Movie Photos and Video - Part 1

As you know, Seven is very famous after being the star greyhound in "Pain and Gain". Okay, so no one has recognized her in public yet, but I am sure it is coming. Ha! I had promised to post the videos and photos that Seven's entourage and I took behind the scenes once the movie was out.  I am behind in doing that, but better late than never, right?

I have already posted about our experience in great detail so I am going to assume that you have read it or will read it if you want to know a lot more.  Click Here and start at the bottom to go in chronological order.

These photos are from the first day of filming at Flagler Dog Track where we filmed Seven's last scene of returning to the track and her first scene when "Adrian Doorbal" steals her.

In Seven's first scene, we worked with Jeff Owings.  He has done numerous commercials and having a few lines in "Pain and Gain" was a big deal for him.  He was thrilled Stefanie and I had taken so many pictures and videos of the work at Flagler track.  I sent them to him so he could include them in his portfolio.

Jeff was there early.  Like us, he knew very little about the scene.  We knew her name was "Tasty Reuben" and that she would have to come to him.  So we practiced doing stand stays and recalls in our spare time.

We then met Michael Bay and the make up artist to have the fake blood applied.  It was funny at how careful and painstaking the application was in the first week of filming.  Bay gave his input and made sure she looked just right.  At a later date, I had to remind Bay that Seven should be covered in blood when we filmed the scene of her escaping the house and murder scene.

Seven thought the fake blood tasted good.  It was sugar based so it was edible.

Vaseline, I think, and powder was used to make her look a wet and dirty.

In Seven's first scene filmed (her last scene in the movie), she had to do a stand stay on the race track and then would run to Jeff when he said Reuben.

Seven was fantastic and repeated this scene over and over again in the hot sun.  I think it may have been 10-15 times and she only broke one of her stays.  She waited for her new "Reuben" cue all the other times.

No time was given to Seven to adjust, to meet the crew, or get used to the cameras. I guess if we had had problems, they would have been forced to give us time, but I was very proud that Seven could just walk onto her first movie set and own it.... and honestly, I knew she would.

Phil, the animal talent agent, handled Seven during the stays.  I stayed closer to the actor so Seven would not try to turn around and look for me.  As you can see, Phil is a little hard of hearing. I don't know about you, but if I was hard of hearing, I would keep eye contact with those that are going to be giving instructions.  It was a bit frustrating.

Another take:

And despite all of the takes and standing in the sun, Seven ran to Jeff every time like it was the first time.

But she did start to get hot so I called for an umbrella so I could shade her.  About a minute later, a crew member comes racing back with an umbrella. Awesome.

After a few more takes, I was getting concerned that Seven was getting too hot and I was about to pull the plug on filming.... they had to have what they wanted by now.... at least in my opinion. Ha! But we finished up soon after and there was no need.

And then Seven was bathed by five people, I think.  I thought Seven might be tired for the first time in her life, but she was fresh as a daisy after the bath and ready to do it all again.

Michael Bay (the guy in white) wanted to take pictures of Seven in her racing silk.  He wanted her to sit and I explained that would actually look funny since racing greyhounds don't typically sit.  Phil was eager to keep his hands on Seven and I understand his need to look necessary and crucial, but I am the owner, trainer, and handler of Seven. As I positioned her for a stand stay, he would interfere. I finally told him "I've got this." and Anthony Mackie later told me that was when he knew I was cool.

In the photo below, left to right, is Phil, Anthony, and Romaine the props guy.  And then the guy just above me and Bay in the black polo shirt and sunglasses, he was the only person to remember Seven's real name... of course, I don't know his name. Whoops!  He was probably an assistant director or producer.

A photo of Seven in her racing silks can be seen as a framed photo on "Victor's" desk (Tony Shalhoub) when Dwayne Johnson's character is searching his office.  I noticed that on my third viewing of the movie.

Stefanie, Seven, and I got acquainted with Anthony Mackie.  He complained about how big Seven was and called us phat Georgia girls. We learned later that phat was a compliment.  Once again, I lost control of Seven to Phil.

