2010 - NOT A GOOD YEAR

The year started off great. I was taking Sophie to obedience training and enjoying working with her. 

Ted said Sophie has a great drive desire, in other words obsessed with playing ball, Frisbee, stick catching and any other object which can be thrown. He wanted me to try her at Schutzund training. At the time I had no idea what this was.  He asked me to come and watch one of the working groups to see if I would be interested in working with Sophie in this field.

The following Thursday I meet with the Schutzund group to see how it was done. I was very impressed with what I saw the other dogs doing and new instantly Sophie would be great at it. I couldn't wait to work with Sophie. I was so excited about it, I called my sisters Joe Feeney and Mariah (these are their nick names from childhood) to tell them all about it. Mariah like myself also loves German Shepherds.


Life was great, I was doing something with my dog which I absolutely enjoyed. I was looking forward to competing with her in the Schutzund trials the first week of October. We had ten months to learn the routines. I worked with her everyday. Some days weren't as good as others but, hey, it's a work in progress.

Then suddenly and unexpectedly my mother passed away in February. She had been sick for a while but this knocked the wind out of my brother, sisters and myself. Our world had literally been turned upside down. Now I was going to Honolulu at least once a month for a few days or even a week to help my siblings with my mothers house.

When I got home Ginger, Jenny, Butch and Sophie were always happy to see me. I would let all of them in the house so they could be by me.  It's amazing how much an animal can relive stress.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jenny, Butch and Sophie. Ginger would have no part in taking a picture with them.






 Unfortunately, some days I was just too drained physically and emotionally drained to work with Sophie, who paid the price and it showed in class. Ted was very understanding, he would say "at least try and work with her if only for five minutes each day". 

In May, Butch start to have seizures. I rushed him to the vet who put him on phenobarbital. Which seemed to be helping. One day after a bad seizures, he had a hard time walking. I took him to the vet only to find out he had broken his back in several places. I asked the vet if we should put him down, to my amazement he said "No, he looks happy, lets wait and see"  I went home with more medication which seemed to help. Over the summer he had gotten better and was almost back to his old self. The only thing he couldn't really do anymore was play with Sophie.


All the while I was working with Sophie trying to get the Schutzund routine down. Some days were great, others not so great. Ted would give me instruction on how to do something and I would hear it backwards. For example, if  he told me to have Sophie heal then turn left, I would turn right. I can only imagine how frustrated he must get with me.


Sophie and I were missing two to four sessions a month with me going out of town. We still managed to learn most of the routine. Although, I had been missing class and not working with her constantly. We would not be competing in the trials this year.


Mr. Aloha and I went to Honolulu in September for almost a week. We had been there for three days when we got a phone call from our house sitter saying Butch was have seizures again. I said I would call the vet, would he be willing to take him down. Of course he did. That was a Sunday, I talked to the Vet assistant once Butch was there. He said he was having seizure after seizure. They upped his medication and put him on Valium to keep him sedated. We were not scheduled to go home until Tuesday. I called three more times on Sunday. Monday rolled around I called, he was not doing any better. Mr. Aloha and I decide we would try to get a flight out if we could that day or early the next. All the flights were booked, we wouldn't get home until late Tuesday night, of course the vet was closed. We went down first thing Wednesday morning already having made up our minds to put him down. The vet called us in the room, we were expecting Butch to be in there. He had passed away the night before, I was so upset I went outside leaving my husband and his daughter to deal with it.

Butch in better days

Jenny and Sophie didn't seem to be upset he was gone. Ginger on the other hand pined for him for quite a while. The two of them were always cuddled together. I was getting worried about her, she had stopped eating for about a week, then she started eating a little. Eventually she got back to her ole self and was eating good again. As for Mr. Aloha and myself, we took it hard. It just wasn't the same with out Butch bouncing around, happily greeting us when we got home. He was the most lovable, sweetest and gentle dog. In October I took Mr. Aloha to look at boxer puppies, it was just too soon for home. 

Ginger & Butch sleeping together

 Butch had disappeared for four days. This is the day he came home. Ginger loved him so much.

Ginger at the beach

 

Above a video of the walking/sit

Shutzund I was having a difficult time with Sophie, the walking/down. You have your dog heal at your side while in motion you give the command sit, which she did great. You leave your dogs side walk about 15 paces away, walk back to your dog give the heal command and continue down the field. You then give your dog the down command. For some reason Sophie would only sit. Ted of course corrected me, he told me to go home and practice with her. He said tell her down, as soon as she's in the down position say yes and throw the ball. I practice this with her so much, the next time I did this routine, I said sit and she went down, Ugh! Ted was happy of course, it was clear I had been working with her. I was a very happy camper!