"Mindy" full height!

Well here she is.. back on full height, I'm trying not to watch her but work her, it's so hard... anyway sent this clip to Nikki Mindy's Massage hero at www.canineremedialmassage.co.uk to see how she's doing and anything else I can do for her.... we had done a warm up routein before she starts this, fig of 8's and circles and she had done her own off lead warm up of, chase the dog that's walking along the footpath outside the fence, you can still hear that dog barking as she goes into the weaves, she really wants to chase that dog and do the weaves!

Oh and you get a glimpse of my new hair cut, as I forgot to tie it back out the way, so I keep fiddling with it!

Not much else to say, getting nearer to Mindy full height show, exciting and nervous all at once, I just got to handler her right and it will all come together.
Sennen worked well at the show on Monday with gun shots, thunder and heavy rain for most of her runs, no clears but really nice e's, I like e's... she is getting faster and now is looking for her toy when she has finished.

Happy 4th Birthday Miss Mindy

What an amazing year we've had together, such a little super star, thank you to all her fans out there that have made this past year so very special for us both, no names needed as you know who you are xx

"Mindy" another anysize at Kernow K9

I think you guys may start to get fed up of watching Mindy's anysize, but I DON'T, Sunday's anysize, at Kernow K9, something had upset her in the queue, not sure what, but she recovered quickly, which was great to see, she was running on damp grass after the nights rain and still was able to grip the ground and turn and I must have also got my commands in at the right time too, she seems to get stronger and stronger, which gives me the confidence that actually she is okay... and I'll say it again 9 months ago she was paralysed on 3 legs and the future was very bleak. Just look at her now!

"Mindy" - 27th march jumping.

So the jumps have gone up a little, in-between micro and small, going to give her one more go at getting to full height and it may take until next year to get there if we do, doesn't really matter, she's still so young.
I think it's because I only have Sennen and Harry working and Harry really doesn't do training so I end up twiddling my thumbs training wise and Sennen has been so very easy to train. So I feel I owe it to Mindy, as you can see she loves agility and really wants something to do, so as this is my chosen activity then so be it!

We have done big circles at this height with the jumps at different distances apart (grid work really but 9 jumps worth) she is bonkers and has had some spectacular crashes, where she took off way too early and I think even before the accident she would have done it too, but thankfully when ever I change something like now having an actual course for her to do with turns in etc, I get Ian to video so that I can actually work her and not watch, it's still very hard though and it's all "MY" fault she didn't turn right out the tunnel in the clip as my body (if you slow it down or even pause it, you can see quite clearly I am facing forward) is still saying go forward yet my command says turn right, but when I get both right she turns. She is really teaching me how important our bodies are to our dogs and from a distance too....

Still about Mindy..

and why not, she's a very special girl, as we all know it was Valentines day yesterday, Ian is romantic in a funny sort of way, he made Mindy her own sign for the Veggy patch gate, well she was the only one allowed in there last summer, actually it was the safest place for her, so no one could knock her over...she's come along way.

and she loves her Dad, she loves it when he jumps in the shower and waits for the shower to stop and rushes in to lick his legs! Funny girl.. She doesn't do this to me!

Mum will be pleased, I learnt how to "crop" the photo today!

"Mindy's" first ever anysize 5th feb.

This post was going to be all about Mindy...but

"MIndy" - Real agility training 28th Jan 2012

Here's my fighter!
I am trying hard not to watch and leave that to the video camera! but it is hard, I have just started, well Saturday in putting a course up and doing little bits slightly more complicated to what she or I are used too, but I am still finding my self watching her sail over the wrong jump, but hell, it's not surprising, hopefully we will get the "all clear" on Thursday that we can start entering some any size classes at Micro height.

"Mindy" weaves 28th Jan 2012

Oh she can weave too, so it seems, she learnt with the 2 x 2 method.

What an amazing little dog to think 7 months ago today around the same time as this posting going live she was injured, paralysed on three legs and screaming, what a journey we have been on over the last 7 months and do you know what, I have learnt to accept that I could have done nothing, it was meant to happen this was our journey, it wasn't my fault etc. I don't regret what has happened, yes I am sad at times, but boy I have learnt such a lot about myself, let alone physio exercises along the way, I have met some amazing people, too many to name names and all of you have touched our hearts in ways you will never know, but thank god for you all.

