Notable in both good and bad ways. Sigh.
The Good: Today, for the first time, Jake decided it was okay to "go" on campus. Sounds like such a small thing, but he's been going to work with me since before Christmas, and has never gone there, despite how long the day was or how often I took him outside. so today I took him out once and he peed, and when I took him out later, he pooped, too! The latter took me so by surprise I didn't have a bag with me, and had to go back for one. But it's the small triumphs that matter.
The Bad: Chris is out of town on business. Today is the first day that Reilly has not had a mid-day potty break since his surgery. On my long teaching days, Chris had been coming home in the middle of the day to let him go. So, I was expecting that he wouldn't be able to hold it and that I'd have clean-up to do. I was right. But I was not prepared for him to have had diarrhea. Oh, my. I managed to remove washable items and get them in the wash, then get the rest, including the rug outside. And cleaned him up. But he seems to feel fine.
More Good: It's now right at six weeks since surgery, so we can start allowing him exercise and building muscle back up, so when I took him out I removed the leash and let him walk about on his own. He was surprised, and pretty much walked with me anyway. But he'll start getting more exercise now, although he's got to work into it. I don't need him injuring himself due to atrophied muscles. I'm sure he'll be glad to get some physical activity in!
Meg, Reilly and Jake
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Catching up
I've let three weeks slip by without posting! What a slacker!
Within these three weeks, I've been back to my parents to be there when my mother underwent a medical procedure, begun a new semester with all that entails, have been working with Jake, and dealing with Bored Puppy as best we can. It's been busy.
Reilly is five weeks post-surgery now. He feels fine, wants to play, wants to run, and he's not yet ready for that. Bones take six weeks to heal. In another week, we'll start allowing him more freedom, although we won't be just letting him run with the others. His hind leg muscles were already weak, and this hasn't strengthened them. He'll need to build up muscle mass. But he'll start next weekend. Probably with just off-leash bathroom breaks to start. It'll be anther two weeks before he'll be allowed to play with the others. Not ready for roughhousing yet!
He has learned to ask to go out, but his asking method is grating. He's hit on the exact pitch of whine that will make you want to pull your hair out if you're within 100 feet of him. Surely gets him outside quickly though! Since he's not getting exercise, his system is off and he's back to needing to go out nights. He mostly wakes Chris up, since he's closest to the door. and he says he doesn't mind, so who am I to argue?
I'll be pleased when he can exercise for many reasons. He's eaten half a dozen towels, one orthopedic dog bed, one pillow, several dog toys and lots of newspapers. Last night I found him lovingly licking the leg of the dining room table! He hadn't started chewing, though, and he stopped when I admonished him. He always stops when told to, but if nobody is there to tell him? Well, destruction reigns. Can't blame him one bit. We've provided as much as we could think of in the way of entertainment, and at least he didn't resort to eating the leather covered furniture.
As he's healed, I've been re-enforcing behaviors, such as making him sit at the door for me to put his leash on (I wasn't making him sit for a while because it was obviously painful) and making him wait while I exited the door and descended the steps before telling him he could join me. He's been good about not pulling, or doing little pulling; easily corrected. Once he decided to chase Sherbert the cat, and snapped the leash right out of my hand. I yelled, and he froze two jumps away, then came back when I told him to. Good puppy!
I will continue working with him, and have him reevaluated for soundness between 18 mos and 2 years to see if he'll be able to work, although I won't expect it.
In the meantime, Jake has been going with me to work. He easily wears a light mobility harness, which I modified severely to suit me better. I needed to raise the handle an inch, and wanted a thicker, softer handle, so I got a neoprene one and altered it to fit. I also wanted Jake to be able to carry packs, so altered the harness to take packs or not as I chose, then altered the packs to attach to the harness. Velcro is a wonderful thing. (and I did order it through Amazon per Anna's suggestion. Thanks, Anna!)
It's so much more comfortable walking with Jake for balance than the forearm crutches! I did not anticipate this aspect at all. Instead of leaning into the crutches, which is good balance, but is stressful on shoulders, back and hips, I can stand straight and trust to Jake to keep me there. He's learned to stop and take one step at a time, allowing me to use him to ascend or descend one step at a time, too. I got throws for him, keeping one in my office and stashing one in each classroom I teach in. He had time to get used to the throw in the office, and when I pulled one out in the classroom, he got quite waggly. He knew it was for him.
At this point, when we walk into a classroom, he stands while I remove his pack (which normally contains whiteboard markers and my iTouch), then I spread his throw and he gets on it and sleeps through class. The timer on my iTouch that announces the end of class wakes him up.
Problems? Definitely. I've gotten Jake over the trauma of riding the elevator, and now he's fine with it. I learned that he's reluctant to enter the bathroom until the light is on. I've also figured out that he will not drink the water from the faucets on campus! The water is nasty. So I must bring him water. But I haven't gotten him to use the bathroom on campus not even once, no matter how often I take him out, or where I walk him. He'll hold it. Additionally, there's one long hallway that seems to make him nervous going in one direction, and he slows down to the point where I feel like I'm pulling him along. I haven't sorted out what he's thinking there, but I'm working on it. Overall though, this is going better than I anticipated. I explained his presence to my students the first day of class, and let them know that while they can meet him, since they can't distract him from working they need to come to my office to do so. I've had more students come to my office so far this semester than I even have before! Jake makes good bait. A lot of my students have left their own pets with their parents while they're in school, and they miss them.
