Out of the blue

CH Zephyr's Lively Baco Noir RN AX AXJ NF CL1-F, CL2-R, CL2-H - 7/19/14 - 3/24/21

It is still almost impossible to speak or write about this without provoking tears. The loss of any dog is unbelievably sad, and hard, but the sudden loss of a dog in the prime of his life is a deeper, more agonizing wound.

Baco was an impossible dog who seemed likely not to survive his first week. I worked very hard on him when he was born, massaging, keeping him warm, and constantly putting him back on a nipple. Amazingly he thrived, and grew into a lovely, flashy puppy. I thought he deserved a show home but I didn't have one so I held onto him and he never left. Despite his relatively small stature, he finished with 4 majors from the BBE class.

In my house, everyone does at least some agility. I did not have high hopes for him initially, as he was rather sound and motion sensitive. However, by the end of our Level 1 agility classes one of my instructors dubbed him "the weave pole savant". Once he had the basics down, my ongoing challenge was how to handle and channel that much drive. It was like trying to drive a race car with one finger on the steering wheel and almost no brakes, though to his credit, if he knew what I wanted he would try to do it. He really wanted to work with me. My ability to train him was complicated by the fact that beginning the same year he was born, my time and attention became divided between my dogs and some personal family issues. For a couple of years Baco even lived with my in-laws and was their loving and devoted companion. When time and energy permitted, I would pick him up for classes and events. In the fall of 2019 he came back to live with us full time and the added connection of our once again full time relationship helped improve our agility skills.

He was only seven weeks younger than his cousin Koan. They were lifelong dog bed buddies and playmates.

On March 24th he had breakfast and a morning walk and seemed his normal self and then a few hours later he was not. He came to me looking extremely uncomfortable, but I didn't know what was wrong at first. It was not until he went down in the rear that I suspected a disc issue. Even though I was fairly quick to get him to the ER vet, by the time he was examined he had lost deep pain sensation in his rear legs. This greatly decreased his chances for a surgical recovery. In addition, his presentation made him potentially susceptible to myelomalacia, which could have resulted in complete paralysis post-op even if we had moved forward with the surgery. We did diagnostics through an MRI to confirm the issue, two herniated discs with significant swelling, between L1 & L2 and L2 & L3. George and I made the very difficult decision to let him go. It wasn't the cost of the surgery or the work of rehab that kept us from going forward, it was his odds combined with his personality. He had two speeds, on and off, and because he was so intense, we don't think he would have had a good quality of life if he couldn't have continued to run agility.

As hard as this is to write about, I think it is important to get my experience out there for public consumption, and in particular for people in the breed who don't believe CDDY is an issue in Tollers because they have never seen it. That mindset reminds me of an old obedience adage, "There are the dogs that have gone down on the long sit, and those that will." We have a breed that is genetically predisposed to IVDD if they carry even one gene for CDDY. While it's true many Tollers carry one or two genes for this issue and make it through life without experiencing disc herniation, too many, like Baco, do not. Despite my experience, I'm not comfortable advocating for the immediate elimination all CDDY carriers from our gene pool because our pool is relatively shallow as it is and we have multiple health issues to balance. However, I do believe it's imperative for breeders to give serious consideration on how to manage this issue in their breeding progam and to make choices that reflect a strong concern for the health of our breed above all. The next dog lost to this might be your own.

Baco was like a tuning fork that never stopped vibrating. As high energy as his grandmother June was, Baco was even higher - and yet he did have an off switch. Our house is too quiet without him and I still miss him every day. In the words of Neil Young: "The king is gone, but he's not forgotten..."

Baco's last AKC agility run

There's a fox behind you... and she has a new CD!

This morning I was out walking Koan and a guy drove by in a silver van, rolled down his window and said to me, "Watch out, there's a fox behind you." I said, "Um, ok thanks." He drove on. I looked behind us but spotted no fox. They can be stealthy creatures, though in my experience not something to worry about unless you are a small, furry rodent or bunny. Tollers are bred to mimic the antics of foxes when hunting, so perhaps he thought he was making a sly joke about Koan? Unlikely, as most people we meet don't have any idea what a Toller is. We continued on our walk. A block from home, I spotted an actual fox trotting through a front yard and down the street with breakfast in its mouth. I hope it was a bunny or rodent, and not one of the neighbor's very small dogs.

Last weekend Koan earned her second and third Novice obedience legs, completing the requirements for her CD (Companion Dog) title. She was a most enthusiastic worker both days. Her happy expression and constantly wagging tail gained her a lot of compliments even though she was not in the placements either day. However, I'll take that attitude over all else any day. My friend Sheila was nice (sneaky) enough to record our Saturday run and my friend Susan took a new title shot for us.

UACH SHR AKC/NSDTRC CH Zephyr's Day in June CDX RE MX MXB MXJ MJB OF WC - 6/1/05 - 2/1/21

Baco and June

Of all the dogs I have had, June has been the hardest to let go. In a breed known for high energy and spirits, she was at the top of that curve. In her younger days, every time I would complain about her drive my husband would remind me that's what I said I wanted in a Toller. Which is true! Sometimes I think our bond was so tight because she was so challenging. In her later years, she was my entourage and would follow me around the house to see what I was up to. She would push the bathroom door open when I was in the shower. When I was out walking another dog, I knew she was feeling good on the days she would be at the backdoor, barking a greeting as I returned.

