Ora the Pit Bull

Last night we had to say goodbye to our most recent foster. He had been with us for almost 7 months so it was no trivial task. He wasn’t a perfect dog by any means, but damn close to it. He was our little Mr. Jekyl and Hyde. Around the house he was happy, fun loving and just a goof ball. Out in public however he had no leash manners and quickly went over threshold and was unreachable when he saw another dog while out in public.

This of course made our Pet store adoptions days quite the test of ones patience. He gets along with other dogs, at least the dozen or so he has met, wonderfully but when on a leash and he cant go say hello his anxiety builds to a blinding level.

Every adoption day we attended he improved, slowly and steadily and I have no doubt that in time he would relax and become a real crowd stopper. He was a pocket pit for sure, a solid 47lbs that could jump straight up in the air and French kiss you before you knew what hit ya. He adored people of all shapes and sizes and showered everyone with kisses. He was one of the few dogs I’ve met who will go almost limp in your arms when picked up and when hugged rarely showed any signs of discomfort.

Knowing we saved the life of that little dog brings with it a great deal of comfort yet at the same time waves of sadness crash down in the void left by his absence. In time the sadness will dissipate and it will be replaced by the joy of helping yet another dog but as the cycle of rescue continues we will be faced once again with the pain of sending yet another dog on its way to its forever home.

Sometimes I have to ask myself why we put ourselves through it, but that’s a topic for a future post.

The weeks continued to pass and we continued to play in the back yard. It was amazing to see Ora adjust the way she ran and jumped to accommodate her lack of feeling and control of her back end. Oh, she still had her share of spills in the back yard but never once did she miss a beat or show any sign of slowing down.

I shelved all my expectations and for the most part we just played to play. I used multiple discs and a renewed patience to work on the bad habit of not switching discs that I inadvertently allowed to happen. In mid June 2009 we went out to play some more, the upcoming weekend was the MNDDC Rochester Fest weekend which was a big 2 day disc dog event.

I started with some handler in the middle and she nailed them all without a second thought often leaping in the air to heights I havent seen since before she got ill. I ran around collecting discs and tossing them as fast as I could and she continued at a breakneck pace only balking at a couple throws. On one occasion, after a particularly high leap, she landed solidly on all fours but in her zeal to return for another disc tried to turn sharper and sooner after landing than she could control. She tumbled through the grass, regained her feet, grabbed her disc and bolted back toward me for a chance to grab a another disc, totally unphased and undaunted by her tumble in the grass.

As we went in after our disc session I was almost overcome by a combination of awe and pride. It was one of those nights where things just clicked. No expectations, no demands, a zen state where things just flowed, dog and handler working as one, the whole situation made that much more profound by the fact that about 6 months earlier the vet basically sent her home with us to die.

While I certainly hope no dog or owner has to endure the problems we have I sincerely hope that you can all experience a similarly profound moment with your own dog. Its truly magical.

We competed on Saturday at Rochester fest and Ora ran for both me and my wife who I talked into competing for the first time in novice toss and catch. We didn’t bring home any trophies but finished in the middle of the field in the sport class which is the highest division but taking the field itself was reward enough.

The day finally came when we discontinued Oras meds. A day I both longed for and dreaded. Even though Ora isn’t a large dog the meds were very expensive so it was going to be nice not having to spend the extra money I didn’t really have. At the same time however I dreaded the fact that her infection may reappear. If the source of the infection was indeed a foxtail or similar seed it would be extremely hard and possibly impossible to locate and remove surgically.

We had started playing tug and fetch in the house as soon as she was able and it wasn’t long before she became the high drive little beast I had come to love. It wasn’t long however and our daily bouts of indoor tug and fetch simply were not satiating her desire to run and play. This was just another good news bad news scenario that had become the norm in her life.

