Sir Casey GoodDog has arrived

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen! Sir Casey GoodDog here. I joined the Boss Lady's household as her newest foster dog. (I actually joined on the same day that Breckin was adopted, but the Boss Lady has been a little behind in getting me access to the internet.)

Allow me to introduce myself...I am a 5 year old, handsome, male border collie. I am a well-behaved gentleman and I have my Canine Good Citizen certificate. My favorite activities include fetch, fetch and did I mention fetch? I really do love that. When fetching is all done (though honestly, is fetching ever really done?) I can be found snuggling with my human. I also enjoy walks and I walk well on a leash. In my spare time, I enjoy discovering new objects to fetch...I've found quite a few toys that the Boss Lady thought had been lost forever in her backyard.

I get so excited when I know I am going to play fetch that sometimes I turn into a vampire dog:



I have actually been in rescue for a while now, but my previous foster home noticed that I was having a bit of trouble getting up after playing and I would limp after a few fetches of the ball. After some x-rays were taken, the true picture came out. My hips were just horrible. :( I was transferred to the Boss Lady's household because she has a good surgeon near her that could perform the operations needed to make me all better. I have to have a double Femoral Head Ostectomy. It sounds pretty scary but the Boss Lady said we are using the same surgeon that worked on Finnegan and that surgery turned out just great, so I am very hopeful that mine will as well.

For those of you interested, I pasted some info on the surgery below. I was particularly happy to see the words "pain-free" used in the description of the results! I can't wait until I can fetch again. As much as I love fetching, right now it is just too painful for me.

The folks at NEBCR have been kind enough to take on this surgery for me, but they really need your help in paying for it. Anyone interested in donating toward the cost of my surgeries should go here. I really appreciate all the help I can get!

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Femoral Head Osteotomy (FHO)

This surgery is also called femoral head arthroplasty, ostectomy or femoral head excision.



The modified x-ray shown above, represents before and after views of FHO. Every veterinarian performs this technique slightly differently. An incision is made over the hip and the tissues are carefully parted to expose the head (ball) of the femur. This portion of the leg bone is removed and the remaining shaft is smoothed. Then tissue that surrounded the joint is positioned so that a strong band of connective tissue forms to attach the leg bone (femur) to the pelvis. As this consolidates with additional new scar and cartilaginous tissue, a pseudo-joint forms that is pain free and allows almost natural motion. Some veterinarians also reinforce the area with a very strong flexible surgical sutures anchored to both the femur and pelvis that last the life of the pet.

It is amazing how well the pets body adapts to this surgery. Joint pain, due to the grinding together of the bones of the hip is completely eliminated. After surgery, the animal maintains its knee a bit straighter to compensate for the slight shortening of the femur.

For the first few weeks after surgery, many veterinarians suggest that the pet be confine to a small cage and have the owner frequently massage the muscles of the leg. By the 4th to 6th week after surgery, they may encourage as much light activity as possible to prevent atrophy (withering) of the muscles of the leg.

Many veterinarians have the owners passively flex and extend the leg and continue massages several times a day. Dogs and cats do quite well on three legs so it is difficult to start them using the repaired leg. Within six months of surgery almost all dogs lope about as if nothing had happened.

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Sincerely,

Sir Casey GoodDog

I adopted a new family!

Hi All! Breckin the Brave here, postin' my last update on the Boss Lady's blog...I have wonderful news - I adopted a new family!!! My new family has a farm and - get this - SHEEP!!! I'm so excited that I get to be a real sheep dawg.

And, it gets even better...my new people play frisbee with me, too! I no longer have to herd Limerick while he fetches the frisbee. I get to fetch a frisbee of my very own.



I want to thank all my fans for cheerin' me on in my progress from punk to well-behaved canine citizen. I especially want to thank Dublin for explainin' the rules of correct doggie etiquette and for puttin' up with my silly puppy behavior. And Limerick for allowin' me to herd him for the last four months.

Hopefully my new family will bring me back to visit all my NEBCR pals at the next Adopter's Reunion.

But for now, I'm lookin' forward to the future...



~Breckin, Sheepdog-in-training

Water, water, everywhere....

Turns out, I'm a water dog.

We went to the Farm this weekend and got to play in the big pond. I did my usual bit of followin' Limerick around to try to get his toy and he went into the water and I followed right in after him! Boy, was he surprised! He didn't know I could swim, so he was a bit shocked to see me there.

Come to think of it, I didn't know I could swim. I was just a little speck of a pup last summer and I don't remember swimmin' as a wee tyke of only a few weeks. And all my other memories include the water being hard enough to walk on. So I must just be a natural at this whole swimmin' thing.

The Boss Lady said that Limerick might have actually been trying to get away from me when he went into the water, but I don't believe that. We're Best Buds! Limerick just doesn't know that yet.

Here I am swimmin' out to meet him:



And here I am takin' the toy from him:



And here's a picture of just my foster brothers, Dublin and Limerick. They spent most of their time in the water, too:


The Boss Lady said it was nice to have a car full of tired, wet dogs for the ride home!

