EmCHammer

he he me and Jan are combining a session with our dogs. I hope mine don't show us up ! Another vote for ttouch.

Looking at the weather, it might be a tornado of the weather kind.... as mentioned we are also going camping for a night in shropshire, its ours and Teknos first night out for 8 weeks and RAIN is forecast.... All we want is one night to drink cider, have a bonfire and bbq Although last bbq we had someone stole the steak when my back was tuned lol! Hope your weather holds.

Where was the camp site, looks lovely and dog friendly. looks like a good time was had by all and glad to see the bar was well stocked! The essential part of any camping weekend. Me and tekno would have deffo been in the norty corner, he thinks all bbq is HIS and other dogs get a telling off for thinking they might be entitled to any. p.s. one of the dogs isn't playing ball in that piccy....

I can recommend TTouch too.... It did help alot with my dogs fireworks phobias and with their aggression (my two tend to resort to becoming reactive when somethings up). We had just started again before teknos accident, as pudding was being quite snappy and ending up in a couple of fights with other dogs who didn't like being snapped at.... this also started tekno off thinking he was needed as backup and it was quite chaotic at times and my nerves were shot. This was all in the months after pudding broke her toe, and the ttouch really helped, she is much more reliable now and if someone gets told off its cos they deserve it.. and its a telling off and it stops there..... I guess I have also relaxed tho, without the fear the teknos going to race over and join in. Now teknos allowed out on little walks I have to hide away, because he is not good on the lead with other dogs approaching him (he is fine on the lead around dogs as long as they don't directly come up to him) but of course all his friends are going to want to say hello to him.. so I am sure we will use ttouch to help him along with this and get back in the swing of doggie life again and remind him he doesn't need to use aggression. Just to add as well, both different practitioners have used have come to my house.

Tekno recently had to have his claws done - he is generally a happy go lucky wouldn't harm a fly staff character... we thought food would do the trick (bearing in mind that when we had to catherterise him he didn't bat an eyelid as long as food was being shovelled in the front end) but we couldn't do it without the treats. I didn't want to stress him at the vets, he wouldn't let the hydro groomer do them (we thought this might be causing him stress after being at hydro if tired so gave up on that one). In the end my friends dog groomer did them at home, we tried to make it unstressful. It wasn't very nice, he had to be muzzled and didn't like it at all. At least the only consolation was that it was at home, and she did it as quickly and professionally as possible and cost about a third of what it would have done at the vets. Where he hadn't been walked his claws were quite long and where he dragged his feet they looked bruised too so can only assume they were painful too. Again because he is dragging his feet at the mo, we are trying to walk on grass/ get booties for him so may face the same problem again, so am just working on touching his feet when we are having fun/ where food is about..... although he will let me touch them the most, as soon as he thinks its something official, he will rumble at me. Even so not sure if I could clip them myself! Sorry not much help there!

Hello! Nice to meet you the other week - looks like you had a good week off, if not a bit of a damp one. Em.

Staffies or staffie x's for me. And as there are so many of different shapes, sex, age, size, tempraments (well actually they generally all have lovely tempraments but I am biased) I dont think there would ever be a shortage to choose from.

Glad he was able to come home, and hugs to you all.

I will be there, to ensure there is some terrier presence there too.

Thinking of you and hoping the vets can help you out - sounds like there may possibly be some things they can suggest to help ? Good luck and hugs to you all in the mean time.

I think he was going to get put on a Rieki list by the kind people on here? I will be going on Sunday with Pudding, even if its for just a bit..... (OH pretended to mind for a bit but secretly glad as he can sit in with tekno and play x-box for hours without me nagging him ). Its about two minutes from my house so dead easy to get too.

