Andy Roddick Summer Learning Program

At the Andy Roddick Summer Learning Program, Tuesdays after lunch is "reading with a dog" time. The kids partner up and then each group takes turns reading to Wichita. The timing is great for me, because I can volunteer during my lunch break. The kids really love Wichita, we've gone 3 weeks now and have been in a different classroom each time. The first week the kids met Wichita and immediately asked "is he a red-nosed pit bull?" I didn't know that until I read everything I could find about his coloring...how on Earth did a few 9 year old know that? The second week one of the teachers called Wichita an "angel baby sent from heaven". The third week, a kid asked "is he trained?" I said yes and gave a few examples. The kids asked "can we see?" I had Wichita sit, down, come, stay, and when I walked back to him, I threw him a treat which he caught in mid air. The kids (and teachers) applauded. Wichita loves the attention from all the kids. 

Oak Springs Elementary aka Roo's school

Roo's second on-going therapy dog assignment is at Oak Springs Elementary. At Oak Springs the reading program is targeted toward kids who have been diagnosed with dyslexia. Reading to Roo motivates them to reach their reading goals and helps them see that reading is fun. Roo loves going to Oak Springs and since he has a specific group of kids there, he's gotten to know them really well. Roo is very popular and well loved at Oak Springs, so much that we got our picture on the wall with the staff!

Roo and me on the wall at Oak Springs

Roo also knows the Oak Springs principal Ms. Woods really well.

Roo with Principal Woods

A few pictures from reading at Oak Springs:

I think Roo misses Oak Springs this summer and I know he'll be so happy to go back when school starts again.

Little Walnut Creek Library

A few of the coloring pages of Roo kids have colored while waiting to read.

The Little Walnut Creek Library was Roo's first on-going therapy dog assignment, we began going in Sept. 2017. We go every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30. Roo loves his library and he's developed quite a crew of regular readers. Since the library isn't a targeted program with goals for each individual reader, we keep it pretty flexible. Sometimes, if the child is too young, I read to him/her instead of him/her reading to Roo. We also have a lot of Spanish speaking kids (and parents) so I get to practice my first grade level Spanish, and frequently have to ask parents or older siblings for help.

The managing librarian made publicity for Roo's reading days

Roo with his sign at the libary

A few of our favorite pictures from "Roo's library"

Wichita Chronicles Part 3

Wichita has been doing great!  He passed his Canine Good Citizen test in November and he'll begin therapy dog classes in January.

But a little before Thanksgiving, I saw a little bump on Wichita's side. It was small, about the size of a pencil eraser, but sometimes it would shrink and be almost too small to find. Other times it would get bigger again. I tried to take pictures of the bump, but it was so little, it wasn't really visible in any of the pictures. So off to the vet we went (again). Dr. Weisz did a find needle aspiration and looked at the cells from the lump under the microscope. It was a mast cell tumor. Mast cell tumors are pretty unpredictable and they can be benign or they can be malignant and extremely aggressive. I have a friend whose dog had a mast cell tumor when he was a year old and never had an issue again. I also have a friend whose dog had a mast cell tumor and she died of mast cell cancer just a couple of months later. Yikes!

First step for Wichita was to remove the tumor. But it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when I took him in, so Dr. Weisz scheduled surgery for the next Thursday and said we'd need to give Wichita Benedryl and Pepcid until the surgery. Mast cell tumors are made of mast cells which are part of the immune system and they can release histamine (hence the size change). If a mast cell tumor is big enough or aggressive enough, it can release so much histamine, that it can cause anaphylactic shock! Dr. Weisz also warned me that although the tumor was small, mast cell tumors are often locally aggressive, so when removing them, they always take wide margins to have a better chance of getting all of the abnormal cells. So she planned to take 3 cm on each side of the tumor, that would mean about a 5 inch incision!

Big incision

I took Wichita in for surgery on Thursday and everything went well. He got lots of love from the Allandale staff and they made sure to stitch up the big incision really well. I tried not to think about the histopathlogy report since it would be 5-10 business days before we'd get the results. We needed to keep Wichita fairly calm for about 10 days to avoid putting stress on the stitches and incision. That's not easy with a young, active dog! He never seemed to feel any pain even though the incision was so big.

