Koira Martini Girl CGC MBDCh FMX CA TF RATI IRONDOG December 2007 - August 2020

Koira was happy and enjoying every minute of every day right up until the last. Hemangiosarcoma is a horrible disease, and we had to say goodbye abruptly, and well before I was ready.

 

I don't really even know how to describe the hole that losing Koira has left in my heart and in my life.

Happy 11th Birthday, Koira!

Koira had a relaxing day at home, celebrating by stealing an entire box of Christmas cookies (luckily dog cookies!) off the counter while I was at work. Because old dogs can do what they want.

Here's to many more years!

Koira Iron Dog

Koira came out of retirement for a weekend in November for a chance at earning the Iron Dog title. This title is awarded to dogs who earn at least one point for ten consecutive NAFA years.

Our Iron Dog team line up- all these dogs earned Iron Dog together

Along with thirteen other dogs in our region, Koira came out to this early November tournament, the first tournament in our region for the 2019 racing year, and earned the Iron Dog title.

She may be slow, but she sure is happy!

Tons of people got together to make this happen, including a stellar team put together of all Iron Dogs.

Koira is back in full retirement from flyball. This is the last flyball title she will earn, though we may try our hand in some other sports at some point.

Koira turns 11 in a week, and debuted in flyball in January of 2010, earning just 7 points in her first tournament. We closed the flyball book with a whopping 5 point total for her last tournament- and over 10,000 points in between!

Happy Birthday Koira

Koira turned 10 years old today. The weather is freezing cold but clear today. We probably should have taken advantage of the sun shining with a hike, but instead, we snuggled up inside with a flannel comforter and a roaring fire and enjoyed some movies.

Veteran Flyball

I put together a Vets team for Saturday at the tournament. Vets is a division specifically for dogs 7 or older, and there are a few allowances that make the game easier, such as jumping 7 inches regardless of having a height dog or not, and not rerunning false starts. I wanted to have a chance to run Koira and she how she would do. She ended up having a great time, and running in the low 5s the entire time.

Wordless Wednesday: Pretty Girls

My pretty little girls. 

Koira's been on "vacation" for the past few weeks. My mom lives about an hour away from me, out in the country. For about 3 months when Koira was little, we lived there while I was going to school and looking for a job. And Koira absolutely loves to go visit.

Super happy on the back porch

Koira hides in the car because she is scared of traffic around us. But as soon as we turn onto the highway my mom lives on, Koira will pop up and start to look around eagerly. I'm lucky enough that my mom enjoys Koira and is willing to watch her when I go out of town, or just have Koira go out and enjoy the slow life for a while. This time around, I had a busy couple of weeks planned with a bunch of stuff that Koira either wasn't invited to or simply would not have done well with, because of dog reactivity, anxiety issues, and being a crazy nutjob on the river. Ptera, on the other hand, was able to do these things. So Koira went off on a solo vacation at my mom's house, during which she taught the rooster that he isn't allowed on the porch (my mom taught Koira to chase him off the porch, but not any other time), and that the deer aren't welcome in the garden. And my mom made Koira fat and lazy, since the most she really did was chase the rooster off the porch and the deer out of the yard, with lots of laying on the couch in between.

Ptera came with me to pick up Koira

Unfortunately, Koira has been super itchy since about Friday or Saturday, and I think I just figured out why last night. It looks like Koira has a big swollen bug bite in the armpit of her front leg. There are a bunch of hives near it, which thin out the farther away they get, though she is itchy all over. I'm keeping an eye on it, of course. If it improves, even gradually, we'll just keep up with the benadryl for the itchiness. If it gets worse, or any of the scratching opens up a sore, we'll head off to the vet. It doesn't help that Koira has a grass allergy, so when she is itchy, she goes outside and rubs around on the grass to scratch, and ends up breaking out in hives from the grass as well. Poor itchy girl.

Her serious picture

Overall, I'm just really thankful that I have someone that I trust, who is willing to watch Koira for me, sometimes with little or no notice. And I just love my girls. Koira may not be an easy dog, but I love her all the same.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Much as I love her, Koira has some habits that I am not particularly fond of. Probably the biggest one is that she gets over the top excited and obsessive. When we go paddleboarding, Koira spends the entire time leaping off the SUP, swimming after the kayaks (I always go on the river with at least one other person, for both safety and fun), climbing back on the SUP and using it as a launching pad again. And barking the entire time, with a deep booming bell like bark.

Landshark locked, loaded, and launched!

She loves going paddleboarding. But she isn't the most enjoyable dog to take along in some ways. I said from the beginning that I hoped she didn't end up teaching Ptera all of her bad habits. 

Obviously Ptera is very excited by Koira's excitement and movement.

Honestly, I should have known better. I guess if I don't want Ptera to copy Koira, I can't take them out together. Because this little JRT has some serious terrier tenacity and high drive, which is just driven on even more by Koira's over the top excitement. I guess I am destined to have crazy dogs on the paddleboard with me. Or swimming after it.

Monkey see, monkey do. While Ptera doesn't spend as much time jumping off the SUP and swimming, she is confident enough to leap off into the water a few times before she gets cold.

Do your dogs teach each other things? I feel like it can work both ways. A well behaved dog with good habits and routines helps train a new dog to behave the same way. But when that same dog does crazy things like barking her head off and leaping into the water repeatedly (and then turning around to sharkbite the front of the SUP), those habits and behaviors appear to transfer as well.

I see some solo SUP trips in the future for me and Ptera, to try to get some more polite and enjoyable behavior, before the barking and craziness gets too ingrained.

Black and White Sunday: Box Turns

My new flyball team did a photoshoot with all of our dogs for some promotional material. Awesome side effect- I ended up with new and awesome photos of my dogs doing flyball.

A teammate ran Koira while I took pictures. I love that she is solid when run by someone else, and that all our hard work on her box turn over the years has paid off. Her turn isn't awesome, but it is so, so, so much better than it was!

A teammate took Ptera's pictures with my camera while I ran her. There is a prop in front of the box (you can see it in the lower right corner just barely), but Ptera now has a box turn! We're working on cleaning it up so it is fast and snappy now.