If I could bottle up what ever is driving Mindy forward I would be rich finianically, but boy she has made us rich in so many other ways...LOVE you Miss Manic Mindy

"Mindy" on Perranporth Dunes.

It's been a while since you've seen a video of Mindy running!
Mindy loves to Run, you can see she cant quite reach that last little bit of full extension, actually she does reach it but her tail goes straight for a few strides which is different to how she used to run, not sure how this will affect her jumping ability, we are just coming up to 6 months since her accident, she has done amazingly well and even if she only does the odd "any size" class if she wants too, she has achieved way more than we thought she would, she certainly can lead a normal pet life, if she doesn't come back to agility we will spay her, but if she comes back and can cope then I may still have my dream of breeding one litter from her.....and keeping all the pups myself!!! well she may only have one! If she has more I might let some very special people who still want one from her, so that is something, not sure when her next season will be as she is all out of sink (spelling) but I'm thinking around July time......

If you watch carefully at the end of the clip you can see her do a "head over T" fall, she did them before her accident, so nothing new, just something else to scare you with!

MIndy "Bump Jumps"

It's been a while, I know, I've been busy and time seem to be flying past and I seem to be getting nothing done. The nights are drawing in, teaching is weekends mainly now weather permitting, I do struggle with the ground, it just gets so wet down in this part....

But after a bit of encouragement from various people, I tried Mindy around a circle of "Bump jumps" or is it "Jump bumps" it's old guttering, which ends up doubling up as something I start the veggys off in the green house with!

Anyway we use them just so she doesn't slip on a poles, although she is jumping a lot higher, wider and longer out on her wood walks, this is more controlled so we start low and for me to gain confidence that she is okay-ish, her toy is her reward stationary and thrown.

I did spend the whole time watching her and not sorting out her toy reward in time, I should just get Ian to video and then me just to work her, otherwise we could have an accident because I'm not telling her what she needs to know early enough etc....this is very scary for me, I saw in the flesh she struggles with the grip going around to her left, but it doesn't really show on the video, she is wider in her turns back to me, but maybe she was before the accident, I cant say I remember really, after such a serious accident you do find yourself doing way too much watching every foot step etc.

She is still having her massage sessions, with Nikki Townend from the Canine remedial Massage. Mindy adores her and I mean that, those that know Mindy will be amazed to hear that she likes another person as much as Ian and I, maybe she is just mellowing? Anyway Nikki will be coming this Tuesday, so it will be interesting to see, whether doing controlled circles isn't good or has pulled a muscle/tightened somewhere before I do any more.

The biggest one yet!

The veggy's patch is still producing!

We didn't have a great crop this year, mainly our fault in not getting better organised (we are new at it!) we still have carrots as you can see, some Spinach, Lettuce (cut and come again) beans, the tomatoes have yet to turn red, so no doubt we did something wrong! we had one plum but loads off small apples, which I have to admit the dogs ate!

I have grown on some cheap heathers from the supermarkets, which are now 3 x the size they were when I bought them, haven't planted them out yet and maybe I'll let them grow some more and put them out next year, we bought some more laurel hedging plants at the auctions and these too I have re potted and are now strong and healthy 3ft ers! ready to go into place...

I do enjoy re potting bits and taking cutting to see if anything grows, makes so much financial sense...Think we did our last cut down in the agility area, I do try and leave 3-4 inches and then hopefully will help to keep it all together over the winter, but with Sennen she'll going to be one of those dogs that will enjoy skidding around in the mud, doing handbrake turns...

Talking of Sennen she came into season on Saturday, well at 11 months I suppose it had to happen sooner or later! but I suppose that will give me time to decide when to spay her...December time maybe...Harry thinks all his Christmas have come at once, was wondering whether this would bring Mindy in too...have to wait and see.

