Orthopedic conditions and agility dogs: presentation by Scott Rigg

As many of you know, being an agility competitor and a canine massage therapist, I have a special interest in canine conditioning for sport dogs and rehabilitation after injuries.

I also believe that all of us, agility addicts, should be more informed about the risks associated with our passion so we can help our 4 legged athletes, who week after week take our breath away,  have the better (long) life they deserve.

I am therefore really happy that Scott Rigg, who is the advanced practitioner in small animal surgery from Aberdeen Veterinary Referrals  has accepted to do a presentation for us, the agility crowd, about the common orthopedic conditions that we may encounter with our agility dogs.  Scott is taking care of Manouk and Mehwi as well as some other abedonian agility dogs.

Date: The presentation will take place on the 25th of September at 19:00

Location: Aberdeen Veterinary Referrals in Foveran.

The presentation is limited to 40 people! Get in touch with me to reserve your space (choose Others as subject)- I will send a confirmation email to everybody who have a space reserved.

Cost: Free of Charge. Knowing how much time it takes to prepare such a talk it is an amazing gesture from Scott that I am sure all of you will appreciate!

Aberdeen Veterinary Referrals and CANINE Pawsibilities would be grateful if all the participants to this event were willing to show their appreciation for Scott’s effort by donating on the day to the oldies club. A collection tin will be available.

The oldies club is a registered charity that rehomes eldery dogs (number: 1118246).

 

 

Forward Focus, The Doodle Way

When we teach agility to our dog we need our four legged partner to develop a good balance between handler focus and forward focus. One way to achieve the forward focus is the usage of toy or food. But catching the toy is not as easy as you may think! Watch Doodle in action in a “catch me if you can” game!

1234567891011

 

 

Happy Handlers Equal Happy Dogs

The recipe for success? A little bit of Scottish sunshine, a group of enthusiastic handlers and some lucky dogs! Well done to the 20 participants of Canine Pawsibilities first agility camp!  There was definitely some happy handlers making some very happy dogs over the two days! The final bonus are the beautiful photos taken by Iain on the Sunday in-between his own runs. Enjoy and see you all hopefully for the next camp!

Crufts, here we go!

After battling with an injury for the past 5 months, today is a special day. We have been given the go ahead from Manouk’s orthopaedist, Scott Rigg from Bridge Vets in Aberdeen, to compete in the agility championship at Crufts on Sunday!

This has been a long but interesting journey and I have learnt a lot, especially in how patient we have to be to rehabilitate an injured sport dog. The rehabilitation included a cross discipline program, with lead walks, canine massage therapy, core stability exercises, physiotherapy and hydrotherapy, with Scott regularly assessing the progress. In fact we have done barely any agility.

So that’s it then, I now have 4 days to remind myself how to run an agility course. This is definitely a scary thought! And unless something unexpected happens, in 5 days we should be heading to the arena. A dream come true, an even more special dream after having to fight so many odds this past few months.

Scott, thank you for your patience and support in getting Manouk back on track, I realise the journey with Manouk’s rehabilitation is not over but we would not have been where we are today without you. I really appreciate how available you have been for us (in addition to your expertise of course!) despite the busy schedule of your clinic.

Finally, good luck to all my friends participating to Crufts, especially my Scottish fellow competitors. Even if I have a weird accent, I am a Scottish agilitist after all and proud to be!

 

PS: Some of you asked if it was possible to watch Crufts online. There is an official YouTube Crufts channel and in the past year there have been a good coverage of the main arena. If you have time, I would advise you to watch the international agility which is held on the Saturday and support our Scottish Agility Dog of the year (2014) team Alan Short & Bruce. There will be 3 rounds, 2 qualifying rounds and one final round, running respectively at: 11:30: qualifying jumping round; 14:00: qualifying agility round; 17:10: final

The championship agility is held on the Sunday: 09:00: qualifying jumping round; 11:00: qualifying agility round; 16:55: final

Canine Pawsibilities’ first Christmas party

On Monday 29th of December, we had the first ever Christmas party and I would like to thank everybody who participated (and brought their sense of humour) to make it such a success!

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051

Mehwi is now 9 months and has officially started his agility career!

You may think that a lot of agility work was required to achieve these exercises but it is not the case. In fact, for some of the exercises, you are witnessing Mehwi’s first attempts.

Background work, what we call “puppy foundation” and fun, with no agility equipment, is what helped Mehwi understand so quickly my body language and verbal commands.

 

A typical training evening at CANINE Pawsibilities

Starring Ava, Skyler, Clova, Doodle, Patch and Rum, enjoying their time!

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051

.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I just would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I am now heading back for France for a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to train you all next year!

If you need to contact me, please drop me an email, I will answer to all communication when I get back, week of the 6th of January.

 

Interested in Agility Classes?

I am looking into organising some agility classes on Thursday evenings (indoors) and week ends (mainly outdoors).

If you are interested by any of these options please email me.

Puppy and Junior Classes (Mondays and Wednesdays)

Well, that’s it, the puppy, junior and adult classes have started.

Mondays:

Junior Class at 16:15 The junior class started in fact three weeks ago and is a mix of obedience and fun agility where we practice obedience drills.

Puppy Class at 18:00. I welcomed my first guests last Monday

Wednesdays:

Adult Class at 18:00 or 19:00 every other week. This class is new and will start this Wednesday