Tigger

Zoey Shows Off

As many of you know, Zoey our little Chihuahua has mild hydrocephalus which makes her a little bit more difficult to train such as potty training etc. Well when she was a puppy Rob and I clicker trained her, and have worked with her off and on, Sit was never a command that she mastered. Today Rob was working with both Shellie and Zoey on some commands. She gets so excited when she does something right, she does a little 'wiggly' dance. She's such a sweetheart! She is wearing both a sweater and a coat because she's been colder lately, her CDA (Color Dilution Alopecia) seems to be active right now she's got spots along her spine where her blue hair is really really thinning out and not coming back in. Part of me thinks it's because she wears a sweater most of the time to keep her warm and it may be rubbing it off? Don't know what to do to 'stop' it. We did bloodwork on her Friday as she's been eating voraciously, losing weight, peeing/drinking a TON, but otherwise happy and active as ever. Everything was pretty much normal so we pretty much attribute it to the steroids and drugs she is on for her hydrocephalus/copd...which sucks, but we can't cut her back, she's on 1.25mg of Vetalog every other day right now, if we back off she starts showing more symptoms. I was worried she might have had cushings as long-term steroids can cause cushings and she's been on steroids since she was a year and a half old when we discovered the hydrocephalus. Cushings can also cause hair loss along the spine, so I was worried about it, but her bloodwork all checked out. You can see she's not looking as 'red' on her legs anymore with the homecooked/limited diet. Which makes me happy, she's not near as itchy as she was either. Anyways here are some of the tricks that Zoey showed off today:
1: Bow
2: Down
3: Sit
4: Stand (this one was the hardest for her, after a few times of mommy helping her she finally caught on and was 'offering' it herself.