I took her outside to play fetch and in typical pit bull fashion she threw every ounce of her being into running down and getting that ball no matter how far I threw it. The words “easy”, “gently”, “calmly” just where not in her vocabulary and there was no doing things half way for her. She would slip, flop, flounder and roll on occasion and I would cringe every time.

She had regained a lot of her muscle mass but seemed to be lacking muscle control, the actual reason behind it was unknown, but our guess is that the bacterial infection caused nerve damage so it would take time for her nerves to regrow and brain/muscle connection to reestablish.

We transitioned from using a ball back to her favorite item the disc! And she proceeded to push her little body to its limit. This activity seemed to expedite her recovery and as the weeks went on she continued to slowly but surely improve. We were even able to take part in a fun match put on by the Minnesota Disc Dog Club in May. We competed in pro class again and finished toward the bottom of the pack but I was just happy to be out on the field again and Ora seemed to enjoy herself as well.

Ora made it through another night but there was no overnight miracle. I got up a couple times during the night to change her bedding. We had a puppy pee pad with a towel over it and another pee pad on top to try and keep her dog bed dry. This if course did little to keep her dry or clean so every could of hours I would clean her up with a wet rag and roll her over so she would stay dry and not get any sores.

I dreaded having to go to work the next day, not only because I was physically and emotionally exhausted but because I really didn’t want to leave her alone. My wife leaves for work a couple hours later than I do and comes home for lunch so even during the week we were able to keep Ora clean and dry.

This continued as the days went, carrying her outside in the middle of winter every couple of hours and applying pressure on her belly to get her to urinate to help reduce leakage while on her bed. She slowly improved and I spent quite a bit of time talking to my local vet. She had been wonderful during all of this, calling up the University and pressuring them for more details. To our dismay she discovered that the sample they had pulled from Ora’s abscess had been mishandled so no culture was done.

Thousands of dollars later and all we knew was she had a bacterial infection near her spine. We had no idea what kind of bacteria we were dealing or if it spread to her spinal cord which was frustrating to say the least.

After a week or so Ora was able to support her own weight and appeared to be on the road to recovery however almost overnight she relapsed. She stopped eating, became incontinent and had a high fever. I called the university back in a panic and got a script for a different antibiotic which I got filled at my local vet because the university was all the way across town.

Things were touch and go for a couple more days but the new antibiotic seemed to help……for a bit. After another rally and regaining her ability to walk, albeit wobbly, she once again was overcome by fever, wouldn’t eat and lost control of her rear end and associated bodily functions.

I brought Ora back into the University vet where they sedated Ora yet again and with ultrasound guidance tried to pull another sample from the abscess so it could be cultured….and exactly why did I have spend hundreds of dollars to have this done again? Oh year, cause they messed up the first sample. By now I was beside myself with fear, frustration and anger. We had spent thousands of dollars and gone to arguably the best vets in the state and we were no better off now than we were weeks prior when this all started.

There was no abscess to speak of and the sample that was removed had no sign of infection so why was my little girl still paralyzed and once again on the verge of death? To this day I don’t think we will ever know but my personal opinion is that the infection spread to her spinal cord.

By now I had had it with the University vet so I called my local vet up and we discussed the scenario. We had tried a couple antibiotics and both seemed to work for a bit so we came to the conclusion we were likely dealing with a multi bacterial infection where multiple meds where needed so she was placed back on the first antibiotic in conjunction with the second.

Once again she started to improve as the days went on. I was guardedly optimistic but after the rollercoaster ride we had been on I certainly didn’t want to get my hopes up. I was out of money and both physically and emotionally exhausted. Getting up a couple times a night to take Ora out and to keep her clean and dry left me spent. Her normal weight was around 45lbs but due to her paralysis she was down to 36lbs, a shadow of her former self.

As the weeks went and we mentally prepared for a relapse it never came. The Vet at the University wanted to stop the meds just a couple weeks after we combined them but my own personal research and that of my local vets indicated spinal infections were very difficult to get rid of and often required months of antibiotics. Because of that we kept her on antibiotics for 4 months and she very slowly continued to make progress, regaining her bowel functions and her mobility.

