About two weeks ago, Amanda was going to bed when she noticed that Ava’s eye looked a little red.  When she woke up the next morning, Ava’s eye was all crusty and had  yellow-white gunk coming out of it.  We spent the day cleaning the eye with warm water and cotton balls hoping that it would clear up by itself.  The next day, it was time for a visit to the vet.

The vet checked her eye to make sure there were no debris lodged under her second eyelid and then diagnosed her with conjunctivitis, or pink eye.  We learned that this is a common condition seen in dogs and may be caused by a number of things.  Like pink eye in humans, it can also be highly contagious.  WebMD has lots of good information about conjunctivitis.

We were given an ointment with a neosporin-like consistency that we needed to apply to her eye three times a day for a week.

Thankfully, Ava is very tolerant of being touched all over because you have to squeeze the ointment into her open eye and then massage it all around.  Here is a really great video explaining how to do it.

We were all thankful when Ava’s eye started to clear up about a week later.  It was short-lived, though, because the infection then spread to her other eye!  After another round of treatment we are finally pink eye free!

To celebrate the exceptionally warm weather we’re having here in Iowa (40°!!!), Ava and I went on a nice, long 2.5 mile walk.

Ava is a little nervous of all the cars that drive along the road next to our apartment, so we made a relaxing detour to the our neighboring apartment complex’s dog park.  There weren’t any dogs, but Ava found a friend in a little opossum wandering by!  It was not so excited to see her, and scampered back into the woods pretty quickly.

We have been taking Ava to an obedience class at Canine Craze Performance Center for the past six weeks.  We chose Canine Craze because we like their incremental, rewards-based approach to training.  It turned out to be a great fit.  The instructors were knowledgeable, accommodating, and just plain nice.

We started Ava in their Obedience I class because we thought it would be a good experience to have before starting agility classes.  For the first five weeks we worked on six skills: Impulse Control, Sits, Downs, Go to a Place, Recall, and Loose Leash Walking.

During the final week of class she and all of the other dogs were tested over everything we learned and Ava passed with flying colors!

Today Ava started her Reactive Rovers class at Canine Craze Performance Center.  Our obedience instructor suggested that we enroll in this course because of Ava’s high state of arousal when there are barriers between her and other dogs (leashes, gates, windows, etc.).  She does great off-leash and loves to visit the dog park, but she does look pretty scary when we take her out to the bathroom and other dogs are outside!

The course is based on Pat McConnell’s book, Cautious Canines, and we work on several skills including relaxation techniques, impulse control, and four training steps: blocking, distancing, desensitization, and counterconditioning.

Our first class was pretty stressful; Ava was barking and pulling non-stop, trying to get to the other dogs.  I felt like I spent most of the class running around practicing the “blocking” technique with her.  This is where you stand between her and the distraction and walk towards her, forcing her to increase the distance between her and the other dog.  You’re feeding her the entire time, rewarding her for moving away and helping to calm her down.  Of course, we practiced lots of other things too, and this class is one heck of a work out!  I just hope that Ava and her owners will benefit from these techniques and make some improvements by the end of the class!

Ava’s face when she hears Mike has to leave for a workation.