Mini-Break, Kind Of

It's finally summer-like here, it has been hot and humid and nasty lately. We've done a little bit of work in the front yard and at class, but I haven't wanted to stress the dogs much. Neither one of them does well in the sun when it's that hot, their black coats absorb so much heat.

I did try to work a little bit with Iggy on the Haverhill common this morning. We tried heeling. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Most of what we did was Iggy paying attention to me only when he had a hope of a food reward soon (i.e. if he could see me holding a treat). He did, however, pay lots of attention to all the little whitish mushrooms that had popped up all over the place. He kept lunging after them while I tried to get his attention away from them. Obviously, not only was he supposed to be paying attention to me but I didn't want him eating the mushrooms, which he clearly thought were a wonderful delicacy. North Conway in September might be an unrealistic goal for the two of us.

Bethena's still had some focus issues, so taking a break will hopefully be good for her. She's had on and off diarrhea (which started about the same time as the stress of the Hopkinton shows) and her potassium is a little high and her sodium:potassium ratio is a little low, so she is having an ACTH stim test today to make sure she doesn't have Addison's disease. While it's pretty unlikely that she actually has that, we need to rule it out. So, Iggy and I are at home and Shana will call when she is done with the test (only takes an hour, but Bethena HATES restraint). Bethena is scared of needles so it takes people she trusts and who are strong to hold her; she might even need sedation. When I got the blood on Tuesday to do the basic bloodwork, she was OK for the first stick but when I went to try to do an ACTH stim myself (Shana was on vacation), she bucked like a bronco and was scared and nervous and (surprise) I was pretty stressed, which didn't help. She's better for Shana but I think she'll still be stressed enough that she might need a little sedation.

So, I'm thinking about making jam and Iggy is taking a nap and we are waiting for Bethena to be done. When it cools down a bit, we'll go back to doing a little more practicing.