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 There was interest and now there's a class scheduled with room to spare. In Chilliwack on Sunday Nov 20th. Sign up now as it's quickly approaching and I likely won't be scheduling another class until next March, unless it's a private class.
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 Very cool. Yesterday morning I received a message from Vancouver Sun reporter Glenda Luymes. She saw advertising for my upcoming course here in Chilliwack and was surprised to learn there was such thing as Canine first Aid. And there you have it, a story about K9ABCs and Dogsafe in the Vancouver Sun this morning :) Lets hope that it leads to more taking this great course. Click this link to see the article. Thanks Glenda.
 K9ABCs presents DOGSAFE 101 Canine First Aid Saturday Sept 17th Langley
or Sunday Oct 2nd Chilliwack 8:30-4:30 $149 Limited Space/Location TBA Register online here  In light of the extreme fire risk in many areas now I and you all have some planning to do. Some of us have our disaster kits but how many are ready to "Bug out" with minutes to pack. I'm not but I going to be. Time to make a list. Here's some quick brain storming right now.
Notice on my door that I have two dogs in the house (one deaf), a place for the info of anyone who may rescue the girls in my absence so I can find them. Their leashes, harnesses and essentials in a bag by the door. A key hidden outside so a contact person can access the house. My fireproof safe with essential documents and flash drives with pictures in an easy to put in truck location. camping gear and coolers. Dad's fiddle. I think those are the priorities in a pinch. Any extra time I'll fill up the truck with what I can. Also, don't let the truck go below half a tank of fuel. Are you making a plan? Remember Fort Mac? Well, we have a lot more warning then they did. Let's do what we can to be prepared, for our family.  So hey, all you graduates of Dogsafe, what was one of the first things we covered in class? That's right, prevention. So K9ABCs is now branching out to help you, the pet owner's and industry to help prevent a very real preventable disability that many dogs needlessly have.
We're going to do our best to do this through education and and spreading the knowledge. The knowledge of the DOUBLE MERLE. A lot of you already know about it already, many don't. But there is a huge issue of breeders not educating themselves to the risk and of course those who know and still breed to merles together. Skye is one of the many, many dogs who was at a big disadvantage of being born with one of the two conditions. She is hearing impaired (completely), others are blind and some are both. So yes, Skye is doing very well and you occasionally see dogs doing very well in sports etc with these disabilities. Some go so far as to say that they make the best dogs ever. What you don't see is the number of dogs euthanized because of these disabilities and how many are homeless. The ones you see excelling in their homes only do so because their families have put a tremendous amount of time and dedication into their training. Skye herself was surrendered to a shelter because of the challenges of training a deaf dog. As far as I can tell she really didn't have much training at all, absolutely no volume control, startles very easy at the smallest visual cue, jumps awake from deep sleeps darting around until she see me and knows she's safe. I shocked myself by actually thinking of looking for a better home for her because I've felt so overwhelmed. We've come a long way but we have a long way to go. Granted this is not just because she's deaf, she is an adolescent Catahoula after all. So I've discovered a small non-profit rescue group dedicated to rescuing Double Merle's. Keller's Cause does what they can rehoming them and educating people about the situation. If people put more pressure on breeders to not breed merle's together perhaps it'll make a difference. So check out their site, They've been good enough to share one of their info pamphlets so I can spread their message. I'll be sharing that very soon. Thanks
I know they have dreams so I can only imagine they can have nightmares but can they fear what they haven't experienced?
