And how is Henry?

Well as you can see he is happy. He has a lap and that always makes him happy :)

Last week he had another physio session and she said he is 'really juicey and springy and he has the suppleness of a puppy in his spine' so you can imagine I was very pleased to hear that cos it means that all the things we are doing are taking him in the right direction. He will always have a prolapsed disc above his sacral joint but he is enjoying good walks again 6 months after the original nail bed infection which the vet and the physio believe caused the disc to slip. After the initial diagnosis in June he had the steroids for two weeks and then he was drug free for 6 weeks, lots of rest and very short walks twice a week, before we began the therapies. He has had several acupuncture sessions. He has another of each in two weeks time. He is also having 2x200mg arnica tablets each week. And I have now a set of little stretch exercises to do with him which makes things fun as he is a fidget and as he has done so much clicker stuff he thinks my hands are signalling him to do tricks and moves so we make slow progress with the stretches!

Here he is with his bro and sisters (!) and two best mates on top of Hambledon Hill - a huge Iron Age fort that is one of many in Dorset:


You can see for miles. On a clear day you can see six counties. The little bump of trees on the horizon is the clump on top of Win Green I have written about. So that's two covered in that direction - Dorset and then Wiltshire:

Needless to say Henry will never do any jumping, weaves, A frame or long jump again so no more agility even if he is able to go for two hour walks (and in time even longer ones we hope). I don't meander on our walks so two hours of me walking is a really good walk (as Alison will testify!) After work today we went to walk on some chalk downland and I guess I covered nearly 4 miles in 1.5 hours. They are off leash for that time and Henry is not stiff or uncomfortable this evening. Sometimes we only do an hour and the odd day he just rests, so I mix it up for him. Jumping though involves extension, as does hydrotherapy (so that's out too) but he has been able to do the odd dog walk, seesaw and tunnel and poles on the ground in my field. I sneaked him into a practice ring to do exactly that (not telling where or when!). Tennis ball miraculously appears and he is so happy. I discussed this with the vet, Cheryl (acu) and Amanda (phys) and they all said I was doing the right thing giving him the mental and emotional satisfaction that he gets from being with Mom doing something agility.

And he still gets to do clicker things of course.

On first telling people he was retiring due to his back someone very nice said 'well done for making that decision' to which the response was 'well what other decision was there to make?' The cryptic reply? 'Well you'd be surprised..' Sadly, now almost 7 years into agility, I don't think I would be. Anyone looking at him around the rings will see a lean, fit dog who belies his 11 years. And that's the way I want to keep him.