The first lab we took at Clicker Expo was Hang In There with Kay Laurence. Kay is an amazing instructor from England. The class was about learned duration in static and moving behaviors. The static behavior was to learn to rest and be calm. Zora isn’t very good at staying calm and quiet while I move around her, so we’re going to practice this and hope I can use it for when I teach for Dog Scouts.

The duration for motion behavior that I VOLUNTEERED us to demonstrate was walking weaves. With Kay’s direction we did several walking weaves in a row. I got lots of constructive feedback that I can use to build this behavior into something really cool.

Zora and I spent the last four days at Clicker Expo in Stamford CT. We had an amazing time and learned so much. Zora’s favorite part was meeting all 400+ awesome dog people at the expo. She introduced herself to as many people as she possibly could. I let her pick where she wanted to sit for each session and she would sit at the feet of a new person each time. No one was allowed to feet her, so she never got a food reward from anyone. Only snuggles and love.

Now Zora is so tired from the Expo that she can barley bring herself to get out of bed. I call this ‘expo hangover’.

Zora started her new diet yesterday. She has a prescription Science Diet dry dog food and she can have a total of 400 Kcal of that or 11.5 ounces par day. She can also have 40 kcal of treats per day. The only treats she can have right now are Gerber Graduates and green beans. Gerber Graduates are really low in calories, so she can have lots of those and some green beans with her dry food. I’m really glad that she likes her new food.

I don’t think she’s too thrilled about the limit on treats. We’ll have to work on that. At least she hasn’t had an upset tummy in the last week.

Zora has inspired me to learn and try new things. Together we have hiked all over CT and discovered parks I didn’t even know existed. We have traveled to Dog Scout Camp and learned about Scenting and Search & Rescue. We learned Agility together. We go letterboxing and Geocaching together. All of these things are more fun with my best friend.

Zora is a Super Hero!

We went to Tuft’s today for an appointment with the Veterinary Nutrition Specialists. The goal is to find the perfect diet for Zora to help with the pancreatitis. The diet has to be low in fat, so it doesn’t aggravate her pancreas. It also has to be low salt and low calories. The specialists told me that Zora’s ideal weight is 25-lbs. She is currently 30.6-lbs. Zora was 36-lbs when I adopted her at 3 years old. She is 6 ½ years old now. So now we have a new weight loss goal.

They gave us samples of food and teats to see what she likes. They actually recommended a low fat cat food to use as treats. Its fish flavored, which Zora loves! They said cat food is ok, as long as its low fat.

They will be writing up a special diet, including treats and a wet food to use for giving her pills. I hope she likes it and it helps.

After meeting with the Veterinary Nutrition Specialists, we went outside for a break. Zora was peeing blood! Fortunately we were already at an animal hospital. They took her back inside and took a urinary sample. We already strongly suspect a UTI. Poor baby didn’t need anything else wrong.
While we were there, the Cardiac Specialist wanted to listen to Zora’s special heart (for free!).

They were very interested in listening to her little heart with her little heart murmur. Zora was a teaching tool! Several Veterinary students also listened to her heart, only one could hear the heart murmur.

This is Zora on the ride home. Look at her back feet. She’s sitting like a human.

Zora has been sick for the past 4 weeks. Last Sunday a friend sent me a dog food recipe that includes lots of good things for her tummy:

Chicken
Barley
9 bean soup mix
Frozen mixed veggies
Spinich
Rice

Zora has been eating this food for 5 days now and she hasn’t had an upset tummy or any other problems. I really hope this continues and she will feel better for the long term. Tomorrow we will be going to see a Nutrition Specialist at Tufts University in Mass.

This is Zora resting her little tummy.

Zora and I went to our regular Monday agility class tonight. The last couple of weeks have been canceled due to snow. The class was excellent. Zora ran beautifully. Tonight’s class was about 270’s, so lots of turns and cross-behinds. My handling skills are getting much better with this class.

Zora successfully did the teeter several times, our instructor still catches it, but last summer she wouldn’t go near it. Zora is such a brave little puggle. This is Zora learning the teeter last summer at Dog Scout Camp.

She also figured out how to open her portable crate. Silly girl unzippered the front opening.

Zora and I worked on weave poles this morning. I think she’s getting really good. I’ve almost got them lined up with each other. I noticed that she misses the first set maybe 1 out of every 5 tries, but nails the second set every time. So I think we need to spend some time reinforcing the entry to the weaves.

We also worked on the sword fighting. I’m trying to change the cue from ‘over’ to the swinging of the foam sword. This is fun, because my timing has to be perfect for this work. We had a lot of fun with this exercise. We have been using boiled chicken for training, because Zora hasn’t been feeling well. She loves the chicken!

Unfortunately Zora’s pancreatitis flared up again today. So now she’s resting. Our vet told me to have her fast if this happens, so no food until breakfast. Poor baby, I feel so bad for her. She was originally diagnosed 3 weeks ago after vomiting all day. She got lots of good meds from the emergency vet and was only allowed rice and cottage cheese for a week. I slowly transitioned her back to regular food, but it seems she still has a really sensitive tummy. We have an appointment with a nutrition specialist in a week. I hope they can find her something to eat.

I found a training video a couple of weeks ago where a trainer taught her dog to ‘sword fight’ by jumping over a foam sword. The completed behavior looks like they are mock-fighting, because the dog jumps over the sword when she swings it towards him. I thought this would be a great project for Zora and I, we could integrate it into a Freestyle routine as Super Heroes or Pirates.

I have bunch of foam swords from Halloween. I started by having her jump over the sword with me sitting down and holding it still. She got that concept without a problem. Now I’ve started to ask her to jump over the sword while I’m standing. This isn’t working so well, I realized that she’s watching my hand for the cue and not listening to me. I need the cue to be the movement of the sword. So we will have to back up several steps and maybe even change the verbal to a new command.

Zora and I worked on weave poles again today. She’s getting better. This session might have gone better if I had focused more on her and less on the camera, but you can see the set-up. We’re working in my bedroom, since that’s the largest open space I have. We were able to progress to having them less angled.