Breckin, Dog of Hidden Talents

Spring cleaning

This weekend I helped the Boss Lady do some Spring Cleanin' as it was the big city-wide "let's throw everythin' out" weekend. We spent a lot of time in the garage (ie the place where the magic white food dispensin' box lives). I've never been in the garage before - it has lots and lots of stuff that I've never seen or sniffed. And while it all looked different, surprisingly, most of it seemed to be named "heythatisnotadogtoy".

Dublin and Limerick spent a good part of the day chillin' under the shade tree - not me though, I am a good helper and I hung out with the Boss Lady the whole time. I was determined to help her empty the garage. She kept sayin' that we were supposed to be cleaning out the garage, not emptying out the garage.

Eh. You say tomato, I say..

I didn't see much of a distinction between the two, so I happily helped the Boss Lady by draggin' stuff out into the yard for her to go through. I must have made a really good helper 'cause the Boss Lady said she was going to change my name to "Clepto".

Um, that's a compliment, right?

Breckin, Emptier-Outer Extraordinaire

Psssst...

I have a few secrets to tell....turns out, I actually *do* like to play fetch. I've been playin' fetch for weeks now with the Boss Lady's dad whenever he and I hang out...but don't tell the Boss Lady - I don't want to hurt her feelings. See, I only like to play fetch when there are no other dogs around. When other dogs join in the game, I would much rather herd them.... Poor Boss Lady, she's been tryin' for months now to get me interested in fetch...silly human.

And the other big thing I have to tell you is the sky 'sploded tonight! The Boss Lady said they were "fye-er-werks" or something like that. I thought they were just plain annoyin' at first...but then I realized they were a GOOD thing. See, the Boss Lady had just given us our meals a little bit before the sky 'sploded and we hadn't gotten a chance to finish them yet. Once the sky started 'splodin' Dublin and Limerick got scared and ran up onto the porch to beg the Boss Lady to let them in.

*snort*

Silly dogs! The Boss Lady quickly let them in and then she called for me. Ha! I wasn't scared at ALL. I was using my head and took the opportunity to run over and finish off Dublin and Limerick's food. So the sky was 'sploding...no big deal. I had much more important things on my mind.

~Breckin the Brilliant

Lessons Learned

The Boss Lady recently had a birf-day and her family came over to help her celebrate. Part of her family includes little kids.

(First lesson learned: Unlike what I originally thought, these kids are NOT baby goats. I was a little bummed by that.)

I decided to give these kids a chance. After everyone was in, settled and Dublin had already greeted everyone, the Boss Lady let me out of my crate. I went runnin' right up to the first little kid...and sat. This seemed to startle her a bit and she just stared at me. Evidently she didn't know that when I sit, she's supposed to give me a treat. So I stood up and very dramatically sat again.

Still nothin'.

I was not deterred, however, and moved on the the next kid. I ran up and sat in front of her and got a "oh, how handsome" and a pat on the head. That was nice and all, but I would have preferred the treat.

(Second lesson learned: Kids have not been fully trained in the art of treat-givin' and need more trainin'. Maybe a clicker would help.)

So I took my show on the road and went through all of the other people there, one by one. I got lots more compliments and a few chest rubs (I like those much better than pats on the head). I circled around in front of the first little kid again and thought I would give her another shot. To my delight, she produced a treat for me this time. We spent a bunch more time together and the little kid seemed to be gettin' the whole treat concept now. I hope the Boss Lady appreciates the time I took to train the little kid!

(Third lesson learned: Little kids aren't all that coordinated at handlin' treats and often drop extras on the floor. Bonus!)

~Breckin, Kid-trainer Extraordinaire

Anyone looking for a sheep dog?

Last weekend the Boss Lady took me and my foster brothers to a sheep farm for herdin' lessons! Well, Dublin and Limerick were there for lessons, the Boss Lady just brought me along to see if I had any interest in sheep - and boy, did I ever! I loved it and I even heard the Boss Lady mumble somethin' about me bein' better on sheep my first time out than Dub and Lim were after tons of lessons! Here I am goin' out to the sheep with the Trainer Man: The Boss Lady said I was really good for my first time out - especially since I am still a puppy - because I didn't run at the sheep and scatter them like most young dogs will. I slowed down as a I approached them and swung out and around to find the perfect spot to balance and then..... ...I would lie down and wait to help take some of the pressure off of the sheep. Sometimes I would get "sticky" and wanted to keep the sheep in one spot...I figured if the sheep didn't move, then I wouldn't have to go run them down. Made sense to me, but the Trainer Man seemed to want me to move them around some so I started runnin' around the sheep in whatever direction he seemed to want me to go. It was really easy!

Here's a video of me being sticky:


Here's a video of me runnin' around the sheep - you can't tell all that well from the video, but I was workin' off of the Trainer Man's body language:


The Trainer Man said I had "good instincts" and I did really well for a young'un! I don't know what all the fuss was about, I just did what came naturally to me... Here I am waiting for another turn on sheep.

Sorry it took me so long to update the blog - I needed the Boss Lady's help uploadin' the videos...those opposable thumbs come in handy sometimes!


In other news, I am doin' really well with the kittens. I have been allowed to hang out for a few hours every night and I don't even care that they've been runnin' around. The Boss Lady says I am finally 'gettin' my head on straight'.


Breckin, Sheepdog Extraordinaire