Kenz NYE 2013 DWD Trial

So given Scott's suggestion that there was nothing catastrophic Kenz could do at this stage I went ahead and entered her in the NYE Dances with Dogs trial at Gawler. We only needed one more pass her for her heelwork to music starters title before the new rules would require an additional pass and I was pretty confident she would come through for me.

Not really surprised but she came away with 2 passes from her two routines - one in novice freestyle and the other in starters heelwork to music. What did surprise me a little bit was she placed first in both her routines. The other surprise is that if you discount the marks she lost for barking and enthusiasm then effectively she also had the top scoring heelwork to music and freestyle routine of any class on the night.

Any way an awesome way to finish up my birthday - two lovely passes. Clever girl Kenz.

Kenz's Some Slightly Better News....

Have been agonizing over Kenz's appointment with the new ortho for the last couple of weeks. Apparently needlessly so. The report was much better then I anticipated. Scott doesn't feel the MPLs are significant at this point in time and the least of her worries. He had a good feel over the shoulder and felt the musculature on both sides was pretty even and there were no real sore spots anywhere.

As to why she came up so badly lame only recently - its really anybodies guess. A few different pathways from here on - some very expensive options involving MRI/arthroscopic examination and some not so expensive options which might mean a DogLeggs brace to use on her during any activity which I think might cause the shoulder to become a problem (if it really is MSI the issue) or even something like a steroid injection.

Scott was keen to get her in post a collapse episode so both he and Kristen could have a look at her. Not sure if its of any value at this stage so will give it some more considered thought.

He did feel that she could go back to obedience as he didn't think there was anything to drastically against that. Will see how she gets on I guess the option is always there if she suddenly comes up lame again to make another appointment. 

Kenz currently weighs 12.8kg.

A weekend of trialling - Kenz Rally Advanced Title

Just over a fortnight ago Kenz's world was turned upside down when Ness ruptured her cruciate just one day after her 13th birthday. The last fortnight has been focused on making sure everything would be set for Ness to have surgery. A few questionable blood results indicating potential kidney issues and waiting on a phone call from John with the repeat results have kind of left me a little preoccupied.

Kenz isn't quite sure what life is without having her big sister around. Suffice to say I wasn't really sure what I would get out of her given she has never trialled without Ness being there.

She certainly came through though and did two very nice rounds for her title and a spare leg. Couldn't be more thrilled with her attitude and performance in both rounds. She scored a 94/100 on Saturday with a silly error of jumping the sign rather than the jump and managed to score one better under "spooky" Keith on Sunday with a 95/100.

Kenz is now known as Winpara Dream Chaser CD RA DWDF.S JD

Kenz's First Tracking Trial

With much trepidation Kenz was entered in her first tracking trial today. Track 1, 400m, 2 turns of ~90 degrees, 20-40 min time delay. Karron had agreed to lay her track as the "known" track layer. The day was forecast much warmer then I would have wanted and Kenz was scheduled as being the second track out for the day.

I had to rush from laying a track and then go out and run Kenz and to say I was stressed about how she would cope was a bit of an understatement. I was constantly processing and looking for signs of her struggling and didn't do a very good job of trusting her.

Judge Josie told me to trust my dog after she indicated the first corner and I didn't believe her. She then fluffed around and got frustrated and I was getting stressed out. She found the article and then went down the second leg only to get caught around the tree on the second corner. In the process of untangling she again fluffed around at the corner. I could see the frustration level increasing and with the warmer temperatures I was worried she wasn't going to make it.

In the end we sorted out the corner and she tracked down the final leg where luckily I spied Karron and it was a matter of just waiting for Kenz to find her which she did. Karron was met with plenty of squeaking :).

I cost Kenz some gradings but in the end she came away with a "Good" and passed her Track 1.

I am so proud of my little girl. Its a battle against her issues but she had a blast out there. I won't say it wasn't without "cost". She was struggling on her RH this afternoon and then was also lame in her front end. She has been well drugged tonight and will have a few very easy days of not very much.

I did let her have a bit of a play with Seeker on-lead and she had a ball though - a small price to pay to see her happy :).

The latest in the run of "bad luck"...

Despite some improvements around home with the stairs and life generally Kenz has been having a few random screaming issues and a bit of front end lameness. I have been putting off getting Matthew's opinion over John's thoughts re further MPL surgery because I was quite happy living in a bit of a state of denial. That is until she started refusing her "beg" trick and I started to see a little to much front end short striding.

So yesterday the girls were back to see Matthew for a check up. The "good" news is that Matthew felt the patellas weren't significant enough to warrant surgery. They seemed to withstand a reasonable amount of pressure and remain in the groove correctly. He didn't doubt that they were still able to luxate just that he didn't want to push it to that point.