Mindy had her last Treadmill session yesterday, she is so fit now and has muscled up nicely, free running she looks great especially in the woods, jumping ravines, ditches, logs bigger than small height and staying upright whilst playing chase with Sennen and Harry through the undergrowth, stretching right out as she jumps brambles etc, lovely to watch now rather than being very scary..I have not stopped the ground work but trying not to make it a chore as by the end of 8 weeks I was exhausted and running out of ideas of what else to do with her...so now maybe once a week we get all the balance stuff out the shed and line it all up big balls, small balls, peanut ball, wooden balance board, plastic one and the blow up one and she walks from one to the other etc. I have started playing with her agility toys, throwing them letting her retrieve them from a stand still and now on the move, mainly for me to not to panic as she skids and slides and somersaults over the top of them, well if I cant play with her toys she isn't going to be able to do the next stage agility IMO...she couldn't care less, it's just my nerves but one step at a time...for me! Mindy would rather just get on with it...and I have witnessed her chase after a bird jumping the jumps along the way, which is why I have put the poles back down on their lowest height on the jumps (for my sanity!) out in the agility garden...

So maybe she can do some agility in time...Peter the vet, seems to think so and he also said to hang fire spaying her, especially as it was an accident. Still not sure about that, but I'm not sure whether I'll do agility with her either...we will just have to wait and see...

ONE STEP AT A TIME!

Pictures to help catch up!

Still don't seem to have much time!
fancy that! so Pictures will help catch me up...Here's Mindy still going to physio and tread mill at Hawksland, Wadebridge, Ross gets in with her after she has been in the spa and had some massage/physio...she is up to 16 mins and seems to cope really well with the water draining now and walks in a straight line...

Mindy - The above award arrived in the post for 2010, Harry won this in his first year of competing and so did Red in her first year, except Red was for Starters....

Sennen ate it!

John caught playing with his toy at Pembrokeshire!

"Mindy" August 2nd 2011

A month after her operation, looking amazing, well I think so!

Thanks to Clive and Elaine Snook for drinking so many beer and cider cans for Mindy at the weekend, and Chris and John for supplying us with the Trellis, yes I know it wasn't meant for Mindy but for my camping trips...

She is continuing to improve, but not so rapid as the first two weeks, but Peter Attenburrow did tell us that. We are continuing with the ttouch that Shona Moon showed me last week, I have got the hang of the "hair slides" she loves them and lots of back of the hand work, she still finds any mouth work to "in your face!" so have just done hair slides around the area, especially as her face hair is growing rather long now, she really could do with a clip and get her looking a bit more even, just don't think she would cope with being at the groomers just yet, although lovely Val did do Harry at the show at the weekend as I had lots of comments, how fat Harry was! little did they know it really was hair, he looked great for Sunday.....Yes I went to a show, the "Agility club" still haven't managed to do any training, so the least said about my handling the better.

It was great seeing everyone and nice to know we are on peoples minds and it was lovely that people came to talk to me about Harry or Sennen, even though I hadn't a clue who they were, but they read my blog...

Yes Sennen came too, on her first of many camping trips, she was very good, apart from catching a mixy rabbit with Tamsins two terrier boys, Albert and Toby on the cross country course...... more recall work required. I was very careful where I let her off and what dogs where around as now she adores small dogs and expects all of them to be like Harry, Mindy, and now Albert and Toby. She was great around the rings, spoke nicely to loads of dogs and played nicely with others, she even found a big pup to play with, Sara's Zips and Kiz Puppy, but with all the excitement of them playing I forgot to ask names, sorry Sara. She tugged like a good em! and concentrated enough to do waits and tricks around the rings, she gets excited watching the "squeaking" dogs running, bless her, she barks more like a Shepherd each day...ugh!

I took Harry and Sennen for an MOT with the Galen girls, Sennen was given the all clear to start back agility and actually I am looking forward to starting back with her and Harry, Sen has had 5 weeks off and she has driven us all mad with her antics......anyway Harry apparently wasn't so good and needs to see the chiro, which so happens, I had booked for next Wednesday anyway, he was booked in along with Mindy's first vet approved visit....

Oh yes Mindy is allowed a new harness less bulky camo pink fleecey one, from "Dog Games" site, they where very good and allowed me to have a selection to take to Peter and let him choose which he wanted her to wear he choose the cheaper model as it had a wider fleece ad less buckles, I think he was siding with Ian on how easy ti was to put on personally, I liked the more expensive one....

..and lastly I spent rather a lot at the show, buying a fleecy harness for Sennen to wear when she is pegged to the floor on her stake rather than attaching to her collar, a lead with her name sewed in (Ian doesn't like it, thinks it should have been a nicer colour, well I suppose that's an excuse to buy another one some day!!) and a pot of "Riaflex" for Mindy (well I couldn't forget her could I?) Oh and got some free samples of "joint aid" too.......

