the sheltiechick blog

23 Week Family Photos

At 23 weeks old, Kaner is officially taller than Auggie. Auggie, meanwhile, has apparently simply decided not to die. Either he’s improved and regained some circulation (and thus motor control) over his back end, or the dog who’s missing toe joints on his front end has learned to adapt to not having excellent control over his back end. He is walking 99% normal these days, and that 1% may simply be my being paranoid and searching for any hitch or odd step in his walk. Maybe a bit of both adaptation and improvement? It doesn’t exactly matter which. Ultimately I am blessed to have more happy, healthy days with my old man.


Tongues from baby and the old man.


The hair on Auggie’s legs is looking pretty good now – you can probably only tell he has a slightly more naked spot if you’re really looking for it.


22 Week Family Photos

Everybody was feeling a bit naughty today so the family photos didn’t turn out the best… Kane has decided “stay” is optional and therefore he does not want to do it.

In this case he will only sit and stay if he is in FRONT of his brothers.


Payton is now so stressed out because I kept having to re-sit the puppy he won’t look at the camera because somehow he thinks it’s his fault.


I give up.


So instead I took some photos of just Kaner.


I have a lot of him running around being a goof but not a lot of cute photos like these.


And he is pretty cute… lucky for him.


Outdoor Toys

Kaner’s ears are back down today. Auggie’s blood work from the vet was unremarkable. The regular vet is guessing he’s just having some trouble with circulation as his heart isn’t pumping efficiently. His respiratory rate is up a bit again, too. Other than that, everybody is just guessing maybe it’s joint related with age. We already know he has arthritis in his front legs so maybe the back legs are setting in, too. She did examine him fully to make sure we’re not all missing something else, just assuming it’s cardiology related and maybe he hurt his back, but that does not appear to be the case.
We all went outside at lunch to play and take more photos.


Happy puppies don’t have any real idea what’s going on so they are happy puppies.


Liiiiike a stick.


My boy.


He ate cheesestick last night. At his worst Auggie wouldn’t even eat cheese when I handed him some – too much trouble breathing to chew a cheesestick piece. So now as long as he’s eating a cheesestick I know his lungs are doing okay.


Tuggy ball. We haven’t done a ton of tugging since joints are still baby joints and teeth are still baby teeth, but Kaner does like to tug. He grabbed my sweatshirt one day and when I tried to lift my arm away to have him let go, he simply came up off the ground with his teeth still sunk into my sweatshirt. Well then.


Chuckit Squirrel is actually dead because Payton killed it during a tug game last year (his fabric body has peeled away from the plastic frame) but Kaner is fine with playing with the dead squirrel.


Also discs. We’re working on this one too.


P cruises around trying to decide how many toys he can steal before he gets in trouble for stealing from the baby.


And the perfect Auggie is being perfect.


21 Weeks and Auggie

Starting Wednesday night Auggie has started to lose motor control in his back legs. It started with what looked like a fluke; he was laying in his bed and I asked him if he wanted to go outside and potty, and he jumped out of the bed but his back legs didn’t quite follow. Almost like he tripped over the bed. He then came slipping and sliding across the room to me. I caught him and picked him up, immediately trying to decide which emergency vet to take him to – the one we’ve been seeing or the university, where they could call the cardiologist for me. A minute later, I set him down, and he was fine. Like it never happened. We went outside and he went down the deck stairs, peed while hiking a back leg, then climbed back up the stairs, no problem.
But then it rapidly got worse. Standing eating his breakfast with his back legs shaking. Falling over when he got out of his crate and tried to shake off and his legs gave way underneath him.

The internet says when dogs with CHF lose control of their legs it’s not long to the end.

The cardiologist has us heading to our regular vet for some blood work to try and see what’s going on.

Kaner is 21 weeks today. One ear came up last night so I took them both out to see how they’re doing.


Slowly trying to be bigger than Auggie.


Not quite there yet… just not quite.


Auggie is still happy and still eating well, which is an important metric for Auggie. So I guess that’s good news.


Still happy.


He is my most wonderful dog.


He looks older, and in my opinion he aged quite rapidly – CHF will do that to you – but he’s still so handsome.


The smile hasn’t changed at all, though.


I love him the most.


Ears up. Looking a bit goofy without a lot of coat.


From the side. I think they are a teensy bit too high so I’ll try setting them a bit lower this time.


Eating sticks – his favourite outdoor game.

If you’re wondering where Payton is in the rest of these photos, he wouldn’t leave my side after I buried my face in his fur and sobbed “What are we going to do without our Auggie?” He’s a good boy.


20 Week Family Photos


20 weeks! I missed a week for some reason and really can’t recall why. Easter Egg Hunt hangover?


And a close-up on baby’s face because people complain YOU CAN’T SEE HIS EYES DOES HE EVEN HAVE ANY