Beach Dogs and Molly Catch Up

Last week we took our annual trip to Cape May, NJ.   We have been going there for years now and have decided this will be our last visit.   Time to explore some new places!  It is so hard to find off leash areas for the dogs to run, so much so that between Vince's busy work schedule and wanting colder weather (therefore less people.) we visited later this year than we normally do. 

We were rewarded, especially on our last day (with temps in the low 40s and a storm rolling in), with little to no people.   The dogs were able to enjoy a whole lot more off leash running time.

I was nervous about how Molly's foot would hold up on the sand, especially since we had an agility trial about three days after we were due to return. I refuse to keep her in too much of a bubble though, so she got to do a fair bit of ball chasing. Last year I had a pretty full proof system in place: backpack for poop bags, chuckit, balls and anything else. So sadly, no camera. It sucks and I so miss having my SLR, but until I grow some extra arms it had to be sacrificed. The iPhone is much easier for snapshots, lower quality but I've always been of the opinion that composition is so much of what makes a photo beautiful, not equipment.

Ein freely off leash.   Either Perri or Molly off the leash alternately.   I did try a fair bit of leaving Perri off leash while playing ball with Molly, but Perri was so rude with her biting and chasing behavior that I had to leash her.   Molly gives Perri absolutely no corrections for her behavior, but simply chooses to go "out to sea" with her ball to avoid being pestered.   That doesn't work when it is in the 40s and your dog has no coat! (Not to mention, Molly drinks water while she swims and we don't need any salt water induced diarrhea!) And Molly is only permitted off leash when we are playing ball. Without the ball to occupy her she turns her attention to bullying the other two dogs relentlessly.  Despite all these "rules" they all had a great time!

An excellent example of Her Royal Pestiness!

"Out to sea...no poodles...just me, my ball and the great wide open."

"Fools"

If it fits, I sits! (yes, she did jump up there herself!)
I lifted her the first time but then asked her to get back up and she did. "Her powers of levitation would make a fakir stare..."

Goodbye, Cape May!

Molly's foot issue did not act up, no limping!   She did have her usual sand-induced skin breakdown in between her paw pads though.  When we got home I gave her a bath and soaked her feet in Epsom salt, and despite having cleaned the sand out with wipes after each beach visit, I still got more grit out in the tub when I massaged each foot!   She had been licking obsessively until that bath, so even though I got the royal stink eye for bathing her, I know it made her feel better!   I also massaged a new shampoo into her feet that I have been trying for Ein by Espree.  Molly usually fights me in the tub "tooth and nail" but she stood quite still and tolerated her feet being massaged. (Molly has no issues with me handling her feet, she is my best "paw dog", but when it comes to a bath she says no thank you! to everything about it!)

I also noticed a favorable difference in Molly's hips this year. Because of what we were dealing with in her left front foot, I doubled the dose of Dasuquin I had been giving her after the first episode of lameness in that foot. After she improved I backed off to maintenance dose until the beginning of October when the limp returned after a day of Fast CATs and beach play in very loose sand. Last year at the beach I remember Molly dragging her hips up, she was very stiff after playing on the beach. This year I saw none of that and I have to think that the doubled Dasuquin is to thank.   Good stuff!

With Molly's soundness under discussion I will roll right into a quick update about our USDAA trial from last Sunday!  We have done little trialing since September, with the exception being a very short day mid-October where Molly took a crash on the dog walk after a very poor approach.  Although Molly seemed quite sound afterwards, I didn't feel much like playing.   So, last Sunday I was hopeful for an enjoyable day. My main focus was on my weird ring nerves in the Masters ring, my feelings of self doubt and inferiority.  I actually put a little meme on my phone with a message that encouraged me and made me smile all throughout the day. 