Think that's all the news...the Discovery's are still sat at the bottom of the garden, oh well what's another few weeks!

Physio with Mindy

I thought you might like to see what "Physio" stuff Mindy is up too!
I hadn't put all this altogether in one session before, Mindy has along with Harry and Sennen and any other pup that pops in for training already walked on most of these surfaces before as pups.

Mindy had been walking on a few bits of different surfaces over the past two weeks, wood, grass, shavings, plastic, so just added a few others, Elaine reminded me about bubble wrap and I added the flat tunnel plastic, wood, plastic fencing, foam filled plastic cover, sound proofing out of the disco, ladder (first time) odd bit of material, fleece blanket, roofing felt, cardboard box and tin filled with sand...(thanks Tamsin for that idea) weave poles and a tin.

This session lasted 10 mins, which I'm not sure was too long in one go, although as she was being fed treats all the way around, she didn't seem to get bored and when I stopped she would merrier go off to stand on something for more food! But I swooped this session with one of her 3 x 10 min walks, so maybe I have answered my own question!?
Elaine also suggested maybe better to use cones and poles rather than a ladder as it has a bit more give in it, so perhaps I'll put the ladder away for a few more weeks as I don't have any cones, unless some of you guys want to lend me some !
The session I videoed was from yesterday, Sunday and today is 3 weeks since her operation, she starts the treadmill tomorrow and Thursday she will be having a session of ttouch, if Shona Moon can get near her!

"Mindy" update 3

She's doing great, eating food and bones from the floor, she wants to play with her toys, so we are being rather careful and just roll the ball to her, but she has started picking that up and running (running not quite) off with it and throwing it around and bouncing on it! she's walking down a few steps now and sometime up them, just the ones going into the house (we live in a Bungalow) she cant jump on the sofa, but has beaten us to getting off, she turns in circles without falling over now, she has had her stitches out a couple of days now and the vet was really pleased with her, but did point out she still has a long way to go (like we don't know) hopefully start the water tread mill soon and thinking about getting someone in to do the ttouch as I'm not sure whether I'm doing it right, although I am sure Mindy may very well put up a fight re some strange person trying to touch her feet!

I started last week to take her down to the veggy patch, so she could roam around eating grass, lying in the sun or just mooching around with out her harness on, whilst I weeded and watered etc....

This week have started to take her down the lane for her 10 min walk, just somewhere different, she is struggling a bit now about being carried everywhere, she was good, but now she wants to be down on the floor and doing stuff....

Started to do a bit of clicker training with her whilst doing her physio, so getting her to lift a back leg and balance with it etc...

She has started to put on some weight now too.

And we have started using Harry's "Back on track coat"...well you never know, it worked for Harry!

....Out at Porth Jolly!

Sennen out for a few hours with her best mate Holly and her family Sue, Purdy and Tally..Note Sennen's upright ears!

Tally and Sennen, ears starting to go down, at last she is getting tired!

Sennen and Holly

Mrs Woo, old lady diddles...Red, sleeping soundly ( she does now, starting to go deaf, bless her)

And of course Mindy, first day back on some real bones.

She is starting to not enjoy being carried everywhere, especially when we go to go outside all her legs thrash around, she is not meant to do steps just yet, physio is coming on, not sure whether I'm doing enough, but stitches out on Friday, so then it will be over to Hawksland at Wadebridge to see Ros the therapist and hydro, although she wont be swimming, maybe treadmill and spa and hopefully she can point me in the right direction, still doing my version of ttouch using books as reference, not sure whether she would cope with someone else touching her, so will be interesting to see whether Ros can get near her, the vet Fiona doesnt have a problem with her!!

So we can count being a PAT dog off the list of things to do together!!

Ps. Good luck Tamsin with your exams next week.

PPs. Happy Birthday to Auntie Elaine who's 50 today xx

Turned the corner!

