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Category Archives: Muffit

Muffit is Better

February 13, 2008 – 7:30 am

Well good news, after a couple of days on the new meds Muffit is much better already. His breathing sounds clear, no more snuffling and no more major green nasal discharge! Yay! He is eating well, and starting to play, too. Still a bit low on energy but that will come.

I’ve started him on the clicker and he doesn’t quite understand yet, but he will soon. We’ll start with what he knows, sits and downs, and add the mat work. Tatum really liked starting with the Mat.

So the days go by, we wonder what to feel and do about Lucy, and we just plug along.

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Also posted in Clicker, Lucy, Tatum | Tagged Chase, Clicker, Lucy, Muffit, Play, Tatum | Comments (0)

Poor Muffit

February 11, 2008 – 7:53 pm

Well the newest member of our family, Muffit the Muppet, isn’t feeling to well so we took him to the vet today. Poor guy. We got some new meds for him. And the vet wanted to take his blood.

Well, he would have none of that and boy can that boy squirm. He was so afraid, we had to muzzle him because he would snap at us, and yes, I expect he would probably bite while under such distress. When he looked at me with those big brown pleading eyes, absolutely terrified, we decided it was time to sedate him.

I’ve never watched a dog be sedated before.. it’s very odd, he slowly goes to sleep, though the vet said he’s mostly aware of what is going on. It was almost like watching him die.. but he kept breathing. She drew the blood, they drew a lot, so I asked if she had enough for titers and she said yes, so we are going to get titers on him too. I don’t want to vaccinate this boy anymore, he’s probably been totally over vaccinated being moved from home to home, and he recently got DHPP booster at the Utah Humane Society. Ugh. Wish we could have gotten a hold of him before that happened.

Anyway, she drew the blood, and then injected him with the wakeup shot, and he slowly woke up. Now he is sleeping next to me, still snoring, poor guy. I can’t pick him up.. he turns his head like he’ll bite. So I just put my hand on him and encourage him to move, and he does.

We are going to be spending the next months, probably years, regaining his trust. It’s been pretty shattered over the years. He is not aggressive, don’t get me wrong.. but he’s afraid if we handle him in certain ways. And that’s okay, he can be afraid. He’ll get a lot of clicker training to boost his confidence, and when he does flyball with the Thunder Paws here in Utah, I’m sure that will help his confidence, too.

I got a little harness for him as well, it fits him, but it’s too small for Tatum and Chase. Such nice harnesses! Well, maybe I will try to make something, if my husband will help. Maybe there are some Robert Allen fabrics out there that would work for dogs!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Also posted in Rescue | Tagged Chase, Clicker, Flyball, Health, Muffit, Tatum, Training | Comments (9)

He’s Been Through Too Much

February 10, 2008 – 2:27 pm

Our Muffit boy has been through too many changes. My husband has told me we are keeping him. Well, at least my husband can’t get mad at me for keeping a dog without me asking him!

I was looking through my old backed up pictures from my old server, and I found this picture of him. It was under the folder named Leopard. Which brings back more memories… he originally was named Leopard, and his family loved him enough to have this very nice picture taken of him. But they had to give him up, I don’t remember why, and he went to another home and was named Wheatie.

Then he came to us.. again I don’t remember why they couldn’t keep him. We fostered him, he went to the other home and they named him Shiloh… and they are the ones who dumped this sweet border collie boy at the Humane Society of Utah.

And back he is again with us. Don’t ask him how to lose weight because he is too good at it. He is still sick, and he doesn’t seem like he’s getting much better. Now we will keep him. His name will be Muffit. He has been moved around so much, the poor guy must be confused and miserable. He sleeps a lot, but he loved his walk this morning. He’ll learn flyball, and I’m sure he’ll love it.

As the poem says.. if you love someone, set them free. If they come back to you… then you should keep the darn pup!

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Also posted in Flyball | Tagged Border Collie, Collie, Flyball, Muffit | Comments (24)

ASCA Agility

February 10, 2008 – 11:54 am

Well we did some ASCA agility yesterday. I just entered the one day. I’m glad I did. Chase was so tired last night when we got home that he was showing his teeth to everyone, even Lucy and Levi and he doesn’t do that often at all.

Both Levi and Chase did great. Levi got a couple Qs, Chase didn’t get any but I did want to practice with him. And it’s so much fun to run him now. We have come a long way, and we still have a way to go but I’m learning. I’m especially learning lateral distance. Sometimes I think I can be further away from him than I can be. He missed a tunnel entry because of that yesterday. I thought he’d hit the tunnel he’s such a tunnel suck. But nope.. he check in with me instead, which was good!

Levi did awesome, too. I wasn’t in the best frame of mind because of Lucy’s most likely Cancer, but I was happy with the boys. I brought Tatum too, and she’s doing so well there. She goes up to everyone now looking for Livers, which she gets thanks to her Mum. Afterwards we were in the parking lot and I dropped her flexi… suffice it to say, we have to practice her dragging the flexi. Because the Mum can be a dork sometimes and drop them. She was pretty frightened of it dragging behind her.

Today is a rest day, which I need. Muffit is sitting beside me sleeping. He is such a snuggler. He is still snuffling, we might take him back to the vet tomorrow or Tuesday for a checkup.

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Cynthia Blue [My Barks!] | Also posted in Agility, Chase, Levi, Tatum | Tagged Agility, Cancer, Chase, Levi, Lucy, Muffit, Park, Tatum | Comments (4)

Muffit the Muppet

February 6, 2008 – 4:26 pm

This is Muffit. Okay, his name started out as Wheatie, and then he came to live with us for a while as a foster boy. And for some reason, I just wanted to call him Muffit! Remember Muffit, the mechanical dog from the original Battlestar Galactica? Well, yup, that’s what I like to call him.

But then he went to his new home and they named him Shiloh. We fostered him for CAWS, and they are a great rescue organization. They did follow up calls, made sure all was well. I even saw Shiloh at an agility demo about a year and a half ago.. and he was running around and looked happy and I was glad to see him. It was pure luck.

Well, while I was in Los Angeles at the Clicker Expo, my husband got a call from CAWS. Poor Muffit had been dumped at the Humane Society of Utah. Not only that, the HSU didn’t scan him for a chip for two weeks! So now he is sitting next to me on the couch and he has a nasty cold. His breathing is labored. He’s super skinny, and when he came back to us his poop was complete liquid and crimson with blood. The vet thinks it was stress induced colitis. He’s on antibiotics.

He is not eating too well yet, I’ve tried raw, kibble, canned, cottage cheese.. and he just kinda picks at his food. He’s getting some down, though.

Poor guy. He’s only 26 pounds and needs to gain at least 5 to be healthy. My husband really wants to keep him. It makes us furious, and breaks our hearts, that this poor boy ended up at the shelter. The excuse was the family had to move and couldn’t take him with. The contract says, and the adopters say over and over, you return to him to the rescue! Not dumping him in the shelter! We are furious.

Well, he is safe and happy now. He might just stay here for a while.. or forever… he would make a great flyball dog. I wish we could give him something for his cold symptoms.

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