I dreaded the day we discontinued her meds. The original source of the infection had never been identified but one of the ideas was that it was a foxtail or similar seed that she may have inhaled. By this time all I could do was hope that it had been broken down by her body so that the infection would not return. But only time would tell.

At this point I couldn’t wait for spring but as I have learned, just when things seem to be going great, something has to happen to give you a big dose of reality. We had just taken in a large young male rottie Named Rocco. He and Ora got along great and they would romp and roughhouse in the back yard.

Late in the fall of 2008 I was out of town for a couple days for work and when I returned Ora was gimping over to me to say hello. She was in obvious pain and walked very slow and deliberate. She grudgingly used stairs and held her back arched. We assumed that during rough housing she hurt her back but I brought her to the vet to make sure.

We got some blood work done and x-rays taken. White blood cell count was slightly elevated but not by much and the x-rays looked fine so we were sent home with some pain meds to make her comfortable. This was a Friday afternoon and she continued to get worse over the weekend. Approx 4am Monday morning I woke to scampering on our hardwood bedroom floor. Ora was struggling to stand and when I helped her to her feet she could not support her back end. My stomach instantly turned sour and my heart sank as I rushed to get dressed to bring her to the doggie ER down at the University.

By the time we got to see a vet it was closing in on 7AM. There were dogs deemed more critical so we had to wait. The vet picked Ora up and put her under his arm unceremoniously, certainly not I would expect a dog with a potential back injury to be handled. He inspected her while we waited and called us in to a room to go over the prognosis. We tried to be complete and fill him in on anything we could think of that was relevant and he kept cutting us off telling us to stick to whats important because his shift was ending. Had I not been desperate to get my dog help I would have given him a piece of my mind.

Oras case was handed off to neurology and they said they would keep her overnight and have the neurologist call me later. He called and said he wouldn’t know anything with an MRI so we gave the go ahead but he suspected it was a disc issue and surgery would be needed.

We got a call back later that evening and the spine looked fine and in tact however a mass was found in the muscles along her spine just above the peritoneal cavity. While she was sedated they tried 3 times for s spinal tap and came up dry each time. They were able to use a syringe and ultrasound to get a sample from the mass however which was a plus. I was told it would be sent to cytology to test for cancer and to be cultured to identify its origin.

The neurologist not wanting to wait for lab results prepared a slide himself and said it looked like a bacterial infection to him and there was no sign of cancer. They put her on some antibiotics and held her overnight.

I got a call the following morning and Ora had made it through the night. However, now she was paralyzed in the back end and incontinent. Thy said to just take her home and keep her dry, flip her over every couple house to avoid bed sores and just wait and see what happens. The vet simply said the prognosis wasn’t good and they could handle the necropsy and cremation.

I was beside myself, in a state of utter disbelief. Just weeks earlier she was a disc catching machine and now she was on the verge of death. The spark in her eye had faded from a raging inferno that burned like the sun to a candle struggling to stay lit in a heavy breeze.

Now I really had my hands full and I created a little monster. Her drive and focus seemed to grow every day and I was hard pressed to skip a night of Frisbee. She could be relentless when she wanted to play and tireless when she actually got to.

We spent the winter playing a lot of tug and even tried our luck at taking in more fosters. To my surprise Ora did very well with all of the dogs we brought into the house. She could be a little domineering and bitchy at first and was pretty cold at first but after a few days she warmed up and her and the foster would be playing like long lost friends.

Things just all started to fall into place but being a pittie princess she couldn’t be outside during the winter for very long so our disc game didn’t progress much over the winter. She got ample exposure to other dogs and we continued to foster. She did wonderful with puppies and exhibited a patience I never expected from her.

