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Today I had to cope with a very painful experience and
rather than avoid it and wait for another day, (which I nearly did) I thought of Spike and
confronted it head on. Yes it did hurt
and did make me cry but it actually turned out to be not quite as painful as I had
feared….
Spike never complains or gets grumpy when it hurts or he
struggles to do something. He quite
simply either just gets on with what he was doing or takes a split second to
reassess the situation and then try a different approach. If he falls over then he gets straight back
up again, with a big husky grin on his face.
He limps and hobbles, but does not halt or postpone his mission. He is not going to let his hurty legs get in
the way of the toy that happens to be at the bottom of the garden being
protected by another husky….
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| Colin Caterpillar lives at the top of the stairs |
It is hard for this husky puppy to negotiate flights of
stairs and when he first arrived he was unable to walk up them without human
assistance. His very weak and fragile
body just did not have the strength, even though his little mind wanted to
follow the humans… His curiosity and
desire to explore the upstairs world eventually drove him to develop several
techniques to negotiate them.
The first technique was to “throw” his body up at full
speed, the momentum hopefully being enough to get him to the top. All the strength came from his front legs and
a lot of the time this technique worked and he was able to reach the top. On the occasions when it didn’t work he would
either turn around and try again, or wait until we reached him and helped him
up the last few steps.
As he gained weight and started developing muscles, Spike’s
success rate using this technique was around 90%.
And as his back legs grew stronger, the momentum required
was reduced and he started being able to half run and half walk, sometimes
having a little rest before continuing.
In the early days of Spike living with us, watching him going
down the stairs was very scary. We would
try and make sure one of us was at the bottom, ready to catch him if he
stumbled. He never did and he learned
very quickly to run down stairs relatively easily. I have noticed that he finds going down
stairs and running down hills much easier than going up – rather like us humans!
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| Here I come.... |
We made a decision when we first fostered Spike to give him
the same freedom and privileges that our own huskies have, which includes free
roaming in the house while we are home. The
only exception being that he slept in a large cage overnight. None of our huskies have ever needed to be
crate trained, but as Spike is a foster dog and to make it easier for Spike’s future
owners we decided to maintain his crate training. He has always been exceptionally well behaved
overnight taking himself off to bed when he feels sleepy usually taking a few
toys with him.
In the past week we have relaxed this rule and not closed
the crate door, at the same time we also decided that we are not going to “wrap
him in cotton wool” – he will learn about life and coping with his disabilities
with as few restraints as is practical.
Spike immediately decided that the landing at the top of the stairs was
going to become his new bed. He
scrambled upstairs when we went to bed and remained in that same spot all night
until 4:30 am and when I get up to go running with Kez and Kroi.
Last night before around 9pm we noticed that Spike was
missing. He was not in the living room
with us, or in the garden, or even in his crate with all his favourite toys….
We soon found him. Sound
asleep upstairs on the landing. Not only
had he managed to open the bottom stair-gate that had been closed while we were
out during the day, but he had managed to tip toe upstairs without us hearing a
sound. No clambering or scrambling, more
like a stealth move that a panther would be proud of!
Now he has perfected this technique, I wonder if his next personal
challenge will be able to lift his leg (the way boy huskies do when passing all
trees, stones, lampposts etc….) without falling over…
