Should I quit agility with Summer?

Laurelin

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#1
I cannot decide. It's been weighing on me since monday.

Short version is Summer is having some seizures. 1 every 2 months. We are trying anti-seizure drugs. In between seizures she's normal most the time. She goes through some weeks where she doesn't have much interest and other weeks she has a blast. The last trials we were at she did really well. She is definitely slowing down but she's going on 11 and it may just be that vs her health.

We don't know what the issue is with her and if her neurological issues will get worse. There is a possibility of a brain tumor. The diagnostics have come back very inconclusive so far.

I told my trainer we would rest a week or two at least but may not be back and she offered to put the money I'd paid to Hank's classes. My options are either just stop and let her stay home, continue taking her to classes, or drop classes but let her play at ring rentals and maybe TDAA trials if she's up for it.

It's a sucky decision either way. So.. basically would you retire her based on a seizure every 2 months for the last 6 months?
 
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#2
I wouldn't - except maybe temporarily if she's a bit groggy from her drugs at first. It's not like you're going to make the seizures worse or really gain anything from resting her. The chances of a seizure happening at the exact moment that she's on the teeter or something are pretty slim, it would be a risk I'd take.
 

Fran101

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#3
My rule when I'm on new seizure meds (Summer and I are soul sistahs) is that unless I feel physically I can't do the thing I usually do (like too drowsy from new meds), to keep up business as usual.

So unless she isn't feeling up to agility, I would let her enjoy it :)
 

Snark

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#4
If she enjoys it, I'd keep going, just so she can have fun and schmooze with her admirers. I retired Patch from competition at 12 but I belonged to a club that had Sunday morning practices unless the weather was bad, so I'd take her just to play on the equipment and see her friends (dog and human).
I have enough equipment at home to set up a small course, and I'd put the bars practically on the ground so Patch do an 'old lady' version of agility. She was still trotting around my mini courses at age 16.
 

Dekka

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#5
How does Summer feel about agility? Is she totally enthused or just happy to be doing something with you?

Dekka loves agility more than she loves food. But Bounce just loved to be doing things with me. If Summer is more like Dekka then yes I would say keep doing it and be careful. If she is more like Bounce was then I would wonder if just playing with ring rentals and just having fun might be the plan.
 

Julee

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I wouldn't - except maybe temporarily if she's a bit groggy from her drugs at first. It's not like you're going to make the seizures worse or really gain anything from resting her. The chances of a seizure happening at the exact moment that she's on the teeter or something are pretty slim, it would be a risk I'd take.
Agreed.
 
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#8
Let me put it this way: When Maisy tore her cruciate, my #1 goal for her was getting her back to mushing. And we're going through a lot of stuff to get her back there with surgery and rehab. It hasn't really crossed my mind to retire her at this point (if she tears the other one, it might be a different story).

Why - because I'm a high level competitor and I'm going to lose all my cherry advertising deals if she has to retire? No, because she loves it so much. I think this dog would rather mush than eat. If she hears me moving the scooter and then I take Squash out by himself, I can hear her howling and screaming halfway down the block. She is at her absolute happiest in an x-back in front of the scooter or skis.

So if Summer really enjoys it, just do it. You are not going to affect the course of her disease by doing agility. The main issue is safety, and you can always modify the obstacles she does in order to mitigate that risk of either a mid-run seizure or if she's impaired from her drugs.
 

Laurelin

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#9
So far she seems very normal but they told me she might be very groggy these first few weeks.

She likes agility but mostly does just love doing stuff with me and getting to see her agility friends. She has tons of admirers ;) She seems to love trials and a lot of classes just has a blast. Some weeks she's slower than others and not into it but that to me seems more age related than neurological issue related? Some weeks she just flies and has so much fun.

My goal even if we do find out it's a terminal type of thing is to just let her have as good a quality of life as possible for the rest of her time.

I've already dropped her down to doing one day at a trial vs doing a whole weekend. And thinking about just doing TDAA and not USDAA anymore since TDAA is slower and shorter courses. We've never been real super serious competitors so that's not even an issue lol.

Ring rentals are all Mia does now since her issues because I can modify them to what she can do. I'll still be taking Hank to them and Summer will come along so she can play on those as well.

Ack old dogs are hard. :(
 

Julee

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#10
Ack old dogs are hard. :(
Also agreed.

I think that even if you guys just drop in to classes and do ring rentals, you'll both be happy. It's clear from the videos I've seen that she really does love it, and like sass said, you can always modify stuff to keep her safe :)
 

Laurelin

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#12
I am still mulling this over. It is a hard choice to make.

She is not very lethargic from the anti-seizure meds like they warned me. I'm wondering if this means she won't ever be or if it still isn't completely in her system yet?
 

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