As spring arrived and we could get outside again she picked up disc play with a vengeance. Due to my own ignorance of the sport however my single disc play created some problems. I longed to play freestyle with Ora but she refused to go after just any old disc. I could start with a stack of 5 and every time she would pick a single disc as her favorite and not want to chase another.

Having used markers I tried a variety of methods to break her old habit, it was slow going but progress was being made. In the mean time we worked on some freestyle moves like vaults, leg weaves, spins etc. It was a whole new world, breaking down movements into small pieces, marking and rewarding behavior to guide her to the end goal. It was immensely rewarding to see this dog that at one time I just couldn’t seem to communicate with, work through and pick up complex movements I strung together and marked as she made her way down the invisible path I wanted her to follow.

Our bond grew over the 2008 summer and we accompanied a few MNDDC club members to a UFO major regional event in Aug. It was my first exposure to a major disc event like that and it was an awesome experience. Ora and I didn’t do so well but this event pulled people in from across the country so these guys where the best of the best and I was just happy to take part.

In Sept of 2008 the MN Disc Dog club held their year end state championship. In addition to a freestyle event, which we still weren’t ready for, they debuted their own game called catch 22. Having done well in previous events we had moved out of the novice class and were now competing with the big dogs. To my delight we took first place in the pro class catch 22 event, beating some pretty solid teams. That’s Oras pictures sporting her medal from the event in the header of the blog

The day after the event we attended a day long seminar put on by Ron Watson & Apryl Lea of Pawsitive Vybe out of Michigan ( pawsitivevybe.com ). We learned a lot about the basics of the sport, how to throw various throws and I got some personal help from Ron on how to help break Oras habit of only going for a single disc.

We ended the season on a high note and with the recent knowledge I had high hopes for the 2009 season.

About a half hour later we met one of the ARLP directors who had Ora in tow. Ora seemed a bit confused and didn’t seem to recognize us at first but within a few minutes was getting all cuddly.

Her reunion with Magnum was uneventful and we spent some time in the back yard playing fetch. I could tell right away she had lost some muscle tone and her stamina was much less than when she had left about 8 weeks earlier. This pretty much told me what I had suspected which was regardless of my warning and the adopters promises she failed to supply the exercise Ora needed which led to one frustrated dog.

The next day I loaded up my treat bag and headed up to the local strip mall and we walked around a bit. I was hoping to witness fist hand the “out of control dog” that she reportedly had become. We passed dozens of people up and down the mall and Ora barely glanced at a soul. Just content to be with me and outdoors she seemed happy and content.

I reported my findings to the ARLP directors and said we would just keep an eye on her and see how things play out. It wasn’t long until we heard through the grape vine that Oras adopter was bad mouthing us all around town. We took it in stride because at this point we knew the truth.

Not long after rejoining us when I was out in the yard playing fetch with Ora I noticed a cheapo Frisbee I had up on the deck. I grabbed that as I headed out into the yard. Ora was by now used to our game of toss and fetch so she knew what was coming and didn’t seem to care if it was a ball, a rope or a rigid plastic disc I planned on throwing, she was happy chasing anything. I gave it a toss and she tracked it like a champ, leaping into the air and grabbed the disc like she had been doing it all her life.

Do to our earlier tug work and fetch she brought it right back for another throw and we continued to play until the disk looked like a slice of swiss cheese. Now I had a dilemma on my hands. Ora was not what I would call dog friendly and her prey drive was so strong we had to constantly have an eye on her when she was out back if not on a lead or she could and would just leap the fence and go after any little critter that moved.

She had so much disc potential but we were concerned that if we took her in our fostering days would be over. I was also worried that her being so distracted that outside of our yard I had no hope of taking her off leash at a disc competition. My wide and I discussed the issue at length and decided we would give her a couple months and if we couldn’t find the right home for her we would adopt her ourselves.