That was about the best of the news he had re Kenz. He said he could feel lots (presumably scar tissue) in her LH stifle. Her back was showing significant evidence of roaching. He made a few adjustments to her sacroiliac joints which should help with the extension and movement as she was pretty jammed up through there.

The news he gave me over the front right shoulder wasn't especially good. Matthew feels that Kenz has medial shoulder instability :(. The interesting thing is only a month prior John figured the shoulder felt fine. Hindsight is probably that at the time Kenz went to John I had been resting her pretty heavily for the 6 weeks prior aside from twice weekly UWTM sessions and lots of drugs. Over this last month I have basically said screw it and eased her back into life.

Any way Matthews general view is that I shouldn't worry about putting Kenz through further MPL surgery with the front end bothering her as much as she is. He also doesn't feel we have a full handle on what is going on.

We spoke about appropriate pain management and working within her present limitations - that unfortunately also means her obedience days are over. She is still allowed to do tracking so long as its at a moderate pace.

Have organised more meds from John as she is just about out of her latest supply. I have her entered in a Track 1 tracking trial in a fortnight so she is on fairly heavy exercise restrictions and pain meds as necessary until then in the hope that she can get around her track.

Included in this blog post are a couple of photos taken last weekend at the tracking trial when Ness passed her track 3 for her TD title and we were busy chilling at the oval waiting for presentation.

Underwater Treadmill Session 14 and other fun and games...

Yesterday I came home from work and drove the girls to the bush track for a gentle stroll in the afternoon sun. Let Kenz out the car and from the moment she got out she was a serious mess. I couldn't work out why she was really quiet when I got home yesterday afternoon as normally she is all over me wanting to do stuff.

Poor girl we hardly got very far at all and most of the time she was lagging behind to the point where when I offered to carry her and she was more then happy to be in my arms. Ness on the other hand was racing around like a mad things charging up the path and turning around impatiently waiting for us to catch up. So very unlike Kenz to be not up the front.

She also had some issues with her LH patella popping out :(. I bought her home and gave her an anti-inflam and put her to bed for the night. I was seriously wondering if I should cancel her UWTM session today because she was really a bit of a mess.

Kenz woke up this morning though full of life and so I went ahead with her UWTM session. Managed to get them to increase the speed up to 2 MPH and she had 1 x 5 min session and 2 x 6 min sessions. No problems, slept a little bit in the car on the way home but hit the ground running and was feral from the moment we got home. All good signs :). If we are going to continue with UWTM Robby has suggested working up to 30-35 minute at a rate of between 2 and 3 MPH. I am not sure whether its value for money at this stage so will give it a bit of consideration over the weekend.



This afternoon we headed out for another walk and she was back to normal. Leading up front just as she should be.

She has also run up and down the stairs a couple of times this afternoon.

Our other "homework" has been to work on the penguin trick. I have finally managed to fade out the hand touch to get the behavior.

Here is the latest effort from tonights training session -

Underwater Treadmill Session 13 and not so great news...

Will start with the not so great news...

Kenz has had a few issues again with her LH patella luxating over the last weekend. I also had an email from John regarding what I had seen the weekend before in relation to both patellas slipping and Kenz ending up balancing herself on her front limbs.

The current recommendations from John are as follows:

Surgery for the right MPL
4 weeks of rest
recheck exam with radiographs
if all looks good, start slow UWTM at 4 weeks post op
recheck at 6 and 8 weeks

By 8 weeks, if all is doing well, we could do the left MPL at that time.

If only my life would start working out and I could afford to put Kenz through further surgery. Never mind the fact we will be facing 4 months more crate rest for the poor girl.

This afternoon was her usual Monday UWTM session. She happily managed 3 x 5 min sessions at a speed of around 1.9 MPH. She looked great once she settled and didn't seem to show any signs of a problem. Particularly hopeful for me considering she has been showing a slight tendency to short striding in her front end over the last few days.


So we are still taking things a day at a time and hoping we can continue to avoid what is looking like inevitable further surgery.

Underwater Treadmill Session 12

Progress - 3 x 5 min sessions at 1.7 MPH - no real sign of struggling and lots of long stretches of nice solid walking. Fingers crossed she pulls up sound tomorrow. So far so good she even made it up the stairs at bedtime for a piece of steak.

Underwater Treadmill Session 11

Today was underwater treadmill session number 11 for Kenz. I have been a little frustrated with her lack of duration but today was the first time I actually felt we might be getting somewhere with the running of it. Pin took her session today and the first thing he said to me was, was she doing 4 minute sessions yet? My answer was no and with that today's session consisted of 3 x 4 min sessions. Her first session started around 1.5 MPH and then by the third session it had been increased to 1.7 MPH.

