Wednesday, March 9, 2011

No Class for the P-Man

After last week’s class I was trying to set up a chiro appointment for the boy. Cheryl and I were having trouble coordinating.

Yesterday morning Ike slipped on black ice and his rear legs went completely out from under him, like a cartoon, and he landed on his right hip. Boy, Schnauzers are stoic. The boy acted as though nothing were wrong.

So, last night Ike and I did not attend agility class. I had reservations about attending class before the slip. After the slip I contacted Cheryl and arranged to meet her at a training club she goes to every other Tuesday to work on dogs. Ike’s pelvis was out, his head was out, and his sacrum is out in a sit. He has to go for a couple of follow up appointments – it was too much to do the sacrum in addition to the pelvis in one appointment.

The funniest part was that once Ike was adjusted he totally wanted to work. I almost went to the drop-in Rally/Obedience class at the facility. I probably would have, but when we were walking through the classroom, to the downstairs where Cheryl would see us, Ike was very tense. There were a lot of dogs and people in the class, and the energy was definitely disquieting to him. It is so obvious why he doesn’t like trialing; he’s a worrier!

I am planning on pushing Ike’s comfort zone a bit this year and attending the Act-Up run-thrus (there are four or five a year). While there will be new people and dogs hanging around it will be in an environment he feels very safe in. Also because it is a run-thru people should not be that stressed. He is very empathetic and peoples’ stress really bothers him a lot. I think that is why trialing is such a toxic environment for him – often times both the people and dogs are stressed to the gills!

2 comments:

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

OUCH! Be careful of that ICE, that had to be a scary slip to watch it sounds like!

Sam said...

Gosh, you must have so much ice up by you. Scary. I hope Ike is OK, sounds like the chiro visit really helped!