Over the next couple months we worked with the disc and built up her stamina. She loved the game and as her drive and focus for the game increased we started to head out to local parks and I would let her off leash. To my delight she stayed focused on me and the disc, maybe there was hope for her after all? We entered our first disc competition before her adoption was even final. We just tried our luck at a distance and accuracy event and to my delight we took second place, not only that but she stayed focused on me while on the field surrounded by dogs and people!

Shortly after notifying ARLP that we wanted to adopt the little girl ARLP pulled together 3 local dog trainers to temperament test all of our current program dogs. As luck would have it, one of the trainers who graciously volunteered for the job told us she got an ear full from the gal who adopted Ora. She claimed Ora was out of control and that we failed to acknowledge it and went on to complain about the organization etc. The trainers were told that the dog that had heard about would be in the group of tested dogs but they weren’t told which dog it was.

Ora passed the temperament test with flying colors and after she was tested the trainers where notified that she was the dog they were warned about. Everyone seemed to get a good laugh out of it.

At this point, both Ora and I had the disc bug and the ball was now in my court to see what this little girl could do.

Within days we had a new foster pup, A rottie named zander. For those of you who have worked in rescue the period where you home one dog and take in another can be quite traumatic. Emotions seem to crash in on you from all sides, happiness, loss, excitement and sorrow all ebbing and flowing like the waves of a turbulent sea.

Zander was a good little boy but he had some big shoes to fill and while he certainly kept us busy I still missed the little white clown who had been with us for so long.

We had exchanged a few e-mails with Oras new mom over the next few weeks and she was delighted with Ora. One day however she recounted a story where she had Ora in her car and as she got home and opened her door, Ora bolted out of the car and across the street to greet a lady pushing a child in a stroller and walking her small dog.

Apparently nothing happened between the dogs and Oras new mom was apologetic but days later she got a letter from the townhouse association where she lived. We all rallied behind her offering support to fight breed bias. Things quieted down right after that and one day on my way home from work my phone rang, it was one of the ARLP directors and she asked me a few questions about Oras time with us, specifically about aggression.

Apparently her new owner was claiming she had become human aggressive and claiming ARLP had to take care of it, but never reported her actually biting anyone. We had not experienced any human aggression and I was having a hard time accepting the fact that this problem existed. A whole slew of questions came to mind, many had already been asked of Oras new owner but they were all ignored and the focus shifted back to Oras supposed aggressiveness. This particular director owned her own training school and had offered help to Oras new owner but she seemed unwilling to put in any effort.

I was stunned, for anyone who is involved with a condemned breed like pit bulls knows that claims like this are a sure death sentence. What had they done to my little girl? Thoughts whirled through my mind on the way home. A week or so went by and I got another call. The gal who adopted Ora had been incessantly calling and demanding Ora be dealt with and the ARLP directors set up a meeting so they could reevaluate Oras temperament. I immediately let them know that we would gladly take Ora back in if it was deemed in her best interest to be removed from the adopter or that the adopter no longer wanted her. Being a foster based rescue we can only take in as many dogs as we have homes for and I wanted to make sure that lack of foster homes should not be a concern in this case because my home was open to her.

The next weekend I got a call that I both dreaded and yearned for. Oras new owner showed up for the evaluation and as I was told refused to answer any questions about an exercise routine or continued training that had been done since her adoption. One of the directors took Ora for a walk down the busy small town street to see how she responded to strangers and get a better idea about the validity of the claims being made.

The remaining 2 directors continued to try and get info about how Ora had been treated and what kind of life she lived, but as had become the norm questions were deflected with claims that Ora had to be “dealt with”. After a couple minutes of questioning the lady turned around, walked to her car, jumped in and drove away without saying a word.

With winter in the Twin Cities comes the Pet Expo. It’s a pretty neat event filled with booths from animal rescues, food suppliers and just about anything else pet related that you can think of. This event is a big one for A Rotta Love Plus and they have a booth there every year and always seem to need volunteers for these events so my wife and I volunteered for the event.