 

I took Wichita to work with me the day after his surgery, clearly he wasn't feeling too bad. Lots of students came by to see him. This is one of my TAs, Ka'ohi, doing one of Wichita's favorite tricks with him. 

They gave us carprofen for pain, and we gave it to him for a few days, but I'm not sure he needed it. Wichita did not have to wear a cone, but he did have to wear a t-shirt to keep him from scratching at the incision. He didn't mind wearing t-shirts at all. I did catch him trying to scratch at the incision a couple of times, so when he was home alone, I put a bootie on his back foot so he couldn't scratch much.

Wichita scratched one of his stitches loose, luckily the incision was already healing well so it wasn't a big deal.

On Friday, 8 days after surgery, we got the histopathlogy report. All of the abnormal cells were removed with good margins!  And the mitotic index was a 2 which is very good! Mitotic index is a scale from 1 to 10 that measures how quickly cells are dividing. Cancer cells divide really quickly and very aggressive cancer cells divide crazy fast. A mitotic index of 5 or below is considered good for a mast cell tumor and no further treatment is generally recommended. So Wichita's mitotic index of 2, was great news!

Yesterday Wichita got his stitches taken out and Dr. Weisz said everything looks good and he's cleared for all activity (even swimming)! He does have a pretty huge scar that one friend said looks like "an alien worm coming out of his side" But his hair will grow back soon and hopefully the big scar won't be super noticeable...and even if it is, oh well, at least he's healthy!

hopefully when his fur grows back the scar won't be so noticeable

alien worm scar

We will always have to watch for lumps and bumps and get them checked out quickly because often (but not always) dogs who get one mast cell tumor will get more. But with his super short fur, bumps are very easy to see & feel on Wichita.

The Wichita Chronicles Part 2

I left off on the first part of Wichita's story on Sept 26th, with him just beginning to feel better. After that point, he began to improve much more quickly. He started eating much better, gaining weight, and wanting to play with Roo more.

We went back to Allandale Vet Clinic for more x-rays to see if the pneumonia was gone on Oct 13th. Everyone at the office was impressed with how much better Wichita looked and how much happier and more confident he seemed. I really expected the pneumonia to be gone and for him to get a clean bill of health. Instead, Dr. Bello found a small spot of fluid (pneumonia) still left in one lung and he found that Wichita's bronchii are "thickened" or inflamed. He said that would be normal for an older dog, but since Wichita is only 2-3, that was concerning. We sent a sample off to Texas A&M to test for lung worms, which are very uncommon in Austin. But they live in extremely humid environments...Houston flooding anyone?? The lung worm test came back negative, so Dr. Bello said we'd revisit & decide what, if anything, to do when we came back again for more x-rays after 2 more weeks of antibiotics. He said in the mean time not to worry about it and to let Wichita be active if he wanted to, but not to take him running much yet.

So we did everything except running :)

Wichita loves to play with Roo now

and he loves to cuddle with Roo (and us) too. He'll even sit in my lap when I watch tv on the couch.

We went to the Love-A- Bull pub walk.

Roo & Wichita at the Love-A-Bull pub walk. Credit: Dogs of ATX

We went to Poochini's & Peticures at Lofty Dog .

Zoe's new dog Louie looks so much like Wichita!!

We took a day trip to College Station for a big tailgating party

We went out to eat.

at Fuzzy's Tacos

Wichita tested out of Obedience 1 and 2 at the Zoom Room, and began Obedience 3 classes. He learns very quickly. He's well on his way to earning his Canine Good Citizen certification.

We went hiking with Debbi, Greg, and Allie and found out Wichita can swim! He had so much fun!