Didn't get around to adding all the notes from Mindy's first diary entry, so here's a shortened version along with what she is like on her second diary entry, hope it makes sense?
Pills she is on, are Onsior (pain killers, along with Diazapan, if I felt necessary, I only used them the once and only one tab, that scared me to see her worse on her legs and felt that although it was a muscle relaxant, I felt she could do more damage having it, falling over etc.) She is also on Synulox twice a day, which finished this morning and Seraquin.
Ian bought her a roasted chicken from Asda to help get her eating again and to help with all the pill popping she was having to do!
So on the Thursday we noticed she did her first stretch bow and shook her neck and shoulders, whilst in the sitting position she could bend her head down a little way to lick her front paws, she couldn't reach her "girly bits" to keep them clean and I thought I could smell wee, she turned around in circles slowly to make her bed, rolled on her back I think more to scratch her stitches than anything....Didn't poo until Friday morning from having picked her up on the Wednesday, but we did struggle to get her to eat anything to start with and she would only wee ever 12 hours...On her harness she seems to walk like a camel, both legs the same side moving forward. Oh yes and she barked with her tail up, couldn't eat from her bowl on the floor, so raised it for her.....would place her left foot 60% of the time, still forgetting to sort her toes out..weaker is still back left leg.
My vet at Rock View Vets, Roche, saw her on Friday and was amazed to see how well she looked and better still Mindy didn't eat her, just wagged her tail and accepted her liver treat, I asked about the wee smell and she couldn't smell anything but suggested a wee sample be collected and she would check she hadn't got anything, so I left armed with all the bits for collecting some, but I soon realised that collecting a wee sample wasn't going to be easy as she was only doing it once every 12 hours and a dish would be too big, so I walked around with a soup spoon!!! in the mean time she started mark weeing so I knew nothing was wrong and gave up on the idea of collecting any!!

Sunday was next time to take notes....She now happily turns around around to make her bed, digs up her bedding with her front feet, 85% places the leg, only the once saw her toes turned under when she squatted to wee, proper girly wee now and when she poo'd, she poo's more with the arched back and not so low to the ground, she stretches when she first comes out the crate, she's sleeping in that now by the side of our bed rather than us sleeping on the floor with her, she whinged first, but is fine now and slept through until 5 on Saturday morning, she has to have her morning pills half an hour before her breakfast but only tomorrow for them and then it's just the Seraquin for a few months....She is allowed free run on lounge without her harness on but as we have two sofa's in there I haven't been brave enough to wander off, as I don't want her jumping on or off of them just yet, although I'm sure she would!
Thanks to Elaine for suggesting baby gate to keep other dogs out the way, when I do let her out in the lounge, Sennen and Buzz are such "bull in china shop dogs" they are both trying hard to be calm around her but I panic, so rather than panic Hilary lent us her spare one, thanks Hilary, Hilary does a great job and fosters Springer Spaniels in Cornwall, we took Mindy over to their place on Saturday just to get Mindy out the house, she was a little on the nervous side with the Springers, but they gave her space she needed (actually I think they were to scared !! only kidding Hilary) we had tea and cake outside on the lawn, Mindy on her harness, she found a ball under the table and started to try and run a round with it, she then threw it at me to throw for her, so I rolled it toward her and she thought that was great....We did attempt to carry her on another dogwalk with the others, but Ian had to go back she was too wriggly, nice to see all legs going for it, but she wouldn't settle in Ian's arms, but he met up with us 30 mins later to do the last 5 mins to home with her, which worked out great...She has started to walk backwards out the way of us too and now shakes from head to toe, we are still massaging and doing ttouch on her as much as we can and some other physio exercises, I have done another video of her walking, which I'll post later...

Dawn Weaver was right when she said to me "when you see the pain in her eyes go, you will start to be able to move forward" So thank you Dawn...Still haven't been able to watch the video I had done of our distance workshop, Dawn had replied on the Wednesday and I hadn't had time to read through all the comments when this happened and maybe I never will read them.....

Thanks to Sue for taking Sennen and I out for a lovely walk down to Porth Jolly, thanks for looking after us all during this time and for driving me up to pick Mindy up, made life so much easier.....

Thanks also to all those keeping in touch via emails, texts, facebook and in person, I don't quite know how I'd be without you all...

Photo's as promised!

Mindy with her posh harness made by Ruffwear
She really hates her photo being taken....

