Follow up Friday 3

I am very excited and honored to be co-hosting Heart Like a Dog's "Follow-up Friday" blog hop this week. It's cool enough that Jodi allows us to steal, uh, share her idea in the first place but then she asks us to join her in co-hosting it as well. Thanks Jodi!

Brain Games...

The video of Bella playing her Nina Ottosson puzzle got quite a few comments and, as I expected, some questions about her injury. I wasn't being deliberately cryptic, we just don't have a whole lot of information to share about it yet.

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Jana Rade of Dawg Business did ask what we have tried so far to have the injury diagnosed. So far we've had 3 doctor examinations, x-rays, 4 weeks on Rimadyl and 1 ultra-sound. Bella is still limping and we still don't have a solid diagnosis of what's wrong. Or a plan on how to fix it.

The orthopedic surgeon at Tufts Small Animal Hospital called it "biceps tendonitis, supraspinatous tendonitis". And if it is what he thinks, he wasn't especially hopeful about being able to fix it.

We have a call in to a local rehabilitator to see if we can do anything to ease the ache without medication. (The Rimadyl worked but Bella's barely 5 years old and we don't want to have her on even more meds if we don't have to. Plus, Rimadyl has it's share of concerns.)

So that's where we're at right now. I'll provide updates as we get them.

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The Punks over from 2 Punk Dogs were impressed with Bella's food motivation and thought they might be too scared to play with such a puzzle. That reminded me we had talked about super-high-value treats when we met at Woofstock this past Fall, and I was supposed to get them the name of the food we use.

See, Bella is food motivated but when it comes to fear and getting her attention off of scary things, the food has to be on the Filet Mignon side of the spectrum. One of the things we found to be very useful is "Vital Essentiatls Freeze-Dried Nibblets". We use them for a lot of the training we do. They're expensive so I like to cut them up into quarters so they last a LOT longer. I'll write a post about the various treats we use someday soon.

If it's any consolation, Punks, Bella was afraid of her clicker when we first started using it so we know how hard it can be to overcome those fears. Good treats, patience and a slow approach can go a long way to helping with that.

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And finally, Jodi, our blog-hop host herself from Heart Like a Dog, asked if we fill every compartment in the toy. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. For this go-round, we're not using the toy for nose-work so much as something for her to do. I mix up how many I fill just to keep it interesting for her.

But, since I'm pretty sure the idea of the game is to get the dog to find the compartment that has the food in it, we play that way on other occasions.

The 30/30 Challenge

You may recall we're also participating in You Did What With Your Weiner's 30/30 Challenge this January. It's a Challenge to get you and your dog a little bit of exercise even in these cold winters months. In fact, 30 minutes of it for 30 days. Hence the 30/30 Challenge.

Things were going so well for days 5 - 7 of the Challenge. I got on the treadmill over the weekend and even started running again. Day 7 (Monday) brought milder temperatures outside and I got out to do the two-mile walk around my office park. Day 8 brought shin-splints but hey, that was not going to stop me! I still got out to do the office park walk.

And then Day 9 brought, well, day 9 brought the beginnings of a cold or the flu or whatever it is that's brought down every person in my department at work one body at a time. Days 9 and 10 were a bust for the Challenge and Day 11 is looking even worse. :(

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Bella on the other hand is doing very well for her part of the Challenge. She's still getting her walks, although we're not risking increasing them until we can meet with the physical therapist. We're still playing her games (she has more than one of those Nina Ottosson puzzles so I try to change them up) and even "Daddy" is helping her play the games.

Hopefully, next week will see me back on my feet and we'll be back in the game.

So that's it for today's Follow-up Friday. Thanks again to Jodi for the opportunity to participate as well as co-host. Hope you all have a great weekend!




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