I made Halloween costumes for Roo & Wichita

Wichita the SCUBA Dog

On October 27th, Wichita went back to the vet for more x-rays. Dr. Bello was out that day, so we saw Dr. Weisz. Roo usually sees Dr. Weisz, so I know her well too. She showed me the x-rays, we saw that the spot of pneumonia was gone, but Wichita still had the thickened bronchii. We talked about it. She said it may be due to a previous heart worm infection, a previous bout of pneumonia or other respiratory stress, but we can't know for sure. She said we should watch him for any respiratory symptoms, but as long as he's "acting healthy, like he is now" he is free to do anything- no restrictions. She did say to build his running mileage very slowly and watch for any issues.

Wichita's "sort of clean" bill of health came just in time for Canine Camp! You can read about our Canine Camp fun here. And he's now run up to 1.5 miles.

We finally got to have fun with Wichita and learn what a cool dog he is! He's smart, playful, sweet, and like Roo, he's calm in the house, but full of energy in the yard or at the park. He's still not super excited about toys, but he will grab a toy, and run outside with it to entice Roo to chase him. He loves to go for walks and runs. It's been 8 weeks since I brought Wichita home, and now that he's healthy, he's fitting into our family perfectly.

Fall Canine Camp

After having so much fun with Roo at The Canine Center for Training and Behavior's Spring Canine Camp, I definitely didn't want to miss Fall Canine Camp! But we couldn't miss work on Friday, so we went with the "Saturday Only" option.

Of course we have Wichita too now so it worked out perfectly that Jeff could go too- 2 people and 2 dogs!

We left the house at 6:30am on Saturday morning and drove out past Wimberly to 7A Ranch. It was a little hard to find in the dark, but eventually we made it and got checked in. We had breakfast and signed up for morning activities while the dogs hung out in the car. Then we walked around and explored the ranch for awhile. It's a pretty cool place, they have some guest rooms, an old west main street with small buildings including a cowboy museum and a real ice cream parlor. We walked down to the Blanco River too, but it was too cold for swimming.

Our first activity of the morning was lure coursing. Roo has run lure a few times at the Canine Center. Wichita and Comet (the other dog in our group) had never done it before. So trainer Shari had Roo go first to show the other dogs how it's done. Roo ran a couple of laps and Wichita freaked out! Shari was sure he was watching the lure move and wanted to chase it, not barking & whining at Roo. Either way, she had Jeff unclip Wichita so he could run and suggested we let Roo run with him, since the dogs know each other, she thought Roo might show Wichita what to do. Wichita did not need a teacher. He LOVED chasing the lure, and Shari was impressed by how fast he was! There were a lot of the super sharp grass burs in the lure area, and unfortunately, Roo kept getting them stuck in his paws. He always stops moving when he gets a grass bur and waits for me to get it out, so he stopped on the course a few times, while Wichita just kept on going. For some reason, Wichita barely picked up any grass burs and poor Roo was getting all of them. They got about 4 turns on the lure course and ran a few laps each time. Shari noticed that they were working together to chase the lure, which was pretty fun to see. Our one true failure at Canine Camp was that Jeff and I did not take any pictures or videos of the boys on the lure course. It was so fun and impressive, but I can't show any of you. I already knew that Roo really enjoys lure, but it made me so happy to see that Wichita clearly loves it!

Since I failed to get pictures, here's a random internet picture of a lure coursing machine and lure (the white plastic bag)

We still had a little time left before the next activity, so we went over to the tracking station for a few minutes and trainer Jyl showed us the very basics of laying a track and getting your dog to follow it. Since we only had a few minutes, I'm not sure if  either dog really picked it up well or not. But Jeff and I learned a little bit and can test it out at home now.

Our second session was field first aid with Dr. Zimmer. The dogs didn't enjoy that nearly as much as lure, since they just had to sit and listen. But Jeff and I found the information very helpful, especially since we like to hike and plan to go backcountry hiking/camping with the pups next summer. Dr. Zimmer talked about overheating & heat exhaustion, hypothermia, snake bites, cuts, bloat, and a few other issues.

Then it was time for lunch and a little more exploring of the property. We also got Wichita to jump an agility jump for the first time ever, we didn't realize this would be useful later.

