A happier time for Jesse

Well, this is more of a tribute to happier times gone by - but I wanted to post one of my favorite pictures of Jesse on here so we could remember "the good old days". She was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that affects mostly German Shepherds that will eventually cause her to lose her sight - possibly quite quickly. Of course I am heartbroken over it, bawling for her constantly, but there is nothing we can do but hopefully slow the progression of the disease down, but we have changed her agility and search training a bit to start working her nose more now and acting as if she didn't have sight at all so she can continue doing the activities that she loves even if she does get worse. And actually, from the work we've been doing with scent pads on all the equipment, she has been able to start developing her skills in article searching which she wasn't really interested in before! I'm hoping to get her finding keys, cell phones, wallets, lost shoes, etc. soon. hee-hee!

Anyway, so this picture is Jesse from a couple of years ago - when her eyes looked great, worked great, she was happy and having fun, and most importantly before I had to start wrestling her to the ground 6 times a day, every day for the rest of her life, to give her the medication - how do you put cream from a TINY tube into the eyeball of a dog that weighs almost as much as you, is much more stubborn than you, and you don't normally just go around touching eyeballs?! blech. If you figure it out, let me know - I could use some tips. But, that's why dogs are great, all of that is totally worth it - even if we can't fix her, and we are just hoping to slow the end result down, I will continue to get more steroids on my fingers, in my hair, and all over my clothes, than in her eyes. And she will continue to fight me and then immediately forgive me so we can do it all again a couple hours later - even if she doesn't really understand what is going on. She's a good dog - quirks and all. Whoever said "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" - didn't have a dog! I'd trade a whole pile of diamonds for my dogs. Give your four legged, furry friend a big hug and make sure they know you love them!

Oh yeah, and I'm going to try to remember my camera when we go training next week, I want to post a picture of Mikka working too - she is CRAZY, but lots of fun.