Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Swimming ... Finally!

At first he wouldn't go in deep enough to swim.
Then.... Yeah! He started swimming! And he loved it. He kept going in and swimming around, then coming back out again.
He also went in to fetch the sticks when I threw them(something he refused to do yesterday even). He was very hesitant at first, but when he realized he wasn't going to sink, he started to enjoy himself.
Now we'll go every few days to help build the muscles in his hips.
Yeah, Oak!

Friday, June 5, 2009

News From This Week

On tuesday June 2 we went to the chiropractor for our 4th week in a row. Progress is being made! She said now that he is more aligned the muscles in his back are developing more and therefore will hold his spine straight which in turn holds his hips straight. Yeah! We don't have to go back for 2 weeks this time and we'll see how everything is then.

I have looked into massage, but have yet to find someone in the area who does it. I have found a lady who has classes on massaging your own pet, but she is about a hour away. I've talked to a few people I work with, and they are interested in learning massage for their dogs, so I'm going to see if the canine massage therapist will hold a class in our area. I've also looked for a book, but there were none in the bookstores around here, and my vet has already lent hers out! Seems to be becoming a more popular therapy for pets.

We had our first advanced novice class on tuesday as well. It started out great, then all hell broke loose. Lots of fun and laughter though :) He was doing really well until we started practicing the recall. There are 5 of us in the class and the trainer had us line all the dogs up in a row. Then in no particular order she would tell us to call our dog. By the time it got to Oak he had his leash back on(due to the fact that he thought his name was Nick and Stella and Rocky :). So I call him, he starts heading my way, but his leash distracts him and he grabs it and starts running around in circles swinging his leash! What a clown. He really hammed it up for the audience. Then it was time for the down stay. He stayed down, but he rolled around on his back with his 4 feet up in the air and managed to squiggle about 3 feet away from where he started! Life is never boring with Oak around:)

He also got a chance to try swimming(if that's what you want to call it). He was trying to get a stick out of a pond and he got in over his head. It was pretty much downhill from there. My daughter and I decided he swims like the titanic! or maybe a rock. Maybe I'll need to get him water wings to keep him afloat :)