Bailey's 2008 Trials and Tribulations

2008 has been a tough year for Bailey. In just our second competition of the year it became apparent Bailey wasn't as indestructible as I have always thought. I first noticed it when trying to get a few pictures of Bailey jumping over before we went out for our freestyle routine. He wouldn't jump over me. He kept angling to jump over me legs. That was weird, but I thought he was just being obstinate.

But then we took the field for our freestyle round.

Bailey was going crazy, as usual, before the music started. But once the tunes began it was quickly apparent something was wrong. Bailey didn't run hard after tosses. His tail was down while he ran, and then he refused to do a couple tricks. That was it! Bailey refusing to catch a disc!??! I stopped mid-way though the routine. Our day was done.

The weird thing was, he wasn't really showing any discomfort or soreness, other than his tail was down.

Well, the next few months proved to be very difficult for us. Bailey was definitely showing signs of discomfort, especially in the mornings and evenings. We took about a month and a half off of doing any frisbee work. Let me tell you, this was a very difficult feat to accomplish with Bailey the crazed disc hound, literally hounding me daily to play with him.

During this time we also tried out for the TV show, "Greatest American Dog". The casting people LOVED Bailey via his website and asked us to come on done for an interview. We went down and they really seemed to like Bailey and I. They asked us to come down to a media event where they took video of us inside and out doing backflips and stuff. They all but assured us that we were going to be in the show. But there was one little snag. The year before, ABC hired a production company to put together a pilot of the EXACT same show concept called, "America's Top Dog". When I say EXACT, I mean it was the SAME show concept. Bailey and I went to those interviews and were selected to be in the pilot. They created 1 pilot episode of the show. It was a blast! If they had used this cast and this competition idea in the actual show, it would have been soo much more interesting (Not because of me, but the others were great, well-trained, dogs and interesting owners). There was an immunity challenge of a Calendar Photo shoot, and a physical challenge of a HUGE multi-path maze the dogs had to run through! We stood on a platform above the maze and had to try to direct our dogs through the maze (we had no idea what the competition was until we got there). The maze had spinning platforms, waterfalls, water filled pits, underground tunnels, powerful winds tunnels, plastic ball filled pits, hallways with sticks criss-crossing this way and that that the dogs had to navigate, and finally a big mirror room with meaty dog bones everywhere in which you had to get your dog to push a button that would open an escape door. There were 3 doors, two of which opened on to smoke filled tunnels, and one open onto stairs that lead right up to the owner. They had this camera on a crane that tracked the dogs progress through the maze. For each dog the camera m=would move slow and stop at the place where the dogs would eventually get stuck. Out of 6 dogs, I think only 3 made it all the way through. The funny thing was when it was Bailey's turn, he just FLEW through the whole maze. Nothing really bothers him. The camera was like, zip, zip, zip, blam Bailey was in the final mirror room. Literally 15 seconds (the other dogs that made it thorugh took about 5 to 7 minutes). In the spinning platform room that had these thin wood rods sticking up on the platform, supposed to be obstacles, that Bailey just snapped like twigs as he ran through them. Funny! After we were done, they made me take Bailey back into different parts of the maze and told me to, "Make him look confused". LOL.

As for the casting of "America's Greatest Dog" I am pretty sure they had to choose between me with Bailey and JD with Galaxy as the disc dog representative of the show. They didn't let me know until the VERY last day of final cuts, the same day that I found a copy of and sent them the contract I signed for the ABC pilot. My lawyer said there was NOTHING in the contract that would be a problem for the new show. But I have a feeling they had two good frisbee (well-trained) dog options, and they decided to go with the option with less complications. I understand the decision. And when all was said and done, it was good that we didn't make it on the show. Bailey would have been sore during the whole show.

Our next attempt was at the UFO Major in La Mirada. I decided we would only try a little Toss & Fetch and Bailey was looked real good in the first round scoring a solid 10 points. But it was just TOO DAMN hot! The temperature was easily over 105 degrees. So after watching Bailey lacklusterly chase my first toss, I called it quits on the day, and the weekend.

It was becoming apparent to me that Bailey's future in competition was going to necessitate intervention on my part in the way of activity management. You see, when playing at home with Bailey he was still a monster! Crazed in his enthusiasm, and he still had all the skills. But when we were at a competition all day, he seemed to be more affected in his enthusiasm and discomfort. Especially after a competition.

We ended up taking another 2 months off of competition to try and heal, and for me to assess if competition was still in Bailey's best interest. He loves to play! He loves to run! He loves to compete! I mean his favorite game is standing five feet from you while you try to kick a tennis ball past him. It's all about the competition! The eyes lock, the tail stands straight up, the muscles strain, and then he explodes to block/catch the ball. It's amazing, he sees the angle of the foot, which side of the ball the foot is likely to hit, and he jumps early. Almost ALWAYS the right direction. It's a blast trying to trick him. HE LOVES COMPETITION.