I do not want to be a handler who lacks confidence anymore. I really want to tackle this and overcome it. I was feeling pretty good about our Jumpers course, though mildly obsessing about a wrong course tunnel. By the time we went ringside I was intensifying in feeling some of those feelings of being worried of making a fool of us, of failing, of not belonging. However, my focus for this trial was honestly to address this issue I am having and by the time we took the line in Jumpers I was working hard on exactly what the meme above states: being confident and not doubting myself. We won our class, our first Masters/P3 Jumpers Q. :)

The rest of the day was a lot of waiting as Biathalon Jumpers and Grand Prix were in the run order and we had not entered either of those. (I keep saying when we get a Steeplechase Q we will then try Grand Prix!) We had Gamblers and Standard remaining. Here is our Gamblers run, which I did not love. Molly was sort of tired, not very fast, and I gave her an awful approach to the Aframe for her first time. While we got whistled on the Gamble (hmph.) we did complete the distance challenge so I was happy with that!  

In Standard I had the same kinda ho hum pokey dog, though we did run our first clean P3 Standard! We were one second over the SCT but I am still grateful for what was a very nice run! However, Molly's inability to run three agility runs in a day without becoming so tired that we are overtime was initially upsetting for me. It brings up another issue that I have:beating myself up for days after a trial over every single thing I did not like.  Introspection is good but I take it too far!

However, introspection on Molly's energy and speed makes me realize that I truly have let her become a "weekend warrior" and as she is getting older, she is not able to maintain endurance on just being young and in condition.  Because...she is getting older and I am not keeping her in proper condition! Perhaps I could blame her feet still being sore, or fret that her lymphoma is becoming symptomatic, but I don't think so. Really, beginning this year more than ever, if Molly doesn't want to go walk or hike, I leave her home. Molly's exercise is so sporadic, it could be only a walk every two weeks or a hike here or there. Starting this week I have tried to take Molly on a 15 minute walk every day. It is not much but it is better than nothing and it is a start. (Our usual weeknight exercise is an hour+ walk perhaps 2-3 times a week, and again if Molly doesn't want to join Perri and I, I just shrug and go on without her. No more!) 

Six days later I have already created a monster, Molly has more energy! While she would normally eat her breakfast and go back to bed on a lazy weekend day where I am at home doing chores and bills and drinking coffee, guess what. She was pestering me for her walk! I love it! Now, I just have to start saving up for a Dog Pacer.

The Vacation that Kinda Wasn't.

Caution: Ranty Post with a side of pretty beach pictures within.

This is the third October that Vince and I have visited Cape May.  We like to go to the ocean after the summer season is closed, when there are less people.   We keep our camper at our friends' house (who we met through a foster dog's adoption.)

It has been a little tricky in the past to enjoy beach-going with all three dogs.  Molly is a challenge because she becomes very overstimulated at the beach and enjoys: chasing her ball and body slamming the other dogs (and me).  After Perri's injury, I am extremely vigilant to not allow Molly to rough house Ein or Perri.  This means keeping Molly on a leash, or keeping Ein on a leash.  I used to let them both off leash and then run screaming at Molly flailing my arms and "Stop! Stop!"  while she enjoyed a perfectly good divebomb.   File that under "useless human behaviors" of mine.

Keeping Molly leashed means being jerked down the beach by a 60lb kite who has no manners, lurching around and digging through the sand, jumping on me.  Molly is a Bad Dog on the beach.  Ein is a Good Dog.  He minds his own business, he pees on stuff and smells all the stink and has his own adorable little agenda.  I want to have my camera and play a little ball with the dogs and take Instagrams with my phone and enjoy the ocean.   This is not possible with Molly.  And if any other person is walking down the beach, all dogs have to go on leash.  No fun.

