perjantai, 23. huhtikuu 2010

Panchos operation is done

Pancho had his operation yesterday. I took him to the vet and we had to wait in the waiting room a bit. Few people came to talk to me and ask about Pancho :) He was very nicely in the waiting room, no barks to anyone. Then in the vets room she gave him that sleeping shot and left me alone with him. Like a minute Pancho was walking around the office sniffing and then I noticed that his back legs didn't really work anymore.. He came to my lap and fell asleep. They took him to the operation and I left to pick up Pauli. We came back and Panchos operation was already done and he was sleeping it off in the back room. He was totally out of it for a long time.

Pancho trying to wake up at vet

 

They didn't allow us to leave before Pancho could walk out himself. Eventually he did and we went home. He slept the whole day! Today he seems almost normal Pancho. He has some pain medicine and antibiotics and of course big bandage in his leg. It's amazing how animals know when the otherone is not totally well. Chili didn't go and bug pancho at all the whole yesterday. Actually for some reason he didn't even want to come to sofa for the first hour..

 

 

-johanna

tiistai, 20. huhtikuu 2010

updates

Quick update: Pancho still has that bumb in the leg. The medicine hasn't helped him so we have booked a surgery time for him for Thursday. I took Friday off from work so that I can be then home with them.

I will keep you updated with this when I will know more. Ou, and Chili is doing perfectly fine :) -Jozanna

sunnuntai, 4. huhtikuu 2010

Agility classes

Past week the weather has been on plus Celsius and it has been raining every day, so snow is melting fast.  There is still a lot of snow but what is most important is that roads are ice-free.  For more than a week we have already enjoyed our walks in the snowless paths. Boys are enjoying it as much as we are. Right now we are in Jyväskylä. We have Easter holidays and then our winter vacation. Tomorrow we are continuing from here to Haapavesi and then Oulu. Let’s see how much snow there still is in the north.

 

Pancho showing his sad face. Note his weird tanning line. On his left sholder there is this white line which most likely comes from him sitting in the same place all day long in front of the window keeping guard so the sun tans him so that his head shadows that part from the sholder.

Chili showing his funny tanning also. His head is almost black but his body is still pretty fair


Chili and I have gone to 2 agility classes already. It’s still cold outside so it’s also cold inside the hall where the classes are. The indoor arena is not fully heated. One pet shop was moving so they had sales and we bought Chili this Hurtta fleece overall as a training clothes. That overall has a membrane called houdtex in it and it makes the overall water and windproof. We need to buy one of Pancho also but this pet shop didn’t have Panchos size anymore. 


The first class was a bit uncomfortable since it was new for both of us. When we were waiting for the class to start Chili was afraid of the other dogs. He was trembling behind my legs but looking at the other dogs with interest. Then they divided us to two different groups: we were put into the big dogs group. Then I thought it was a bad thing since Chili was afraid especially those big hyperactive dogs, but now that I think about it was actually a good thing. Now that Chili is a bit wary of those big dogs he stays easily with me and doesn’t even try to flee to meet the other dogs. On the first class I kept Chili mostly on the leash and that’s why it was a bit hard to practice those obstacles. First obstacle that we were learning was a normal jump  (HERE you can find more info about the different agility obstacles). Chili didn’t want to jump the basic jump barrier so I had to jump with him. But when he understood what it was all about he was jumping pretty well. We also practiced weave poles. Chili understood them right away. I saw that some of the other dogs had difficulties with this one, but Chili went them perfectly. I knew that agility is physically rough also for the owner, but didn’t know it was that rough :) I went there totally overdressed:  First I had to take of my gloves, then scarf and then even jacket. Next day I was feeling the pain of that class in my back. My back didn’t like me bending down for that whole hour giving Chili treats from good performance.

 

I’m not going to lie, I was not eager to go to the second class. I thought the first class didn’t go that well since I was comparing us to the other big dogs that were doing more different types of obstacles that we did and they were doing them fast. All the other owners seemed to be very enthusiastic and knowing much about agility and all those other dogs seemed to be this hyperactive type that they seemed like there is nothing better than to be there doing those obstacles. Chili was there very calm, cool and thinking. I kind of felt like I wouldn’t have joined to a beginners class but for some class where everyone else knew what they were doing.  But then when the class actually started everything changed. I took the leash of from Chili and I let him be loose. First we practiced weave poles again. Chili was so excited of those poles that he started making this excited noise. I have heard some dogs do that same noise when we have been in the running competitions when some dogs are excited to go on the tract and they just can’t wait that it’s their turn.  This time the poles didn’t go that well that they did on the first time; I think now Chili was a bit too excited that he didn’t concentrate enough. Then we practiced the pause table: dog is meant to jump on the table and stay there for 5 seconds. First Chili didn’t want to jump there at all. He was just standing against the table and looking at me like saying: “give me a push please”. We lowered the table and after that Chili jumped there every time and stayed on the table easily for those 5 seconds. Then we started to learn a rigid tunnel. That was a bit tricky at first since Chili didn’t want to go into the tunnel. After some tricks I finally got him walk through the tunnel. The first time he walked through the tunnel,  I understood why people get hooked on this hobby: the joy that you feel when you get your dog to do it correctly after a long struggle is amazing. Then we tried tire jump, but this obstacle was a bit too high for Chili since he doesn’t accelerate much. He just jumped against the tire so that the bottom of the tire opened and Chili was spooked by it. Later we tried that same tire jump but just lower he did it very well, actually he jumped before I even told him to :)We also tried dogwalk where Chili had to walk up this ramp and then walk up on the center plank and then descend down again from a ramp. He would have done this well (we practiced first on a smaller one) but he was afraid of the trainer so he was trying to avoid her as much as possible. Then the last thing I was practicing with Chili was jumping two jumps in a row. It took some tries and failures but then he got it and did those two jumps in a row very nicely. Again when he did them correctly for the first time I was so excited. Now that we are here in Jyväskylä we missed one class today, but I can’t wait now for next weeks class.

