The Results

So I spent some time yesterday getting the little video together. This short video is just about engaging your dog while taking photos.  I tried to show what I do and the photos that result.

Coulee did a pretty good job with the video and I discovered I could crop (aka zoom in) so that helped.  I wasn't really sure what the view of the camera was as I hadn't played with it much, but it is quite wide so if I ever do this again, I will probably call her in closer so I won't need to edit the video so much.

Coulee's self inflicted rules really help make her a pretty good camera dog.  She doesn't believe in stealing toys so if Lacey and I are tugging she usually just stands or lays down and waits for us to finish (she knows it never lasts long).  The only time I asked her to stay was when I threw the frisbee for Lacey.  Other than that, she didn't need any directions from me at all. :)

Sorry it is so itty bitty.  I don't know how to make it bigger and making it full screen looks horrible, so I don't recommend that either.

Underpaid Employees

I think I'm doing a talk on Pet Photography at the end of the month.  (I say think, because I haven't actually seen the event advertised yet... LOL).  Anyway, I decided I should be prepared and not toss it together last minute.  I don't think that anything that I do is very complicated or hard to figure out so I have to have time to come up with stuff that people may not already know so they aren't bored to tears.  :)

For part of the presentation, I decided to try and show people what I do, and what pictures you get as a result.  The problem is that it is hard to videotape yourself, especially when your models are moving and could be anywhere at any time.  So I recruited Coulee to be the videographer...

And Lacey to be the model.

We went out yesterday for our first attempt.  We had a few technical difficulties (the damn camera keeps shutting off mid-record), Coulee often watched from a distance and Lacey wasn't feeling very spunky but there is some stuff I can use.

I didn't want to leave the camera on Coulee when Lacey wasn't doing anything as it gets in the way when she runs, but Lacey's spunk was so short-lived that often by the time I tossed the camera around Coulee's neck, Lacey was ready to take a break. LOL.  We got some useable footage and now I just need to figure out how to edit it into what I want. And I hate editing video - I don't know what I'm doing.

Because Coulee was on a restricted diet for so long, I've gotten used to never bringing treats on walks so Lacey was thrilled when I broke out the cookies.

It was super interesting to watch the girls disengage when I brought my camera to my face.  Lacey would be looking up at me expectantly and if I took photos "from the hip" (i.e without looking) she wouldn't alter her expression, but if I brought my camera up to my face, she instantly looked away.  I've got it on tape twice for Lacey and even once for Coulee (Lacey wore the camera briefly but she sulked horribly with it on).  I've noticed their behaviour change before (especially with Coulee as she knows the toy isn't about to be thrown when the camera is up and will often change her ear set) but it was neat to see on video.

It was also interesting to see (and think about) the different expressions based on what I was doing to get their attention.  Once I started dropping cookies, this is the look Lacey gave me -

Funny, but not nearly as nice and relaxed as this next one where she wasn't quite as excited -

Anyway, I think it has been a good experience for me to think about what I do, why I do it, and what results from it.  I'll post video footage as soon as I have time to go through it.

New Years Day Walk

According to Jo it was our 4th annual New Years Day walk with the dogs.  I'll take her word for it as I can never keep track of these things.  I have trouble remembering how old I am!

It was a "small crowd" of only 8 dogs but it was mayhem none-the-less.

Lacey was so excited to be among her friends she created a tad bit of chaos.  She became the centre of attention and we needed to bust out the toys to get the attention off of her.

Amanda arranged them all for a group shot. Perkins refused to participate.  LOL

It was fun as usual.  The girls haven't had a chance to socialize with anyone in a long time so it was nice to be able let them be around their friends again.

And it was nice to see Perkins braving the cold too.  We have been way too spoiled with good weather this winter!  -2 C felt horrible.  I'm not looking forward to -20 C...

Coulee's Pics

Pulling stills out of the video is definitely not the way to show off the quality of the camera but it was the best I could do with only 3.5 minutes of video during the most active part of our walk.

