*Sighs and rolls eyes!*

On Thursday Solei and I went to agility, they'd set up a sequence of four or five (can't remember) jumps, close together in a straight line. Fine - except they wanted to hold the dogs to have them pulling towards the owner. I know Solei can be a bit funny about that, but I do feel like I'm sometimes overprotective/oversensitive, so I let them go ahead. There were two sequences set up, with a different person on each. The first was ok (more or less, anyway!) but the person on the second a typical ham fisted man who was not at all used to small dogs.

I left Solei, and as I started walking away there was an almightly scream and I turned around to see him flat to the floor! I was concerned and not happy at the time, but carried on and he was fine for the rest of the evening.

Over the weekend I wasn't particularly happy - there was a slight look in his eyes, and he wasn't so keen on food - however, having just brought Ria home it could have been due to that.

I could have cried on Monday morning when he was like I haven't seen him since before he started seeing his chiro (excluding the reaction he had 48hrs after his first session!). I left him to see how he went, but not seeing much improvement I rang his chiro yesterday (but had to leave a message) and put him on crate rest.

She rang me back this morning and thought it was unlikely he'd put his back out as badly as it was initially, which was encouraging. She agreed with what I was doing, also told me to do 10 minutes massage twice a day and she said although she's not a vet and can't tell me, if he was her dog she'd give him some painkillers - which I was going to do, I just couldn't obtain any until today!

So we'll see how he goes, fingers crossed the rest and painkillers help. On the bright side aside from the holding the actually agility went very well :-P He was doing the obstacles well, and his 2o2o contacts had come back!

Then there's Elton! He hasn't been the same since we did a "dog swap" in early February - Darwin, whom I'd had for two years, went back and Fern, an almost 9 month old bitch, came in her place. Elton hasn't been the same since. A month after Fern arrived she came into season, and a week after that (so about two weeks ago) she went back.

From a dog that was very much into food and had never been a fussy eater in his life, Elton started being so disinterested in food. It had been a gradual (subtle) decline, until he refused his first meal completely a few days after Fern started her season.

Sometimes he eats (eventually), sometimes doesn't, no enthusiasm for food....which also has a knock on effect that I'm not spending as much time doing things with him cos I can't work with him (I'd cube the NatureDiet and then train him before each meal and use the ND to reward) if I can't reward him!! (Can use toys but not all the time) and he's just lost a little bit of something that was Elton, if that makes sense. I don't know what to do with him, I've tried doing things, not doing things..etc.

He's getting time spent with me on his own, and I haven't tried to do any form of training for weeks. I really hope he's just unsettled and now there won't be anymore dog changes for months he'll get over it - whatever "it" is!

I can't tell you how much I want the "old" Elton back :-(