Last year my then 14 month old BLF got a minor case of Cold tail after a hunt, that I would call very slow will very minimal work by her! She only made 4 easy retrieves that day, and had an 1 1/2 ride home! She was over it in 2 days!
Now fast forward to this past Saturday, we been having plesant weather here, it's not cold by any means, and I'd say the water temps are in the upper 60's now! I took her Saturday for some water work, we had a short session of working on cast over into water, and then ran 3 water blinds with the longest being a 60 yard swim, gave here 3 or 4 fun marks, and then headed home, after about an hour of rest we headed to another location to work on some water marks, and this location is all running water, we was limited on time at this point, so I set up the wingers for 2 marks, she retrieved without incident, and we called it a day !
Once home I kennel her into my 2 hole dog box while I cleaned and disinfected her outdoor kennel run. She stayed in the dog box for about an hour while everything was cleaned and dried, and noticed when I got her out she was favoring her tail, sitting crooked, and trotted around the yard which is unusal, she usually runs wide open when she first comes out! I noticed she was showing the same signs as the previous cold tail issues, and she was turning and biting at the lower 1/4 of her tail towards the tip.
She seems to be in good spirits, and was fired up and ready to go this morning, but shes still in her outdoor run resting this morning! Shes still showing those classic signs of Cold tail, shes wagging her tail some but will not raise it more than slightly below her back line.
I am so confused what is causing this ??? She's in excellent shape! We train 5 days a week, and what we did Saturday is what I would call a normal to easy training session compared to her normal daily activity during training, just like the first time she got it, it was a very inactive day, compared to the other hunts she had been on. I have read that high activity with un conditioned dogs will bring on Cold Tail, but like I mentioned she is far from not being in shape, she's in very good shape, and very physically fit.
Just wondering if any of you have had these issues in the past with Cold Tail that just shows up for no reason ? I guess I could understand if I worked her extremely hard, or she was retrieving in icy water, but we are in early fall, the water temps. are still fairly warm, this is a highly conditioned dog, and it showed up again after a easy training session ! I am very confused at this strange condition.
Any ideas ???
Now fast forward to this past Saturday, we been having plesant weather here, it's not cold by any means, and I'd say the water temps are in the upper 60's now! I took her Saturday for some water work, we had a short session of working on cast over into water, and then ran 3 water blinds with the longest being a 60 yard swim, gave here 3 or 4 fun marks, and then headed home, after about an hour of rest we headed to another location to work on some water marks, and this location is all running water, we was limited on time at this point, so I set up the wingers for 2 marks, she retrieved without incident, and we called it a day !
Once home I kennel her into my 2 hole dog box while I cleaned and disinfected her outdoor kennel run. She stayed in the dog box for about an hour while everything was cleaned and dried, and noticed when I got her out she was favoring her tail, sitting crooked, and trotted around the yard which is unusal, she usually runs wide open when she first comes out! I noticed she was showing the same signs as the previous cold tail issues, and she was turning and biting at the lower 1/4 of her tail towards the tip.
She seems to be in good spirits, and was fired up and ready to go this morning, but shes still in her outdoor run resting this morning! Shes still showing those classic signs of Cold tail, shes wagging her tail some but will not raise it more than slightly below her back line.
I am so confused what is causing this ??? She's in excellent shape! We train 5 days a week, and what we did Saturday is what I would call a normal to easy training session compared to her normal daily activity during training, just like the first time she got it, it was a very inactive day, compared to the other hunts she had been on. I have read that high activity with un conditioned dogs will bring on Cold Tail, but like I mentioned she is far from not being in shape, she's in very good shape, and very physically fit.
Just wondering if any of you have had these issues in the past with Cold Tail that just shows up for no reason ? I guess I could understand if I worked her extremely hard, or she was retrieving in icy water, but we are in early fall, the water temps. are still fairly warm, this is a highly conditioned dog, and it showed up again after a easy training session ! I am very confused at this strange condition.
Any ideas ???