog’s lives. You know...like when they beg for a treat and we obey, they take out their little book and put a notch in the win column. When they bring their toy and bump us in the butt with it because they want to play and we obey...another notch. Then, when we want something from them, they take out their little book and think, “Hmmm, I don’t think so. See all these notches? That tells me I’m the boss. Now... get me a cookie!” Sound familiar? Everyone laughed because we all knew it was true. Damn book!

Chili wasn’t quite calm yet and was pulling on the leash. Emma, Michele’s assistant, came over and suggested that we try the Illusion Collar. I refused and told her that I’ve tried it but it didn’t work. She suggested a harness, but again I refused. I just wanted to use my own gear. As we started moving around the room and practicing different commands, I was still struggling with Chili. She just wouldn’t focus and kept ignoring me. Then Michele walked over and told me she was going to put the Illusion Collar on Chili. I didn’t want to argue so I let her put it on. To my surprise, it was the change that we needed to help Chili to focus and allow me to settle in. I guess Emma was right in the first place. They saw I was struggling and knew that a change would help in our success. I’m glad they didn’t let me push them away. This is what they do after all.

These classes are great and offer so much more than just learning some commands. Working with your dog in this way helps to build a bond between you, a sense of teamwork. If you look around, you’ll also learn something from watching the other people and their dogs. You’re not the only one with issues. (Yes, I mean your issues, not the dogs.) Other people have them too. A lot of times, they’re the same as yours, so when they surface in the class, you get to watch the trainer coach someone else through it. I won’t pretend it was always easy and fun. I had some tough evenings. They were tough because of my own lack of focus. Life was dealing me some stressful days and I couldn’t always push it aside. Chili, being the little opportunist, could tell when I wasn’t ‘on’ and would do her best to bring on her bratty. Dogs know your state of mind and respond accordingly. Don’t take it personally; it’s just what they do. Recognize it, and take is as a sign that you need to get things in order. If you don’t, well, you remember what Einstein said about the definition of insanity don’t you?

Luckily, the classes were about supporting everyone’s success and no one was left behind. Even when one dog, thankfully not Chili, snapped at another dog, Michele handled it in a calm, matter of fact manner. It wasn’t looked at as being a negative thing, it was life, it happens sometimes, and everyone had the opportunity to experience how to handle this type of situation calmly. It was so calm in fact, that if you didn't see it, or if you weren't right beside it, you would never have know it happened.

I’m not going to go into the specifics of each class, I’ll just say, it was worth it. Chili graduated and I walked away with the feeling that I would really like to take this class again. But first, I needed to get rid of what was causing me stress.

Destination Obedience Class

Like us, dogs have their good days and their bad. They go through periods where they’re extra active, or just plain bratty. It was a ‘just plain bratty’ period, lasting a whole week, that made me decide to take Michele’s advice and sign us up for some dog training classes. How many times can one dog give you the finger to your face before you decide it’s time for change. I figured the additional structure was just what we needed. When I called Michele, her response was, “What took you so long?” I knew we would go at some time, I just needed to find the right time. So that was it, we would be starting in the next adult obedience classes.

For the few weeks before classes started I kept telling Chili we were going back to school, it would be different this time, and she was going to be a very good girl. I wanted to set us up for success. I believe in the power of positive energy and thoughts, and how it can shape and influence a situation. It doesn’t work all the time though. Sometimes there are just things or people out there with a different agenda and a greater influence that steer things in a different direction. In the meantime, in my little world, I was doing my part to positively influence our first class. The nice side effect of doing this is that you change the way you do things to help achieve the desired result. I was being much more disciplined with Chili and she was being much more obedient.

As luck would have it, on the night of our first class there had been a few accidents on the road and the usual half hour commute home took an hour and 45 minutes. That left me rushing around the house with just a half hour to feed Chili, get a quick bite for myself, change, grab some treats for class, and fly out the door. As you can imagine, I’m nowhere near calm, and you know that Chili was feeling my anxious energy. I started doing some deep breathing in the truck as we drove to class and told Chili again that we were heading to class and she was going to be a very good girl. Next thing I know, out of the corner of my eye, I see a big paw come down beside me as she attempts to push her way into the front seat. I take another deep breath and calmly tell her to ‘back’. Amazingly enough she listened and settled herself into the back seat.

As we pulled up in front of Connective Training, there were 2 big dogs making their way into the yard. This could set the tone for the whole class. Usually, when Chili is in the truck and sees a dog, she barks and lunges at the windows like a crazed beast. This time, all she did was make a little whimper, I told her to ‘leave it’ and that was it. I did our usual unloading ritual out of the truck. This means that she has to maintain a sit while I open the back hatch and put the lead on her, and then she jumps out when I give the command. We walk into the yard where there are a few other dogs waiting as another class was just ending. Things were going well. Chili stayed calm as the other dogs walked by us out of their class and then we entered.

As soon as we enter the facility, Chili starts getting rambunctious. I’m not surprised; there are a lot of smells from other dogs, people, and treats. She’s likely also anticipating that something is about to happen, which it was. Although I’m certain she was hoping for playtime instead of work time. So this was it, the beginning of being back in class.