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CurlyQ

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About CurlyQ

  • Birthday 01/24/2001

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Mid-Atlantic, US

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  1. Thanks for helping to assuage my fears. I kept a close eye on Mae and she seemed okay for the rest of the day. There's nothing unusual to report this morning, either. I'm glad she seems to be feeling fine. Saves me a lot of money and worry! The past couple days she hasn't been getting as much exercise simply due to weather conditions, so y'all might be right on that front. Generally we do some casual agility together (i.e. low hurdles & short courses/sessions), but she sprained her knee in late September and I always try to be mindful of that when we're getting exercise. Working with her helps calm my anxiety too, so perhaps my worry stems from lack of exercise as well haha! With our family gathering for the holidays, another guess I had at the etiology was a family member may have fed her something that didn't sit well. Kids are sneaky! You look away for one second and next thing you know they're giggling hysterically at your dog, who is inexplicably and unprecedentedly standing on your coffee table! I suppose because I googled "Why is my dog stretching so much?" instead of "canine pancreatitis" we got different results. A few websites said repetitive stretching of the abdomen may be an attempt to relieve discomfort and indicate early stage pancreatitis. You're right, though. I feel like if there actually was an issue, her symptoms would have persisted and gotten worse. Thanks again for getting back to me! I appreciate the kind words and advice very much!
  2. Hi guys! I have a health-related question about my 8 y/o bc, Maple. I've been fairly sick recently, and have been too uncomfortable to sleep through the night. Last night, I noticed Mae behaving a little restlessly. She would get up, stretch, and lie down a bit more than what she normally does. At her age, I put it off as achey joints, perhaps due to the dramatically oscillating temperatures this winter. I know the cold and wet makes my arthritis flare up. The stretch she was repeating is one very typical to her, but she normally only does it in appropriate contexts. She holds her back legs in place and then walks forward with her front legs, lengthening her spine. If she's waking up she'll walk her back legs up into a normal standing position. If she's readjusting her sleeping position she'll continue to slide forward until she's resting on her tummy before rolling over to her side. Her tummy was also making noises, but it was 4 am and breakfast normally comes around 7 am. Occasionally it will grumble before breakfast, especially if she didn't get as much kibble the night before (sometimes I cut back if she has had more snacks than usual on a given day). All tummies grumble, especially if they've got less inside to dampen the noise! This morning I took her out to potty as usual, and then gave her breakfast. Afterwards, I climbed back into bed and she took her usual spot alongside me. She was more restless though! She got up and stretched, moved positions and stretched again. She jumped down on the floor and repeated the process. Mae has a very expressive face, and I read her mood as uncomfortable. I asked her "What's wrong?" and she jumped up beside me a curled up against my shoulder and face as if to cuddle (normal behavior from her!). She pushed her hind-legs awkwardly out, though, and her tail was pulled between them as if fearful or shameful. I interpreted this as her trying to communicate something important, my first guess being diarrhea. We got out of bed and I let her out again. She stretched again a couple more times and pooped soon after. There was nothing unusual about the stool. We went back to bed for the second time, and this time all seemed well. She picked a spot and curled up without any problems. I'm a worrier though, so I turned to Google for clues. I read about canine bloat and pancreatitis as possible emergency causes, and she was displaying a few of the symptoms! However, all the behavior had ceased after she pooped this morning. I checked her tummy for distention and it was as normal as ever. She slow-blinked at the attention, which tells me the palpating caused her no pain. Maple is a healthy weight with reasonable muscle tone, something my vet always commends me for. Should I still be worried? I know the common response to occasions like these would be "talk to your vet!" but vets are expensive! I'm sure if I call in there's a high probability they'll ask me to come in and charge me to examine her. It's snowing out, and as someone who was recently in a fatal car accident, I'd like to avoid driving the 30 mins to the vet as much as possible. That's why I'm asking fellow bc owners for a 2nd opinion. Is this a true emergency, even if she's no longer displaying the symptoms? Do you think it was just a gassy tummy that resolved itself? If she really needs help, of course I'll make the sacrifice. My anxiety has been so bad lately, I can't tell if I'm overreacting. Maple means the whole world to me. EDIT: I forgot to add that I noticed her drinking more water and urinating more than usual yesterday. Nothing crazy, just enough for me to take notice.
  3. Am I the only one who delights in making little shapes out of my dogs fur? It's so soft and malleable, and Maple certainly isn't a light shedder! Anyway, this is sort of random, but here's some examples. Maple is the big heart and my yorkie, Pip, is the tiny black one. This may be gross but I think it's fun and makes me feel like I have something to do over break xD.
  4. I think it's okay to trim and brush more than usual. What's most important is making sure your dog has access to a healthy amount of water and shade. Your dog's coat is probably doing more help than harm, so I would keep it intact. It keeps your dog cool and shelters their skin from the sun. Kind of like human hair. I would just brush her very thoroughly at least once a week. It's important to get all of that winter fur out so she has a chance at cooling off more efficiently. I've never had to shave a dog's belly or feet, but that might be helpful?
  5. I never realized this may be the reason Maple smells like garbage left out in the sun when something spooks her!
  6. Just an update... I met in person with Nancy O today and it was a very good experience. We watched her finish up with a couple of twin lambs born today, so we were off to a cute start. She then showed me her dogs on sheep, which was my first time seeing such a thing in person. She showed me different styles of herding with two different dogs she brought out. I forget the bitch's name, but she reminded me a lot of Maple just in the way that she moves and her stature. The bitch was a super good listener and she seemed like she could hear Nancy whisper a command from across the field! She also talked about how learning to move the sheep AWAY from the shepherd was to be learned later in practice because it went more against the natural instinct and was therefore harder to learn. It certainly did seem to take a lot more whistles to get the dog to move the sheep away from our general direction. Next up was Spot, who was a really big guy. He was also really intense, and Nancy had to be a lot more firm in her commands with him. His outrun was incredibly wide! He basically followed the fence before coming up behind the sheep. However, to make up for this, he seemed to be able to control them from much longer distances. Whereas the smaller female was pretty close to the flock, the male got them moving the moment he got behind them on the other side of the field. Since becoming interested in herding, I've watched many videos of dogs working sheep. I must say, it's a ton more stunning in person. After watching her dogs work, I introduced Nancy to Maple. I had warned her ahead of time about Maple's anxieties, so she actually gave my dog a chance to sniff her and warm up first before trying to interact with her. We exchanged some training advice, too, which I hope to test out soon enough. Maple was surprisingly calm, but I'm guessing that's because she didn't feel pressured to interact if she didn't want to. In fact, she sniffed around quite a bit until it was time to go. Nancy explained how first lessons are usually carried out, and that she'll try and be honest when she thinks there's just no hope for a dog. She also made many interesting points about encouraging Maple to make "a choice" in training because when she's working sheep she'll have to be experienced in thinking more for herself. We spent a little over an hour there and I'm happy to say I learned a ton that cannot be explained very well through reading, which I find rarely happens. Looking forward to starting lessons late May to early June, and until then Maple and I are going to work mainly on socialization and her car chasing habits, which are really the only issues right now. Again, thanks to Sue for answering my questions and to everyone else for being patient with me. Also to everyone who helped me towards finding a good mentor. I hope I'll be able to post a video of Maple starting on sheep later this spring. Sophie
  7. Looking forward to start Maple on sheep!