Hello everyone Just to say a big thank you from us all for all your good wishes and healing thoughts. Tekno went to the specialist yesterday and the vet was really pleased with his progress and said he had done very well, as did the physio. The vet nurses had him a cuppa tea ready and he even tried to run towards them (not very well, almost like when someone on a home made flying machine runs off the edge of something, the motion keeps them going for a bit before they crash to the floor!). He has to do 'supported stands' now, i.e. standing with all four paws on the ground with us taking most of his weight. His back legs are much stronger and co-ordinated than his front, which means he keeps trying to propell himself forwards and falling over. He does tend to go over on his knuckles on his front paws particularly his left one but the physio seemed hopeful. And she told him theres no wheels been designed for front legs so he has to try harder. They recon he will be standing un assisted within a few weeks and may be able to start hydro soon. He does try to air run with is front legs if you lift him up too. His legs don't yet work in co-ordination with eachother either yet. He won't sit up cos I think his front legs are so weak. I was going to say he has been a lucky boy - one disc higher and he probably wouldn't be here as so close to where the skull joins the spine and the leaking fluid could have done alot more damage.... but he hasn't really been very lucky on the other hand He might have a urine infection as he will hold on for 24hours + before he wee's and they think it might be causing him pain to go - can be a common side effect of catheterising.... we have to catherterise him once a day now (I can do it with my eyes closed now ) and he is on anti-biotics till the sample results come back... talking of which in order to catch the lab run, I had to send the sample by taxi to the vets, disguised as a package not resembling a pot of dog wee. I felt really paranoid giving it to the driver as if he knew I haven't really been catching up on everyones news, I know a few of you also out there have had poorly dogs so please also accept my good thoughts and hugs. Here's a picture. I haven't taken any more since the last time so its about a week old, of him chilling out. He looks quite sad, but I don't think he is any more.

Lovely pictures, glad to see he was enjoying himself (well and that you and your mum had a nice time of course!) despite being poorly.

I hope he is soon better, at least can start to get the right treatment now and you can rule out the neighbours doing anything dodgy. Get well soon thoughts on their way. We find all sorts on our lawn - the other week was two big cooking apples in the middle of the lawn. And a childs action figure? And then a porn DVD lol! (now someone tell me that was the foxes!)

Was going to do a proper one later as he is at physio and consultant this afternoon with OH and our friend who is going to be the 'ears' - you know how it is when you leave the vets and can't remember a word they told you lol! I feel all nervous and fluttery about him going, even tho he is much better than the last time they saw him. He managed to sleep through the night last night (normally cries cos needs the loo, or has fallen off his cushion or just wants a bit of fuss and comes to the edge of his pen and rattles his cage for a bit of a fuss. I have a list of questions for the OH to ask the vets, i.e. he only does one monster wee a day and I don't know if its good for him, but if we catherterise him forever, it brings risk of infection and apparently doesn't teach him to go on his own again. Anyway no need to reply as hi-jacked your post will update properly later, although they won't be back till half sixish and I am taking pud for a nice long walk after work.

I never got to the test as pudding broke her toe the week before, but ours had you either walking up to someone or someone walking up to you in training (i.e. training assistants, peoples other halfs, random people coming to check out the training classes etc) and the dogs generally had to ignore them. I always made pudding sit (not that she had any problem with this) cos if she was sitting she couldn't be doign something else! Sometimes we combined it with the food bit where we had a pretend conversation and ate from a plate of biscuits or a rustley packet of crisps. Other times they combined it with asking the questions. They certainly didn't have a dog with them. p.s. dogs displaying poor temprament will not pass - does that mean if they bite the examiner you fail!! THat was my main concern puddings only weak part was being examined by someone, esp a strange man and she would go into silly play mode and get a bit mouthy. As she has tried to bite the vet before I was always a bit paranoid at this part of the training.

Sorry to hear you are feeling down. Its sometimes hard when you have alot of things that are getting you down all in one go to be able to deal with them, and hopefully people on here will come up with some great ideas for you - or even just be someone to listen and advise - bottling it up or being unable to talk about it is not always a good thing - a problem shared etc.... I bet you have done things with your life.... they don't have to be the same as what other people have done so don't judge yourself by them.... for example most of my friends and colleagues my age have their own houses whilst I still rent a tip of a ramshackle house. But I did different things to them - they value homes and things and I value people and my dogs. I can't get back to see when you posted your original post but I hope you are not feeling quite so bad.. remember this is the first step towards the rest of your new life,sorting things out the way you want them be. When I first moved up here, I didn't really have my own friends and enrolled on a computer course (for work really) and met some lovely people through that who I now count as my close friends - or maybe doggie volunteering would help meet some like minded people?