Yeah ha, she's using her bad leg to scratch her self!

one of Mindy's x-rays, unfortunately i didn't take any of her spine, as at the time we were under the impression she had broken her hip! and I think L2/3 are out of the shot...but not sure!

Mindy's Road to Recovery 7th july.

The vet, Peter Attenburrow suggested we kept a video diary along with things we have noticed not daily but every 3 days, so today was day 1, Monday was her operation after having a myelogram to find the problem she then had a minihemilamenectomy on her L2/3, she went in with very limited use of her back legs and hell of lot of pain and when we, Sue a dear friend and I collected her from Exeter, Peter walked her on this harness (ruffwear) down the hall to me, as you can imagine the tears, from us all....

She slept well coming home and changed sides a few times and ended up sleeping with her head on Sues lap as she was driving......Last night was stressful, we had decided to crate her so we could all sleep, she had other ideas and we panicked about the cry's that she was in pain so Ian slept in the lunge on the floor with her in his sleeping bag....Spoilt....

So this will know for the next few weeks become Mindy's blog, sorry family and friends who aren't into dogs, you will have to just not bother popping back until later in the year....

It's my way of dealing with it and the vet wants to see the video's...

We don't have to crate her, if we can supervise her, she is allowed 3 x 5-10 min walk on the posh harness from Ruffwear, added to the vet bill!!, also she can go out for wee time too, but I think I may keep that the same time as her walk, she has physio at least 3 times a day and when the stitches are out she can go to the water tread mill...He wants to see her in a month, to do some tests to see how she getting on....

And so our new life together begins.....

She will be spayed after this season which is due now, I couldnt think of breeding from her in case it puts too much strain on her back, not that I would have done it now anyway...well I would off if this hadnt happened.....so if any one wants "the book of the bitch" I have one spare! I know there will be a few dissapointed people, but hey there are plenty of pups out there....

It just wasnt meant to be..................

No sure what heading...

when time stood still...how can things change everything in a blink of an eye.....
Mindy has seriously hurt her self. We wont know the course of action or outcome until Monday, we have been sent to the specialist in Exeter, along with her x-rays.

how did she do it?
Well Mindy is like Zebedee or Tigger from the cartoons, she is always bouncing around, spring upwards, either to try and get our attention or excitement for her food or training etc. This time we had trained on Thursday morning, some seesaws and weave entries, I put her along with Harry back into the house whilst I took big dogs out for their walk at the same time as picking up their weekly pork and lamb bones and bringing home to chop up, I left big dogs in the car whilst I took bones to chopping board and went into house to get bags to put them in and then freeze (I always freeze my bones before they then get defrosted and eaten a week later, kills off bugs etc) I started chopping with Harry and Mindy the other side of the door and she was bouncing up and down looking out the glass in the door, when she screamed, I rushed to the door opened it to find her on her side screaming, so off we went to vets, since then it's been a blur, but basically she couldn't move her back legs and was paddling around with her front, I thought broken back, slipped disc etc etc....after x-rays she came home with IV in so we could administrate pain killers, so she didn't have to stay in the vets, anyway she ended going back in after only a slight improvement, so had been given stronger pain killers and sedatives until they got the level right for her and in the mean time sort the specialist out, the pictures look good along her spine all even gaps etc as far as we can see, but she still cant stand, but she has two what look like breaks in her pelvis, one looks more serious than the other.......
They wanted to keep her in until Monday, but after sorting out her fluids and pain treatment we are sorted in having her at home with us, but then she pulled the IV out when we went to give her last lot of meds, so now I've learnt how to do via the phone from the vets, how to inject into her scruff, when I got it in my head that if I didn't she would be in pain, she screamed as I was too "Pussy" doing it, so now I know "Just do it", so fingers crossed we get on okay doing that until Monday, she may look like a pin cushion by then...

Monday the plan will be to take her to Exeter for her 11 am appointment with Peter Attenborough (spelling) and they will inject a dye into her spinal cord and see what going on, along with them looking at the x-rays or doing their own and see what is happen, then we can go from there. We have been told she is by no ways out of the woods, we are just thankful we have her at home...
So please folks keep send us lots of happy calming vibes for now and until Monday at 11...
Thanks everyone again for all your Face book messages and texts, we may not get around to answering them all, but I cant tell you enough how comforting it has been to have you all here for us..
THANK YOU XXXX