Last year, Molly came fresh off of an agility trial and she was a little tired.  This year, she had been resting all weekend.  And she has also not had half as much exercise or training time as usual, because I am so consumed with Perri's rehab.  The whole drive down to the beach, Molly was back and forth in the truck seat, smashing into Perri and knocking her off balance and if she wasn't doing that she was trying to crawl into the front seat relentlessly.  When we arrived at our friend's house, I let her off lead in their fenced in yard and she raced around like a demon, took a huge crap in their flower bed, and pulled a new plant out by the roots with her teeth, followed by more crazed running.  I may have remarked before how Molly is a "Button Pusher", and she was pushing all my buttons like an elevator.  To say that Molly overwhelms me is an understatement.

Perri was to have a strict regime of No Fun on this trip.  Rehab exercises, no beach running, no pouncing, No Fun.  This meant staying in her soft crate while we took Molly and Ein to the beach without her.  I was beyond anxious about her separation anxiety rearing its ugly head.  The first night we were there, we crated her and took Molly and Ein to Cape May Point to burn some energy off.  We crated her again to go out to dinner with our friends. (Where I consumed multiple alcoholic drinks and complained about Molly.)  Perri was an awesome sport about her crate.  We returned at 9:50pm at night, I still had to do Perri's rehab exercises and despite 10 minutes of walking, she refused to even poop.  I actually started crying I was so frustrated.  I did not finish the torturous exercises until after 11pm.   It only worsened the next day when Perri did not want any of the four different treat varieties I had brought along for her stretches and exercises.  (She normally goes on anorexic strike on vacation.)  If she didn't want the food, we couldn't do anything.  And if we can't do her exercises, she can't get better.  Meanwhile, we were in our tiny camper.  Molly was perfectly willing to do rehab exercises for any of those four types of treats and she was like a pogo stick on and off the bed (where she was supposed to be holding a down stay.) and butting into reluctant Perri's exercises.  I said to myself, "Do the best you can.  Do the best you can." over and over again and tried not to disembowel Molly and tried to stay encouraging for Perri to do her exercises.  Back to the crate for Perri, brunch and a long trip to the zoo with our friends.  Perri back out of the crate.  Started her evening heat and massage and begged Vince to go buy ham at the grocery store.   Ham is the bomb diggity for Perri.  If ham didn't work, it was time to give up.

Everything got better for the ham.  She did every stretch, she even did her back up exercises.  And yes I brought cavaletti poles on vacation.  We got all of her exercises done by 6pm and back to the crate. (We were only having dinner in our friend's house, but I didn't want Perri unsupervised with Molly where a wrestling match could break out, or bouncing on and off the bed could occur.)

Our last day we wanted to take Ein and Molly to the bay again.  We finished breakfast with our friends and pottied our dogs and my darling husband said to the dogs "Do you wanna go for a ride??  Wanna go to the beach??"   You bet Perri did!  Her tail started wagging and she even yodeled with joy.   Here's the issue: Perri wasn't going to the beach, she was going to her crate.  I was furious, but the damage was done.  Ein and Molly got loaded into the truck and I zipped Perri into her crate and locked the camper.   The predictable, hysterical separation anxiety screams began within a second.  I could understand!   Perri had been a good sport but now this was ridiculous and she wanted out and she wanted to go do whatever exciting thing Daddy was jazzing her up about!!  I took about fifty deep, cleansing breaths to give myself patience and got Perri out of the crate and took her for a ten minute walk.  She was very excited and I petted her and praised what a good girl she was and we walked way away from the camper and truck to get her mind cleared.  Back to the camper and I gave her an awesome chewie and a chicken jerky and thank dog, she was quiet and satisfied with that.  Awesomest poodle.

I was determined to enjoy the bay with Ein and Molly.  I only let Molly off her leash if she was playing ball.  All I could think while watching her plow through the sand was "Cruciate Tear.  Cruciate Tear."  I am so fearful of another injury now.  When I decided Molly was tired, I put the ball back into my backpack (I have learned that the best way to switch Molly off of the ball is to get it out of her sight.  I could train Molly's impulse control forever and ever.  She never runs out of boundary testing for the ball.)  Molly accepted this instantly and settled into a nice leashed walk on the beach, she did not try to yank me all over the place.  She was pleasant.  We walked out .6 miles to a geocache while Vince metal detected.