My doctor is called Dr De. Affectionately known by me and the OH as Dr Dre. Well it makes us laugh anyway Was on way home yesterday in van. Hit a traffic jam and tried to turn round in a car park entrance (me and the van and reversing are not such good mates). Anyway somehow the horn got jammed in and every time I turned the engine on it blared out. Then as I was sitting in the van, with the keys out it auto locked and armed itself with the alarm and I couldn't work out how to get that turned off, we don't use it much as its a camper. So there I was blocking the entrance witha que of people, horn blaring, alarm blaring etc getting very red faced. The OH couldn't rescue me as he couldn't leave tekno and as it was drivable just told me to drive it home as it was as only five minutes away (er yeah right drive down the high street with horn and alarm going!!). Luckily someoen showed me this magic thing on the key ring that plugs in and deactivated the alarm and a screwdriver to the horn got that sorted. Its amazing tho how many poeple don't stop and offer to help, even if you are impeding them on their jouneys.

Happy birthday to you! Hope you at least managed to get to the pub at lunchtime.

More best wishes from us here.

No advise to offer but just a gentle hug for you all. You are doing your best to make her better, so don't get down.

Sorry everyone, had mum up to help with the nursing and she says I am rude to go on the internet and leave her watching the telly! The first night catherterising was horrid, he got snappy I got stressed... but mastered it in the morning and with the aid of kibble he didn't give a monkeys what I was doing down there!! He tries to snap and bite the vet (most unlike him) when they try to do it but I have to stop at some point cos he needs to start going for himself. He is coming along well and lost alot of his stiffness, and can sit up sphynx like now which were his first physio aims. Unfortunately (well for now) his brain seems to think he can walk like a normal dog and he keeps trying to stand up and move.... his legs actually have not much idea what this is about and he wil go cartwheeling across the floor, with his legs at scary angles and land on the floor. He is becoming a real handful now out of his crate because he wants to crawl around and try to stand up. He has quite alot of strength in his back legs and uses these to push against the cushions when you get him out of his crate, and propel himself forward..... he can just about stand with help, but won't particularly sit up properly - again I think his front legs seem much weaker and when he does stand, he isn't aware he isn't particularly standinding on his paws and will be over on his knuckles or toes. Anyway got some photos at the weekend... he looks so normal its hard to believe.

Teknos home in is little pen, with loads of cushions and vet bets. He seems to get tired really easily and is enjoying another snooze. He nearly ripped my hand off when I brought him a small meal of kibble and JWB pouch! Will take some piccies tomorrow, he looks nice and chilled out at the moment. We have to do lots of moving of his joints as they keep going very rigid and stiff and she said ttouch will help too :-) we have special ways of moving them and thats all we concentate on the minute - and massage and keeping him warm and comforrtable. Sometimes he gives mad kicks out with his back legs. (the physio says his brain is trying to send messages to his legs but some are getting there, some no and some not getting back hence the twitchy stiffness. He tried to sit up a few times but cant seem to grasp he has to stand on his front paws and tends to wobble over onto his knuckles, or else his legs go so stiff he falls over. The next bit is when he rolls onto tummy to try to get his back legs to relax enough to tuck under him. But he is definately Tekno with teknos personality etc. She said he might be a bit odd from now on! he has little attention defecit things too like forgetting he is in the middle of eating or something but that will go as his head heals they hope. He has had a couple of mad head wobbling sessions, which seemed to be when he got over stimulated - they were sort of like a fit, but just his head and neck but not a fit, his eyes were normal and he could listen etc - just sort of violent muscle tremors. Hmm maybe we shouldn't have been naughty and given an attention deficit dog a sneaky mcdonalds plain burger on the way home for wecome home treat!! (no bread or pickles of course!). The physio said he may not be the dog he was before to some but and it will be a long road and there are no promises but they think there is some hope else they wouldn't be trying so hard with him. Scariest part is that I have got to catherise him later - its for his own comfort overnight, but he doesn't like it much and you seem to have to push the tube up an awful long way - I am scared! esp when the dog who never growls is growling at you!! Thanks again everyone..... if anyone lives near me and fancies some catherteriseing let me know lol! The phyisio seemed impressed that we knew about ttouch and said it will be good for him but shall be in touch with lynne to see what she recommends.

So glad this was sorted, had things been different here and it been a weekend could have done most of it and nipped into mums on the way for a cuppa. Thank goodness its taken care of for little staffie.

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