2020: Not Yet Hindsight

I love new beginnings!

I know that any hour of any day can represent a beginning, but there is just something about a brand New Year. It is like a clean slate just waiting for the magical story to be written — and illustrated, of course.

A New Year also represents an ending — the completion of the chapter that was last year. I hope the ending of 2019 slams the door shut on Berkeley’s mysterious illness, and the Bad Luck Breeding Curse that snaked through 2019.

But like any year, 2019 delivered so many reasons to spark gratitude — I choose to notice those things instead of focusing on what did not go as quite as planned. For example…

Thank you to everyone who supported Berkeley’s little family as her parents kept her alive. That is not hyperbole — they seriously kept that child alive and her cognitive abilities intact through their diligence. I saw firsthand what it took from them — they were exhausted and terrified for months — and every one of you who supported them in all the different ways made a difference. You shared your Little Soldiers, and it mattered more than you can know. #gratitude

To all of you who love our Kaibab puppies — thank you. I can only breed my dogs because people like you will take up the task of loving them when our 8 - 9 weeks with them are done. Thank you for their interesting and well-loved lives, and for being valued members of our Kaibab community.

Ze.D and Nikko

We achieved some significant Dog Goals in 2019.

First, we ended the year with the same four dogs — that is always my #1 Hope for a New Year. Harper, Sparkle, Daisy, and Claire — all present and accounted for, and in good health. I do not take any of that for granted.

Second, Harper B for Big Year earned her CD and NDD, making her a BMDCA Working Dog. Given everything she has been through in her life, I am so pleased that we finally were able to accomplish this. Harper B for Big Heart also earned the Specialty Triathlete award — very cool.

Third, Sparkle finished her CDX and that gave her the BMDCA Working Dog Excellent award. This is a difficult award to earn, and I am thrilled that Sparkle followed in her mother’s paw prints in completing the requirements for that award. Zoey’s iPups are an incredible litter — every single one of them — and they are not done living out their mother’s amazing legacy.

Fourth, although she primarily took the year off to train and mature (and not have puppies — sigh), Claire earned her NDD and that made her a BMDCA Versatility Dog; she was also a 2019 Specialty Triathlete.

Wonderful accomplishments for the Kaibab Dogs who live here — and I know so many of you also had 2019 Accomplishments worth celebrating. Congratulations, all around.

2020. Here we come.

Harper and I will be learning Nose Work — thanks to Oregon Terri :)

Sparkle — if the Fertility Goddess is on our side, Tiny Sparks are starting to flicker (everything crossed). Sparkle will also make her Utility debut later this year and hopefully accumulate some additional agility and draft titles — and become a veteran.

Daisy will get busy showing off her potential. Agility, draft, tracking — oh my.

But 2020 is Claire’s Year — so much in store for her. Stay tuned for all the fun while she works to steal the spotlight…

Claire stealing the Magic Unicorn from her mom.

But always, our hope and wish for the New Year is health and happiness for all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here We Go

The end-of-the-semester plus the rather time-consuming episodes of As the Progesterone Rises put me a bit behind schedule but at long last we have the details and schedules for the two (free) online classes for our Berner community.

I am excited!

The two classes are for very specific populations - they are not general training classes (although I may do those this summer). Therefore, read over the following to assess whether either (or both) of these classes will work for you between now and May, and if you feel excited by the description — and have the 1 - 2 hours a week to be an engaged participant — I hope you will join us.

Class One: On Track

What: An online class to train a Berner to pass an AKC Tracking Dog Test in Spring or Summer of 2020.

When: January 4 - May 4

Who: Working Spots are for those who want to prepare a Berner for a Spring/Summer 2020 Tracking Test (including TDX).

Those interested in just learning more about tracking may audit the class.

How: We will utilize videos, discussion, written material, and a private Facebook group for this class. You will need to devote 1 - 2 hours each week to this class (TDX folks will need more time for track aging, of course).

Cost: None.

To sign-up: Send an email indicating your interest to sontag.bowman@gmail.com with ON TRACK in the subject.

Class Two: The Edge

We do not have this much snow — this is from last year!

Background: Dog training is a misnomer. Working with a dog is so much more than putting behaviors on cue.

