Maine Pets

Charlee birthday blogging

Anyone care to guess what this body posture means?

Charlee my wing nut dog turns 8 today. For her birthday present this year, she is getting a visit to a homeopathic vet for chiropractic and acupuncture. She has had some weird lameness on and off, and after nearly two years of not knowing what the heck was going on with her, I am now 90 % sure it is located in her neck. She is fine right now, but if I can't get a handle on it, I will officially retire her from agility and maybe even freestyle. Her latest lameness came on while playing tug with me at agility class and she hadn't even been over any obstacles.

I had pretty much decided to retire her from agility years ago, when my 3 kids were just too little for me to even do agility. The day I stopped was the day my baby climbed out of the stroller she was strapped into during class.

For some time I thought that Charlee was having problems with her hips. At her last vet visit, hips were ruled completely ruled out. I started Finney in agility over the winter, and re-caught the agility bug big time. On a whim, I tried Charlee in a private session and she LOVED it and she had been totally sound until very recently. She hadn't forgotten any of her foundation training in nearly 6 years, only this time around, she was smarter and bolder, and we worked much better together as a team, and best of all, she still had tons of speed, drive and enthusiasm. The days of the dog running next to me and spinning because I couldn't keep up, was mostly a thing of a the past, and suddenly I could send her to obstacles. It was exhilarating for me to be so in tune with my dog, and Charlee clearly enjoyed every minute of it. Stay tuned to find out if we retire or finally compete. I am hoping she just needs alignment, but more likely, time is creeping up on her.

I think all in all, Charlee's all time best birthday present was the placement of our foster dog Chase on Tuesday, who she took an instant dislike to.

Happy Life Chase! Charlee says; "hope it works out for you, because I don't want you back". Me and the kids would take Chase back in a heartbeat.

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