Oscar, Sprocket and I made the 7+ hour trip in the car to go to Clicker Expo in Lexington, KY http://clickertraining.com/clickerexpo/ . We left Thursday morning (March 18th) and got to Lexington at around 1:30 in the afternoon.
Susan Sarubin from Pawsitive Fit, was gracious enough to allow Oscar, Sprocket and I to room with her, so I called Susan to help me lug the car full of dog stuff I'd brought with me.
To any of you who met us at ClickerExpo- you can't forget meeting me, or at least my dogs. I'm the one with the two French Bulldogs (the only French Bulldogs) in tow- one being a ridiculously cute puppy who EVERYONE wanted to pet and play with :) You may have noticed I seemed a little uptight and anxious about my dog Oscar- the adult French Bulldog- running up to other dogs/people or other dogs in his space. He is great with other dogs- but we left from Clicker Expo on Sunday to drive 12 hours for him to get a laser disk ablation spinal procedure done. He ruptured a disk in his back on Christmas Eve, and had to have emergency surgery on his spine- or he would have likely been paralyzed. The only reason you can't really "tell" he had the spinal surgery is that we have been going to rehabilitation once a week since the incident (and actually before the incident but that is another story). If he had ANY back pain AT ALL, we would have to cancel the trip for the procedure- not to mention jumping around and getting excited could cause him to reinjure his back. TECHNICALLY he was not even over the 3 month recovery period for the spinal surgery. Why take the risk? Well, Oscar has been on crate rest since the beginning of December and is stir crazy- not to mention we had already signed up for CE before the incident. I thought CE would be a good place to bring him where people had their dogs under control. I didn't account for the people with dogs who were at the hotel who weren't with CE; or the sometimes nasty looks I got when I picked up Oscar and moved him to a carpeted area, or held his harness on his back so he wouldn't jump around.
Yes, I know picking him up/holding him isn't TEACHING him anything, and yes I can get him to move on his own even when he is aroused, he is a very well-behaved dog- but when he is excited and scrambling all over the floor- the slippery marble floor- I'm not going to even RISK him hurting his back. So, before you judge someone for how they handle their dog, maybe think about why they are doing what they are doing. Also realize, he hasn't been out in public other than to the vet and rehab therapist for THREE and a HALF months!
Overall, he did great and it was good for him to get out and about and use his brain some.
The hotel was gorgeous, the room was a little small though- and we had to pay $20 extra for a refrigerator. Wi-Fi was also not available in the rooms- and internet cost $13/day.
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