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What can a dog with a false hip joint do?


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There's no way Vala is going to be ready to try something like this anytime soon (we need to finish heartworm treatment first, then do some more training), but I think I'd like to see working dogs in action, and I know there aren't many events around here so I thought I'd ask now so I wouldn't miss anything. Lately the more I watch Vala the more I've begun to suspect she was a working dog before she came to me, just based on her behavior. And yesterday I took Vala to an outdoor community fundraising event for a local animal rescue operation where I met a woman who flipped out when she met Vala and asked me where I got her and did she have a hip injury (she does). Then she introduced me to her dog, who looked almost exactly like Vala (same pointy nose and face, same eyes, very similar markings, even the ticking on her face and legs) but a little bigger. The lady, whose dog won the talent competition of this community event as the only BC competing, told me her dog had a sister who started off life in a bad place, really not being taken care of for six months, then was taken away and placed in a working home, where she got out almost immediately and broke her hip getting hit by a car, and then after working cattle for a couple years disappeared. The lady met this dog as an older puppy when she adopted her dog, and she said this dog looked just like Vala and was the smallest of the litter.

 

Now this is beside the point for this post but first let me say that she is NOT going back to this guy even if she is that dog for many reasons. When the lady first mentioned to me that she thought she knew Vala, and Vala might be someone else's dog, I almost threw up. Literally, I started to feel really sick... until I thought about it and remembered that she was legally "mine" and ethically probably shouldn't be given back anyway, if it was her, considering her condition and how she came to me. Vala was picked up by Animal Control and I adopted her through them. Plus she obviously wasn't being taken care of, as her heartworms were really bad before she started this treatment (not treating for heartworms = not cool in mosquitoland) and she hadn't been properly vetted (Vala's hip healed on its own, no surgery, false joint, so if this is the same dog he sure didn't get her surgery, just let her lay around for a couple months until it healed). Plus she was starving and had every kind of worm when Animal Control picked her up, so if this is the same dog either she was gone a long time from this guys home (and he stopped looking? why did she run away? she never runs from me, she is just so people-oriented and her recall to me is like 100%) or the guy really wasn't taking care of her the whole time she was there (and then when she disappeared he didn't check the pound? also, how can someone with a working dog not do any kind of deworming???)

 

Anyway, since she wasn't microchipped there's no way of knowing if she is that dog. But that conversation really got me thinking about things I can do with Vala down the road when she gets better, and in order to consider herding I'd like to see it first. So, several questions:

  1. Where are the closest / best sheepdog trials I could go and watch in Louisiana or east Texas?
  2. As an ignorant outsider, it seems like a bad idea to me to use BCs to work cattle, but I see there are cattle dog competitions in Louisiana, advertised on the stockdog trial announcements forum on this board, presumably for BCs. So what about that, BCs on cattle: bad idea? good idea? mediocre idea, only if necessary and the dog is really well trained?
  3. Can a dog with a natural false hip joint work sheep? what about agility? If not, are there other active "jobs" she could do that wouldn't exacerbate her past injury? I've already thought of therapy dog but in addition to greeting people she also really likes movement and I'd like to eventually have her doing something really active once a week, in addition to daily morning runs with me and frisbee and fetch sessions and squirrel watching in the backyard. Note: although I don't let her do too much right now because of the fact that we are doing the DOXY/IVM heartworm treatment, Vala can run like the wind and jump and everything. You wouldn't even know she had a false hip joint, if it weren't for the fact that you can see that one hip is slightly higher than the other on her back. That's why I had it x-rayed. She never limps or favors that leg.
  4. Is there anything I'm not considering?

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I met a dog at the Strang STD who was working her little heart out and found out after watching her that she has 2 hip replacements. The lady talked about needed a new kitchen and instead she got new hips for her dog but by golly you sure couldn't tell. This dog was amazing. She did say that if she gets cold or tired she could see some changes but heck if I get tried or chilly you can see changes in me and I got nothing artifical in my butt!

 

I think if it's done right the dog gets a normal life. But your wallet might never be the same.

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Now this is beside the point for this post but first let me say that she is NOT going back to this guy even if she is that dog for many reasons. When the lady first mentioned to me that she thought she knew Vala, and Vala might be someone else's dog, I almost threw up. Literally, I started to feel really sick... until I thought about it and remembered that she was legally "mine"

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The dog is legally yours as it came from the animal shelter - From what I remember of Ladybug's adoption contract, this PA shelter retained some rights to take the dog back if it is poorly cared for, or isn't spayed but never would it go back to the original owner.

 

Liz

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The dog is legally yours as it came from the animal shelter - From what I remember of Ladybug's adoption contract, this PA shelter retained some rights to take the dog back if it is poorly cared for, or isn't spayed but never would it go back to the original owner.

 

I know... that's what I remembered. Thank goodness! Or else I would still have that terrible sinking feeling in my stomach now! I only put the word "mine" in quotes because I'm a new age type who likes to think of herself as Vala's caretaker rather than "owner." :rolleyes: But thanks for underscoring that point! The further I am away from that sinking feeling the better!

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Vala is SO yours. :rolleyes:

 

When I first got Buddy, I actually worried that he had been someone's dog - maybe someone had loved him early on. He understood living in a house (despite being picked up as a "street dog"), never messed indoors, understood "no" and "sit," and in general just seemed like he understood and even craved a pet life. For maybe a month or so, I wondered what would happen if I found out he had an original owner, who had loved him and been looking for him. (I know, I know... but movie-like, I wondered, "What if they've been in a coma, and didn't know their dog had run from the scene of the accident!?") I thought that I would generously weep and give him back, content to have been the conduit for their reunion. Black Beauty, Lassie Come Home, all that.

 

After about a month, I stopped thinking that. Because Buddy was so completely mine, that even if an original owner who HAD loved him had turned up, it wouldn't have been a moral quandry. The dog belonged with me, period.

I suppose that if someone had walked up my driveway, and Buddy had turned himself inside out greeting them, and shown obvious signs of being "theirs," I would have still surrendered him. But I'm confident he would not do that. :D

 

Mary

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Find USBCHA herding trials here.

 

Yes, BCs can work cattle. See Anna's website: Stockdogranch

 

A fun and useful activity you might consider doing with Vala is tracking. Do a search - it's been discussed here from time to time. (Tracking is not the same thing as SAR. You can do tracking as a game, with as little or as much commitment as you feel like. SAR is real work, and it is a very big commitment all around.)

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Thanks, Mary and everyone else for the moral support about her not going anywhere!

 

Also thanks for the suggestions about tracking! I will look that up.

 

Have you talked to your vet about her hip?

 

Yes. He basically said it looks "pretty good" then asked if I was ever thinking about doing dog sports with her. At the time I shrugged because she had shown no inclination toward anything like that. So he said yeah, she might go her whole life without ever needing surgery, or maybe it might only become an issue when she got old. He said to let him know if she ever started limping or favoring that leg. But as is there was no reason to break her false-joint hip to do a surgery that might or might not work because she obviously wasn't in pain and could run and jump and play just fine as is. I assume something really active like agility might cause her to need surgery one day. Herding, I don't know? Tracking, probably not... I'll read up on that. And I'll ask him about how bad her hip handicaps her next time we're there for the heartworm stuff.

 

Oh and thanks for the herding links! I see some Texas sheep trials. And some Louisiana cattle trials in the summer. I think I might try to catch that one next time around... I can't imagine *her* intimidating a cow!!! Maybe she wasn't a very good cattle herder and that's why she was being neglected. She's GREAT on squirrel, but cattle... I can't imagine! Of course right now, she's still somewhat sick...

 

Anyway thanks again everyone!

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