@jerry - OMD - Really looking forward to reading up on Shilo and Dexter’s stories! That’s the amazing thing about science - because of the cumulative efforts of so many researcher and participants you get this long chain of contribution stretching to todays efforts and advances and beyond that into the future… I’m also looking forward to following up on the translational/comparative links you sent!

Re: the doggie windows - Yes, I’d never seen them before either! Her regular oncologist and primary vet don’t have them. Truth be told, it’s hard to say what she found so interesting as it looked out into the nearly empty, cavernous lobby. (A lobby that looked a bit like a cross between some sort of high end spa and and a sci-fi research facility where you might present yourself to be cryogenically frozen. It was a curious place.)

As far as being a fear-free design, I’m not sure as I’ll have to look into the details of what that means. What they did do which was pretty cool was only take June away into the back treatment areas for the minimum time to do the tests or treatment, but then brought her back to us whenever there needed to be a pause between things. In this way she always had bits of decompress-time with us between things. And any basic vitals they could do in the exam room with us, or with minimal contact, they did.

@mischief & Karen - yes, it’s hard to see it in the photo, but there is definite evidence around the window frame of “damned minds lost.” Truth be told, if the right kind of dog had come along, June would have had words too. Ideally, there would be a way to slide it shut for dogs who would be stressed out by it. (Maybe they have other rooms with solid doors?!?)

Karen - I’ve always admired Caira Sue’s photo - so athletic! Really cool to hear about her earlier contributions as a Dog of Science. Is HO Hypertrophic Osteopathy? Is the trial she was in similar to or related to one I recently heard about coming out of U Penn? …sorry to say, I don’t know details other than that it was related to treating children.

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Yesterday and today our backyard became a proprioception masterclass. In the fall our black walnut tree drops most of it’s baseball-sized, flesh-covered nuts in the space of about two to three days, and most of that happened in the past two!

Also, check out that beefy leg! We used to call June “chicken legs” because of her twiggy, stilt-like legs, but now she’s got quite a drumstick on her!

OMD, my pleasure! 🤣🤣🤣

@mischief - yes, I’m really tempting the fates with that move. I’ll tell you if/when it bites me in the bum.

Good question about the two boards. Some of the exercises she’s learned use two solid boards so we use both of them then. She also first learned to pivot (front feet on board, hind foot hoping 360 around the board) and other front-feet-only skills on the Cato board because it was smaller, and then does some all-legged gait collection exercises on the aero step (all legs on from the end, all legs of from the side - both sides).

Beyond that there could be more uses/differences but we’re still learning. During the second session with our CCRT I just asked if there was a basic set up that might get us through most things (having realized that the world of canine fitness equipment was...large) and this was the set she recommended so the cool thing is, she designs all Junes tasks to work with this set. That said, if we’d had to work with a slimmer set, I’m sure she could have totally done that too.

@jerry - she’s pretty happy to work for kibble in familiar environments (like home and the yard). In fact during recovery when her appetite was poor we could sometimes trick her into eating by making her do really modest things like “touch.” It seems that to her, food tastes better when she earns it. (Total working dog at heart.) In harder or new environments we definitely use higher value things.

Yes - June gets a puzzle a day too and would beg for it if we didn't give it, so I know the feeling of spreading a modest amount of kibble over a lot of activities! I feel you about the overfeeding. We had to do a lot of tweaking post-amp to find the right food level for her again.

I envy your habit of feeding veg - that’s so great. June’s never really been into plant material other than grass, but after watching that video with Ranger’s story that you linked in the Yale Vaccine blog post, I’m inspired to try that fellow’s approach of beginning with cooked (some of which I know she will eat!).

@mischief - June definitely thought both the Fitbone and balance board were some strange new evil when she met them.

In fact the reason we “accidentally” ended up with a Fitbone rather than a Fitdisc is that at the very first consult our CCRT introduced us to a few exercises (most of which June would not do there on the spot) and it became apparent to me that the Fitbone she introduced was going to be the biggest issue for June (she would barely go near it!), so I ordered one and we spent from then until the next session (three weeks) gradually getting her to be near it, touch it, put a paw on it, briefly stand on it…etc. We finally nailed it on the last day before the next session. The balance board was a similar story.

Our CCRT likes the balance board because it is a more isolated, less random movement that you can further control with side props, so for a nervous dog it could be the better way to go if you do decide to splash out on one.

I loooove Clean Run. (Sealed with a pooch smooch!) The first trainer we ever worked with introduced us to them. June’s bunny fur tug (discontinued it appears) and harness are both early purchases from there. I even bought a pack of pelts to periodically re-fur the tug, as she similarly liked to strip it. OMD, I’d love to see their warehouse.

It's one of the weird parts of having a young tripawd - she is likely in the best physical condition that she ever will be in her life right now. 

@mischief - yeah I suppose with so many stories here of dogs becoming tripawds in later life, and often via cancer, there’s a definite contrast when your day-to-day tripawd experience is with such a young, healthy dog!