A Sick Puppy is a Sad Puppy;

I can honestly say that I have never had a ‘sick’ dog before. Honda had her osteosarcoma and her cyst on the side of her face, but it was something I knew she wasn’t going to get over.

Honda at 9 years old, you can see the cyst on her right cheek.

Doc, over the hours of today, has gotten a dry cough, and is rather lethargic. He still has his ferocious appetite so I’m not too worried. I was asked if I thought it was kennel cough or swollen tonsils. I can say I don’t really know. After laying down and getting up, he will cough and lick his lips and swallow like he has a thick throat, but only one cough and one deep swallow.

A previous picture from another day of Doc sleeping on his sissy's bed

I don’t want to be a worry wart with my baby, so I’m giving him the day off. It was suggested to give a little bit of garlic and some warm water with honey in it. I’ve done both. I also gave him a bit of peppermint for his throat, and upped his colostrum intake. Oh, and began adding coconut oil again. I am also doing the same with Delta… just taking precautions! 🙂

Delta and Doc sunbathing

Tomorrow, if Doc isn’t feeling better, Delta and I will be heading to North East Ohio to meet up with an online friend and fellow dog lover from New York. She owns mostly JRTs. It will be interesting, as we have been working on Delta’s pouncing of little dogs. She’s definitely learning from having Doc around.

Today at the dog park, there was a 9 year old spunky pomeranian. The pom pom would try to run around, as much as it’s bad legs and back would allow it, and Delta would run after it like she was going to chase and pounce. I cringed and got ready to run over there, but was super glad to see Delta jumped just to the side of it, obviously on purpose, and play bowed. Maybe my baby is learning after all?

Can I also say she adores her orbee tuff Earth ball with rope from Planet Dog? Anytime dogs enter the dog park I like to call Delta off the fence to allow the new dogs room to come in. As soon as I say come, she shoots over anticipating her ball to be thrown. She LOVES that thing. It’s also helped tremendously with loose leash walk training. I’ll make her walk nicely besides me for so long and then I’ll let go of her leash and tell ‘er, ‘go get it!’ and throw it in front of us. She’ll zoom off after it. I’ll have to get a picture of her with it. I only allow her to play with it when I give it to her (which is during training). I believe this keeps her drive for that toy up.