Coulee's New Job

Marlin bought me a helmet cam for Christmas.  :) So of course the first thing I had to do was figure out how to fashion it on to Coulee's collar.   I'm so excited - it is even water proof so she'll be able to take it in the river in the summer.  I need to go back to the drawing board though as this is way too swingy.    

And for some reason it turned itself off after 3.5 minutes.  The only still moments were when she was peeing and pooping.  LOL.  But I'm going to see if I can steal a few still images out of the video. Stay tuned!

Beautiful on the Inside

The continuing saga of Coulee's life...

When I last updated you on Coulee's feet, we had just started her on steroids.  At around the same time, we had started to notice that Coulee was getting thinner so we increased her food.  We didn't think she'd mind as the steroids should make her hungry.  Two weeks later, she was still getting thinner (or at least wasn't getting fatter) so we increased it a little more.  She is now eating almost 50% more calories than she was getting when she was healthy and exercising every day. A week ago, I started to panic.

I emailed the dermatologist and she suggested some blood work and a fecal exam.  She also asked if the steroids were making a difference.  They weren't, so we started to wean her off.  Apparently, if they were going to do something, they should have done it by then.  :(

Just as we started to wean her off the steroids Coulee became absolutely ravenous.  She was doing things she had never done before - raiding the "cat room", as well as getting into garbage cans.  We've had to treat her like a puppy and crate her whenever we can't watch her. For example, she has tried to get into the cat room 3 times since I started typing this and it is within sight of where I am so she isn't even being subtle about it.  She had her full dinner plus an extra 3/4 cup of kibble (the kibble alone used to be 1/2 a meal).  Yet she is still hungry enough to risk getting into trouble.

Monday we went in for the tests and Wednesday we got our first set of results. One of her liver enzymes (ALT) was high.  Really high.  It should be between 10-60, she was at 645.  Gulp!  Our local vet prescribed some pills to protect her liver and some anti-biotics as her white blood cell count was also elevated.  I forwarded the information to our dermatologist and she called within 30 minutes and suggested we come up ASAP for an ultrasound as her liver could be in trouble.

So Coulee and I hit the road today and got it done.  The good news is she looks beautiful on the inside.  There is no sign of any trouble on her liver, kidneys, spleen, etc.  She thinks Coulee may have ingested something toxic while raiding the garbages and this has caused the spike.  She is predicting things will look normal again in a month.  Yay!

The bad news is, this doesn't explain the weight loss or hunger (she is down to 55 lbs when she is normally in the low 60's despite a crap load of calories).  So she has suggested we switch Coulee to a high quality kibble as we know she does well on it. This makes me laugh as that is what we were on a year or so ago when we started this adventure.  Basically she has no idea what is causing this and is hoping that it is just her current diet.  We are still waiting on some lab results so there may be some news still to come.  Hopefully we'll hear more tomorrow.

The other bad news is that there is nothing more to try to fix her feet.  We've ruled out zinc deficiency, allergies, liver disease, and auto-immune (and something else too but I can't remember what it was).  It looks like we are just going to have to manage her pain when they get bad and deal with them the best we can.  This would normally make me very sad, but at the moment I'm just thrilled she isn't dying of a liver disease which is what I've been imagining for the past few days.

Hopefully we can fix her hunger pains so that life can get back to normal soon.

Oh and Coulee spent the whole two hours in the vet office and waiting room chewing on her baby Cuz toy.  I'm sure it drove the receptionists nuts (it sounds like she is chewing a very large wad of gum with her mouth wide open) but it kept her from shaking like a leaf like the dog on our left, or whining like a baby like the dog on our right.  :)  We also saw a very handsome Mastiff who made us all laugh by trying to log roll over to another dog all without breaking the down command his dad had given him.  It was seriously funny.

Moves Like Jagger

No good dance moves in this last one, but she got the wild hair of a rock star.  ;)