Roscoe my brilliant boy

Heard back from Dodman. We are going to go back to the original dose of buspirone and try the clonidine for trial stress. I am not convinced it will work, since clonidine slows the heart rate, however Roscoe is not normal in any way and we know that medication doesn't act "normally" for him. Like, the Xanax was so useful for trial stress. It took away his worry, but also pumped him up and made him really HIGH! That's what I need in trial settings!! A dog who is pumped and crazy and HIGH!!. The Xanax worked opposite for him as it is prescribed or thought to work, it really made him HIGH and excited, which Dodman says happens in some aggressive dogs. Unfortunately, he seems to be "immune" to it now and it has no affect. So, I will try the clonidine.

I do know, from talking with friends who suffer from depression or some other anxiety disorder, that finding the right "cocktail" is tough and takes trial and error. I am going to keep at it.

I am exhausted thinking about why all this is happening with the poor dog. I try to find a pattern to the stress. There is no pattern that I can see. Sometimes he gets stressed at home and has peed in the house (he has been wearing a belly band, so it isn't really in the house - we call it his straight jacket) when life seems so normal and quiet. Then we have construction activity going on and he is fine, where before that might have put him into major worry and start him shaking in our laps.

There is one thing I plan to try (I make it sound like it is just ONE thing, easy, just ONE thing) - I think, if I am remembering right, that his BEST performance work was when Colby had her knee surgery and was out of commission. Roscoe got to do seminars, trials, classes all by himself. He thrived and was so happy!!! We were having times when he was that good before her surgery, but that was also before Spur. So, lately Spur has taken a lot of my time. He is two and at the peak of his start in training, working on getting behaviors solid. The MinPins have solid behaviors and simply need maintenance. I think that's not enough for Roscoe. He needs more. He is brilliant and brilliant minds left un-exercised start to rot. Is that a metaphor that makes you barf, or what? But, I mean it, I think he may be rotting. His brilliant mind needs more activity. New tricks, more constant work, more attention. I can't just settle with maintaining............I'll do just this one thing.

With all my free time............bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..............I am going to work Roscoe more and be mindful of making sure he gets special time. Just telling him he is special isn't enough. He is special, you know? Delaney says he is "special". She's right! I think special has different meanings. You decide, what does it mean? I just think he is - special. My special project, a special case, maybe just a case? Hmmmm, I think both.....he is a special case, for sure.

Last class??? Waaaaaaaaa.........

Our last outdoor agility class was yesterday. It was actually Wednesday, but with the rain we moved it to yesterday. VERY nice day for it and we had a little celebration for Colby's MACH. Cindy, my instructor and good friend, made a cake!! And this was SOME cake!!! I was SO touched!! It has black frosting and brown cake. Colby's colors! Well, she is considered black and "rust", but still it was MinPin colors! AND............here's the MOST cool part..........she made the two courses we ran to get the MACH on Sunday in frosting on the cake!!! She has them numbered and everything, exactly as they were!!! Oh...........MY............GOD.................. It is/was just the coolest thing! And what's funny, everyone ate all around the courses and not until there was no more cake to take except the courses did those get eaten. Since yesterday was a make up and we started our Rally Obedience winter classes last night I brought the cake to Rally class, so most of it was eaten last night. Dog people like cake! So, there is not much cake left!

It was fun at agility class with all the novice folks there asking..... "what's a MACH?". LOL!! I remember those days. I remember the first MACH I ever saw anyone get. It was like..........HUH.........what's the big hubbub about? Everyone was running ringside to clap and cheer the victory lap. I had to ask what for, back then. And I remember having the whole MACH thing explained and what it takes to get a MACH and thinking.........oh well, that's out of MY reach. Hmmm, guess not!! :D Good little MACH Colby Carlson! Who knew? Well, I do now. She did it, we did it, the party and celebration continues. It's such a big deal!

Mushroom poisoning?

Recently there has been some discussion about this. Someone I know thought a dog in her charge had mushroom poisoning. That's what the vet said. Maybe so, but from what I know after a friend's two MinPins died of mushroom poisoning, is you can not know for certain without a post mortem liver biopsy and mushroom poisoning mimics many other poisons/toxicities, such as artificial sweetener, corn molds, etc.