The dog is actually a furry invitation to be a better human being — to become a more skilled communicator, a better collaborator, and a kinder and smarter person.

A dog allows us to see our Inside Self — the person we are when the only ones looking keep our secrets. But this reflective nature of a dog is also an invitation because it invites honesty, self-reflection, and transformation.

Therefore, a dog is a strange combination of teacher, therapist, and ongoing self-improvement podcast. The lessons we can learn from — and through — a dog have broad life applications. Think of dog training as a sort of Life Coaching and it will transform you — and your dog.

That is the explanation/premise for this online group experience that I am calling The Edge.

The Edge in canine performance events develops from working towards clearly articulated goals in the context of a confident, collaborative, effective – and ethical -- relationship with our dog.

The key ingredients are:

 Clarity: We can only arrive at a destination when we choose one.

Communication: Mind reading is not actually a thing.

Collaboration: Who wants to exist under a dictator? #team

Confidence: When you got this, you got this.

Integrity: Always and in everything.

What: An online community/class to help humans achieve specific performance goal(s) with a Berner.

When: February 1 - May 1.

Who: Those who want to prepare a Berner for a Spring/Summer 2020 performance event.

To foster openness and trust, this is a closed working community and not open to auditors.

How: Each week will require an hour or two of time. We will use articles, podcasts, videos, worksheets, journaling, and discussion as learning materials (and the dog, of course); a Facebook group will be utilized to hold all this together.

Cost: None.

To sign-up: Send an email indicating your interest to sontag.bowman@gmail.com with THE EDGE in the subject.

The Latest Episode: As the Progesterone Rises

I love this photo of iPup Tristan and Sparkler Kiri — thank you, Alison!

I have yet another breeding update/insight: Labs can differ.

When progesterone is drawn by my vet, I drive the blood over to the human hospital lab for testing.

I had two progesterones done 500+ miles away from home and those were run by a veterinary lab. Both times the results were lower than expected/desired and created significant concerns. In fact, I drove home on Christmas because of the unfortunate 2.3 value (collected on 12/24) — only to turn around and drive back 500+ miles the next morning because the value was 17.

Could the value really have been 2.3 — down from 2.8 the same time of day 24-hours before? Of course.

After all, the 2.8 was slightly down from 3.2, although the blood was drawn at different times of day and the values were close enough to call it a bit of a “stall” — a drop of almost an entire point looked less like a stall and more like an anovulatory cycle, and so I drove home.

BUT the progesterone of 17 from the human hospital lab 46 hours later sent me racing back — good thing I had not unpacked and the weather was cooperative.

We tested again 23-hours later using the outside veterinary lab — once again results showed a drop in progesterone when it (progesterone) should have been rising.

12/26 at home: 17

12/27 (23 hours later and outside lab): 13.7

Crapola.

The three natural breedings had gone well — no issues there. But a dropping progesterone was a bad sign. I drove home worried, as you might imagine.

BUT 21 hours after we got that 13.7 from the outside lab, our home lab reported a progesterone of 33!!!

If you remove the outside lab values, the progesterone looks like this:

Day 7: .46

Day 8: .59

Day 9: Not Done

Day 10: 3.23

Day 11: 2.8

Day 12: Outside Lab (BRED)

Day 13: Not Done (Christmas)

Day 14: 17 (BRED)

Day 15: Outside Lab (BRED)

Day 16: 33

Adding in the Outside Lab values changed the picture, adding in worry (and over 1,000 miles of driving). When we look at the values from the same (human hospital) lab, the picture is much more cheerful and promising.

There is no way to know if there are validity issues (accuracy) at the outside lab or if there are reliability issues between the two labs.

Perhaps travel impacted values, although that doesn’t make sense since there was travel all over the place (literally!) since we started testing.

Perhaps Sparkle’s progesterone really did those gyrations. No way to know.

It is, however, concerning and puzzling — and reminds me of the importance of both validity and reliability of results when so much is on the line. In the future, I will ask for blood to be sent to two different labs when testing progesterone away from home at critical times in a breeding cycle.

What we do know is that we had great timing for three natural breedings — the rest is up to the Lucky Socks.