Hips not good

[SuzAndTheDiva]

But i wonder if he can fit into their lifestyle – what if they are out at agility shows every weekend, and long walks all the other days that he just cant manage – that sentences him to a life stuck at home doesnt it………………

Personally hed stay if he was mine – but i still dont think its wrong to rehome him – he quite possibly will suffer and miss out if he stays where he is which is exactly what this OP is trying to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

no it wont be easy to re-home him again but i do know he’ll be in a foster home being cared for – not put down so please dont scaremonger it isnt helpful and is really unkind.

as an aside, both my dogs can do agility and both of them have never competed – we do it because its fun to do.  i go and do agility in a huge field with all the kit set out, a load of flyball lanes and a huge open area with rabbits, birds etc ….. to one side.  if my dogs didnt enjoy it – i am damned sure they would simply b*gger off – particularly my lurcher + rabbits !! 

its not fair to compare sheep work and agility – BC’s are self-cueing and obviously with a good dog herding is instinctive / driven, agility and obedience arent so they do need some training.  i agree you get the obsessive i must win people but i dont think this is the case – the OP just wants “a dog” that’ll do agility – i think it is a little different gettin rid of dogs who dont “win you enough” to returning one because you made a genuine mistake trusting the rescue who should know better !!!

CLaire.

[Justine&Rafe]

My tuppence worth…

Firstly huge sympathy to Roz and Fly…

I don’t believe for a second Roz is the sort of person who would abandon her dog to anything less than a perfect home, but would it be fair to Fly to be kept on a lead while her other dog is off lead playing?  Would it be fair to the other dog to have to stop the agility in order to do more sedate activities with Fly?

No.  As hard and heartbreaking as it is for you, Roz, I think you are making the right decision for your dogs, and applaud you for having the bravery to do so.

It’s easy to condemn people who you don’t know and whose situations you can’t understand, but as long as the dog’s interests are kept first and foremost, then I don’t understand what the problem is.

Lastly, Rafe has shoulder “issues” and so I can understand the torment you are in when you go out – your dog wants to play but how can you tell them that you can’t, not because they’ve been naughty, but because it will harm them???

Perhaps in the meatime Roz, you could look at teaching Fly some brain exercises (look at the work the service dogs do) so that he has a start off in the right direction for exercising his brain instead of his body, so that his new home have some idea of what to do to keep him happy (as a BC he’ll want to work, but brain work is just as good as body work!).  And they’ll also have a dog that can fetch their keys for them on command – tell me you’d have trouble rehoming one of those!!

[Anonymous]

Not sure if Roz hasn’t had time to post or hasn’t because she is poorly! I think she has decided to keep Wally (He has been to the specialist and he has bad hips but if he builds muscle they have said that there is no reason why he cant be like any other dog).
Psyche – It is Wally with the bad hips not Fly! However Fly too has been having problems with her back legs recently so she too is out of action for a wee while! I will let Roz tell you the details but the future isn’t as bleak as first thought and he is such a fab boy that he is staying put and having hydrotherapy and different exercises to build muscle.
Good luck Wally!!

[RozandFly]

Hi All,
Thanks OllietheCollie for updating everyone – I have been off ill  :sick: and busy with the dogs!
Ok – be prepared for a long post!!  :canadian:
I took Wally to a specialist in Worsley (Robert Collinson for those of you who may know him) as it was suggested that a diagnosis of HD and its implications varies according to vets.
Of course, Wally does have HD, there was little doubt about that! However, the vet states that the xrays are made irrelevant by the dog’s health and fitness. Clearly Wally has no muscles in his back legs, no doubt caused by his first 4 months of life being kept in a crate with his brother (though living with 7 bull mastiffs and not a dinner bowl in sight, the crate may have been a blessing?!)
But he is also not in pain, he just has little ability to hold himself on his legs for too long and gets a bit stiff after bounding about too much.
So…the plan is to build him up to ‘peak’ physical fitness over the next two-three months, through gradually increasing his walks, getting him to do stairs and hills (all at a speed where he uses his back legs independently) and hydrotherapy.
I have to say that of course there is no telling whether this will end in him being physically fit enough for all the collie activity that me and Fly do, but at least it gives him the best possible chance.
I have had an offer from a close friend that he can take Wally during the week and do the huge amount of walking with Wally that he needs, so I may take this offer up, but I am not looking at this time to rehome him.
Rehoming him has always been a last resort and not one that I would ever take lightly. I made a committment to Wally when I took him on and discovered his problem within the 1st few days. I had the option then to ‘send him back’ but that is not how I see dog ownership!
Fly…has damaged the small bone behind her knee (clearly I know nothing about anatomy of dogs or I’d be more specific!). This is fixable by lead walking and hydrotherapy and she should be back in full action within 6 weeks. The problem is that they need very different excersise – Wally building up to longer and longer walks and able to play, Fly merely in rehab. So the option of Wally being walked by someone else looks like a good plan for us all!
I have some comments re training issues, but I’ll put them under training!
Thanks to everyone for their comments – I put my original post so that I could hear what other people thought as it’s been a really difficult time and I didn’t want to make decisions by myself!
Thanks espec to OllietheCollie!
xx

[Anonymous]

Good Luck with him keep us updated, as I said in an earlier post I felt he may stay  ;D
Val

[SuzAndTheDiva]

All the best and do keep us up todate  :-*

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