Feeling a little lost ...

No pic's today ... just wanted to share my thoughts.

At the moment Ticket is officially “out of action” until further notice. Last week after training on Monday night she was lame in her right hand rear leg. I only gave her one run on one sequence, nothing extremely difficult or hard work, just a simple free flowing sequence. She was panting more than usual, it was warm but not that hot so I was immediately a little concerned … she wasn’t showing any other signs (that I could see) of pain or discomfort and was raring to keep going … as usual, no self-preservation, just chaffing a the bit to run!

I decided to put her back in the car for a rest and a drink, let her cool down then check her out once her adrenaline had stopped pumping, and she was quite happy to get back in the car.

I came back to her 10 minutes later and got her out to walk her around. She would not put any weight on her right rear leg … she resisted manipulation and was extremely tight in the stomach too.

She came home and we were lucky enough to be able to see our Bowen Therapist the next day. Her muscles were very sore all through her rear end down that leg … she was on strict rest for the next three days and “should be right for the trial on Saturday night”.

Well, Saturday came, I wondered if she still looked a little “tight” in the rear end but after keeping a close eye on her movement all day I decided that I was being paranoid … that evening at the trial we warmed up really well, we did some sprinting, sending out to goal posts and back with nice round turns, etc and she was looking quite comfortable, so we decided to give our first run a go (in Excellent Gamblers).

I didn’t push her for speed (not that I need to) and I was careful not to race her so she wasn’t frantic to get to me … she did some lovely work, did everything I asked her and exactly how she should … she knocked the 2nd last bar and ran past the last jump … I could see she was hesitating as she came back to me. I gave her a big hug and carried her back to the car, obviously fearing the obvious … yep, that leg was hurting again.

This time she was trembling – it must have been really hurting because Ticket is one of the toughest, hardest little dogs I have ever met! We brought her straight home and tucked her in on a soft mattress and pain killer …

For now we are treating her muscles which are very sore in the rear end. She is on strict rest for 4 weeks, light exercise (no jumping) and then we’ll slowly reintroduce her to some training …

Gawd I feel so lost! Yes I have other dogs to train but Ticket is the one that drives me, she keeps me determined and keeps me focused. She pushes me to my limits and gives me the inclination to get outside and do some training! She gets me thru a bad day … knowing that I can go home and have a blast training with her in the backyard that night! So motivating myself this week has been hard …

Training the other kids feels like a part time job! … Summer gives me a few minutes here and there, I always have to be the driving force behind her so she’s quite exhausting sometimes (if you’re not bursting with energy!). Chilli need motivating too … she’s not the most energetic Malinois you’ll ever see … so, there’s only so much of that kind of training one can do! So, we’ve been practicing lots of static exercises in the meantime, while these girls build their energy reserves up between bursts of agility training …

Group stays are the latest trick. Summer and Chilli, with Sketch (he feels important too) all play group stays … I heel one of them around the others and into a new position and they all take it in turns to be repositioned randomly … then we get another quick burst of energy where I can slip in some more agility training … but nothing replaces that feeling of the adrenaline rush when running agility with a fast, powerful dog!

Get better soon little Tick!