We're Back!

We have internet! And power! Electricity, not world domination. Although I believe that is on Iris' to-do list. At the very least, I'm certain she's planning some sort of conquest in world supervision.

Iris has settled into the apartment better than I ever expected. I think it's been really good for her. It's a much less chaotic environment than the house. She's been pretty good about staying quiet, especially since she doesn't have a window to watch the road from anymore.

On the training front, we're on break from agility class until after the holidays. That doesn't mean we haven't been working. There's a fenced in tennis court on the other side of the apartment complex, and I've been taking Iris over there to work on heeling and recalls. I ordered a set of weave poles, so I want Iris to think of the tennis court as a really cool place before we start working on weaves. I've also been trying to do some free-shaping with her, mostly because Iris has a tendency to wait for me to show her what I want (or worse, shut down entirely) instead of trying to figure it out. I think she's starting to enjoy it a little more.

The only downside to the apartment is that the carpets were cleaned right before we moved in. When we were living at the house, I think the cleaners were irritating Iris' eyes and hoped moving into the apartment would help. Nope, she actually got worse after moving here. This past week, I noticed that she had small, cloudy spots on the corneas of both eyes. We saw the vet yesterday, and Dr. K thinks it's still probably allergy related. Iris' eyes are definitely red, irritated, and getting worse instead of better. Anyway, the spots don't appear to be corneal ulcers (good) and her eye pressure is normal, which rules out glaucoma. As far as I can tell, her vision hasn't really been affected, although she seems a little more reactive to people when I'm walking her outside. Not sure if that has anything to do with her vision since it could just be that as she's gotten more comfortable here, she's also gotten more protective of her home. Now she's getting eye drops for the next week, which will hopefully help. So far, her eyes are definitely less runny, but I haven't seen any change in the spots. If those don't improve by the end of the week, it might be time to see the ophthalmologist or check her thyroid (or both).

Iris did get quite a compliment when we were at the vet. The tech remarked that when I first got Iris, she never would have tolerated such a thorough examination. Yes, this is the same dog who somehow managed to do a back flip to get out of having her temp taken. We did take her temp on Sat (I had her in a bear-hug, but she tolerated it), and then she sat quietly while her eyes were poked and prodded by a man she's only met once before. It was a good reminder of how far my girl has come, especially since I know I've been seeing her reactions to people around the apartment complex as a bit of a set back. Two steps forward and one step backwards is still forward progress!

As a side note, I'm starting to really think about switching Iris to a raw diet, so if anyone has any books, websites, etc that they recommend, I'm interested.