11 Months Old!

I can't believe Izzy is already 11 months old!

This time last year, we were waiting eagerly for her to be born. She is an amazing young dog. I love that she loves all people and animals. I find it amazing how she modifies her playstyle to fit whoever she is playing with.

I love how curious she is about everything around her. Her joy and exuberance makes me smile. Check out how happy she is to go to daycare:

Izzy is holding steady at 64.8 pounds. She just graduated from Dog 3 and did great. She is able to walk by other dogs and pay attention to me in class. Her biggest challenge was leaving my muffin alone the last day of class lol. That surprised me as she has never tried to get our food at home. Definitely something to work on as that would not work for therapy visits. She got to pick a toy at graduation and chose a heart. So perfect!

We have been spending Sunday mornings with the Training Spot team doing pack walks to prepare for Bark in the Park on May 17th. This is a fundraiser for our local humane society. I didn't plan on doing the actual walk as I didn't think Izzy was ready, but she's surprised me and we are going to try! I decided to try a gentle leader with her to help with the pulling and it has really helped. It's something we will wean off of but for now, it has been a lifesaver. If you'd like to sponsor Izzy and help homeless dogs and cats, here's our fundraising page: https://www.facebook.com/share/1LAe618FFF/

We have had a few challenges as well. Izzy had her first two health scares. After losing both of my last goldens suddenly, I really am scared of losing Izzy that way.

About a month ago she vomited small pieces of plastic. She has not tried to eat anything inedible and we watch her carefully. We didn't recognize the pieces. Thankfully, that was it and she was back to normal. All we can come up with is she may have eaten something another dog vomited at daycare before anyone could see. We could see that happening if it had a lot of food matter.

Then about a week later, Izzy started drooling. It was minimal at first, but she had never drooled before. About a week later, she started drooling excessively. There were puddles wherever she rested. After about 30 seconds on the couch, it was dripping from it. I was now thoroughly scared. There was nothing in her mouth, her salivary glands were not swollen and she didn't seem nauseous. In hindsight, she was quieter but otherwise normal with her usual good appetite. Our vet worked us in. He couldn't find anything on examination. Bloodwork was normal. He did a quick ultrasound in case she had something in her stomach...nothing. He performed his magic with some manual therapy but was not optimistic it would help. He thought it could be a limbic seizure. OK, now I was really scared. She had Simparica Trio on Saturday...did it cause a seizure? She had a new batch of puppy booster for her cooked food...was there something wrong with it?

The next morning it just stopped. It has not returned. Did Dr. Fricke fix her? He's amazing so maybe he did. Was it the Simparica Trio and the level decreased enough for the seizures to stop? We have added back the food and there were no issues. For now, I am putting her on a topical for flea/ticks. After working in cat rescue and seeing all the awful things fleas and ticks can cause, we need to ensure she doesn't have them. With a very mild and dry winter and there already being a problem with both where we live, we will need to figure out something that works.

I did a special photoshoot to mark 11 months old and will publish them in a separate post as there was so much to include in this one.