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TKR Smarttoys recovery

Good luck with the agility competition. I'm sure you'll do well. I have Xrays of my knee but I've haven't posted them year. I'm still fighting to get my old PC working to read the disk. I can see a large difference between where your kneecap and mine is. I'm going to need a revision to fix it.
 
@newlybionic I'm still hoping you can figure out a way to post them. I've been interested in looking at them after I heard your bad news.

They just printed out all my x rays at my last appointment and gave them to me. I took a picture of three of them with my phone.

Wishing the best for you on your future revision and for your daughter.

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We had a good first day at the dog agility competition the weekend. Buddy and I had two qualifying runs and two 1st place finishes out of three runs. The run that we didn't qualify or place in was my fault. I didn't direct Buddy very well and I couldn't move fast enough around the course to compensate for my poor or mistimed commands. I'm happy with two out of three considering it wasn't long ago that I was worried I would never be able to compete in agility again due to the TKR. I'm pretty happy being I'm less than 8 weeks out of surgery. It gives me hope for when I'm fully healed.

The day did wear me out a bit and I'm a little stiff and sore this evening. I arrived early to help the owner get set up for the weekend. Hopefully some icing and elevation will take care of it by tomorrow. I have two more days of agility trials to go with 5 to 6 runs each day. My daughter will be running Buddy on Sunday. I think I will enjoy the break.
 
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Congratulations John!! That is great - AND on your new knee!! Are you and your daughter staying at a hotel or are the trials near home? I hope you get your swelling and stiffness under control and have a great time tomorrow.
 
@KarriB Buddy is a mutt. His adoption papers say Lab/Collie mix. I'm assuming Yellow Lab but I don't know what type of Collie. Maybe they just guessed on his breed. He's a fairly big dog (75lbs) and isn't built well for agility but he's a quick learner and he has fun. He had a surgery on his right knee about a year ago for a luxating patella due to a deformity of his leg. They cut the knee cap groove deeper and relocated the lower patella tendon. He has quite a nice scar from that. I should post a picture of that sometime.:)

@Timetolive Janis, thank you. The competition is local so hopefully I will get a good night sleep in my own bed and be ready for tomorrow.
 
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Borders are great at agility, but I'm not sure if Piper is too old. She's nine.
 
@referee54 Buddy's luxating patella problem started about two years ago. His knee cap would only pop out of place occasionally when he was running around and playing with other dogs. At first it didn't happen very often and it would go back in place on it's own. I decided that it was time for surgery when it started happening more frequently and the knee cap would not go back in place by itself. I had to push it back over by hand quite a few times.
 
@KarriB Yes, Border Collies are some of the best at agility. If I were to get a dog in the future with running agility in mind a Border Collie would be high on my list. There are quite a few senior dogs still competing at the trials I go to but I think many of them have been running for most their lives. They get more time to complete the courses and get to do lower jump heights compared to younger dogs. I jump Buddy at the lowest jump height I am allowed to take it easy on his body.
 
She runs to catch all day long, both frisbees and balls. All the kids played soccer, so she learned how to dribble a ball with her nose. Piper is the only dog I've seen actually watch a soccer game. I think if she could talk she'd say, "put me in, coach".
 
Congrats on a first good day with the agility trials. Both Buddy and you are doing really well. I hope you do well the rest of the weekend too.
 
@KarriB Do you have any agility trainers that teach classes in your area? Piper may enjoy that. I took Buddy to agility classes two years ago just for fun. He took to it really fast. I took classes and trained him for a year or so but I never really planned on competing with him. I didn't think he was built right for agility. After watching some agility competitions I found out that agility dogs come in all shapes and sizes. I see dogs as small as four pound Chihuahuas to tall Afghan Hounds and everything in between. Many people just do it for fun and exercise.

@newlybionic Thank you Marian
 
I'll have to check my area, especially if I retire in June. My niece has a year old border and is looking into agility for her, but she lives about two hours away. Here's her pup, Nora.
[Bonesmart.org] Smarttoys recovery
 
@KarriB Nora looks like a nice Border. Make sure your niece knows that you need to wait to train puppies on jumps until they are over 10 months old and start out low. Dogs also have to be over 18 months old before they can compete. There is a lot your niece can teach Nora right away like basic handling skills and low contact obstacle training. She can also get her running through jump uprights with no bar up just to teach the obstacle. A person can make most agility obstacles with hardware store materials. My back yard is full of it.
 
referee54 said:
Do not feel at all guilty about reporting progress---we love to see that---and it gives others who may be struggling at the moment help in that they know that they will get there, too. Having a TKR is all about returning to "normal"!
Click to expand...

And for us anticipating our TKRs this year, we need to hear good news, too! It takes away some of this awful fear we have. Reading about nothing but problems makes me hesitant about going through with it. But, reading your good report gives me hope!
 
Thanks for the info, John. Nora is 16 months old, so training will be ok for her. She's fast and a great jumper based on how high she'll go to catch. Her ears are floppy, compared to Piper's which are up all the time.
 
We have a 13 year old Sheltie and when she was a pup we had her in training for agility until she broke her hip and had to have surgery to have it repaired. That ended her agility career. She's now happy being a couch potato.
 
@jojo9610 how did your sheltie break her hip?

Here's a picture of my back yard. It's hard to get everything in one picture.

I'm doing well so far at the agility trials today. Three qualifying runs and three first place ribbons. Two more runs to go. Buddy must be tired from yesterday or he slowed down some to match my speed. Either way he is paying attention to me very well so far.


[Bonesmart.org] Smarttoys recovery


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Congratulations on the ribbons so far! Amazing back yard. Our two shelties (BJ & Sadie) were rough housing running through the house when one chased the other into the office. Sadie slipped on the plastic mat that was under the office chair and her leg went under her and she snapped her hip right at the joint. She was 10 months old when she had to have surgery to repair it. The vet said there would be no way she could do agility after that.
 
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