She was a little ratty today. Having been home alone for nearly 4 hours without any walk this morning meant she was literally bursting for activity. She settled a bit but there was a lot more double stepping then her previous session. I am not totally sure on what benefit the UWTM is having at this stage but I am a little worried about stopping it in case its helping more then I think it is.

Due to the generosity of a lovely bunch of DOL'ers she still has another 3 sessions remaining after today's.

Tracking Training

This morning we were up at the crack of dawn (well almost) to head up to Monarto for the Tracking Club Training day.

Tracking has mostly been a Ness activity and Kenz has very much taken the back seat and certainly only really run a handful of tracks by comparison. Ness did a nice job of her track 3 and then it was Kenz's turn this morning.

An "unknown" to her tracklayer set a track of around ~600m or so (although may have been less) with 2 corners. The terrain was a little rough - through trees, lots of longish grass, rocks, up-hill.

Kenz use to be a very laid back tracker. She would normally barely put tension in the lead and would almost just trot around on a relatively loose lead. Well today was a totally different ball game. I walked her up to the start and she took off. She was very accurate on the track and didn't quarter very much. Even when at one stage when I couldn't see the next track marker and wasn't 100% sure where the track went and I called out to ask but she was right. She had no issues indicating all her articles.

I have been told there is no reason based on her performance this morning that she shouldn't enter the next trial. Not bad considering it was an unknown tracklayer and track 1 and track 2 both normally use a known tracklayer.

The best bit is she was physically able to manage the task and didn't seem overly bothered by her hind end at any stage. She was a little warm towards the end and pretty ready to find the nearest puddle to cool off and get a drink but she didn't end up wobbly.

Maybe there is hope for her yet and maybe she can play at tracking.

A lovely day to be out and about.

Underwater Treadmill Session 10

Kenz had her tenth underwater treadmill session this afternoon. She is continuing to make improvements and quite comfortably managed her 3 x 3 min 15 second sessions. We were able to up the speed a little from her last session and they were quite happy to increase the speed when she was comfortable. No trying to cheat with her front feet on the edge of the treadmill today so we must have had the speed about right.

Here is the video from today's session -



I have also included a couple of photos taken tonight. Justin from RHVC requested a video of Ness so I had to get the camera out to take the obligatory product posing photo for inclusion and the princess hopped up on the bed waiting for her turn for a photo. To cute not to share :). 

Underwater Treadmill Session 9

This morning Kenz had her ninth UWTM session. Its starting to get a little bit frustrating as it seems to take her about 6 minutes to settle into and lose a lot of the double stepping and then its all over before she has barely started. She was able to have the speed raised marginally today up to 1.4 MPH.

Here is the video from her session this morning -



The last few days have not been great. Friday she managed to luxate both patellas while walking in the front hallway and ended up in a huge amount of pain and a bit sooky. It happened again on at least one occasion over the weekend. Very very frustrating. Further surgery is pretty much an inevitability but John is happy for us to remain doing as we are for the moment to try and improve Kenz's comfort and function.

Underwater Treadmill Session 8 - Progress at last!!!!

Kenz has her eighth UWTM session today and while I was thinking it was (and has been) a bit of a waste of time given she had another 3 sessions already paid for I thought I should really let her use them and we would just accept it probably wasn't going to be hugely beneficial.

Well I am a little surprised when reflecting on todays video. By her third session she actually seemed to really get the hang of it and all the double stepping in her hind end seemed greatly improved. By the time the 3 minutes were up of her final session she was really in the swing of things and moving more fluidly then I have seen to date in the UWTM.

Given she has no meds on board for the moment and given she had a walk this morning before her session she came home from UWTM as bored as anything. There was no sign of her being ready for much of a nap and she was keen as mustard when I took her out again this afternoon for another shortish walk.

Next session is booked for Tuesday and it will be interesting to see how she pulls up in the next day or so without the meds.

Back to see John

After last weeks lameness episode on the UWTM and after further discussion with Robby it was decided that Kenz could really use an appointment with John to see what he felt over the current situation (and to make sure there was nothing else now going on).

Kenz had her appointment with John yesterday morning. She weighed in at 13.1kg which is a good weight for her and on that alone over her previous appointment with him she had potentially regained quite a bit of muscle.

The bad news (but not completely unexpected) is that her RH MPL has continued to deteriorate and is now worse then it was in January. The LH still has a residual grade 1 but he did feel her LH had improved over where she was when she saw him in January. Her front end all checked out fine though with quite good muscle build up and there was nothing else to be found going on anywhere else.

