Livin' on the Edge aka Rydge

In January of this year I fostered a little black Toy Poodle. He needed to get neutered and had a mild umbilical hernia that needed to be attended to. He had extreme separation anxiety and still whines a bit when left in his x-pen downstairs. As the weeks passed he changed from this shy little pup to an outgoing, friendly dog.

Ryker ignored him, which was fine with me, as Ryker usually does not like small dogs. Rylie also had no interest in him, at first. I did catch her playing with him one time and it was so dang cute. Rylie does not play much with dogs other than Raygen. Raygen didn't care much about Rydge either.

Ryddick on the other hand loved to play tug with him. He would self handicap lying on his bed and let Rydge pull and pull. Ryddick looked like he was falling a sleep, while the 10lb monster jerked on the tug, letting out a little growl every time he did.

He was operant within a few days. the hardest part was for me to make the treats tiny and to keep up with his insane speed of offering behaviors. I decided to try some Agility with him. It was amazing. 2x2's were a breeze and he weaved in no time. The teeter was also not much of a challenge. Mhh, maybe I should keep him? I have fostered over 70 dogs and I have never kept a dog. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to keep several, but the timing was never right. My daughter accused me of making a dog out of this shy Toy Poodle. A few weeks ago he got to run in Course-A-Lure for the first time and he won a few Bronze Medals with a best time of 16.06.

I don't know what the future will hold for us. Maybe Agility, Rally, Obedience and more Course-A-Lure. I use him in my puppy classes and reactive dog classes and as a decoy dog for BAT sessions. He has a calming effect on dogs like none of my other dogs do. Nothing that can be trained.

Ryker Limping part two

Live has changed since Ryker started limping last year. I have been religiously following my vets advice to continue him on the Water Treadmill and laser therapy.

He loves his water treadmill hour so I did not mind taking him. However his condition did not improve. He was good for a day, then got worse on the next. Then I asked the rehab therapist if I should take him to see the chiropractor. She said that "Why try to fix something if it isn't broken". I did not know what to say. Have they not been listening to me? At that moment I felt I have been used like an endless money bag. I decided to see another vet to retake the x-rays. Remember the original diagnosis was: " ..... evidence of left hind limb hip dysplasia, with mild OA present along the dorsal rim of the acetabulum." " The lumbar spine shows some LS sclerosis which could be indicative of L7 S1 instability."

Well, this vet did not find anything wrong with Ryker's skeletal system. He prescribed some Previcox for him to take for a week, than another week of leash walking only and then, he said, I should be able to start training him again. I felt a bit numb as his words seemed unrealistic. Remember he has a bad hip and spine and some pills won't fix that. Well, they did. I have not seen any lameness since this day. The vets diagnosis was that he may have a mild pinched nerve that gets aggravated sometimes. Seems to make more sense with the symptoms he was showing.