Online Diary 2008 January

The online diary started life as a blog of my strange 'other life' with the dog.  I wanted to record some of the experiences that I had as a first-time dog owner.  To access the archive, click on the appropriate month.  The most recent articles are listed separately.

You are most welcome to send comments about any of the articles.  Record your comments via the Contact Me page.

ANOTHER TRIP TO THE VET!
Wed 30 Jan 2008

Last week, Beattie seemed to be off-colour.  She was very lethargic, not wanting to walk, even taking herself into her crate, which is a very rare occurrence.  Then one evening I noticed she had diarrhoea and that she was bleeding from her bottom!  I thought that might be serious and rushed her down to the vet the next day.

A trip to the vet usually holds no terrors for Beattie and she walked in happily for her examination.  She was not so pleased when the vet stuck her finger in her bottom.  Beattie yelped!  The diagnosis was that she had an infection in her large intestine and that she would need an antibiotics injection, another injection which was the doggy equivalent of an Alka Seltzer, a course of pro-biotic medicine (like that yogurt you can buy which encourages healthy bacteria in the stomach) and a diet of chicken and rice for three days.

Well, I was relieved that it was not more serious than that, especially as we were taking ourselves away for a weekend in the Lake District!  I was a bit worried about the chicken and rice diet in a Travelodge, but I cooked some up the day before and kept it in a cool box in the car overnight so she did not suffer a bout of food poisoning as well as everything else!

Our visit to the vet was on Thursday and by Saturday afternoon, Beattie was bounding up the fells in the company of four other assorted canines and being a complete pain in the a**e!

Obviously, she had recovered! Back

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Comment from Tracey Lilly
I bet the trip to the vet cost you a fortune.  Glad she is ok
I bet you would yelp if someone stuck a finger up your rear.
Poor thing - bet she remembers next time she goes to the vet.

SUCCESSFUL TRAINING!
Wed 30 Jan 2008

Beattie resumed training after Christmas and I must admit that I was a bit nervous the first week I took her as I had done very little with her for quite a few weeks.  The first week back, she was pretty unresponsive, which was not really surprising.  I thought she might be coming into season as she was so lethargic, but could have been the onset of her infection (see earlier post).

We were practising the 'Retrieve' in which the dog is supposed to retrieve an article, usually a dumbbell, bring it back and sit in a front present waiting for the owner to take the dumbbell from doggy's mouth!  Well, that's the theory, but nobody had told Beattie ( I tried but she refused to listen!).  She would retrieve the dumbbell and then drop it on the floor about three paces in front of me.  Frustration!

I had been trying this for several months without any progress being made.  AT suggested I build it up in stages by just getting her to hold the dumbbell and then let me take it from her.  The retrieve should be practised with me sitting in a chair, which I had not done before.  We practised this every day and by the end of the week she would bring it to me without dropping it.  Success!

The next stage was to get her to sit in front of me holding the dumbbell and finally to do this with me in the standing position.  There was one glorious morning when she achieved this for the first time.  I was so pleased I gave her a huge treat and then immediately stopped the training session.  AT says it is better for the dog to finish on a 'high' as there is the temptation to get the dog to repeat the exercise, but terriers get bored quickly, not liking repetitive drills.

Over the coming days she was able to demonstrate that this had not been a fluke and the crowning moment was when she performed a retrieve at dog training this week!

We seem to be making some progress at last! Back

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Comment from sablonneuse
Glad to see you back! Also it's good to see that Beattie is over her tummy bug and excelling at training.

Comment from Tracey Lilly
Has she got a sticker chart?

Comment from Anonymous
What a cool find, thanks for sharing.

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Photographs taken with a Fuji MX-2900 Zoom or a Canon EOS 20D
Copyright © 2008 Derek Cockell     All Rights Reserved

ARTICLES
Another trip to the vet!
Successful training!

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