  8. Cute and congrats! He looks like a 'Heath' to me, or maybe a 'Lip'.
  9. Ah, I was unaware he had a website. I guess his dogs are a 'breed' of his own creation.
  10. I know this response is a bit late, but has anyone ever read WORKING SHEEP DOGS (A practical guide to breeding, training, and handling) by Tully Williams? I've never really heard of the guy or seen his name mentioned in the forums, but that might be because he's a kelpie breeder. He does an extremely thorough job of separating heritable traits. It's honestly been a joy to read, but I'd like other's opinions on it and its credibility. Big book though, I'm not all the way through it yet. Still have more than half left. He puts a lot of emphasis on "confident" pups versus "weak" pups. Here's an excerpt I thought was relevant: He later quotes James Moore, "Above all things, never breed from a soft-tempered ['weak'] dog." I know there's a point where he explains how heritable each of these 'traits' are, but I haven't gotten to that part yet. I just thought it would be helpful if not interesting. I'm certainly enjoying the read, taking notes and the like.
  11. Excellent. Just began reading Nop's Trials. I love the dialogue between the dogs.
  12. Certainly. Maple has a tendency to feel quickly overwhelmed in large social situations, so I was looking for a chance to go dog-free and get a feel for things. I think I may audit Carol Campion's in PA. Looking forward to the experience!
  13. I just wanted to pop in and say that while the clinic GentleLake suggested to me was full, Nancy O just contacted me back. She's open to lessons, and after the snow melts I think I may mosey on down to her farm so I can talk to her and see her working her dogs. Hopefully by late spring to early summer I'll be able to get Maple into lessons! Thank you for the efforts in helping me find a trainer .
  14. Ah, perhaps that's it. If you could give me her email, that would be lovely.
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