A little ouchie...

Last night, Flash didn't like to move and sat down when I came home rather than the jumping up he normally does which indicated that his back was hurting. I gave him a rimadyl before going training and by the time I got home he was fine again. I have however put his night coat on last night and will do so every night through the winter again now.

He is doing so well with his back on just the turmeric, but every few months he will cease up or even go into spasms. Poor chappie.

9th Birthday

I forgot my poor Flash's birthday, but wish him a happy one with all my heart! He was nine years old on Friday, 30th August! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my beautiful boy! Picture below taken today!

Yay - Flash tried to play with a dog

This morning for the first time since his back problems started, Flash tried to get another dog to play in the park. It was Pip, a Labrador he knows well, but he was aggressive to as well whilst his back was bad. This morning, Flash poked him to get him to play and looked perfectly relaxed. I stopped him from poking him of course, but that's how he gets other dogs to play/run and it was great seeing him happy enough to do that again! Yay! It looks like we are winning the war with Flash! He now very rarely barks or growls at other dogs in the park unless they charge up to him. Even large dogs he just walks past (on lead still!) ignoring them. :-)

Titre

Well, Flash had a titre test 10 days ago and I got the results today. He is a little low on distemper, but everything else is still fine. As distemper isn't really an issue anymore these days, it is most likely just because he hasn't been exposed. All the other levels are perfectly adequate and quite high. So along with Mark's recommendation, he won't be vaccinated but tested again next year.

Just a picture

We had a lovely walk in the country park today. Flash is so much better again with other dogs and Dylan is just full of energy! It's such a joy to walk these too again - though of course I still need to be careful with them... I still don't trust Flash 100% and Dylan still loves chasing things that move of course. But it is overall so much more relaxing again.

Sunday morning lay-in

Another break-through re meeting dogs

Another break-through for Flash today... two planned off lead encounters! It's about 2 years now that Flash hasn't been off lead when there were other dogs around because of his aggression towards them which was caused by severe back pain due to a dry disc in his back. Over the last year or so, with lots of training on walks (when we saw dogs from a distance), he started improving whilst on lead and on a couple of occasions when we came upon dogs unexpectely, he didn't react. (That actually happened last week at night when I didn't see a dog in the distance). Over the last few months, he's said hello to a few dogs nicely whilst on lead.

Today, I was finally confident enough to let him off lead when there were two other dogs around. Dylan had already said hello to them and they were confident with good body language... so I bit the bullet and let Flash off (whilst Dylan on lead). AND... HE WAS AMAZING! He first watched one from the distance, then ran past him, then went up to him calmly - a little insecure, but with perfectly appropriate and non-aggressive body language. When the second dog trotted past him, he had a quick sniff and then went his own way! It's so good to have my old Flash back... still a little way to go (we need more positive encounters like these to be entirely confident again - both him and me), but not far off now!

I love you so much, Flashy boy! You are amazing.