Long introduction! Starting the course this weekend!

[AbegaelJackson]

I have an 8 month old sweet girl named Fraser.

This little girl is a special case. We got her at 9 weeks and at 10 weeks she was lifeless one day. I tried to stand her up and she collapsed, unable to bear her own weight. Her eyes were dim and the vet thought for sure she was dying from a toxin. She spent 4 days in the animal ER before they realized she has an extremely severe case of HOD (hypertrophic dystrophy). It wasn’t the first, or even the 5th thing they investigated because it is very rare in a dog that young. HOD is essentially “growing pains” and it is from growing too quickly. It is a condition that goes away when a dog stops growing (12-18months) and does not have any long lasting effects IF it is well managed. If it is not well managed she could end up with bent bones requiring surgery or in some cases euthanasia.

That last point is the tough one. Being well managed means medication and controlling exercise. Because her case is so severe and she has it almost everywhere (shoulders, lower back, 1 of her wrists, both of her heels, her neck and her jaw) this has meant no exercise. And because of her young age she was in constant pain until 4.5 months when the vet put her on metacam. Until 6 months old she was only allowed to go outside to potty and back in. In fact the first 2 weeks we had to carry her to the road, even walking that 50 ft was too much.

So it has been a huge challenge. Because also it’s Covid. There are lots of dogs and people where we live but she can only see them in short bursts, especially because she gets SO excited so loses her shit and hurts herself jumping and hitting the end of her leash and spinning in the air and landing hard on the cement from the jump. She has never been afraid of people but is hand shy and jumpy. And while everyone is very kind and patient with her and we are all friendly and there are no negative or fearful vibes, she has never seen me more than 6 feet from anyone other than her daddy in the house.

She has doggy puzzles to mentally stimulate her and she is really good at them! Also starting at 5 months when she could do a bit of activity because the metacam started reducing her pain, I started doing something “interesting” with her each morning. So for example take her to the forest or to a neighbour’s garden or just a road she hasn’t been on before and let her sniff around for 10min. This significantly reduced the annoying behaviours at home of whining for attention for instance. 

I have tried training with her also but she just didn’t listen at all. She is not my first dog and actually my mom was a dog trainer so I started training around 10. I trained also at a kennel and At 12 my 7 month old puppy passed certification to be allowed in malls to do demonstrations for the service dog program. So it’s been really disheartening and hurt my confidence real bad to struggle so much with her. She is the hardest dog I’ve ever had!

The pulling especially has been real rough (though is improving finally!) I try to expose her to sights and sounds by taking her places for very slow very short walks and also just sitting on a bench. One time she was so bad I broke down crying. I didn’t even have it in me to sit down. I was standing in the middle of the trail with my head hanging down crying with her bouncing around at the end of her leash. By some miracle no one came down the trail until I got myself together 7 or 8 minutes later even though before and after that there was someone every 30s.  After I got my shit together these nice older ladies were walking and I had her sit still while they went by and they commented that she’s such a sweet girl and I said “well I just finished bawling my eyes out, so...” and then they talked to me for 20 minutes and I told them all about her history. I think I really needed that. One of them was in tears by the end and told me they wished they could hug me and gave me lots of supportive words about how I was doing a great job etc. 

Now in the last 2 months she has been making big gains and improving. It’s not really because of her age, it’s because her HOD is improving... she pretty much stopped growing at 6 months. It was so bizarre. When we got her she was smaller and weighed less than our cat. By 10 weeks she was much bigger than him. We were starting to be afraid (terrified) she was going to be an 80lbs giant. In 10 days in December she gained 10lbs!!! She hit 46lbs by 6 months and now she is a little under 50lbs 2 months later. I let her run for 5 min at the off leash giant field near my home once a week now. She is sore after and we have to keep her low key for 2 days after but point is she can do it now! We also go for 15-20min walks every couple days, so things are coming around finally. 

She is maturing. But she also is behind developmentally because of all the challenges she has faced. When she started improving a bit it because easier for me to just think of her as 2 or 3 months younger and treat her that way. So now she’s like a 5 or 6 month old. Because finally there is starting to be some progress I am going to start an actual training program with her rather than randomly training. In person classes still are not being held in my community so I looked around online. I found this course and bought it! We are going to start this weekend 🙂

Looking forward to doing the course and being part of this community 🙂
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info about her specifically for those interested:

She is a purebred MUTT. I couldn’t even begin to guess what her primary X is (I find it funny how almost every dog is considered a Shepherd cross - it’s just not statistically possible!)  Her mom was found pregnant in northern Saskatchewan (Canada). Her mom looks like maybe a Rottweiler but with Shepherd colours. Her mind is probably at least 3 or 4 generations away from any purebred parent.