In the second scene (Seven's first scene in the movie), she is stolen by "Adrian Doorbal". I put meatballs in Anthony's pockets so he could make friends with Seven and Phil explained how best to carry her.  Seven looked very comfortable with him, but then who wouldn't want to be carried around by a handsome movie star.

The scene was repeated a number of  times and Phil handled her the entire time... irritating.  That was the last time.

We were wrapped for the day.  Stefanie and I asked for pictures with Anthony.  Since he was funny and joking with us, I said I wanted a picture with him just in case he became famous one day.

A big thanks to Stefanie who took most of these photos and videos.

Girls Gone Wild

On one of our favorite hikes that we try to do once or twice a week, there is a little beach spot on the lake. Especially in the hot summer, the beach spot is about 2.5 miles into a nice long loop and gives the girls a chance to cool off.  Maddie especially enjoys it, but she even got Riley and Seven to be a bit silly also.

Best Agility Day Ever!

Recently, we competed in Nashville for four days and the first day was one of my Best Agility Days Ever! First of all, Seven finally broke free from her four month long Double Q Curse and earned her 15th double qualifier (we need 20). On top of that, Riley earned her 22nd double qualifier!  I have never been able to double qualify both hounds in the same day so I was very excited about my first Double Double Q.

Here are those runs.  I have ordered a new video camera so I am  hoping my agility videos will be better going forward.  You can see that some of it is out of focus.  Here is Seven:

Here is Riley:

And then if that was not already good enough, I entered Maddie into the match that evening. A match is a chance to practice the obstacles in a trial setting. If you have an issue during the competition (weave pole problems or missed contacts, for example), it is an opportunity to purchase a short period of time to practice. It is also great for young dogs that have never trialed to get into the ring at one of their future trials.

Maddie, of course, is not old enough and has not had enough training to run an agility course, but I thought it was a nice opportunity to get her into the ring, jump a few jumps, and tug with me. Well, she was fantastic. We did some of our tight turn work over a couple of tiny jumps. Despite all the people and dogs that were ringside, I felt like I had her undivided attention. We attempted a tunnel at the far end of the ring that she refuses.  What I like about situation was that it was a moment of stress for Maddie.  You can see her bounce a little and get excited, but she stayed with me.  It was a perfect excuse to take off running (zoomies are often a sign of stress), but she did not. So I was very pleased that she was so attentive, tugged great, handled a stressful moment like a big girl, and had fun!

The next day fell flat.  Only one clean run out of four. BUT THEN another Double Double Q on Day 3! My goal is always for each Master level dog to Double Q once at each trial, but for them to each to accomplish it twice had me feeling really spoiled.  Here is Seven:

And Riley:

And then on the last day, we pulled off another clean run out of four.  No complaints though.  Day 1 and Day 3 way over shadowed the lows of Day 2 and Day 4.

Wrist Management

As you know, Seven has some problems with an arthritic carpal joint.  Both wrists have limited flexibility, but the left one can only bend about 90 degrees.

Having flexible carpal joints is not crucial to performance because they do not flex it this much when they run and jump.  But it tells you that there is arthritis and scar tissue effecting the joint which can cause pain and thus affect performance.

I am not sure what caused Seven's arthritis as she only raced 21 times and nothing on her race record suggests that she was injured.  She could have been injured in training or on the farm.  She also might be genetically prone to developing arthritis.  It has only been this last year that Seven has been having problems so it might simply be the wear and tear from training, racing, agility, and life in general that has caused these arthritic changes over time.

So in the last year, Seven has had episodes of being acutely lame for about 5 minutes once or twice a week.  Sometimes it happens when she is playing with Maddie and makes a sudden changes in direction.  Sometimes it happens if I give her a late cue in agility and she does a surprise, hard left turn.  It seems to be similar to a twisted ankle that hurts for a few minutes, but you then walk out of it.  Many times she can return to what she is doing within a few minutes.  I honestly have never seen anything like it.  The rehab vet and I have surmised that it is probably a little bit of scar tissue being torn when she torques the joint.

