Phew!

Icon is out of anesthesia from his root canal.  It's always nerve wracking experience.  The procedure went well but Dr Holmstrom said that the fracture went up above the gumline so he had to clean that up too. 

Next step is that he'll have a shiny new crown built and then he'll have to go under anesthesia again in a couple weeks to have that put in place.  The bad part about having his consultation and procedure on the same day is that I somehow had myself convinced that this would be a "once under anesthesia" procedure and he'd come out with his crown today.  In hindsight it was unrealistic considering even in people it takes 2 different visits. 

Driving him to the vet this morning I was wondering how they would have a crown that would fit and imagined they had a room full of pre-made crowns in different materials and every size imaginable and they would take him in to pick out his perfect crown .  Kind of like how Harry Potter found his wand.  As I said, unrealistic.  On the bright side the cost wasn't nearly as bad as I feared.  The benefit of going through two TPLO surgeries and a GI blockage is that other things seem cheap!

Dr Holmstrom said he'll be fine to do agility as soon as tomorrow but I don't know if I'll run him.  I think I'll just play it by ear.  No tugging until his crown is put in though.  Icon won't like that!

He'll be ready to go home at 1pm.  I'm going to leave work early and pick him and work from home in the afternoon.  I can't seem to focus here at work!

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday!  It was actually an exceedingly normal day for me aside from all of the facebook messages I got :).

My birthday present from the universe is that Icon's dental vet had an opening for surgery Friday morning so Icon has been moved up from the following Tuesday.  I'm a bit nervous because he's scheduled for surgery without a consultation, but I'm sure I'll get all the information I need on Friday morning.  At this point I'm not sure what it means for him at the trial this weekend.  A bit of a bummer since they have the ISC classes.  But I would definitely prefer getting Icon's root canal over with sooner rather than later.

Another birthday present is that my regular vet also called to say that Apollo's urine culture came back negative so he doesn't have a kidney infection.  Always good news!

I leave you with a photo from last years WC in Austria (photo by Dee Anna Gamel)

"An unfortunate elimination"

Over the weekend I spent some time watching the VOD coverage of the IFCS World Championships.  The commentator was funny in that every time someone went off-course he said, "An unfortunate elimination."  Like there are ever fortunate ones!

I was disappointed in the coverage of the event and rather surprised at the small size of it.  There didn't seem to be any spectator seating at all!  I'm sure when it's in the USA in 2012 the coverage will be better.  I thought both American and Canadian teams did a great job on some tough courses though!

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On Friday night Icon and Foster smashed faces and Foster's face won.  Icon's upper canine was fractured.  :(  In a panic I called Lena  to figure out what to do.  Left to my own devices I would have rushed him to the emergency vet.  But thankfully Lena talked me down and told me that while it's important that he gets looked at as soon as possible, it's not an emergency vet type situation. 

Incidentally, I already had a general checkup appointment for Apollo at my vet the next morning.  Apollo has been acting "subdued" lately.  I thought it was just an age thing, but when Kay was watching my boys she mentioned that Apollo was quieter than normal so I figured it wouldn't hurt to get him checked out. 


At the appointment Dr Rosato confirmed most of what Lena had told me the night before about Icon's tooth.  Then he had blood taken for pre-surgical purposes.  And Apollo had... Well I don't want to embarrass him but I mentioned to Dr. Rosato that other dogs seemed obsessed with smelling and licking Apollo's private parts so after a rather gross check she decided to flush a certain area.  Sorry Polly.  And I'm sorry I know what the word smegma means now.  Gross.

Monday morning I called the dental vet recommended by Lena and Dr Rosato.  I could get an appointment with the dental resident on Tuesday or with Dr Holmstrom on Friday.  I told the receptionist that Icon had a fractured canine and the pulp was showing but she said that it's only an 'emergency' if they are under a year and a half because then they can save the pulp.   So I chose Friday but wasn't sure about my decision...   Dr Rosato called a bit later to say that Icon's blood work was fine (but Apollo's urinalysis showed some blood and protein in his urine... that's another story) and asked if I had made an appointment with Dr Holstrom.  I told her about my conversation with the receptionist and she said she'd give them a call just to make sure. 

Dr Rosato confirmed that waiting until Friday is not going to cause any problems and that they had June 1st reserved for us for a root canal.  So it looks like unless Dr Holstrom magically decides that he can reconnect the little tooth piece I saved from Icon's accident (I can dream, can't I???) he'll be having his root canal on June 1st. 

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And I have so much more to say!  I guess I need to blog a bit more frequently so my posts aren't quite so long!

Apollo with commentary

Apollo's standard run with expert commentary by Marq Cheek - I mean Kay Chandler.  Kay, for future reference I don't think Marq would say "bummer".