Elbows were having gravity-control issues.

 

Mr. Perfect.

 

We decided to take Ein and Molly back to the camper, where they collapsed into a nap, and took Perri at last for her truck ride.  She could not go on the beach in the sand, but we went to Cape May Point.  I took Perri to just sit by the ocean with me while Vince went out again with his metal detector.  We sat there for well over an hour and Perri just stared at the ocean and people watched.   She loved that.  I think she would have sat there with me for many hours.   She is such an interesting, deep dog.  She sometimes reminds me of Atticus from the book Following Atticus.  The Little Buddha.  We went shopping and left her sit in the truck, which she loved.  Perri loves riding along, she would live in my car if she could.

I felt really great that we were able to give all the dogs a nice day, and end on a good note at last.  Perri did her exercises well that evening and we all settled in and watched Christine on our DVD player.

We definitely had a lot of nice times on our vacation, but it was overall very stressful for me.  It goes without saying that having an injured dog on our vacation was extremely stressful.  I did not want to cancel, however, because our friends were so looking forwards to seeing us and the feeling was mutual.  I knew it would not be easy but I did my best and I learned to just bring the ham.  

The more difficult thing is that this may be Molly's last time coming to the beach.  We are considering a winter visit when (optimistically) Perri's shoulder is better, and Molly will definitely be staying home for that trip.  It is to the point where yes Molly has a good time, but it is very much at my expense.  Her self control is nonexistent at the beach.  We work very hard on her overstimulation and low frustration threshold at home with a lot of success, but at the beach it all evaporates.  I have no doubt that we could get better behavior if we visited the beach more frequently, but since we only come 1-2 times a year...it is not really fair to me to spend what should be an enjoyable vacation on constant training for Molly.  Another factor is that Ein will be 11 soon.  How many more beach trips do his hips have left? (the sand is a lot of work for him.  You would never know it while we are there, but he needed Rimadyl in the evenings.)  Ein loves to play ball at the beach and we absolutely cannot enjoy doing so when we have Molly with us.  I can stand on her leash or hold her back while he chases the ball, but her screeching and yanking and screaming is unbearable and it is all I can do to stay on two feet and keep her from pounding Ein when he returns to me with the ball.    Hard decisions.  Guilt.

Cape May 2012

And when I said that I would update this blog daily, I meant WEEKLY.  Oops!  Well, I will make it up by a big photo post of mine and the Husband's anniversary visit to Cape May, NJ.  We stayed at a little place called The Roost.  The Roost is dog friendly, cozy, and a book lovers paradise.  There is also a chicken coop out back, so I had to be extra vigilant of the Craigslist Chicken Killer.

"Where are you going to sit?  Not our problem."

 
Super Cozy.  I did manage to squeeze a tiny spot in the middle of those dogs.  In fact, Molly even had to sit on A CHAIR.  I know, I am so mean. (not pictured)

Most exciting thing about this trip was that Perri would get to see the beach for the first time.  Taking dogs to the beach is easily one of my favorite things to do.  The total freedom, large amount of dead stuff, and the excitement of making sure that they don't drink salt water really makes for an endlessly fun experience!

No really, I do love it.  Perri thought the waves were EVIL, but she enjoyed chasing birds (that she will never catch.)  Chasing Molly (that she WILL catch but not know what to do with.)  And digging in sand.  (Not much to say about that.)  Perri seemed to know better than to drink salt water.  Smart poodle is smart.  Did I mention how much I love this breed?

Sit-Stay for a pretty beach picture wasn't working out so well.  All eyes were on Molly.

Husband Vince and his Girls.

SCARY.

Poised atop the sand dune....then POUNCING on top of Molly or Ein.

We were playing some nice fetch.  And then Ein stole the stick and growled at anyone who got near.  Oh well.

Meeting of the minds?

Up Up and Away!