Taking It Easy

This week we're taking it easy again. I took Vegas to the barn for practice yesterday (Sunday) and 7 minutes into a really good session where we got to play on the new dog walk (aluminum with contact-a-coat!), Vegas refused the tire several times in a row. That is not like her as it's not an obstacle she's had issue with since we first started and she was learning all the obstacles.

I let the tire issue go and ran her over a sequence of jumps and then realized the root of our problem - she was limping again, quite prominently. That quickly ended our playtime for the day. I took her outside and walked for a few minutes. It seemed like she was limping less but we still headed home. By the time we got home she wasn't limping at all and doesn't seem to be at this point either, a little over a day later. However, we are back on restricted movement in hopes of still being ready for our trial this weekend. So no more agility or biking for us this week. I'm bummed about that but we do have a really cool event to go to Thursday evening.

In other news, tomorrow is our allergy veterinary appointment so we can go over the injection protocol and start the allergy serum - yeah! I can't wait to make sure this works and have an itch-free dog.

All of this experience has really got me thinking. I picked up a brochure at the Rose City Classic from a vendor, Darwin's Natural Pet Products, for The Holistic Pet Vet Clinic near my home. After we get past this allergy stuff, I'm going to investigate some alternatives for Vegas including titers instead of vaccinations, having a full blood panel done to make sure her raw diet is balanced and doing what it needs to for her internally, and non-toxic solutions for flea control. I have really seen the difference in her with raw feeding, something three years ago I never would have considered. In addition to her raw diet, she gets an egg a day, occasional raw honey, ground flax seed, alfalfa powder, and kelp powder. The focus of my blog is not nutrition as much as training and working with a non-traditional breed in agility; however, the whole health of the dog goes into continuing successfully. I really want to continue to do the best by Vegas and I hate the allergies that have affected her so much. Therefore, I will continue to pursue these alternatives in hopes of removing any unnecessary chemicals and unnatural elements from her lifestyle as possible.

I purchased the alfalfa and kelp from Leerburg Kennels, which can be found on the web at: http://leerburg.com/healthcare.htm. To find out more about the health benefits of these types of supplements, I would suggest referring back to my friend, Lindsay's blog, as she really goes over this type of thing in depth.