its been so long

and ive thought about this post for awhile but its been hard to write.

i took a big break from obedience. rah and i went up to nationals with cherry bomb, and rah was terrible. not any fault of his own really, but something was off. he was not performing because something was hurting. we came close to qualifying utility one day, and rah got called on his jump height and had to jump 30 inches and i regret that... but he came back hurt.

ive spent months trying to figure it out but the end result is, and it pains me so much to say this, rah is probably retired from obedience.

i never thought id ever have to retire him. i thought (and i know this is morbid) that he'd be dead before he couldnt work. i simply cannot keep him sound.

he has neck pain, and it manifests in a right front leg lameness. i know, in my heart, theres a good chance this is wobblers. i dont want to get my hopes up beacuse he is sound when hes only hanging out and being a pet - but work makes him lame. i cant keep him in active shape and ready to show because he keeps coming up lame.

so im forced to retire him too. its painful and hurts so much - to lose BOTH my competition dogs in the same year.

once rah got hurt, i didnt have it in me to work. i couldnt go to training, i couldnt show up, i didnt want to be around them. i even pulled cherry from classes - everything she did was a comparison to rah and it just didnt work. to top it off she also got injured and had issues but those seemed to have thankfully cleared up - if it recurs it will be MRI time for her too.

i missed obedience, but it still hurts to this day. i havent brought myself back to class, but ive started working cherry again at home. and i thought long and hard about it, but i got another dog.

introducing: katwalk calm like a bomb


some of you may know, but this is one of the border collies born and raised in my house this year. he was born 11/20 to my trainers bitch, secret, currently working on her OTCH. i had to change breeds - i cant take all the health problems in mine and i need something that will stand a CHANCE at least of being healthy.

so far the puppy currently known as chill is 7.5 weeks and hanging in his crate, we are working on housebreaking but hes also a little genius. is this what happens when your puppies are raised with obedience from the start and the clicker comes out at 5 weeks? he knows sit/down/back/twist/spin/front/get close and tugs like a MANIAC. he's fearless and while his littermates are all still here, he's chilling (haha) in his crate separate because he's a very confident puppy with teeth a mile long and needs to learn some control as well - he was certainly confident enough to be kicked out of the litter early!

so, thats me. hopefully i will be back here for some more regular posting, but its sad that it wont be with rah. i dont know what else to say...