vikingdobermans.com Blog

Zelda sporting her basket muzzle…

As promised in my last post, here is a picture of Zelda sporting her basket muzzle.  Sadly after four weeks of leaving her cast alone, she changed course and decided destuffing the cast of its cast padding was the way to go and entertaining to boot….   She tolerates the basket muzzle and it is easier on her than other methods of keeping her teeth and tongue away from her cast….

Here she is asleep without the muzzle… she is still very good at leaving it alone when I’m around, even if I’m not in the same room with her….

And me blogging . 

I had to move the computer downstairs so Zelda would not feel left out.  I only allow her to go up the stairs at bedtime and back down each morning.  The rest of the time the babygate blocks the stairs…. As it is, I walk next to her going up and coming down, reminding her that she is to take the stairs ONE at a time… it is not the 50 yard dash up and down in an attempt to beat Charlie Brown to the top or bottom of the stairs!!!

Last night I had to get the water pistol out as the guys wanted to play chase, dash and get me if you can around the first floor…. cushions from the couch go a-flying and anything not nailed down is apt to end up somewhere on the floor…. luckily they both respect the water pistol…

Another weekend with too much snow on the ground

No training     Still too much snow on the ground…  dangerous to try and do protection until the ground is clear.  Snow makes tracking impossible, unless you want to sink to your knees with every step…  and I’m too lazy to train much in my living room, although we “play” at some stuff.  Mostly we are at a standstill (hopefully a standstill rather than going backwards).  At least, as I’m often told, no training is better than poor training!  And training under these conditions would be poor training!

Zelda finally decided four weeks of a cast was enough and Tuesday during the day (while I was at work), she “destuffed” her cast–all the cast padding she could reach was pulled out of her cast and about mid-way down her cast, when she could no longer get the padding out, she just soaked the remaining padding…  I came home from work to find a living room filled with wet, soggy padding and Zelda with her leg sticking out of the cast with nothing between it and the hard cast but air…

Packed her and Charlie Brown into the car and went to my friends’ house for dinner :-) and to have my friend, an orthopedic surgeon at Shock Trauma, remove her cast and the remaining padding and re-do everything…  good as new.   I got a great dinner and got to hold Evan, my friends’ baby (what a cutie!) and Andy got to fix my girl up, with help from Kate.  Andy said if his human patients were as good as Zelda, his job would be much easier…  Zelda did not move a muscle while he redid her padding and cast…  I told Andy I “owed” him and he said not to worry, I couldn’t afford him anyway…  Thank goodness for great friends!  Zelda goes to her orthopedic vet on the 25th to have her cast redone and to keep her out of trouble and to keep me from having to continue to beg favors, Zelda is now sporting a basket muzzle during the day while I’m at work…  Picture to follow soon….

Charlie is finally getting a tad of exercise as the snow melts and I can take him into the fields by my house.  Zelda does not get to tag along on those walks, too slippery, too wet, too far….  but she does get her outings’ with her home-made bootie to keep her foot/cast dry.  So far, I’ve been very successful in keeping her cast dry when we go out for her walks/potty breaks.

Only 6 more weeks to go with the cast.  You can hear both Zelda and me let out an auditable sigh on that note.

Tubing: Baltimore Style–check the video and Happy V-Day

OK, tomorrow I go back to work and cabin fever will continue to affect the dogs since the amount of snow makes walking any distance a problem… only one small trail in the woods, with lots of untrained dogs on it and nowhere to go to get away from them… so I am very careful when taking Charlie Brown for his walks.   They are usually short and no running and chasing because there is no where to run and chase!  It is an injury waiting to happen.  Zelda is still restricted due to her cast…Here she is with her cast covered in plastic bags and duck tape!  I’m determined she will not get her cast wet!

This afternoon, I went for a walk with a neighbor (Keith) and his dog (Lily) and Keith took along his tube…..  he and the neighborhood kids had been working on the perfect downhill tube run… and we went and I gave it a try (I had been earlier in the weekend, but this was the first time with Charlie and the run was longer and faster)!

Click on link: 

 Lyn and Charlie Brown\’s Most Excellent Tube Adventure

 Home with dogs asleep, dinner roasting in the oven and a few things left to do before the day ends.  The snow has been an adventure of its own and I’m ready for this adventure to end…. someone said more snow tomorrow, but it is in the
nuisance category…. 

I’m hoping we finally get back to training with the club next weekend and wonder if we will be ready for our next title this summer….. at this rate, it is in the “seat of your pants” category…. we will see…

Happy V-day to all…

Charlie offers his Momma a rose for Valentine's Day

More snow in the works for later today and tomorrow…

Where and when is SPRING……???????

Click on links to view videos…. 

Back Yard.. Feb 8 2010

Charlie and Zellie enjoying the neighbor’s snow tunnel

Snow Tunnel

Another storm….. yike! Click on links to watch videos :-)

I’m sore from shoveling…. and shoveling… and we are suppose to get another snow storm tomorrow…. yike!

But some of it was fun…

Lyn jumps…

and Charlie bounces his way through the snow

the path by my house…