Knightley 10 months old, new sleeping arrangements, hip injections and deposit on car!

10 months old

Well I usually get photos on the day of every month birthday, but today was just a bit too busy! I'll try to get some tomorrow. It seems sooo short between each month birthday, it seems only a week or at the most two since I was saying he was 9 months old. He neeeeeeearly lifted a leg when peeing against a tree today. My boy really is growing up. He also has new sleeping arrangements as of tonight. For the first couple of months of his life with us he slept closed in his crate, then after that we graduated to sleeping in a rather large pen (because he liked chewing things and destroying things a little too much... just loves things in his mouth - still does), and then today graduated to having the kitchen and dog/dining area to himself every night. It's extremely neat tonight, which is certainly important for the first night so he doesn't get into something on the first night and get into a habit after that. The main reason it's perfect in its neatness, and the reason I decided to make the change now, is that we have a rental inspection tomorrow (usually every 6 months, but it will be 9.5 months this time) and I wanted to put away the pen. When I went to check on Knightley after finishing cleaning the bathrooms to a soft gleam (! or trying, as far as rental houses can be pushed towards gleaming!) he was lying virtually in the middle of the floor, but I kind of expect him to be in his crate when we come out in the morning.... that is usually where he is in the morning.

It's just totally amazing how fast he has grown up. People who meet him when we are doing our public access training no longer recognise him as a puppy, although they often realise he is on the young side. When I tell them he is nearly 10 months old they are amazed how big he is (I don't really think he is big! compared to some other breeds he is rather medium sized!) and how well behaved he is for a puppy. If only they could see him when he grabs some contraband!! Still, he is a darling pup. Only two more months and we'll be getting hip x-rays which will tell us his future with me and whether he can truly be a working assistance dog. Unfortunately Golden Retrievers have quite bad hips, and while I am doing what I can to end up with good hips on Knightley, you can never know.

Anyway, today I had a couple of injections into my 'bad' hip, my right hip. Last time I had this done I was virtually immobile for a week.... I woke up the day after the injections and could barely move my leg. The injections were painful today, and they also did a nerve block for the first time, so we'll see what happens there.... but if they help this time, it'll be worth it. I expected to barely be able to clean the house tonight because of my hip but it has been ok, as long as I don't stay still for too long because then I start to seize up. It could be very bad tomorrow. I got a call from the place I work/volunteer and they are begging me to come in tomorrow as there has been a crisis and we have an important event coming up on the weekend. Rather stupidly I said yes, so I am quite sure I will need a wheelchair. It isn't going to be a very wheelchair friendly office, but I'll cope. I find it very hard to say no when people actually *want* me. It is something I have to work on - saying no for the sake of my health.

In case your missed the photo in my last blog post, our new
car! Plenty of room for dog face (my loving name for Knightley!)
in the wagon part. The car is in good nick although I would have
rathered a few less kms on the clock, but we don't expect it to last
forever - just until my hubby gets some well deserved raises at
work over the next couple of years! The car is exactly what we
wanted though. Definitely want to take it on a weekend away!

After the hip injections hubby and I and my parents went to the other side of town to check out the car we were interested in again (a used car, see previous post for details). To cut a long story short, we have put a deposit on it, and are buying it!!! It's 'our' first car, and has plenty of room for passengers, and Knightley too as it's a stationwagon. It's fitted out for a roof-rack as well, so we may look into that too for flexibility. Anyway, it has a few easily fixed minor issues, so we will be picking it up on Thursday arvo (Monday night now) when everything is fixed. The only problem is because it's a stationwagon, to go in the wagon part Knightley will have to really jump and he is *SOOO* bad at jumping lol. He can't jump into the back seat of a normal sedan - he sort of pulls himself up. I know it's partly a puppy thing... but hopefully he will learn to jump soon. He actually can jump quite well when he wants to, so we just have to harness that. Maybe big chunks of beef heart (his favourite) in the back after fasting him for a day!

Speaking of fasting for a day.... I mentioned in my last post that Knightley had had a bad tummy. I decided to fast him for a day to let his stomach settle down. It's always a good move to make, it means that any last diarrhea can make its way out and it also means you won't irritate the stomach again before it's ready. Bone if good to stop the runs, so I wanted to feed chicken+bone with large percentages of bone tonight, but the silly hubby forgot to get the chicken wings I asked him to, and we have no chicken in the freezer. He did however get a nice cheap pork leg roast - so Knightley got a smallish serving of that with the leg bones. Leg bones of the larger ruminants - cow, deer etc are not safe to raw feed as they can break your dogs teeth. However, small animals like rabbit and chicken are absolutely fine, and so is everything up to pig and sheep. Try to cut down on fat when your dog's stomach is upset too, just feed chicken or turkey. If you can't feed those, pork is the next best choice. My poor boy was obviously very hungry, and like usual it was great to see him happily gnawing and crunching away, but we'll see how his stomach is tomorrow.

