H&C

“The last few traces of snow disappeared earlier this week, which should have enabled Ruby’s training to return to normal. Unfortunately, for two main reasons, that has not been the case. Firstly, I went into hospital a week ago, had to stay there for two nights and have two to three weeks recuperation ahead of me. This means that my husband, Tim, has taken on all dog-walking and, where time allows, training duties, as well as keeping me company in hospital, keeping our home in order and ensuring the shelves and fridge are well stocked. So, in those first few days, Ruby was reasonably well-exercised, but received limited training with just the one visit to town during the week. Once I returned home, the plan was for Tim to be able to increase the amount of training, which would also help ensure that Ruby had the experience of being worked by someone other than me. However, a couple of hours after Ruby had been out on a gentle walk, she tried to stand and could not put her rear right leg down on the floor. It was if the limb had seized-up while she was asleep, and she had to hop on three legs to the garden to go to the toilet. She was not whimpering, but clearly in discomfort. The problem did not improve in the following few hours, and we were concerned that Ruby may be in pain, so Tim called the Vet to discuss the symptoms. With the risk of an injury such as a cruciate ligament rupture, we wanted to be sure that Ruby received immediate care, so Tim took her to the Veterinary Surgery for a full check-up. As it turned out, the Vet’s inspection ruled out anything serious, and, believing it to be just a muscle strain, recommended a week of short walks on lead and a course of anti-inflammatory tablets. It was such a relief that Ruby’s injury was not significant, and, a week on, I am happy to report that she is no longer showing any signs of the injury, and will start to build up the length of walk over the next few days. So, whilst my recuperation will be quite slow, there is no doubt that Ruby will be back to her energetic best within the week!”

“The first few days of the New Year have been full of snow and fun for Ruby. The village has been virtually cut-off, so training walks have been put on ice (if you’ll excuse the pun) and walks through the snowy fields have become the norm. Ruby has loved running through the snow drifts, either chasing our two Labradors or being chased by them. She zigzags across the fields as we walk across them, often seeming to cover four or five times the distance that my husband and I complete. On one of the days we took our neighbour’s black Labrador, Murphy, with us as well, and the sight of the three black and one chocolate dogs playing together against the pure white backdrop was absolutely fantastic. With all this play, Ruby has developed quite a skill for tracking down stray snowballs and leaping on them from a distance, all four paws landing at the same time, blasting the ball to smithereens! It’s just a relief that the “leave it” command works otherwise we would never have completed any of our snowmen! It is worth noting that, although there has been less formal training this week, there have been numerous chances to put Ruby’s training into practice, and I am delighted that her recall to the whistle has been outstanding. From the length of a field, whilst running about with the other dogs, Ruby has immediately returned to me on the whistle and “Ruby come” command. Very pleasing. With a thaw in progress, training should return to normality next week, but it is fair to say that so far this new year Ruby has been having an absolute ball.”