This summer was particularly difficult for our little Barklay. He suddenly became quite ill with what was suspected to be pancreatitis, when he didn't improve in a day or two, and he stopped eating completely, we took him to the emerency veterinary hospital.
Preliminary ultrasound showed some sort of mass near his liver, so we brought him back the next day for a full ultrasound. A couple of hours later I got a phone call from the radiologist saying Barklay needed immediate surgery to remove his gall bladder. Not only was he going to have emergency surgery but they estimated he would need a four to five days of hospilazation to recover slowly, due to the serious and extensive inflammation. To say it was stressful for all of us is an understatement. Barklay was in and out of hospital three times during the month of July, on 7 different medications, had a feeding tube twice, and had to wear a cone for over three weeks. All this to say that if I had not built up Barklay's optimism, and worked on calmness in a crate and in novel environments, the outcome may have been quite different. Even playing cone games, helped him rock the Elizabethan collar. He was able
to relax at the hospital, and took the cone in stride. The never slowed him down. He even managed our steep stairs. I can't imagine what would have happened if he was anxious in a crate.
I've had a few students over the years who couldn't understand the importance of training a dog to be calm in a crate, or even using a crate. Barklay's adventure is a perfect example. We can never know when an emergency vet visit might happen. When can never know if we might face an emergency evacuation (wildfires, tornadoes, floods). Never mind a crates importance to a sports dog, who might be asked to chill out in a crate for an hour or two, in a fairly chaotic environment. Calmness and optimism are key skills for a dog to cope with a novel situation. Never stop building them.
Today, Barklay has fully recovered, and is ready to resume his agility journey. I look forward to many more years with this special boy, and I continue to build his calmness and optimism.
Yorumlar