Anyway, tomorrow I need to get up early to do some finishes to the house, so it's sleep time for me. Cross fingers for me that I can actually walk! Wish I could take Knightley to the office already for his retrieve, dropping things in a wheelchair is going to the awkward as I'm usually with a family member when I'm in the chair......

Knightley needs practice working outside, nice walk, new (used) car and NEED A WEEKEND AWAY!

9 months 4 weeks 1 day old


Well it has been quite a busy weekend and I am terribly tired. Hubby and I went to the shopping mall yesterday and took Knightley. We needed a few bits and pieces, and hubby needed to swap a bracelet he'd got for me for our anniversary for a smaller size (obviously he thinks I have fat wrists!). Knightley did very nicely and got lots of attention as usual. We practiced our new 'flat' - the new cue for down. It was great, no delay, obeyed on every cue with no problems after starting with a bit of shaping. It's looking like I am going to have a solid down, hopefully for Knightley's whole life. Now time to start proofing it with even more distractions.

We then went and looked at some used cars. Our current car is getting pretty old and needs replacing but our finances aren't yet at the stage where we can buy a brand new car. So we looked around, found a possibility or two, but decided that there were some more cars across town we wanted to look at. I was absolutely exhausted after walking around a shopping mall and then a bunch of car lots. Knightley had been pretty well behaved up until then but as my attention was going and I was walking slower and slower he started misbehaving a bit. Of course that is the time I want him to step up and become a solid unmovable object! So he really did the opposite unfortunately and lost his focus. Last weekend when he helped me through my migraine he did great and focused despite me completely off in la-la pain land. However this time was outside, and Knightley doesn't focus well outside at all. So while it was very unfortunate he couldn't help me when I needed it, it shows me what I need to focus on. He can obviously be trusted a little to keep it together inside when I am not able to focus myself, but outside is another matter entirely.

Knightley meeting a lovely older female Golden on our walk
today. Knightley pretty much loses his mind when he meets
other dogs - he just loves them so much!

He woke up with a bit of a bad tummy this morning, so hubby and I took him for a good wandering walk where he could empty his poor tummy if need be. After the horrible weather earlier this week there was a good stream of water flowing in the storm water drain that runs by our house, and it's pretty good and clean so I let Knightley romp in it. We met another Golden Retriever on our walk today, a 12 year old female. Knightley ran around her like an idiot, trying to get her to play with him... trying and failing really. It made me realise that Knightley really is just about fully grown in size, although he has an awful lot of coat growing to go!!

My very happy rather wet Knightley.

He absolutely loves these walks. Since winter has come along it gets dark too quickly to get to the dog park more than once or twice a week. So I bought a flexi type leash (a leash that retracts and goes up to 5 metres in length) so that we could have walks along grassy areas and he could run around sniffing and just generally having a ball. Unfortunately I can't yet trust his recall there as it's a place where lots of other people walk their dogs, cycle, and so on.... and Knightley just loves people and dogs far too much. One day we'll get there. I don't approve of flexi leashes anywhere but where they will cause no possibility of harm to people when extending or retracting. As the lines even for a big dog are quite thin, they can even cut flesh when extending or retracting. If you only ever use the retractable/extending aspect of the leash when there are no people around you, and keep the leash locked in a fixed position of 180cm (6 foot) or less at all other times I think they can be useful. It certainly gives him the chance to get a bit of exercise but I can still walk very slowly. They can be especially valuable tools for those with service dogs who are permanently in a wheelchair, as they need many different lengths of leash throughout the course of a day.

Dashing through storm water at a breakneck pace. He's definitely
a water dog!

Speaking of wheelchairs, I have hip injections tomorrow that are supposedly meant to help my poor hip but past experience leads me to expect a week of virtual immobility. Whether after the tissue damage has healed there will be some temporary improvement is anyone's guess really. I'll be relying on Knightley's retrieve a whole bunch. I also don't want to skip my work on Thursday/Friday but certainly by Thursday I don't expect to be all that mobile. I could use my walker I guess but I am inclined to take my wheelchair. It's a heavy steel cheap thing I got when I first got sick but it's comfortable at least. I've been wanting to get a good quality lightweight wheelchair for a while now, but to get funding assistance from the government I need to see an occupational therapist, and I know to see the hospital ones the waiting list is pretty long. I've been thinking about another option so I may look into it. Whenever I am flaring and hubby and I need to go out, we take the chair.... but it is so heavy I can barely push it myself, especially if I am particularly sick. I'd also like the option of having Knightley help me with the movement of a wheelchair, in which case I should be minimising weight and resistance as much as possible.