Roo demonstrating the jump for Wichita

Wichita says "oh, this is easy"

Our next activity was hiking. Again, Roo and I had done quite a bit of canicross hiking at Spring Canine Camp, so I knew what to expect. I loaded Roo's pack with 4 full bottles of water and put it on him. Shari had a pack for Wichita to wear but we left it empty since he's not used to wearing a pack yet. We put on our hip belts and hooked up our canicross lines. We pretty much just walked around the ranch and down to the river and back since 7A Ranch doesn't have any real off road trails. We practiced commands like "Hike Up" to go, "Stop" to stop, "Easy" to slow down and "On By" to keep moving. We also practiced turns and swings. In canicross, the dog is supposed to be out in front and tow the person a little bit. In general, Roo is pretty good at it. We run this way quite a bit. Of course it was brand new to Wichita. It was also new to Jeff. I had told him all about it and how great it was after Spring Canine Camp, but getting to actually experience it makes all the difference! I heard Jeff tell Wichita, "Buddy, you're going to give me free extra mileage every day when we hike in Colorado". Wichita did fantastically as long as Roo was in front him and he wanted to catch up to Roo. Wichita was not so good at leading, but he'll learn.

When I saw the camp schedule, I didn't think Jeff would want to do "Advancing Your Nosework" with Wichita. I thought we'd swim or maybe Jeff & Wichita would do "Intro to Agility" but Jeff decided he wanted to try nosework with Wichita, even though it was the more advanced option. Inka the instructor was very nice about setting Jeff & Wichita up with 2 boxes to practice the "find the treat in the box" game. They went off to the side and practiced for awhile and next time Jeff & Wichita's turn came around, Wichita walked into the "harder than beginner but not quite advanced" course and found the proper box like a pro! By the end of an hour and a half nosework class, Wichita was trying to sniff around and look into every box he saw! Roo really enjoys nosework too, and for as little as we've done, he seems to be pretty good at it. Nosework is the next 6 week class I want to take at the Canine Center...with both dogs now.

Wichita working his nose like a pro

Roo working to find the scent, Wichita watching intently

Roo says, "I found it!!"

Everyone at camp participated in the Kidnapping Mystery. All the campers and their dogs were divided into teams. We had a great team: Me/Roo, Jeff/Wichita, Marla/Kona, Amy/Greta, Lory/Kida, and the one girl I didn't already know whose name I have already forgotten and her dog Brindle. Wichita was definitely the least experienced dog on our team. We knew we'd rotate through stations to find clues about who got kidnapped, who did it, why, and where the victim was taken. The stations would involve agility, retrieving, nosework, and air scenting.

We were at the air scenting station first, all 6 dogs did really well and we got all 7 clues there. We strategized so the dogs with more air scenting experience went first and those with no experience then just had to follow where the other dogs had been and it worked well for us. Even Wichita found Jackie's hiding spot with no problems. Since this was our first station, we weren't quite sure how the clues worked.

our air scenting station clues

We looked at clues and thought "maybe the kidnapper is an opera singer" Then someone turned around, looked at the Opera House behind us and went..."hey! maybe the place is the Opera House!" YES!!!

Of course it's the Opera House!

Our next station was agility, it was by far the toughest station. Each dog had to run a short agility course, you got a clue for a clean run, time did not matter. We had 3 or 4 dogs with a decent amount of agility experience and Wichita was the only one who had never done any agility. I took Roo through very slowly to make sure he hit every weave pole and didn't knock down any jump bars. Brindle had lots of agility experience, but her owner couldn't slow her down enough to get a clean run, which was a little sad because clearly she's an awesome agility dog. I was super impressed by Jeff & Wichita. Jeff had never taken a dog through an agility course (he has watched me run Roo many times, but never done it himself) and Wichita had never even seen most of the agility equipment before. Jeff took him through slowly and they got a clean run! Awesome! We got 4 of the 7 clues at the agility station.

a dog bowl and some small clothing...not so obvious

Our clues weren't so obvious this time. By the time we left agility, we thought maybe the kidnappee was a small dog who wears a visor.