I do believe that Fraser has the following in her due to behavioural and visual traits:

1) Husky: She is the strongest little thing I ever met. Even at 4 months she could knock me over if she bolted on her leash. And she has an incredible pulling reflex, even with an easy walk harness OR wearing a halti head collar she can pull hard and it doesn’t seem to bother her other than she has to walk kind of sideways!

2) Some kind of hunting / bird dog: She is from up north after all. And she has crazy reflexes going from 0 to 100 when she sees a bird or flying bug and it’s hard to break her attention from it. She also has small/medium floppy ears.

3) Some kind of herding dog, a collie type of breed would be my guess: She is extremely acrobatic! She does those 4 legs at the same time jumps up. Forward straight up, or sideways. When she jumps straight up she spins 360 in the air. She also sits on her hind legs to see in the distance (did this more as a younger pup) and she goes up on her hind legs and walks a couple steps when she is excited. Visually she has the white chest and paws with small tan and brown spots. Oh she also herds me, I have bruises all over my legs from her nose bumps.

4) Then not sure if this would come from the herding dog but SHE CAN RUN! A lot of racing dogs (whippets and greyhounds) used to be abandoned up north and so a lot of the wild dogs up there do have whippet or greyhound lineage. Her hind quarters are taller than her shoulders so it’s quite possible. I have never seen a dog faster than her (I’m sure greyhounds/whippets are faster of course but I haven’t met any). At the dog park she doesn’t play, she just runs and we have never met a dog that can keep up with her. When we go to the field and I let her run, this is the reason it is only for 5 minutes. In those 5 minutes she covers several kilometres, I am sure of it. She runs so fast she will trip and go rolling head over heels or sideways for 15 feet. She just LOVES running so much, aside from eating every flower she sees running is definitely her favourite thing in the whole world!

Bravo if you made it this far!

[Adrienne]

Hello and welcome the forums!

I have made it reading so far and can't stop thinking how fortunate Fraser has been to have found such a patient, dedicated and loving owner! I think all dogs are here to teach us something and we never stop learning. It's a blessing your paths have crossed and you have found each other. This is for sure a very challenging case. I have worked for a vet and we saw several HOD cases, but most dogs just had a little limping here and there and a fever.  I am glad to hear that Fraser is doing a lot better now and things are starting to improve!

I agree, her way of running makes me think about sighthounds. These dogs are rather couch potatoes, but when they run, they run fast and can reach speeds of just over 40 miles per hour. They're more designed for sprinting, than being long distance runners. That's why they call them the "Ferrari's of the dog world" and why we see a greyhound's aerodynamic figure plastered on the sides of those famous buses.

For sure your dog must have an interesting heritage, I know those DNA tests may not be very accurate, but it would interesting seeing what results would come up!

 

 

 

[JMFS]

Someone who writes as much as me!  <cartwheels> 

You are a champ for enduring through all those, pardon the pun, growing pains.  I'd say you're in a small percentile of people who have the patience, means, ability, and wherewithal to endure a challenging situation like this. <gigantic (air) hugs> for that!

I do a DNA test on all my dogs because it's fun to try to pick out the traits that match the results.  I think in Gertrude's case they were pretty darn accurate (50% Golden Retriever - she has the demeanor for sure, if not the coloring; 25% Boxer - she definitely used to box us and I warned all men to guard their tid bits, lol; 25% AmStaff - kept her on the small side and those ears are 100% Staffy ears).  Momo came out 50% German Spitz, though I think he looked much more Finnish; 25% Siberian Husky - maybe his mantle, prey drive, intelligence, and energy but certainly not his size (34 lbs); 25% Spaniel mix - I was asked once if he had Brittany Spaniel in him.  His ears must have been the "mix" part because they didn't match Any of those breeds.  On the 26th, I think it was, I'll get Esther tested.  I'll be shocked if it doesn't show Labrador Retriever and AmStaff.  I did the swab for Mo, and blood for the girls.  If we did it on Abbi I think we'd get 80% Dachshund, 15% Seal (perhaps Sea Lion), and 5% Armadillo, lol.

I look forward to hearing more about Fraser as she starts her life free of HOD!  Momo would have Loved running with her.  For as small as he was, no other dog we met could keep up with him and most would stop playing with him because he was too fast.  Even at nearly 11 years old he ran circles around Gertrude, who's only 4.  He perhaps could have met his match in Fraser - what fun that would have been!