Publisher's Message: Third Time's a Charm? - Chelsea Update: Chelsea, Michigan, News

Buzz enjoying one of the recent snowfalls. Tollers love snow.

Buzz and I were entered on Jan. 13 in Flint hoping to finish the last two qualifying legs on his Choice title, but Mother Nature had other ideas for us.

Yes, the show did go on – as dog show folks are a hearty group – but I made the choice not to brave the snow and bad roads at o’dark-thirty to be one of them.

We stayed home, safe, warm and cozy – with dreams of a future dog show dancing in my head.

But that Saturday included a surprising invitation – from two friends who did go to the Rally show. They asked if Buzz and I would join them as a member of a four-dog-and-handler team for a “Team Rally” class slated to take place in Toledo on March 2.

Neither of us has ever competed in a team class and after I got the details about what’s expected, I excitedly agreed. There will be two golden retrievers and a mixed breed dog on our team and there’s a theme and T-shirts involved but I don’t want to give away any more of the details. I’m sure there will be photos from the show.

So, Buzz and I have been practicing the Novice rally signs, which are done on leash. Each team member competes on the course individually and the team with the highest score wins. If there’s a tie in scores, then time comes into play to decide placements.

This means practicing signs with a leash attached to Buzz’s collar again. It’s been years since that’s happened and the first time I stepped up to the start sign to begin practicing and left his leash on, Buzz looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

Typically, I step up to the start line, remove his leash, place it on a table, and then set up to begin the course.

So, this change will take a little getting used to – on both of our parts. On mine, to keep the leash loose and not get Buzz tangled up in it and on his part when there are exercises where I walk around him.

Also in the back of my mind … Buzz’s Rally competition time clock is ticking.

Add to that that we had a scary situation, which I’m calling “the incident” last month — he came out of his crate and his hind legs were paralyzed. He snapped out of it quickly but off to Dr. Margaret Lane at Lane Animal Hospital we went for a battery of tests.

All of them came back “unremarkable.” So I’m chalking it up as a pinched nerve or maybe he was in such a deep sleep it took half his body longer to wake up than the other half?

He’s been fine since then and we’ve been training and sniffing and doing normal dog stuff.

Although he shows no signs of distress or disease, I have noted that he doesn’t have the strength he once had in his rear legs and when we train, he is a bit slower performing the exercises. Then again, he will be 11 on March 1 so a bit of a slow down is to be expected.

He does race around to sniff out different scents hidden throughout the house and I’ve been mixing and matching Rally training with scent work and tossing in a little obedience work in for good measure, too.

So, stay tuned. In a little less than a month we should have more news.

Third time’s a charm?

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