A rather blurry photo of what we hope is our new car as of
tomorrow. LOTS of room for our big boy in the back!

Anyway, after our walk today Knightley's tummy seemed better, so we decided to take him with us to check out the cars over the other side of town. The big news is we think we have found ourselves a new (used) car! We took it for a test drive, and there were a couple of electrical problems, but if they are fixed to our satisfaction then we will go ahead with it. It's a stationwagon for a couple of different reasons, one of which that Knightley can go in the boot/wagon bit and get lots of room. It is pretty much exactly what we want, so we're going back tomorrow with a couple of other people to make a final decision. Unfortunately it will be after the local anesthetic injection from injecting my hips wears off and I'll be in a bad way... but it's just the way the world works out!

I've been wanting a holiday for a while now, but the state of our current car (not great, needs a lot of maintenance to be completely sound) has put me off a bit. However I think a new (used) car needs to bond with us and have a trip down to the coast! There's a pet friendly farm (with four very friendly border collies apparently) that has cabins and rooms, which I've been wanting to visit for many months that looks wonderful. I really need to get away - I haven't left Canberra since we travelled around temperament testing puppies in order to find Knightley. I wouldn't really call that a holiday though, and before that I left Canberra for my wedding a whole year ago in England........ it's definitely time for a weekend away!!

So, a very long very tiring weekend with several painful days to come. I need to get a semi-early night, so I'll be off now. *waves byebye*

Tiring but great Easter weekend, Knightley's a star!

8 months 2 weeks old


So the Easter weekend ended up a great experience for Knightley. As I mentioned in my last post, I had intended to take him to the Folk Festival I was attending only on Easter Monday, but instead took him for a couple of hours on both Saturday and Sunday... and did indeed take him again on Monday as he was full of beans on Monday morning and definitely raring to go. There were so many firsts he experienced at the Festival.  By the end of Monday applause didn't even wake him up during a performance, even though the first time he heard applause he looked around, rather shocked, trying to see where the noise was coming from!

We did have some trouble with flies. He really doesn't like them buzzing around his head (they don't bite, just so you know!) and can't really stop himself from snapping at them - and he caught more than one! I can see this becoming a problem in his working life, as we do have a lot of flies here in Australia, although they do drop off in the cooler months. With this in mind I asked for help on the assistancedogs Yahoo Group I am on and got some good suggestions for dealing with fly problems, so we'll see how that goes. We've had problems with them before at places like outdoor cafes, so I'm sure they will remain a problem during his working life.

One really great thing that happened was I managed to get in some training with the St John Ambulance (SJA) people at the Festival. They are volunteers doing the medical care for all the people attending, and there were quite a few volunteers there, about eight. I read a story recently on the assistancedogs Group I just mentioned about a person with an assistance dog who fell down a steep hill and broke her arm badly. The ambulance team responding tried to get close and separate her and her dog so they could give emergency care, but the dog had got very distressed due to its owners pain and refused to let anyone close let alone go with the paramedics. It got quite vicious, and it had *never* been vicious before.

So I made it a priority for my last day at the Festival to leave Knightley with the SJA people for a minute or so with treats so that he would get that association of medical smells, uniforms and friendly people. They were a bit busy with people when I first approached them, so they asked if I could wait five minutes or so... and then I came back. All of them gathered around and after a brief explanation I left Knightley with them and went around the side of their tent well out of earshot. It felt very strange to leave him and I felt naked and anxious that he would be happy with them. Upon my return he seemed relaxed and happy enough to be with them. Apparently he heard my crutch on the ground as I came back and was definitely waiting for me to appear! Then one of the volunteers said he edited their local newsletter and asked if I would mind having a photo of me and Knightley taken with one of their members for the newsletter. So here we are on Festival day! Knightley is a star!

Knightley, me and a St John Ambulance volunteer medic at the National
Folk Festival here in Canberra.

Now all the excitement of the last couple of weeks is over I think we are just going to take it nice and easy for the next while. I am very very sore after all the walking I did with Knightley during the Festival, even though I spent a good part of the Festival in the wheelchair. I'm actually looking at getting a new wheelchair because I got my current one when I'd only been unwell for a short while and just went for a cheap option. Now I'm more interested in a higher quality, lighter option that Knightley and I could use together and that he could pull a bit when he is fully grown and his joint are completely fused.

We had a good retrieve session last night. Knightley picked up sneakers, sandals, paper, plastic lids, his leash, harness and my keys and more that I can't remember. I tried to get Knightley to put his mouth at least on my crutches as a precursor to lifting them up so I can get a hold of them, but I've discovered he is scared of them a bit!! So I have some work to do on counter conditioning so as to make him not afraid of them. I did get him to bop them with his nose, but he was still reluctant... so I think I will back up a step or two and get him more comfortable.

That's all for me now, time to actually do something today!