Snow, snow and more snow

We have had a lot of snow here in January, though now all is gone. However, on 10th January I took some pictures on our walk:

JESSE - 3 years old on Boxing Day

I forgot to put an entry, but better late than never! JESSE WAS THREE YEARS OLD ON BOXING DAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, beautiful boy!!!

Skin and air freshners

I had been battling with Cornel for weeks to stop him from using air freshners, to no avail! He started using the febreze air freshners, and Jesse started to itch even more. Last Wednesday I checked him over and found the most massive sore patch under his arm (in addition to other smaller sores all over his belly and legs). It was red, weeping and bleeding from scratching. I cried, I felt so sorry for Jesse!

I booked Jesse into the vets, and told Cornel to stop all the air freshners and showed him Jesse's skin. He finally agreed to stop using them!

By Thursday evening, Jesse's skin stopped itching, was dry and scabbed up. So it was definitely those chemicals. Just to help Jesse a bit more, he also got an antibiotic shot on Friday morning.

I hope that this is the last piece of the Jesse's allergy puzzle!

Free T4 fine too

Jesse's results finally came back too this week and the Free T4 is upper normal range, which is fine! So glad that everything is normal now.

Yearly blood test

It's already a year since Jesse was diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis and he has been on soloxine ever since. The changes in him are quite remarkable and he isn't the same dog at all. His behaviour has much improved and it is very peaceful at home now without any further Jesse attacks on our other dogs, and his coat looks a lot better too. He still needs antibiotics every few months to help his skin, but it is 10 times better than it was!

Well, today was the day when he was due for his comprehensive thyroid blood test. As it is always such a fight with him to get some blood out of him, which is very stressful most of all for Jesse, but also for me, the vet and the two nurses that have to hold him, I decided to have him sedated this time round.

It all went well, blood was taken without problem of course. He took a long while to wake up, but other than that, it was no hassle at all and everyone is happy.


I can't wait to get the results in a week's time or so. I theory the antibodies should be down/disappeared and T4 should be back down within normal range. We'll see.

No more antibiotics

I took Jesse to see Mark yesterday, he couldn't feel any lesions anymore at all. So he didn't want to give Jesse further antibiotics.

Cornel bought a refill to the airfreshner again a few days ago, which I didn't realise. What I DID realise however is that Jesse started scratching badly again... I suddenly thought of checking the air freshner and I sorted it out once again!

Finally worked out what is going on...

Yesterday, Jesse and I went to Thurrock obedience show! I only did two training rounds, but even that didn't go too well... Jesse was just not interested at all... And at the end of the day I finally worked out what was going on!!! He associated the training/ring with the car. It looks like I have always, or at least often, put him back in the car after doing our round... Jesse hates the car and made the association of going in the ring equals car afterwards! What an idiot I have been... It's only taken me all summer to work this one out! And I feel so bad about it now!

So from now on, Jesse won't come to obedience training anymore (it's Flash's turn anyway in the winter), but I will do more in the park without any associations to the car! And when we go to shows next year, I will make sure that he ALWAYS gets a good walk and play and LOTS OF TREATS after each round... and no time in the car (other than when I need to go to the toilet)! Hopefully in time, this will make things better again!

It was just so sad to see him so miserable in the ring, when he used to love it so much! I have so much damage to undo and I am kicking myself so hard for not spotting earlier what was going on. So sorry, Jesse!

Of course, I also need to tackle this car business too. I have no idea why he hates it so much, but I must start doing something about it.

Skin flare up again

Jesse's skin got so bad again now that he had another shot of antibiotics today! I am hoping that it will clear up nicely again... poor thing was so itchy, though already seems much better now.

I am not surprised anymore

On Wednesday, I came home and found the dogs had got a chew from Cornel. Jesse had a turkey neck, Dylan probably too and Troy had a vegan chew. So I went upstairs and found Flash with a turkey neck too... I asked Cornel why the hell Flash had a meat chew and he said he didn't know! He admitted that he didn't know what was what in the treat box and just gave them what he though they could have!

I was and am furious! No wonder I can't get Jesse's allergies under control if Cornel just feeds him whatever he wants! Luckily this time Jesse had the right chew (though Flash didn't), but what about all the other times? The one loosing out is in the end Jesse as he is itching a lot yet again... probably stuff that Cornel has fed and yet again, he has had to buy an air freshner eventhough I have told him many times before that I get headaches from them (and they are not recommended for asthmatics) and I suspect Jesse gets very itchy (Jesse was much better before we left for college and at the hotel and is extremely itchy again now to the point where I brush out several mats a day... something I only do when Jesse scratches lots and lots).

North West Kent Obedience Show - a bit of a disaster...

Well, we went to NWK Obedience Show yesterday, together with Sandra, Tasha and Vincent. It was a lovely day, though a bit windy.

However, Jesse's attention was non-existing in the ring, he just didn't want to know and was extremely distracted by what I am not sure! I ended up doing a training round with Jesse in Novice, using a toy. I worked Beginners, but from the word "Forward" in HOL, Jesse's attention was gone again... so I didn't even do the HF and turned it yet again into a training round!

I have no idea what caused this, Jesse is always praised by the judges for his attention on me (he never takes his eyes off of me) and for his brilliant working attitude... neither of that was present yesterday.

I have some thoughts and theories:
* He is hating car travel more and more, my car, other people's car... I have no idea why. Could this spill over into his working attitude as we go to training and shows by car? (I am now going to sort this car thing out because it is becoming a big issue now... Jesse messed twice in the car on the way to the show yesterday).
* Another thing I forgot to do yesterday is to use Jesse's cue for training which is "do you wanna do some training?"... I doubt that this alone was the reason for it, but certainly something to remember.
* After Jesse started dropping the dumbell at my feet at shows, I started to do a LOT of retrieve training. Could it have been to much? Another thing to look at.
* Are the allergies affecting his mood; he does seem slightly quieter in general at times. Or is the thyroid out? I think I need to get that checked. Or has the antibiotics affected him in any way?
* And lastly, has he worked out that he is not getting treats or a toy in the ring? I don't think that is the issue somehow, he isn't the type of dog for that. Having said that though, it is a possibility and I need to work hard on this! I will also use a toy more during training as it is now a matter of motivation. I have bought three toys at the show yesterday, so we'll see what works best. I really need some training with Kay and Lyn I think... I need help to progress a bit more now - roll on winter when I can attend training days with them again!

The whole thing though is just a puzzle to me. It was all so out of character!