On to the nosework station. For this one, we had the most experienced dogs go last, since there were 7 clues to find, the first dog had the best chance and the last dog would have to find the very last clue. All the dogs found their clues no problem, although Roo took a long time, he was second to last and "found" all the clues that had already been found before actually finding a new one. Our best Nosework dog, Greta, found the last clue in about 2 seconds!

We got all 7 clues here too and decided the motive for the kidnapping was love/heartbreak, but the Charlie Brown shirt confused us at first...then we decided that maybe Snoopy was the kidnappee and one of the Peanuts girls did it because she loved Charlie Brown. But which one loved Charlie Brown? They were all so mean to him! Lucy? Peppermint Patty? Marcy? Sally? Definitely NOT Sally, she was Charlie Brown's sister.

We'll figure it out at the retrieving station. Roo was deemed our ringer for retrieving, so we went last. Each dog took a turn going into the fenced area to find a "clue" pick it up and bring it out to the owner. Roo was the only dog on our team who loves to retrieve, so it was tough for most of the dogs. Wichita took a turn and went into the clue area and just stood there and looked at Jeff, didn't even sniff at the clues, and they were mostly fun "clues" like a rope toy, a football, a baseball, a stuffed toy, etc. Kida was the most fun. She went into the area and after some looking around, picked up the football. Lory called her, Kida stopped, looked at Lory, dropped the football, and went to Lory. She sent her in after the football again, Kida picked it up, ran around with it and dropped it again. Finally with all of us calling and encouraging her, Kida came out of the fence WITH the football, and we all cheered! Roo walked into the area, picked up a small stuffed Paddington Bear toy and brought it out to me immediately...he really does favor his Labrador genes. There was a little pepper shaker attached to the Paddington Bear so that confirmed the answer for me. I looked at Marla and held up the pepper and went "PEPPERmint" then held up Paddington Bear and said "PADDY". Marla said "YEAH!"

We told Shari that our answer was that Peppermint Patty kidnapped Snoopy because she loves Charlie Brown and she hid him in the Opera House. We were correct, so we qualified to choose one dog from our team to compete with one dog from the other qualifying teams to go find Snoopy in the Opera House. I told my team, if it's a stuffed Snoopy toy, Roo will definitely find it and carry it back, so they chose Roo to represent the team. We took off toward the Opera House with the other teams and went to check the women's restroom at the Opera House. Roo is sometimes nervous about going into small, dark, enclosed spaces. He got very nervous (plus I had no idea if Snoopy was in there anyway), so we turned around and kept looking. A few minutes later, Whiskey (and his owner) came out of the women's restroom carrying a big stuffed Snoopy toy and looking very proud of himself! DARN IT! We may not have won, but we had so much fun with the Kidnapping Mystery!

Next up was the Doggie Costume Contest. I had spent the week before camp making and testing Roo & Wichita's "SCUBA Dog" costumes. I didn't realize we'd have to parade down Main Street in the costumes! Everyone laughed at the poor SCUBA Dogs trying to walk in their fins! We got lots of comments on how cute they looked, how creative their costumes were and Jyl said that I put too much effort into these things :)  There were lots of other awesome costumes too. Judi & Poppi dressed as 20's flappers, the pair of Great Pyrenees were the Coke polar bears, Marla & Kona were rodeo clowns, there was a Ragedy Ann & Andy, a unicorn, a Hello Kitty and a few other great costumes. The Great Pyrenees Coke Polar Bears won the costume contest by popular applause. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of any of the dogs in costume except Roo & Wichita.
A few pictures of my SCUBA Dogs: 

Jeff and I were starving by dinner time. We fed Roo & Wichita and left them in the car to nap while we went inside for a dinner of roast chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, salad, and pumpkin cheesecake bars (Pumpkin Crack as Jane called them).

I knew how much Roo would enjoy Canine Camp and I knew I would thoroughly enjoy watching him work and learn. I wasn't sure how it would go for Wichita since we've only had him 7 weeks, he's still pretty new to us. We're still learning and figuring out his likes, dislikes, and abilities. Wichita seriously impressed us! He was a champ at lure; he seemed to pick up and enjoy canicross hiking; he loved nosework; and he did shockingly well at air scenting and agility in the kidnapping mystery.