2008 was an upsetting year as Ellie had an injury which took her out for most of the year. It took quite a while to properly diagnose as she was intermittently lame. Initially it was thought to be a cruciate ligament injury and she had lots of tests and x-rays. She did improve after rest and hydrotherapy but then got significantly worse. 

Eventually she was referred to a specialist for an MRI scan which showed a torn muscle along her spine, which was causing the lameness. I was thankful that it did not require surgery but it meant a prolonged period of rest and a long rehabilitation program.

After months of lead walking I built up Ellie’s stamina on the treadmill and then by trotting her alongside my bike. This took many months and I did not want to let her off lead, in case she repeated the injury. She continued to have hydrotherapy twice weekly together with physiotherapy, including exercises using a large inflatable ball.

In the meantime Laura was still competing with Sax and I drove her to numerous agility shows, whilst not having a dog of my own to run. Fin joined the family in July 2008, so that distracted me a little.

My good friend, Ann, also allowed me to run Molson, her Grade 6 dog from time to time and this gave me some good experience running a dog around more difficult courses. Scott is now running Molson in YKC classes, so I rarely get to run him these days!

Ellie started to train again in November/December 2008 with a view to going back out and competing again in 2009.

Since I have no pictures of Ellie working in 2008, here is a very typical picture of her enjoying the beach - filthy dog!

This page was updated on December 2008