My MinPin friend did the post mortem biopsy with her second dog because after the first one she had mushroom specialists come out and tell her it wasn't mushrooms, that the mushrooms in her yard were not the poisonous kind. Opps, she has four other dogs!! Well, the next dead dog proved them wrong, sadly. These two dogs were dead within 5 days of symptoms. Really, really sad. She has other dogs. She always has. They have always gone into this yard, it's her fenced in back yard for the dogs. Luckily, she does have a fenced in front yard, so since last year her dogs are only allowed in her front yard. This fall she thinks she found the mushrooms in her back yard - With confirmation from some other mushroom specialist, these are called "Death Caps" and what killed her two dogs. They look so "normal", so benign. She wants to move. She has lived in this family home for many years. It's an awful situation. Getting rid of them isn't easy, so they say. Basically, one would need to bleach the whole yard, remove all plant material and start over with different types of growth. Here is what the mushroom person said -


" It appears to be a species introduced from Europe over the years, and she has done some elegant tracking studies. Amanita phalloides has an ectomycorrhyzal association with trees, often oaks or other hard woods. This means it may well be helping your trees. My closest connection to it is that it is easily confused with the paddy straw mushroom that southeast Asians eat in Asia. They tend to find phalloides here, assume it is fine to eat, and get poisoned. Every year we seem to hear of a poisoning or two. I teach lots of southeast Asian 3rd graders, and make it my business to tell them *not* to let their families collect mushrooms here, unless they talk to me! There is reading, writing, and 'rithmetic, and there is survival!"

Things are spiraling............like a flush down the toilet

Tomorrow will be two weeks since I increased Roscoe's meds. He has had three accidents in the house in the last four days. Well, not exactly in the house, most in his belly band. He's been wearing that since his last episode of marking indoors. My options are - belly band or crate. And when loose in the house I would have to leash him to me or gate him in rooms with me so I could catch him in the act, if I didn't use the belly band. That's the trouble, I never see it happen. Crating him would add to his anxiety. His anxiety is sky-rocketing. At the trial Sunday he had one pretty nice run, then one VERY bad run. Just not happy. Which is a little strange because outside he tried to play with a sheltie. :O WHAT???? Roscoe doesn't play.........I mean, really he DOES - NOT - PLAY! Get it? Roscoe has played with two other dogs before, briefly, like for just a minute or two, ever in the 9 years I have had him. So, Sunday it was like he was Bi-Polar. One minute playing with a sheltie, the next minute running agility like he had lead paws and I was promising to pull his nails out with pliers when done running. Barely making course time. He sucked, we sucked, it looked bad. Someone even asked if he was OK as we left the ring. Damn.

I have a call in to my regular vet asking if there are not more intensive medical tests we could run to COMPLETELY rule out ANY medical reason. Waiting to hear back. The test we ran, blood panel and simple urinalysis were totally normal.

My gut tells me this is all mental. He's a mental case. I know that. He's not right. He's Roscoe. He's messed up. He's not normal. He's special. He's nuts. He's kind of sad and confused and not feeling right and it bums me out. Then he's all happy and playing and making new friends. What's up with that?????

Why now? My gut tells me it's all about Spur. Spur has matured, challenged Roscoe on occasion, is now a two year old male. I don't really know. I am guessing, it's just a guessing game. His mind is too complicated and messed up to know what's really going on. I just want him to feel better. NOW! And stop peeing in my house!!! But, maybe it has nothing to do with that. Maybe his brain is getting signals from the aliens on Mars, or Venus, or Utah. Or the little voices in his head are arguing and can't stop. I don't hear those voices and I don't know the language anyway. Maybe he needs re-wiring. How does one re-wire a dog? I wish I had an answer.

Some bling for our cloud

Cloud Nine. Colby wearing her bling that Lisa and Donna got her for getting her MACH.

