Saturday, July 12, 2008

The Ultimate Tease?


Yesterday, Stephen was sweet and took Reagan on a hike with his hounds to tire her out for me. She didn't look tired when she arrived home, but once she settled in she didn't move the rest of the evening. It was wonderful to not be chased from room to room and to know she finally had gotten plenty of exercise for one day. That afternoon, I had noticed that more of Travis' personality was showing and his energy level was better. While they were away, I took Travis and Katie out in the front yard to sniff around and I groomed them like little horses. Back inside, Travis was silly on his bed and he wanted to wrestle some. I went to bed that night feeling the effects of another upside.






Today, I started out by taking one of Katie's antibiotics instead of mine. With 5 different bottles of antibiotics and countless other supplements, you can understand the confusion, right? :-) But dare I say Travis is having a FANTASTIC DAY!!! . His personality and energy has just come flooding back. Today I got him out of the house and took him to my agility field. I handed him his bumper to see what he'd do and he ran 3 laps. He then brought me the bumper a couple of times. I just traded him a treat and then gave the bumper back to him, so he could lope around some more. After a few minutes, I stopped him and went into my parents' house. The last time I let Travis run at all, he was exhausted afterwards. Well, Travis laid on one of the dog beds and did his silly routine of rolling around and then even playing with me some. He also had his eye on the rawhide their dog had dropped. He was just so alert and charming. So then we got home. I felt the big test would be to see how exhausted Travis would be after a busy morning. He wasn't. All the other dogs had crashed, but Travis and Reagan continued to be underfoot and following me around. He even trotted through the house. I finally had to gate Travis into the bedroom so he'd have to take a nap. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with today. I hope its not just a big teaser. This really is such a huge, dramatic difference though. I think he has even gained some weight. These pictures are from yesterday and today.




I also am starting to feed chicken backs again. He was so happy to have one last night. I'm going to substitute 2 of his meals for a chicken back. Maybe he decided that life is worth living if he was going to eat chicken backs again! Hey, I'll do anything!