Dog Day Afternoon

Our Doberwoman's name is Cat Ballou. We don't ever call her by her formal name because she is named after that famous outlaw played by the renown actress, Jane Fonda; and because she doesn't want to be mistaken as a feline. Her informal names are "Miz Blue", "Dawg", and "Good Girl." "Blue" also works because she is a purebred 'blue' Dobie, as opposed to the more common black and tan.

She's about 2 1/2 years. About, because bein' a rescue, we don't know any more about her background than what she's willing to share. Which ain't much. She won't disclose much about her previous training either, but that's another story.

I'm violating doctor's veterinarian's orders by running her off-leash. She has had both knees hyper-inflamed by excessive exercise in the form of hour-long walks and shorter romps with athletic dogs. I really know that what caused this problem: it's the half hour tennis ball drills in the surf that wear her out.

So, Today, I limited her to one stick. She likes them better then tennis balls because they are more substantial and visible.

She can swim in flat water. She'll swim 50 feet or more for a stick, easy. If she would only learn to blast through the surf and swim out, she could get past freaking out about the undertow. Then her tennis elbow knee condition would disappear.

So, until then I limit her to just one 'set'.