Adventures of The Everyday Kind

Adventures of the everyday Kind 

As I started a new site and new blog, I thought it would be a good opportunity to start blogging again. I did this years ago with Marley as we journeyed through his intense fears. 

14 years on and life has taken a similar turn to where we began. Marley was my first whippet and he was originally added to the home as a companion for me to help me with my recent diagnosis of m.e. Marley ended up developing a lot of behaviour problems that would lead me down the path of becoming a dog trainer & Behaviourist. 

The first photo of Marley I took!

Being a whippet he was the perfect companion for my physical symptoms, able to walk when I can manage and happy to nap when I needed to rest. He helped me out enormously as my health began to improve and life became a bit more straight forward in that respect.

After spending 12 years with 4 dogs in total, adding Ollie, Womble , Arthur life suddenly looks a bit quieter. 

Left to right - Womble, Arthur, Marley & Ollie

These days it's just me and Arkle. Arkle is my 4yo whippet and my chronic illness buddy at this point, he also has some pretty complex behaviour problems in addition. I've had Arkle from a puppy, but having a dog from a puppy doesn't prevent issues unfortunately! 

Arkle suffers with LTV1, start of spondylosis, a protruding disc, osteoarthritis and a history of Immune mediated polyarthritis and relapses of this. The pain associated has caused him to have a lot of very strong feelings about dogs. He is cautious, confrontational and emotional around dogs, as he has been jumped on, harassed and attacked. This has caused some reactivity issues that we continue to manage.

The link between pain and behaviour continues to grow and dogs like Arkle are the living epitome of it. A bad pain day creates an Arkle who is unrecognisable in behaviour to a no pain day. 

Arkle has spent much of his life in and out of vets with me fighting to get diagnosis', in our experience unfortunately vets are unfortunately very inexperienced with sighthounds and don't understand their shut down at vets and are poor at reading their gait, it's a story for another day! But it has taken 4 years to get many answers, and I still suspect we don't have them all. We have started to acccept and deal with what he has for now though.

At the start of the year I ended up hospitalised due to a diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis. During this time I became very weak and had to close my local business, Wagging Wonders. Life feels very much like where it was with Marley originally, me being weak, unwell and looking after a complex little Whippet with it.

Arkle likes to be the centre of attention!

Since being in hospital, life has been quieter, as we get back to some normality. Arkle has needed his exercise rebuilt as much as mine, he's found me being ill quite stressful too. If I return from a frequent hospital drs or hospital visit with bloods taken it distresses him and he'll stalk me with concern for hours. 

As he's spent much of his life in and out of vets and off and on restricted exercise, there will be much focus on the average stuff pups and teens deal with, as much as the more complex reactivity and fears. 

He was put on immunosuppressives young and had impa for a long period before diagnosed, which seems to have effected him mentally with maturity. Unlike my other whippets at the same age he's often mistaken for a puppy with his mannerisms and conduct and he's not particularly mature at all! 

So what are we blogging about? Well I'm taking a slower pace at life and work, and focusing on my health and Arkles, so I have the time to post more about Arkle and his “everyday adventures”. 

I'll be posting about his progress with his Reactivity, his general training and enjoyment of the world around him. As well as what lead Arkle to some of his behaviours and how we manage or modify them ( and why we might decide to manage Vs modify some of them) I'll also post about the realities of living with dogs with anxieties, reactivities, pain and such, as I believe there's alot of silence on the topic and how it effects us humans as well as the rough journey it can be for us to handle. 

I'll try and update this regularly , I hope you enjoy the blog 🐾

Arkle offering some eye contact on our walk!