A couple pictures from hubby's iPhone:
The first is him holding Reilly's paw. Maybe we should have named him Bigfoot!
Annnndddd....... a really blurry one. I was making supper, which was French onion soup. I was slicing bread to go on it, and Chris softly told me to turn around. I turned to all the hopeful faces. Bread is much loved!
Within these three weeks, I've been back to my parents to be there when my mother underwent a medical procedure, begun a new semester with all that entails, have been working with Jake, and dealing with Bored Puppy as best we can. It's been busy.
Reilly is five weeks post-surgery now. He feels fine, wants to play, wants to run, and he's not yet ready for that. Bones take six weeks to heal. In another week, we'll start allowing him more freedom, although we won't be just letting him run with the others. His hind leg muscles were already weak, and this hasn't strengthened them. He'll need to build up muscle mass. But he'll start next weekend. Probably with just off-leash bathroom breaks to start. It'll be anther two weeks before he'll be allowed to play with the others. Not ready for roughhousing yet!
He has learned to ask to go out, but his asking method is grating. He's hit on the exact pitch of whine that will make you want to pull your hair out if you're within 100 feet of him. Surely gets him outside quickly though! Since he's not getting exercise, his system is off and he's back to needing to go out nights. He mostly wakes Chris up, since he's closest to the door. and he says he doesn't mind, so who am I to argue?
I'll be pleased when he can exercise for many reasons. He's eaten half a dozen towels, one orthopedic dog bed, one pillow, several dog toys and lots of newspapers. Last night I found him lovingly licking the leg of the dining room table! He hadn't started chewing, though, and he stopped when I admonished him. He always stops when told to, but if nobody is there to tell him? Well, destruction reigns. Can't blame him one bit. We've provided as much as we could think of in the way of entertainment, and at least he didn't resort to eating the leather covered furniture.
As he's healed, I've been re-enforcing behaviors, such as making him sit at the door for me to put his leash on (I wasn't making him sit for a while because it was obviously painful) and making him wait while I exited the door and descended the steps before telling him he could join me. He's been good about not pulling, or doing little pulling; easily corrected. Once he decided to chase Sherbert the cat, and snapped the leash right out of my hand. I yelled, and he froze two jumps away, then came back when I told him to. Good puppy!
I will continue working with him, and have him reevaluated for soundness between 18 mos and 2 years to see if he'll be able to work, although I won't expect it.
In the meantime, Jake has been going with me to work. He easily wears a light mobility harness, which I modified severely to suit me better. I needed to raise the handle an inch, and wanted a thicker, softer handle, so I got a neoprene one and altered it to fit. I also wanted Jake to be able to carry packs, so altered the harness to take packs or not as I chose, then altered the packs to attach to the harness. Velcro is a wonderful thing. (and I did order it through Amazon per Anna's suggestion. Thanks, Anna!)
It's so much more comfortable walking with Jake for balance than the forearm crutches! I did not anticipate this aspect at all. Instead of leaning into the crutches, which is good balance, but is stressful on shoulders, back and hips, I can stand straight and trust to Jake to keep me there. He's learned to stop and take one step at a time, allowing me to use him to ascend or descend one step at a time, too. I got throws for him, keeping one in my office and stashing one in each classroom I teach in. He had time to get used to the throw in the office, and when I pulled one out in the classroom, he got quite waggly. He knew it was for him.
At this point, when we walk into a classroom, he stands while I remove his pack (which normally contains whiteboard markers and my iTouch), then I spread his throw and he gets on it and sleeps through class. The timer on my iTouch that announces the end of class wakes him up.
Problems? Definitely. I've gotten Jake over the trauma of riding the elevator, and now he's fine with it. I learned that he's reluctant to enter the bathroom until the light is on. I've also figured out that he will not drink the water from the faucets on campus! The water is nasty. So I must bring him water. But I haven't gotten him to use the bathroom on campus not even once, no matter how often I take him out, or where I walk him. He'll hold it. Additionally, there's one long hallway that seems to make him nervous going in one direction, and he slows down to the point where I feel like I'm pulling him along. I haven't sorted out what he's thinking there, but I'm working on it. Overall though, this is going better than I anticipated. I explained his presence to my students the first day of class, and let them know that while they can meet him, since they can't distract him from working they need to come to my office to do so. I've had more students come to my office so far this semester than I even have before! Jake makes good bait. A lot of my students have left their own pets with their parents while they're in school, and they miss them.
A couple pictures from hubby's iPhone:
The first is him holding Reilly's paw. Maybe we should have named him Bigfoot!
Annnndddd....... a really blurry one. I was making supper, which was French onion soup. I was slicing bread to go on it, and Chris softly told me to turn around. I turned to all the hopeful faces. Bread is much loved!
Yes, that's Reilly on the right. Jake is center, and Murphy on the left. At 8 months, Reilly is the largest. Sorry it's blurry, but he was laughing at the polite hopefulness.
Meg, Reilly and Jake
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