Monday, October 22, 2007

Travis is an idiot!

Or maybe I am. On Friday night, he ripped out the 3 staples on the inside of his elbow. I'm probably a bad mom for not taking him to the ER clinic on Saturday to have it redone, but I'm just tired of all my money going to vets. Luckily, the wound is about the size of a dime and to be honest if he came home with the same mark on him, I probably wouldn't take him to the vet for it anyway. I tend to treat at home and see what happens. So far so good, although he is licking it when he is crated, so he is having to wear a muzzle (which is what I should have done to begin with). I'm sure it will be a scar, but it isn't in an obviously place.

Without Katie in the yard, Travis is a bit much for the others to handle. Katie would play with him on her terms, ignore him when need be, and beat him up if he was asking for it. She kind of kept him from being too much of a jerk. Hopefully, she will be back to her old tricks soon. I have found that the towel around the waist is very helpful in keeping her from bolting to the end of the leash or spinning on these cool, fall days. She would definitely like to give it a try, but I think she would probably end up on the ground if I let her.

Definitely, no soreness from swimming. We actually took her for a bit of a hike later that afternoon. It was slow going, but I think it was good for her to negotiate uneven ground. On Sunday, I walked her over poles on the ground, walked up and down some hills, climbed some stairs, and practiced tight sits. For the sits, I would stand behind her with my feet on the either side of her back feet which forced her to keep them underneath herself rather than straighten out the left one and let the right leg do all of the work. She didn't quite understand me telling her to sit from behind, but she figured it out and she was able to do it.