Not again!

We can't believe it. Mendel has been attacked again, this time by a stranger's dog at while Jeff was skijoring at Chestnut Ridge.  His shoulder is bleeding and a large flap of skin has been ripped open.  Further more, why, oh why, do people with unreliable dogs let their dogs loose in the park?  Back to the vet.  The past few months have been regularly punctuated by emergency visits to the vet, starting last fall, when Mendel played with a rabid raccoon.

There are so many reasons why this is frustrating, even infuriating:

1] He just recovered from being "off his feet" with the paw injury.   (See the bootie in the above photo?)  It is really hard to keep a young, athletic dog "quiet", and now we have to start all over.  We have to watch him carefully, so he does not chew the wound or stitches open.  We also have to keep his side clean, without any dressing on the wound.   When we leash walk him, he throws himself on the ground and rolls.  There is no way to protect his wound, when he does this, as he is in an unstoppable fury.  We can't trust him home alone, so I will be curtailing my own activities, and hiring a sitter for the time I am at work.  The inconvenience is enormous.

2] The owner never learned that his dog is dangerous,  AND we got stuck with the $350 vet bill.

3] The big Tug Hill race is next weekend, and he is on restriction for at least 10 days, until he gets the stitches out and is re-examined.  This race has been the focus of our winter, and we already took the time off from work and so on....

4] It is becoming clear that the wound on Mendel's head (from Flora's Thanksgiving attack under the dining table) is going to leave a noticeable, permanent scar on his forehead.  I wish the emergency vet had stitched it, so it would have closed up better.  That injury took a long time to heal, and the scab busted open many times, because no stitches were recommended on the face.  Boo.

Skijor race Chapman Park PA

The "pro" skijors are all competing in races in New Hampshire and Canada this weekend. Its just me and Mendel, a woman with Rocky, who has little interest in leaving the starting line, and a girl on downhill skis (!) with two beautiful racing siberians. Mendel ran well both days, only stopping once to take a poop. The snow coverage was terribly thin, and after spending the past week fine tuning my skis, rocks on the trail left the bottoms of my skis a mess.

In addition to the the skijorers, 2 dog and 4 dog sled teams all ran the same course (about 3 miles) and I can at least take some satisfaction in that of all the dogs that ran this course, no dog ran faster than Mendel! After the race Sonia, Mendel and I went out for a fun ski on the frozen lake. Mendel still had plenty of energy to pull Sonia and we had a good time. Our big worry was the cut on Mendels foot. We ran him with a bootie protecting the cut and happily we got through the weekend without the cut re-opening.

Saturday night we did some tricks and set up a small "agility course" in the hallway of the Warren Holiday Inn. I put trash cans in the 1st floor hallway and used them as jumps and posts to run around. We were having fun and I was impressed with myself in how well I could control Mendel. Then he decided he had enough agility and took off like a rocket toward the main Lobby area. I yelled "DOWN!" and luckily the stars must have been alighed because he listened and performed an "emergency down" before he created chaos in the Holiday Inn Nightclub. I'm also glad that we thought better of the idea of letting Mendel have a late night swim in the Holiday Inn pool. I wouldn't have wanted to get kicked out during our Mendel's first hotel experience .

day 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpvXl97o2xY
day 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igHb0L930Sw&NR=1

Cuts his paw again!

Mendel has cut his paw again.  There was blood in the snow but I don't know how he cut it.  The cut is deep but luckily on the side of the paw and not the pad.  The vet glued it together.  We will see the vet again later this week and tell us if he is fit for the weekend's race.

Last time, he cut it when jumping our 4 foot fence in pursuit of a rabbit.  The first time, there was blood all over our front porch and everywhere he walked. It looked like a murder scene.

First music video

Jeff is very excited about making his very first music video creation! He clipped together a bunch of his skijoring footage and put it carefully to a sled dog song (don't worry; it's just 3 minutes).

Just for fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5BdzB0sAMc

AKC outdoor trial

Mendel and Jeff had their second agility trial of 2007 on a windy and frigid September day. We wished we had brought hats and gloves, if not coats. There were 3 AKC events.

In the first event, Mendel made a disqualifying error in a jump, but thank goodness, he did not leave his tasks or jump on people.

In the second event, Jeff made at least 2 disqualifying errors, but Mendel followed all instructions well. Mendel earned the hearts of the crowd, when he conquered an unexpected equipment failure, and continued on. The "Table" (a 24-inch high platform) was not properly staked into the ground. Mendel took his jump onto it enthusiastically, and this upset the whole contraption, which tipped halfway over, to about a 45-degree angle. Somehow, he managed to stay on it, upright the table and do a beautiful sit, while onlookers cheered.

In the third event, both Jeff AND Mendel did well and qualified for first place in the game, "Fast". It does not mean anything to get first place, as he was the only dog in his height category and experience level, but still, it was a clean run. They got a ribbon, and Mendel earned a toy.

Now there are no more events until next year, but at least Jeff and Mendel got a taste of the trial experience.

First agility trial!

Jeff and Mendel entered 4 Novice-level NADAC runs, or games yesterday. The first two were disasters, with Mendel leaving his course 4 times, to visit bystanders and jump on all four of the judges. The second run was the worst, because instead of doing the final jump, be jumped into the judge's lap, and did not finish the course! Mendel also had trouble with his weave poles. Jeff was really ready to give up.

In the third event, Mendel stayed on course, but he knocked a bar down, so he was disqualified. Actually, they got a 4th place ribbon for it, but that doesn't count. Still, Mendel's weave poles were good.

By the fourth event, Mendel was finally calm enough to concentrate. It was Novice Jumpers, and they got first place in Mendel's height class (20 plus inches). I completely forgot to turn on the video recorder for that one, though.

Canine Academy

Mendel canine academy [agility]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1suhnsn6w