Raz - life is screwed a bit more.

Bummer time, UKA on the 6th of March, should have been a wild and exciting time. Bigs made his debut; Dixie went to her first show. Rivi won, Zev won and Big won. We should have been singing 'zipeedodazipeeday my oh my what a wonderful day' That beautiful song. But we were in a conflict of emotions, as in Raz's run he ran smack in to Marc after turning in towards Marc on a turn. It upset Raz and winded Marc, Raz is a very powerful dog and moving at speed, the bruising says it all. At training the next day Raz was all 'flicky' head as he has to move his whole head as his peripheral vision in his remaining eye has reduced considerably. So Raz at not quite 7 years old is retired. And I was so angry for my sweet, crazy, gorgeous Raz. I ended up with the flu. Writing this I am still angry, hmmm counterproductive and useless.

Managing sight loss is hard with an incredibly fit active dog. At home he manages fantastically well, however on walks he has spooked as he finds it hard to make out what is approaching him. People then make an assumption he is naughty/odd which is so far from the truth. However by using a head collar, it seems to have made him feel more secure on his walks, but that means he needs to be on lead. What a blessing that we have ended up in our current house so that he can safely enjoy the freedom of a large garden. He is no longer so happy travelling, as the poor light of the interior makes it difficult. I am still researching a solution for this.
One of life ironies I guess a dog with so much talent. Shot up through the obedience classes, even coping with sendaways and in agility what a ride and he has done so good with Marc. So the what ifs and what could have been, what might have been are cast aside and Raz moves to another phase of his life with us, what lies ahead we don't really know, all we can do is try to do our best by him and hope he has the mental strenght to cope with it.
I don't write this for pity, I want people to understand the impact for Raz and how it has effected him, and its not just a case of his sight is crap, it effects him mentally, emotionally and physically.

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