2015 was a mixed year. Ruger appeared to have a back issue, he started to duck out of weaves at no 10, so I had hime checked out and took some time away from agility, for rest and recuperation. It was nothing major. Brought him back to competition, towards the end of the agility season and he was running well, fitter and faster and listening more. We moved house to another country, North Wales :) so exciting times. With Ruger we started updating our skills and was enjoying doing so and looking forward to a prosperous 2016. In November 2015, Ruger qualified for Team GB at the FMBB (Belgian Shepherd World Championships) in France the following May. Two days after this he had a funny turn at agility, he didn't want to chase Zara around the arena, and when I asked him to jump he did but wasn't right, he spent the evening watching the other dogs do agility, lying at Deb's side and didn't once ask to take part. He normally would not let me train Zara without joining in. Following day he was ok, the vet could not find anything wrong with him, but gave him some painkillers and advised rest. 2 weeks later we started training again, no issues, he was keen and running really well. I had planned to rest him for January anyway before serious training in February to get ready for France in May. At Christmas he couldn't move, he was in lots of pain, took him to the local referral vets for xrays etc and they couldn't find anything wrong, his spine was perfect in lovely condition, no signs of wear and tear, they prescribed heavy duty painkillers and said to rest him. He seemed ok, but we asked for further investigation, an MRI scan showed he had a bulging disc in his neck. No one could say definitely if agility would harm him further, just maybe. We made the sad (for me) decision to retire him, but believe it was the best for him. He has adjusted well and is still a mad Mali that loves his toys and playing.
Zara was doing well, and at 9 years old was running better than ever, she was amazing. Then in January 2016, she had finished her run at training, ran to get her ball and her cruciate ligament ruptured :( We are lucky that our vet is a referral practice and has experts on hand 24/7 she had TPLO surgery and lots of physio. She is back fit and well, but I have retired from competitions as I wasn't happy that it was good for her. Could have been the cold weather as I ran her in veterans over the winter, and she looked lame to me. We still do some training but just a little and she is enjoying that, so she may reappear in veterans next year, if fit enough.
Picture of Ruger and Zara with matching bandages, and Mawgan on there of course!
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