Our week got off to a very scary start when Able had a seizure in the wee small hours of Monday morning. It was a very surreal way to wake up, especially as he was completely fine a few minutes later, and it took me a good couple of hours to get back to sleep.
Our visit to the vet that morning did not give us any answers. He appears fine, so fingers crossed it was just a random once-off. If not, it’s possible that he could have epilepsy.
Even in my sleep-deprived state I managed to notice that Able was exceptionally well-behaved at the vet clinic. This has always been a place where he gets overexcited, and with the slippery floors things can quickly descend into chaos. We went to the clinic for a lunchtime every week this winter until the lockdown put an end to that, and it’s nice to see hard work paying off!
So that’s what scared me this week … what about Able?
The Wheelbarrow of Terror
A few weeks ago I bought a wheelbarrow. The previous owners of my house definitely had a “more is more” approach to gardens and after a lush spring, the place is now full of abundant life. Everywhere. There is a magnificent collection of thistles on the driveway, but at least some visiting family members helped me get rid of a 220kg climbing rose last month.
So I bought a wheelbarrow (and a few other things) to help me conquer the garden chaos. And when I carried the wheelbarrow in from the car, Able was rather alarmed by the noises it made.
Able is typically a pretty confident guy. I really wanted him to learn that random metallic bonging sounds are not scary, so I postponed the wheelbarrow assembly process until we had time to play Paws in a Box with the tray. It took a few minutes and lots of cookies for Able to feel comfortable with the sound of his legs bonging against the side of the tray, but he has now mastered his wheelbarrow phobia.
One of the key things I learned from my last dog Rik (who came off the farm for the first time at 2.5 years of age and was terrified of everything) was the importance of allowing dogs to explore things at their pace. Able was off lead throughout this session, while I was sitting in a chair. It wasn’t his usual meal or training time, so the cookies on offer were a nice bonus to his afternoon, rather than something he needed to get his daily calories. He spent a lot of time offering nose touches and paw touches on the sides of the tray before he was brave enough to actually step into it, and that was fine with me. Now that he’s discovered the funny noises don’t mean anything bad, and he’s happy to jump in and out.
The one thing I would do differently next time is put a towel in the bottom of the tray. I hadn’t realised how slippery it was until I got Rik out for her turn at wheelbarrow taming (she had cookie-related FOMO) and she was sliding all over the place trying to do spins and balancing tricks in it. Good traction makes for safer dogs.