Well, this was a VERY rough two month hiatus as somehow, we still don't know how it happened, Bailey ruptured the lining of his lung, spilling air into his chest cavity. This is typically a trauma related injury, but the fact is we weren't doing much of anything because I was trying to rest his leg and back. So when it first presented, it seemed like he was just sick. He had low energy and his eyes looked watery and long. I just assumed he had the flu. Had I known what it was, a LACK of OXYGEN, I would have rushed him to the hospital (folks, he almost died!). Then he started feeling better, so we went to the park and I tossed the ball to him for a few minutes, and BLAM, he was right back to where he was when it all started. At this point, I knew something was seriously wrong. We had chest x-rays taken and at first we though it was pneumonia. We sent the x-rays off to a specialist and he came back with a pneumo-thorax injury diagnosis. Possibly trauma induced. So at this point, he was under strict orders of NO ACTIVITY AT ALL for at least 2 to 3 weeks, along with a regimen of anti-biotics. Now if you know Bailey at all, you will understand how major a task that turned out to be. But we did it. Nothing for 3 weeks. The doctor said that with Bailey's young age, and the shape that he was in, he should be able to heal this up on his own. And sure enough, he heal amazingly! Not only was his breathing back to normal, but the 3 weeks of NO activity appeared to allow his leg and back to get the complete rest they needed as well.

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As a little side note:
I have VPI Pet Insurance. The initial diagnosis that was turned in fro the VET was for Pneumonia. But after the specialist looked at the x-ray they realized it was the rupture of the lung, and not Pneumonia. After 45 days of waiting VPI denied all my additional VET bills because they said it was too excessive for a Pneumonia diagnosis. I explained to them that it wasn't Pneumonia and they said, "have the vet send us all his records, and we'll adjust the claim accordingly". My vet sent them all the records, and after ANOTHER 45 days, they denied it again! Saying that Pneumonia didn't necessitate all the procedures. Ugh... I caled them directly and tried to explain, they said I could resubmit again and wait another 45 days for an answer!!! But I couldn't talk to anyone making the decisions. Then a few weeks later I get a reimbursemnent check from VPI, for... Wait for it... Wait for it... $0.01. Yes, that is 1 penny!!!! Such Bull! I don't even know how to respond to that. I haven't yet.
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We headed out to Colorado for the CCC (Colorado Canine Challenge) and Quadruped with little to no expectations. We just love the event and people in Colorado, and I love the drive through the Rockies.

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The previous year I ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere. There is this strecth as you leave UTAH and head into Colorado that there is literally NOTHING for about 150 miles. My phone had no signal. I luckily rolled into a rest stop, with no gas. And as fortune would have it, the lady who cleans the restroom 3 times a week happened to be there with a heavy-duty cell phone. Amazingly, once we contacted AAA, there were there withing 20 minutes with gas! They don't respond that quick to Santa Monica!
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The first day was great, we didn't do anything special on DAY #1, partly due to the torrential rains and thunder and lightening for the first half of the day and partly due to the fact that we hadn't done any real work on our routine for close to 5 months. Bailey put up a respectable 11.5 in Toss and Fetch, and our freestyle wasn't anything to be remembered. Except, that Bailey was able to do the freestyle, so I will remember it forever. I has so happy and proud of him!

DAY #2 brought us the Quadruped. Last year Bailey and I luckily weaseled our way into the finals and grabbed a 3rd place trophy in the Quadruped. This year we didn't expect anything but to have fun. They Disc Dog gods took pity on us this year and handed us a 2nd place trophy! You can read more about this in the Disc Dog Events section of the site.

So with this very successful competition under our belts we confidently looked forward to the UFO Local in Lancaster that was coming up two months later as our next try, that would be the introduction to a Disc Dog filled month!

It was here that I realized Bailey, even though he seemed to be, was not the puppy he looked to be. After a decent freestyle round, bailey seemed to slow down in the toss & fetch event. "What is wrong!" I thought. I was very dissapointed and strongly considered an early retirement for my pup, from competition. If he wasn't having fun, then it wasn't worth doing. But then a though hit me. Perhaps I was the problem. I had never really rested Bailey before at competitions. I mean, I didn't run him into the ground, but he would never be put in a crate between rounds. I would walk with him everywhere. To meet and visit. To get lunch. He was my buddy, and he came everywhere with me. It dwaned on me that perhaps I was wearing him out so that by the time his second round was upon us, he just was plain tired.

So I made the decision to go to Northern California, for the Crusty Classic, and try an experiment. I was going to COMPLETELY rest Bailey before, between, and after his rounds. This was a two day event, so this would be quite a test.

Well, the results were two of his best freestyle performances, where he had a chance at a 2nd place finish on Day #1, if I didn't throw our first Toss and Fetch throw right into the ground. And on Day #2 he had a chance at first if only I could throw 25 yards to a bullseye. We got one bullseye, but on the last throw he was just too fast and outran the toss. The point here is he was flying! Enthusiasm, speed, and a tail flying hi as he was in heaven.

Bailey's Back! And we're looking forward to the AWI in little over 1 week.

See ya all there!