With the help of an orthopedic specialist and a veterinary rehab specialist, I believe we have developed a good system of wrist management to minimize problems and maintain Seven.  Here is what I do:

I have mostly eliminated playing fetch and free running as exercise for Seven.  I allow her to wrestle with Maddie in our small potty yard or in the house, but I carefully supervise and step in if necessary.  Although Seven finds it quite boring, we are doing a lot more 3 to 5 mile hikes with lots of hills.  We also do lots of work on the balance discs and the peanut (core strengthening).  And thankfully, agility seems to be the best way to allow Seven to run and play, but in a controlled manner.

Another way I allow Seven to run in a controlled way, is to leave her in a stand stay on a stretch of land with good footing.  I run to the other end and then call her to me.  When she reaches me, I have her circle around behind me... to the right, or course.  We repeat this several times, back and forth. 

Next, I believe that the most important thing I do is joint rotation, flexion, and traction.  Doing so helps to warm up the joint and to loosen the scar tissue and adhesions that make it so stiff.  I rotate the wrist as if I was pedaling a bike with my hands.  Traction is pulling the joint surface apart.  The carpal joint has little joint fluid so pulling the joint helps to open it up and pull fluid in.  Then a little compression, but not much since she compresses the joint every time she puts weight on it.  Here is a video of the routine and we do it many, many times a day.

I do put a good amount of pressure on the the joint, but I never force it or cause her pain.

I also have Seven on Adequan.  The hubby and I do the injections on the first of each month.  Adequan helps to restore synovial fluid, inhibit destructive enzymes, stimulate cartilage repair, and reverse degenerative joint disease (yep, I Googled, copied, and pasted that).

We also tried a platelet rich plasma injection directly into the joint.  The idea is that when an injury occurs, platelets concentrate at the site to aid healing.  So the orthopedic specialist simply pulled platelets from Seven's blood and injected them into the problem joint.  At first I thought it was not working.  There was a 3 week period where we had a lameness episode about once a week, so it appeared to me that we were falling back into the same routine.  But then suddenly they stopped again. So in the 50 days prior to the PRP injection, Seven had 8 episodes of lameness.  In the 50 days after, she has had 3.  Yes, I am Type A. When I spoke to the orthopedic vet, he said that the PRP injection starts to peak at 6 weeks so that coincided with the 3 week period we had issues and then they stopped.  So maybe it is working.  If it does continue to help, it will likely be repeated about every 6 months.  

Seven is also on Springtime joint supplements and a ton of fish oil.  I do not hear a lot about fish oil, but it provides omega-3 fatty acids that help to reduce inflammation.  There are some good studies on the benefits of fish oil for arthritis that my vet finds far more compelling than glucosamine.  It is worth researching if you want to try it.  The dose is quite high so you need to make sure it agrees with your dog.

Lastly, I apply a little Zheng Gu Shui Analgesic Liniment and DMSO to Seven's problem wrist on most days. It came highly recommended by many racing and coursing greyhound enthusiasts from all over the world.


That is about it for Seven's Wrist Management.

Maddie's First Swim

A couple of weeks ago, Maddie got to try swimming for the first time.  She did great!

I don't think she loved it, but Maddie was definitely intrigued and could not keep herself from the water's edge.

I almost always swim my hounds with an inflatable collar as it keeps their ears above water.  I find that many dogs do not like their ears to get wet and it can be a source of panic. Plus it does not give them so much support that they just float around.  Initially, I started with the life jacket and was reminded how much I prefer the inflatable collar.

All in all, I think it went well.  We plan to practice regularly and hopefully Maddie will get more and more comfortable.

MOTC Trial - Riley

Team Riley is having better luck than Team Seven.  Riley earned her first Double Q towards her 2nd agility championship.  At seven years old, she is running great and is very fit!

Here is Double Q #21 or #1... however you want to look at it.  Riley saved me in both courses.  You can hear the crowd at 44 seconds and then at 1:25.

MOTC Trial - Seven

Poor Seven... the Double Qualifier dry spell continues.  Our last Double Q was FOUR months ago!  And it is not that we cannot do it.  We are running great, but we are plagued with one error each day.  Recall that a Double Q is running clean in the Standard class and in the Jumpers class in the same day.  In the last two trials, Seven earned 4 Standard legs and zero Jumper legs.  At this trial, she earned three Jumper legs and zero Standard.  We just can't seem to do both at the same trial.... but we will!  Fingers crossed! 