 

Sadly Panchos bump in his leg has not decreased in size so I think we need to book appointment for the vet so that they will operate him and cut the histiocytoma off. He still has to take the medicine for a week so there still is change that it will start diminishing by itself, but frankly I don’t think it will start doing that since it hasn’t changed at all for 3 weeks now.

Panchos lump in the leg. Pretty dark picture but you see the size. It is my thumb there as a comparison.

 Here are some pictures of boys playing today after a long walk. It's funny how they need to go into rambage after coming in from a long walk. This time I think that it was because of the good smells outside that made boys play so intensively.. Or mostly Pancho; Chili was just mostly laying on the floor and Pancho tried all his tricks to get Chili up and playing.

Pancho gnawing Chilis legs to get him up

Chili exhausted on the floor looking where will Pancho "attack" next

Pancho and Chili having their biting games

-Jozanna

 

 

 

tiistai, 16. maaliskuu 2010

Diagnosis

Results from the vet visit: Chili got cortisone cure because of his back leg. He had these marks there which he was biting and now that he has this cortisone he hasn't been biting them at all. They already look much better!

Pancho had two things. One was his weird splotches near his ears. They were because he had yeast infection in those. He got some medicine for those and a shampoo that we need to wash him with. The other thing was that lump in his leg. It was as we suspected histiocytoma.. Hopefully a benign one. Doctor said that there is two options how to deal with this: one is that they would cut if off in surgery or then there is this medicine that we can try first. She recommended those medicine drops first and if they don't help within 4 weeks, then it needs to be cut off. The bad thing is that apparently if a dog has had a histiocytoma it might be that they will get them more. And apparently these histiocytomas can also be bad. I don't know how often that could happen, but obviously I'm hoping that there wouldnt be a third histiocytoma!

Well..I will keep you updated. Enjoy the spring and the sun :) -Johanna

torstai, 11. maaliskuu 2010

sun, sun, sun! Finally!

So last summer went...Last autumn went..and now this winter (cold cold winter) is almost gone. Wipii! Finally we see the sun and can feel how it's warming. We can see the effects of the sun on our boys: they have already started tanning again. It’s funny how differently they tan. Pancho starts tanning much sooner and first his head starts turning black and paws (well, they are the parts that are mostly in the sun since they are wearing clothes outside). Then he starts tanning from his chest so that it looks blotchy. Chilis’ muzzle turns black first, then whole head and paws. Now he has started to get color to his back; starting from the tail end.

Chili in his winter color

Pancho in his winter color

I just got confirmation today that me and Chili got into Agility-class. It’s a beginner’s class since we have never done it before. Nice to go see how it will go and nice that Chili gets some more brainwork and Pancho some own time with Pauli. I’m a bit nervous how it will go but soon we will see. The class starts next week and will last 2 months. It is in this huge indoor arena close to our house. It’s not totally warm in there, but I will just put some clothes on for Chili. Some years ago I tried to start agility with Pancho, but all courses were full all the time. Now this new place just opened end of last year so now there is more places and courses where to go.
Chili
For some time now I have trained both boys to jump over obstacles and go underneath them. Both understood right away what I was teaching them: fast learners and good food J We have been training in our house so the space is a bit too small. I have been dreaming of buying our own house with a huge garden so that we could build some obstacle track there and boys could train. Well, one day if we win in the lotto.. This whole agility-thing is so good for Chili to get some more brain activities since he really seems to enjoy of them. I think Pancho would like them almost as much, but not sure if we could start these kinds of courses with him since he doesn’t like other male dogs and he is not so easy to motivate with food that Chili is. I have never been in any agility classes so I don’t know how they work; who knows maybe we could do this with Pancho also. Next week I will see what it is. I don’t know if we will ever go to any competitions or just have this as a hobby since I’m not a competitive person at all!
Boys in their t-shirts
Tomorrow we are taking both boys to vet again. Chili had antibiotics for his skin since for some reason his right back leg itches and he gnaws it. Then because of his gnawing there comes these red spots to his leg that looks infected. Now they are going away again because of the antibiotics. Vet didn’t find any reason for them the last time we went there, but let’s see tomorrow what happens. Pancho has been really healthy since he started that hyposensibilisation treatment long time ago: no more eye infections and not much itching face. Now he has a weird lump on his right front leg. It looks exactly the same that he had in his chest. The lump in his chest was benign histiocytoma and I can’t even say how much I hope that this one is nothing serious either. Tomorrow we will know more. I will post later what the vet said about Panchon lump.
Pancho making a funny face on my sisters lap
Boys playing "with" my sister
Enjoy the sun! -Jozanna