*sigh*
This afternoon we had a meet up at a park with some of the nosework people. It went well, we did several rounds of hides. Mia was superb! She did fantastically.
I decided to bring Summer since we were so far out from my house and near a huge lake and lots of trails. So I figured we'd go walk for a while after the nosework was done.
I drove over to the lake and it was down about halfway. A ton of the lakebed was exposed and we've gone down there in the past. So... I decided to take the dogs and let them run around on the sand. I get to the edge and unhook the leashes and walk down to the lake bed. I look back and Mia's limping. I figure she has a burr in her foot, which happens every now and then. We have those tiny grass burrs and Mia is a wimp. I pick her up and it's a massive burr like I had never seen. And then I realize they're all over her. In her ears, in her tail (her tail was actually caught to her side). Dozens and dozens of them. About 8 in her right ear fringe, which was all wrapped around every which way. I started trying to ease them out and she starts screaming. I probably got about 10 out of her hair but she was wailing like I'd never heard before and I realized the ones in her ears were just not coming out. It just wasn't fair to keep working on them so we went back to my car and I took some regular scissors out and just hacked the burrs out. When I say she has no ear fringe now, she has NO ear fringe now. At all. I will be honest, it almost made me cry. lol She also has about half the tail feathering and a big chunk out of her butt hair too.
and I had them stuck all over my shoes and pants.
We did end up going back to the lake and I carried them past the brush this time. They had a blast running around for nearly 2 hours. Mia had some major zoomies the entire time, so I think it was still worth it.
Oy.
burr2 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr
burr by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr
Now I've got a problem because I had to hack off all of Mia's right ear fringe and just part of her left ear fringe. Would you go ahead and just cut the rest of the left off? It looks kind of weird since they're so uneven now.
This afternoon we had a meet up at a park with some of the nosework people. It went well, we did several rounds of hides. Mia was superb! She did fantastically.
I decided to bring Summer since we were so far out from my house and near a huge lake and lots of trails. So I figured we'd go walk for a while after the nosework was done.
I drove over to the lake and it was down about halfway. A ton of the lakebed was exposed and we've gone down there in the past. So... I decided to take the dogs and let them run around on the sand. I get to the edge and unhook the leashes and walk down to the lake bed. I look back and Mia's limping. I figure she has a burr in her foot, which happens every now and then. We have those tiny grass burrs and Mia is a wimp. I pick her up and it's a massive burr like I had never seen. And then I realize they're all over her. In her ears, in her tail (her tail was actually caught to her side). Dozens and dozens of them. About 8 in her right ear fringe, which was all wrapped around every which way. I started trying to ease them out and she starts screaming. I probably got about 10 out of her hair but she was wailing like I'd never heard before and I realized the ones in her ears were just not coming out. It just wasn't fair to keep working on them so we went back to my car and I took some regular scissors out and just hacked the burrs out. When I say she has no ear fringe now, she has NO ear fringe now. At all. I will be honest, it almost made me cry. lol She also has about half the tail feathering and a big chunk out of her butt hair too.
and I had them stuck all over my shoes and pants.
We did end up going back to the lake and I carried them past the brush this time. They had a blast running around for nearly 2 hours. Mia had some major zoomies the entire time, so I think it was still worth it.
Oy.
burr2 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr
burr by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr
Now I've got a problem because I had to hack off all of Mia's right ear fringe and just part of her left ear fringe. Would you go ahead and just cut the rest of the left off? It looks kind of weird since they're so uneven now.