Good times… and hard times…

Abby is four weeks post-amputation and healing beautifully. She can run and jump and play and do so many things that she wasn’t allowed to do all summer while we were trying to figure out what was wrong with her leg. We’ve taken her to the dog park a few times and it’s great to see her just be a puppy all over again. At first, she was submissive and crouched whenever an exuberant dog came near, but she has her 3 puppy legs solidly on the ground now and is ready to play with anyone.

That being said, there are also a ton of challenges. She had just turned one when all this started and then she spent the last few months just chilling (with the help of medication). The good news is that she’s nearly off all of her medication; the bad news is that she still has her old puppy ways and probably some new bad habits she picked up along the way. In particular, she needs to relearn how to walk on a leash – and I need to learn how to manage it without ruining her balance when I correct her. Since her surgery, I’ve been using the retractable leash which I know isn’t good for training, but it gave her a little leeway to explore–until she chomped off the leash in one solid bite when we were out today. Back to rottweiler-proof leashes. Speaking of rottweiler-proof, we did just get an awesome new orthopedic crate pad from K9Ballistics. Four days and she still hasn’t destroyed it!

She also now knows that we actually can carry her up the stairs so she no longer wants to walk up them–ever. I was going to post an awesome video of her running up all 4 flights, but the file is too big for this site. It is also a rare event. Just because she can do stairs doesn’t mean that she will do them.

In short, every day has high highs and low lows. There are moments when she amazes me with her adaptability and then there are moments when this journey seems very, very hard. But how can you not love that face and those puppy kisses?