Waiting at the Rainbow Bridge

Blue was born in Dec of 1998, but he did not come to me until 2000. He was given up by his first owner (I don't remember why); his second owner started taking herding lessons with Blue from one of my first instructors. His second owner had to move and needed to place several dogs because of his move. The herding instructor knew I was looking for a working dog and thought Blue would suite me. She was right. Blue came to me "started"; which means he was working well in a paddock. He knew how to balance (stay in the right place behind the sheep to keep them to the handler). Blue and I worked together well and soon were trialing (starting at the lowest level: Novice Novice). We were a great team and were successful on the trial field.

2001 NEBCA Novice-Novice Champion
We progressed through the classes all the way to the top level: Open. Our first year in Open (2003) and we were helping set up on a Friday before a big trial and a bad storm blew in; the dogs were crated in a horse trailer when there was a lightning strike close by. Blue panicked and escaped from his verri-kennel. The following weekend there was another storm at a trial and Blue panicked and escaped again. That summer was a bad one for storms and Blue got worse with each storm. We looked for different locations where he would feel safe, but while he felt okay at first in each new location he soon lost this safe feeling. It wasn't long before he was breaking teeth and bloodying his gums and paws trying to escape crates. Teeth needed to be extracted and we tried acepromazine which didn't work when needed due to his adrenaline. Obedience training did not work either, he stopped thinking once he heard thunder and went into his panic. The vet finally prescribed valium, which worked if given in advance of the storm. This meant I spent a lot of time looking at radar at work and calling my wife to let her know when to dose Blue; my wife was now trapped at home. If my wife was not at home during a pop-up summer storm she would find Blue loose (escaped his crate), with a bloody mouth and paws and bloody paws prints on a window or door. We made it though that first summer, barely. The next spring when it started up again we found a new vet. willing to try other drugs. We tried elavil (and anti-anxiety drug) in addition to valium. We increased the dose of elavil to find an effective dose, soon we were at the max dose and started adding in valium. Soon we were at the max dose of both drugs and Blue was still out of control during storms. Blue was now panicking at the sound of jets overhead, loud cars or trucks on the road, gun shots, fireworks, and very distant thunder. If he saw a cloud in the sky he would start to stress. If we tried to drown out the noise by playing a radio 100% of the time, Blue would react to any noise as if it were thunder. Blue had no safe place during storms. Our other dogs were now very stressed during storms due to Blue's and our reaction. I could no longer avoid that terrible decision. I had to give Blue, my Open trial dog, peace in the summer of 2004.

Mark