It was at this event where I met Andrew (Roo) Yori and a few other folks from the Minnesota Disc Dog Club. They where there putting on disc dog demos and I was amazed at not only the talent these dogs had but the talent of their owners and even more amazed at the focus the dogs displayed and how much they seemed to love it.

With the club being located down in Rochster MN and me up in the Twin Cities it just wasn’t practical for me to expect much to come of it but it was none the less a great spectacle to see. Their demo drew in a large crowd multiple times a day and everyone seemed to be having so much fun.

I got home with a renewed vigor and desire to work with Ora but do to the geographical distance between the club and I, I put any hopes of playing disc on the back burner an simply sought to try and create a working relationship with Ora like I witnessed between the club members and their dogs out on the field.

We spent the remained of the winter playing tug and fetch and her tenacious spirit and unquenchable appetite to play never ceased to amaze me.

There had been virtually no interest by anyone to adopt Ora over the long cold winter but finally someone stepped forward and filled out an application on her. By this time our play had moved outside and my back yard paid the price. What once was a fairly nice lawn had become largely bare dirt from Ora racing across the yard to snag tennis balls or anything else caught her eye.

She moved with such speed and had an uncanny control of her body it was mesmerizing to watch. Even with a full head of steam while flying through the air she always seemed to know exactly where she was and what was around her avoiding obstacles that you are should would cause a problem.

The potential adopter showed up one day with her two children in tow, her 10 year old son and a daughter in her young 20’s. I made it very clear on multiple occasions that Oras currently calm demeanor was due to constant exercise and mental stimulation. Ignoring her physical and mental needs for exercise for even a day would result in pent up frustration being released in non expected way. This was a dog who needed an active home and an observant owner and this gal seemed to be up to the task.

We sent her home to think about it and scheduled an in home visit where we would bring Ora to her house and finalize the adoption. I can still clearly remember the day of her adoption, Ora standing at their storm door staring out questioningly at us as we drove away. We had had half a dozen fosters prior to her but she was by far the hardest to see go. Little did I know at that time, but our paths would cross again.

In an effort to make Ora a better candidate for adoption we attended some local training classes at Dogue Style. We had done some basics such as sit, down, stay etc at home but not much in the way of leash manners. Being late fall the weather was not very conducive to walks. As to be expected in the classroom Ora liked her personal space and wouldn’t hesitate to let other dogs know but at the same time she was not terribly interested in meeting other dogs either.

One may surmise that this would be ideal for training a dog but in spite of her apparent comfort paying attention was not something that was going to come easily. As she had displayed before in public, her head was a spinning top. Not wanting to miss anything that went on around her she was constantly looking from side to side trying to take it all in. Treats wouldn’t hold her attention for more than a split second and by the time you marked an obeyed command such as sit, she would be up and at the end of the leash checking things out before you could even move a treat in her direction.

It was frustrating to say the least. She was clearly a bright little dog but had absolutely no focus, or more accurately no focus on me. She clearly had tons of focus for things that interested her but my treats and I just weren’t cutting the mustard.

Over the rest of the winter we tried a couple more classes with little progress in terms of her attention to me but our progress at home was a different story all together. I’m almost ashamed to admit it but truth be told I didn’t care for Ora much. I’m really not sure what it was, perhaps her driven, independent spirit and overall lack of interest in me that made it hard for me to form a bond with her, but that was all about to change.

I stopped concerning myself with obedience and started to focus more on the relationship. Playing tug and fetch and just generally increasing my value to her and starting to build a bond based on quality time together. This really proved to be the holy grail and opened new doors in terms of training. Her energy level and determination to play allowed me to use toys as a reward for her focus and performing requested behaviors.

We went from a dog that was literally bouncing off my head trying to grab toys from my up stretched arm to one that would sit and patiently wait for a release before grabbing a rope tug, even when it was used to tickle her nose. She still had little interest in obedience style training for treats but using markers, toys and interactive play I now knew how to communicate with her in a way that would benefit us both in the future.