John's thought on the RH is that its potentially popping and then when it disrupts the joint capsule she is showing signs of pain for a few days after. Hence the lingering nature of the episodes. He also felt the stair issue is potentially a behavioral issue rather than a pain issue.

Kenz was fine for the rest of the day post-examination (John was curious to know how she got on over the rest of the day) and we are just back from a walk this morning and she seems to be 100%. She was possibly shifting a small amount of weight off her RH when stationary but nothing overly significant.

Now we know what the lay of the land is tomorrow she is back for more UWTM.

Underwater Treadmill Session 7

Another Thursday, another treadmill session for Kenz. Today was session 7 in the tank. Given she was lame after her last session Pin shortened things quite significantly so she only had 3 x 2.5 min sessions today. He also reduced the speed down to max speed of 1.3 MPH as he felt she was skipping less at the lower speed.

After a discussion with Robby, Kenz is also booked back in to see John next Tuesday morning to get an assessment on the current state of her patellas. He did suggest she could start back with some reverse 2o2o in the meantime though which will give us both something to do.

Underwater Treadmill Session 6

So as is fast becoming our new normal Monday morning routine - Kenz had her sixth underwater treadmill session this morning.

Pin was very receptive to Robby's suggestions and after a few conversations with Robby over the weekend to fine tune things I was looking forward with some degree of optimism to Kenz's session earlier today.

Today's sessions were all at 1.5 MPH as per Robby's advice. We also started her at a lower water level while the tank was filling to try and break the habit of her swimming. First session was "ok". We then got to session two and she started skipping more regularly in her back end. By her third session she was off-loading serious amounts of weight from her right hind and when I walked her out she was struggling to place much weight on her RH at all. It did improve though and on the way back to the car she didn't seem to bad.

Came home and jumped online and when I mentioned the outcome to Robby the advice, coupled with the fact over the last day or two she has had a few more incidental RH lameness issues was pretty much to postpone further UWTM sessions until she has been back to see John and had a reassessment on the stability of the patella. So I have emailed John and sent the video off to him and will wait and see what he has to say.

Kenz is otherwise BORED tonight and firing on all cylinders.

Any way here is the video from today's session:

Underwater Treadmill Session 5

Kenz had her fifth session of underwater treadmill this morning. Pin is more then happy to go ahead with what Robby has suggested should happen for her sessions however I felt given that Pin was running today's that I would at least have her in the life jacket rather than her DT harness because of the attachment point being further back and giving more control over the back end.

Today we focused on varying speed so we could assess what is happening with Kenz's gait. Her first session was run at 1.1 MPH. The second session was run at 1.5 MPH and the third session at 1.3 MPH.

After Kenz's treadmill time Pin asked if he could have a look at the video footage. The consensus is still that she doesn't have great extension in either hind leg so need to increase her ROM exercises ~10-15 times three times a day and consider introducing cavaletti's into her rehab.

Here is today's video -

Underwater Treadmill Session 4

After being an extremely good kid and spending a few hours crated this morning while I was out we headed off for Kenz's fourth UWTM session late this afternoon.

I pushed for a few modifications to her session based on Robby's recommendations including losing the life jacket in favour of a harness and upping the treadmill speed. Well we had mixed success with increasing the treadmill speed. Her first 3 minute session was at 1 MPH. It was then upped to 1.1 MPH and we tried the 1.2 MPH which is what Robby suggested was possibly the minimum speed he would recommend for a BC and Kenz started bunny hopping so it was dropped back to 1.1 MPH.

Hard to know whether she is making any progress. She is getting very bored with resting and not doing much and doesn't really settle the rest of the time. Having said that tonight she is sound asleep dead to the world after her time on the treadmill.

Thursday she has her final session of the first 5 appointments and then I'll have to make a decision as to whether we continue or whether I decide its not helping.

Here is the video from today's session:

Underwater Treadmill Session 3

This morning Kenz had her third UWTM session at the Glenside Vet clinic. Pin asked how she had been getting on and how she had been tolerating her ROM exercises. Today Kenz had 3 sessions of ~ 3 min on the treadmill. She seemed to do better then she has previously.

Upon having a chat to Robby this evening he suggested the treadmill speed is much to slow for her and needs to be more like 1.2-1.5 MPH rather than 0.9 MPH which was the maximum Pin had it set to today.

Any way here is the video from today's session - fingers crossed I can convince them to turn up the speed a little bit for her session on Monday.

Underwater Treadmill Session 2

Earlier today Kenz had her second underwater treadmill session. Kenz's second session was much less awkward then her first session. Maybe because Pin wasn't doing it and one of the vet nurses was. She coped a lot better this time however was potentially sore towards the end as she started shaking. She also had a few moments of 3 legging RH lameness on the way back to the car. Will be interested to see how she gets on at her next session on Thursday.