Teaching an old dog new tricks

Practicing 'Four Paws Up" on short stumps

Okay, they are not really 'new' tricks, but adaptations of some of her previous activities.  And we don't really know how 'old' she is - somewhere between 11 and 14, but some days she acts like a child and some days she acts ancient.  Kinda like me.  😁

Shortly after Maggie had surgery for a mast cell mammary tumor, she started having mobility issues - difficulty standing, difficulty walking, holding her back right paw close to her belly, having the right leg stick out at weird angles and have to be massaged back into place.  

Mah feets hurts!

Xrays revealed some issue with the hock/tarsal joint - the doggy equivalent of the human ankle.  I'm still not sure exactly what the problem is - in these covid no-contact days, the vet reports over the phone and most of what she says I either can't catch or don't remember.  I've asked them twice to email me a written report of the findings but to no avail.  Anyway, the long and the short of it is that, in addition to weekly cartrophen shots and some other medications, she is no longer allowed to participate in her favourite non-beach activity - parkour.  For those not familiar with the term, it is rather like outdoor (often urban) agility with constantly changing obstacles.  The dog uses whatever is in the environment to balance on and move over, under and onto obstacles.  Positive reinforcement starts the process and then that little lightbulb goes on and they learn to think for themselves, problem solve, and use muscles in different ways.  

Maggie weaves through posts in empty parking lots, climbs up retaining walls, figures out how to jump onto craggy boulders and stand tall without losing her balance, jumps up on logs three times her height and runs along to the other end, goes under and over fallen trees, scales large stumps and makes like DiCaprio in the "I'm Flying" scene of Titanic. 

So, since ordinary walking is just plain boring according to Maggie, and jumping is forbidden, we have had to improvise  by looking for other, similar but safer training activities to keep her little brain and body busy. We started by ordering a balance ball (or wobble ball) and using her familiar command of 'two paws up' from parkour, got her practicing balance and stretches.  

What is this thing?  Looks like the licky mat I get my dinner on, but rounder and wobblier!

You want me to do what???  

Like this, Mama?  Treat, please!

After a few days of very limited exercise, we set off to a quiet part of a local campground. There we found wide logs sunk into the ground so they were low enough for Mags to step onto without jumping, but still fun enough to race along to the other end without falling off.

She did catch me unawares in one section of the park when she spied this circle of stumps and flew around them on her longline before I could stop her.  

Next visit to the park, we bypassed that section and went to the day use area  where tree stumps were cut off at ground level.  Two paws up and four paws up were doable here, but involved another challenge - bunnies!  Dozens and dozens of bunnies!  Bunnies are very exciting to a herding dog who thinks of them as mini-sheep to be rounded up, usually accompanied by very loud sheltie barking.  So we threw in an extra component - learning to be calm around the rabbits.  She already knew the word 'settle' for when I want her to sit or lie quietly rather than engage in a roadside brawl with another dog, but multiple rabbits hopping about really got her adrenalin pumping.  So first I had her settle from some distance away.

I see bunnies!

Lots and lots of bunnies!

And pretty soon, she was practicing two paws up on a short stump with bunnies just 10 feet away:

It wasn't long before Maggie was able to figure out her own activities.  We walked past a huge log which she had previously jumped up on (to my amazement), and by this time she had learned  a new command "walk past" for when we passed benches or boulders that she'd previous been allowed to climb.  When we came to the log, she looked at me and then (I swear she had mischief in her eyes) she suddenly popped inside the hollow end and sat down!  This dog knows how to recognize a photo op.

Now she checks out the ends of all fallen trees of a good size to look for hollow trunks to pop into!

But of course, the beach is still her Number One favourite place to go, and there is nothing happier than a happy sheltie:

Soon we will face the challenge of finding other places to have fun - dogs are going to be banned from the day use area of Rathrevor park come March 1st until October, and the two beaches near us close to dogs from Feb 15-April 15 (Rathtrevor area) and March 1 - April 30 (downtown Parksville area) while the Brant Geese migrate through.   Hopefully Covid restrictions will start to ease soon so we can return to urban and rural parks in other communities. 

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Note to my readers:  With covid restrictions, I have been taking a lot less photos and going a lot fewer places, and therefore have little blog fodder.  I mean, how many photos of Maggie on the beach or Maggie in a park do you need?   Also, I am less than enamored with my latest camera - my fourth Sony, but definitely not the quality of the first two.  It's hard to get sharp images and good colour. Unfortunately, my photo editing program is no longer available and the new one that has replaced it is ridiculously complicated and I am cancelling my subscription to it. So my photos are not up to snuff as far as I'm concerned. Today I found a free, easy-to-use program to watermark them and will likely upgrade to the paid version once I see what else it offers. Now that I've found that, I do have a few more posts almost ready to go as soon as I add the watermark to the photos.  Patience, my friends!