Casa de Fruita AKC - Apollo Standard from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

CERF and turf

The local AKC trial this weekend had a CERF clinic so for Saturday I registered Icon and Rampage for that and then signed up Apollo and Rampage for agility.  Icon is on an 'agility break' until the end of May.  Icon wasn't impressed to be at an agility trial and not doing agility, but he got a lot of lovin' and pastries so he wasn't too upset.

Both Rampage and Icon passed the CERF with flying colors.  Apollo did great in both of his JWW and Std runs, but missed a double Q by a bar in Standard.  We both had lots of fun though. :)  Rampage did great, qualifying in everything.  But of course none of the runs were perfect :)  In JWW he seemed to think that 8 obstacles were all he had to do and tried to leave the course.  I got him back and the last 9 went well, though.  Our standard run was nice execpt for the a-frame.  Oy, we have to fix that.  And FAST (we got our novice fast title!) was good except he flicked away towards the dogwalk at one point.  He's just a baby and I've already turned him into a mother flicker!

 
Casa de Fruita ACK - Rammy Open JWW from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.


Casa de Fruita ACK - Rammy Novice Std from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.


Casa de Fruita ACK - Rammy FAST from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

I should be working...

But I have enough time to post Icon's videos.  :)


2010 AKC/WT Tryouts - Rd 1 Icon from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.


2010 AKC/WT Tryouts - Rd 2 Icon from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.


2010 AKC/WT Tryouts - Rd 3 Icon from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.


2010 AKC/WT Tryouts - Rd 4 Icon from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.


2010 AKC/WT Tryouts - Rd 5 Icon from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

27

I picked number 27 for the draw order.  There are 35 large dogs.  It's good for round 1, but if my calculations are correct (they are quite possibly not!) I will be 9th for round 2 and 8th for round 4.   Not awful numbers, but not the best.  Round 3 and 5 will be by reverse seeding so if I get a bad running order for those I will be able to blame no one but myself. :)

Icon is doing his part to prepare.

ZOMG! An update!

It was delicately pointed out to me by Celeste that I completely missed the month of April in the blogosphere.  I was surprised to look at my records and see that she was absolutely correct!  Where did the month of April go?  I look back and try to remember...  Was I in a coma?  Maybe in a fuge state? Possessed by demons?  Probably none of the above.  I know I spent about a week of April sick and missed a few days of work.  With that, the work I missed for AKC Nationals, the two days of work I missed for the 4 day USDAA trial and the 3 days I missed going home to visit family I've been spending a lot of my spare time working at my real job (note: in the corporate world "vacation" means "you'll do it later in your spare time").  So something in my personal life had to give.  And blogging lost to American Idol, although tonight I managed both!  Buh-bye Aaron!  (oops, sorry!  Spoiler alert!)

Rampage is finally starting to show some signs of maturity.  For at least 5 minutes a day he gives a good impersonation of an adult canine.  He earnestly believes the world revolves around him and the rest of us are starting to give in and agree with him.

(note:  photo not taken during Rammy's 5 minutes of maturity)
















Icon is looking good, which is something of a miracle considering the horrible tire crash he had a few weeks ago at HauteTracs.  But he's fine now.  :) And I think I was more traumatized than him. I'm not totally recovered from it yet.

Apollo is starting to show his age in some ways, mostly in his stamina.  When we go to the park the other dogs run the whole time, but Apollo now spends about half of the time eating grass.  His stamina is fine at AKC trials when he has 2 runs/day but he can't handle USDAA trials where there are more.  But that's OK, I'm starting to ramp down his classes at USDAA trials.  We'll get his APD Silver and then he'll mostly retire (maybe enter a class or two for fun).  He needs a few pairs and a gamblers for his Silver, I think.  He'll retire from AKC by Invitationals in December or earlier, if he tells me he's ready.  He has been running great in AKC lately though :)

Foster is shedding lots.  And lots and lots.  I remember thinking to myself that I would never get another dog that sheds like Foster.  That worked until Rampage came to live with us.  Rampage sheds lots too.  I may just collect Rammy's hair and have it woven into yarn.  It's a pretty color.

Tomorrow Icon and I leave for WT Tryouts.  It's just been within the last few days that I've started getting nervous and excited.  I hope we can do well but we haven't trained as much as we did last year.  Or I guess more importantly we haven't trained as FOCUSED as we did last year.  I'm not saying we haven't done anything, we've been going to class and doing European course work with friends and practicing fundamentals at home.  But last year I had weekly expectations, schedules and courses planned leading up to tryouts and I just didn't have the bandwith for it this year.   So Icon, being the amazing and talented dog he is, is ready and prepared but I am just hoping I can keep it together and not disappoint him.