All in all, Seven is doing well.  I do not think the Platelet Rich Plasma injection had any effect.  If her carpal joint was chronically inflamed and was giving her a lot of trouble, I would possibly try it again.  But for her current issue of coming up lame for a few minutes every once in a while after a hard, torquing left turn, I have not seen a reduction in this happening.  Managing it carefully has been the best practice so I will keep doing that.

Bitey Face

Two days after procedure

Maddie's face is healing up great!  I could not be happier with how it looks.  The staples should be able to come out Friday or Saturday.  We will be at an out of town agility trial so I am trying to find someone that can remove them while we are there and save us a trip to the vet on Monday.

Why can't I dive under this dog bed like I always do?

My biggest task has been to keep Maddie from playing underneath dog beds, tugging too hard, and playing bitey face with Seven.  It is funny because Seven has never been that playful, but Maddie brings it out of her.  I always supervise them carefully because Seven is just so intense about it.  Here is what they do when no one has staples in her face.  

Definitely a good way for Seven to play without torquing her "trick" wrist.

The Winner Is.....

Well, Miss Maddie got to celebrate her first birthday by having her so called "abscess" probed and lanced. Fun fun...  But we got a very accurate weigh in on the veterinarian's scale.  Are you ready for an upset? 57.2 pounds. I thought someone with a guess at 58 - 59 pounds was going to win it, but I had to look back at my sheet for the guesses at 57 pounds.  So the winner is Laraine Stockman with a guess of 57.5 pounds!  Laraine, will you email or Facebook me, please?

So Maddie's boil kept draining from one end every few days.  We had already started a culture on Saturday, but  I finally decided it should be opened up.  That it was never going to heal by draining, closing, refilling, and draining again.

My vet lanced both sides of her lip and basically put a hole all the way through.  It was very gross and it bled profusely.  But NO foreign body and NO pocket of pus.  The lump was scar tissue.  So I was feeling a bit regretful and wishing that maybe we had not gone this route.  But then the preliminary culture result showed no growth.  Plus, there was no evidence of infection (no pus).  So now my hope is that since it has been opened up, cleaned from the inside out with all of the bleeding, and it has been closed with fresh edges that it may finally heal.  My vet stapled the hole on the outside of her face.  I think it should reduce the size of the scar at least. Instead of a huge bald patch, it might be a line... or maybe none at all.  Happy Birthday, Mad Dog...

"I have a hole in my face?"

Of course, I think that after being sedated and poked in the face that one might take it easy for the rest of the day.  Nope.  Dr. C used Propofol (Michael Jackson's sedative of choice) which only knocks them out for a short time... at least when properly used. Sure enough, Maddie wakes up and immediately wants the Science Diet dog food for teeth.  I bring all sorts of good treats to the vet, but she wants that yucky dog food.  As soon as she was on her feet, Maddie she was sniffing the cookie jar full of it.

So Maddie is crunching away at those enormous chunks of food.  "Doesn't your face hurt?"  We head for home and Maddie is playing with stuffies in the car.  "Doesn't your face hurt?"  We get home and she is running around with her toys.  "Don't you want to rest?"  Nope.

Lastly, I thought you might like to see Maddie's parents again.  No doubt that Maddie takes after her Dad, Guliver (below).  Obviously, they are both black, but she also inherited his build, coat type, good feet, and floppy tongue.

Guliver above and below

I think Maddie just inherited her loud mouth from her Mother, Cleopatra.  At least Maddie is mostly quiet and only barks in play.  I can live with that!

Cleopatra

Recall that I waited three years for this litter to happen.  When I had decided that I wanted to get a puppy, I wanted her to come from a litter bred for performance from moderate sized lines.  Guliver and Patra fit my needs perfectly.  Both are successful coursing greyhounds.  Maddie appears to have inherited a lot of good traits from both and I am excited to see how that translates in the agility ring in a couple of years.

Healing thoughts appreciated!

Maddie's First Year

Maddie's first birthday is tomorrow!  In celebration of her first year of life, I created this slide show of Mad Dog growing up Greyhound.

I hope you liked it!  Tomorrow we will see who wins the Weight Guess Contest!