The indoor shots during our celebration came out blurry, so yesterday I took some outside. Somehow these shots don't quite look right? Colby, hunting moles while wearing bling? The congratulations keep pouring in. It feels good! I am just glad she got her MACH before something broke down on her. She is so fragile. Her eyes are starting to break down, notice the squinting. She is only 10, which for a MinPin is quite young, but she has always had more health concerns than a MinPin her age should. She is a puppymill dog, after all. Born at a puppymill in MI, sold through a pet store in RI to a collage kid. He couldn't handle her energy or housetrain her or keep her out of the trash, so he was going to dump her at the shelter, but thought better of it and called rescue, thank goodness. I got her at 5 1/2 months old for $75. Look at her now, MACH Colby! I love this dog! What a wonderful partner!

Our cloud is so comfy - Cloud Nine!

MACH Colby!!!

We FINALLY did it!! Colby is a Champion Agility dog! She got her Master Agility Championship with the AKC yesterday! Goodness, that seemed to take us forever. It didn't help that this past summer many of her trials were in 2" of rain. So..........she is Nevah Gonna Be a Nevah Gonna Be a MACH Dog again! She is MACH Colby now and forever! Good little girlie! I am VERY proud. She is the 15th MinPin to ever get that. My friend was there yesterday who has the first MinPin to ever get a MACH, so that was really nice. I love her purple and green ribbon. Tradition is when you get your MACH, you grab the last jump bar and do a victory lap. That felt so strange, but Colby LOVED it and ran around the ring, zooming into a tunnel and running out with me! Fun!! I forgot to thank and hug the judge, also a tradition, but she came up to me as I was leaving the ring and didn't let me get away. I apologized. DOI! It was so much pressure, all eyes on us, it's just a strange thing, really. I mean, it was just another agility run. :D

She got raw steak when we got home! And a pearl bling necklace! (Thanks Lisa and Donna!!)

MACH Colby, forever! Love that little girlie!! The best partner anyone could ask for! My little Champion!

Is this not the most spectacular fall???

As I drove to my first kitty visit this morning in the misty rain, it occurred to me that this has to be one of the prettiest falls! The colors are absolutely fantastic!!! Even in the cold rain, passing our neighbor Dweebe's house (his name is something else, but we call him Dweebe - it just fits), I wished I had my camera to stop and photograph the colors surrounding his junk yard. He does have a bit of a junk yard. Old tractors, old cars, farm tools and equipment, all over his yard and many of it with "for sale" signs that have been there forever and it's always a mess. He probably thinks it is lovely and all that valuable stuff there shows his net worth or something. He's a local character, probably lived here his whole life. I hear his mother lives with him, but I have never seen her. I see him sometimes chatting with people in his junk yard, always dressed in auto-mechanic-blue and flannel, I suppose they are negotiating a price on something valuable in the yard. He wears a hat from the tire store. The junk and the fall colors looked beautiful this morning.

Yesterday I visited with Maybell-Camo-Kitty.

She blends in with the leaves! I can never get a straight on photo of her because she just keeps walking up to me, rubbing on my legs. Sweet kitty!

What more can I say? The fall colors are LOVELY this year!

**Just to let you know - tomorrow Colby gets her MACH. Master Agility Championship. You know, we have been trying to get that for like...........um.........YEARS! When a dog gets that they can put those four letters before their name. Most AKC dogs have long names, like.........."Downeast Frozen Sea-Man "...that's my friend's dog.........or "Tequilas Hi Octane Accelerator".......I don't know that dog, but I like that name..........or "Thornapple Ragtime Rave Revue"......I wonder what that dog's call name is ...........Rag? Thorn?........

...........I don't know that dog, but it often gets 100 in Rally, although Roscoe beat him the one time we competed against him, because our time was faster. Roscoe MOVES out!

My dogs names? -

Roscoe

Colby

Spur - well, I decided to try registering him as a papillon and had to come up with one of those long AKC breed names, so he is actually registered as -

"Trout Brook Spur Of The Moment" Sounds so official? So AKC.

Right now I call Colby - "The Never Gonna MACH Dog Colby", to which she smiles and wiggles her tail at me as if that is such a cool name and she loves it. Tomorrow she will become "MACH Colby".

:D

Or, we may NOT get her MACH tomorrow and her tail will still wiggle and she will still think she has a cool name!!!!