I said a lot about June 10 years ago that bears review: https://lifeamongtollers.blogspot.com/2011/03/all-about-june.html

June in April of 2020

Around the age of 12, I had to retire her from agility. When she was young she had an ACL tear that we rested and rehabbed, but we knew at some point arthritis would become an issue. Thanksgiving weekend of 2019 she seemed to be in a lot of pain and I thought we would lose her. Until then we had been managing with gabapentin, supplements, and regular visits to the canine chiropractor. Working with my vet, prednisone was added to her mix of medications. Miraculously, this bought her another year of pretty good quality of life, though we were always conscious of being on borrowed time with her. I was unable to completely wean her from the drug, and in the past few months the long-term effects of prednisone took their toll and her bad days slowly became more numerous than her good days. Though it was heartbreakingly hard to let her go neither could I bear to see her suffer. As much as I love my other Tollers that have come before and after her, there is no question June was my heart dog. Her loss is profound. 

June on her 15th birthday

A Study of Tollers Reposing in Red Recliner

Baco runs the gamut.

Koan is more dainty.

Major (pt'd) Jack

Jack (Zephyr's Jack Be Nimble) and I traveled to Muncie, IN last weekend for the Ice Tea Cluster. Jack surprised me and greatly exceeded my expectations for him by going WD/BOS both days, which gave him a 3pt major each day. Wow! Jack is from my Striker ex Lark litter, whelped in 2013, the year before personal family issues started taking my time and attention away from Tollers. For Jack, this may have been a good thing. Some Tollers, particularly N/Ns, often mature slowly. At six he appears to have matured quite nicely. He has a lovely head and very clean movement from all sides. Outside of the ring, he's pretty laid back, though he does have one skunk and multiple rabbit kills under his belt so is no slouch when it comes to patrolling his property. His co-owners take great care of him and his housemate Finn (Dux ex Tilia - whelped 2010) and walk them miles and miles every day. Sunday's judge commented on his excellent condition and I gave credit where credit was due.

Sunday's judge also asked me if I was nervous. Apparently, she thought I was shaking a bit when I was first setting Jack up in the ring. I do get nervous sometimes when showing, and I think I was feeling particularly emotional about Jack, having lost his mother this spring. He reminds me of her in many ways, even though he looks quite a bit like his sire Striker. As it's been a few years since I've taken a dog in the ring with the expectation of trying to earn a championship, I was also feeling emotional in general about getting back into the breed ring, and wondering if I was right in thinking he was nice enough to finish. Last weekend's wins helped dispel the notion that he's not, even though I don't anticipate every show will be as successful as last weekend.

Jack enjoying a well-deserved rest at the Red Roof in Anderson, IN.

Jack at Culver's on his way home from the 2019 BYC.

A lesson in staying off your dog's line

After having a remarkably clean record in regard to NOT falling in the agility ring, last December I actually went down twice in one weekend. The second run was captured on video, so I've posted it here. In retrospect, it was all my fault. Baco is a very fast dog and I was clearly on his line. I just couldn't get out of his way fast enough because I did not handle the initial line of jumps correctly with him. I should have worked him on my right and let him get ahead, which he has no problem doing. As you can see, I got right back up and finished running him. I think we even Qd as it was CPE agility.

The day before Baco knocked me down, Koan took me down coming out of a long straight tunnel and cutting straight left across my own line. I was trying to beat her to the end of the tunnel to be sure she went to the table to end the timer. In an effort not to step on her I ended up tripping over her and falling. But just as with Baco, I got right back up and told her to "go table" which she did.  

I guess I was lucky. I know a lot of people who have fallen in agility and then ended up with torn ligaments, sprains or broken bones. All I needed was multiple trips to the chiropractor to work everything out, plus a lot of T-Relief. 

Losing Lark

CH MACH Zephyr's Evelyn Echo WC CD RA MXB MJB NF (Lark) - 3/23/08 - 4/23/19


Lark had a significant seizure on March 18th. George was home and he rushed her to our vet. He called me and I met him there. Her initial blood work was pretty normal but because she was having trouble calming down after the seizure and had some minor neurological abnormalities, our vet advised us to take her to the Veterinary Specialty Center for overnight observation and additional diagnostics. After I left her there, they took chest x-rays and determined she had three large masses in her lungs.
The next morning they did an ultrasound of her abdomen, which came back normal. We had determined if there were masses in her abdomen that would have been a decision point to let her go, but because the ultrasound was normal we decided we would like to spend some quality time with her while we could because other than the seizure she seemed pretty normal. However, because of her seizure presentation, it was a certainty that what was going on in her lungs had already metastasized to her brain. We opted not to do an MRI to confirm this since the additional information wasn't likely to change her outcome. We took her home with steroids and anti-seizure meds. She did pretty well for about a month, but started to decline over Easter weekend, losing left side awareness, doing a lot of pacing and bumping into things, and going into corners and not being able to get out. Based on these symptoms, we think it was the brain tumor vs. the lung mets that caused her decline. We let her go on April 23rd.

It is still difficult to describe the loss I feel. She was the em-path of the house and helped my husband and I through many personal family issues in recent years. She was the giving tree of dogs. She did everything I ever asked of her. She was my first BBE champion and my third Rusty Jones award recipient. She earned her MACH last fall, waiting for me to be ready to run her again and running better and faster for me once I figured out she wanted to be handled with blind crosses as much as possible, to give her the illusion she was chasing me around the ring. But most of all she was a true companion. I treasure our many walks and time hanging out on the couch as much as her many accomplishments. I miss her so much, but am fortunate to have her son and her niece to love and to train. And although I'm very sad, I also feel some peace knowing we did what we could for her as long as we could but also tried not too hold on too tightly or too long.