Skye has been with me for four months now, in fact she's turning one in just a few days. She came to me from a shelter were she was surrendered, supposedly because they lived in a condo and were being fined for her barking and because people accused her of being a pitbull (another can of worms for another day). I don't doubt her barking was an issue in a condo but I'm sure her being a hearing impaired Catahoula Leopard Hound and the challenges that presents in her training and needed exercise level would have been strong factors as well. Not fully understanding what I was getting myself into, and I have a fair bit of resourceful friends and professionals helping me with her, I get this. But I wonder just what she experienced in life before she came home with me that day in February. She was only in the shelter for two days and seemed very happy there with the staff. I realize that being deaf creates an extra need of constant reassurance that she's safe. When she sleeps she's always jumping awake from a deep sleep to run in search of me only then to flop back down in her deep sleep when I've been located. Except when she is in her crate (covered), she is always so happy to go in it and that's her safe den. When she goes in there at night, even if she's still full of energy, she's quiet. I don't hear from her again until morning when she may whine or bark if the bathroom is an urgent necessity. So imagine the wonder last night when after only maybe an hour in her crate, Quincy and I hear Skye barking her loudest, aggressive bark. Quincy started of with her low growl and low volume woof, much like when the racoons were trying to invade our truck while we were in the tent. Waiting to have access at the threat. We waited a short bit to see if Skye would realize that it was a bad dream and settle again. No go. After 30-60 seconds of the barking she was not giving up. Quincy stayed where she was when told as I went to check. I turned on the lights, lifted the kennel cover and poor Skye was glued to the back of her crate in fear. I gently opened the door and smiled, signing her to come. She came and buried her head in my chest and hugged me with her grappling paw, there she stayed for a good minute. After a couple of minutes of cuddling her, keeping her in the crate, she settled again and remained quiet in her crate the rest of the night. All is back to normal this morning, but still I wonder...... Let me start by thanking you, everyone for all your support over the last week and half. It's amazing how quick Quincy went from healthy to, on the edge of surviving and back to her old self (almost). Her staples are being removed next Wednesday and we have an appointment with an Internalist that day to discuss how to best move forward to prevent this from happening again. What happened? Her small intestinal wall was thick with inflammation likely a sort of inflammatory decease but possibly a parasite also. So, the bills may just keep rolling in, sigh. She's my new roof right now lol. I'm just going to throw out an idea in reference to the expense to all of this. A friend suggested one of those fund raising things, go fund me, or something like that. This is not something I could ever do. However, I am going to say that if you'd like to help Quincy and your dog at the same time, please consider registering for one of my Dogsafe Level One classes. I'm looking at hosting a class just for Quincy but until I get that figured out, there is a class in Langley on May 21st. So all of my friends who said in the past that they'd like to take the course, now's a really good time. It was skills I learned in this class that alerted me to Quincy's being in real trouble this time. If those skills can save your dog one day the course will have paid for itself twice. http://www.k9abcs.com/registration-form.html
Double-tap to edit. Those of you following on FB thank you for all your support and prayers. I'd better catch everyone else up though. The whole ordeal started last Saturday night when she started vomiting, by morning that stopped but she was just not right. Refusing water, food and all her favorited treats.
Now I know dogs can get stomach viruses etc and a trip to the vet is rarely warented but when you know your dog as well as I know Q, it was needed. Over the following days she continued to refuse food, drank minimal water, stopped vomiting but started a rectal bleed, X-rays good, lab results all normal leading us to a referral to the Boundary Bay Animal Hospital for an ultrasound. That was yesterday, and although it ruled out a lot it still left us with unanswered questions. So she also went in for surgery late yesterday. Again some questions answered but not all. We now await the results of several biopsies that were taken, we'll likely see them on Monday. Could it be cancer? Yes. Could it be other GI diseases? Yes. Time will hopefully tell. Meanwhile, Quincy remains in the hospital with the same previous symptoms and recovering from surgery. An NG tube was used to feed her today hopefully it will trigger her desire to eat. Tomorrow the doctor and I will discuss the next step. This is a very stressful time and good friends have been key in helping me make some big decisions. Our old vet in Surrey, Dr Daugee was amazingly supportive and informative when I needed a sounding board to help with some big decisions. And Dr' Evan Crawford and all the staff at Boundary Bay are amazing with Quincy. Many of you know how I don't trust many to care for Q as much as I do but I'm very comfortable with her in their care. So tonight I sleep in my own bed for the first time since last Friday, not the floor with Q or a borrowed bed. Skye is now set to go to a day care this week so Q can have the necessary space and attention to recover. If she comes home tomorrow it may be with a feeding tube but she's worth it. Everything else about her indicates that she has a very long life ahead of her. We're not done yet 🙂 |
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