Bird dogs are tough. Tougher than most people give them credit for. A good bird dog is like a well oiled machine. Not just because of training but because regardless of the job/breed they were born and breed to hunt and hunt hard. Sometimes dogs make things look easy, a long retrieve in thick brush, paddling through icy water on their way back to the blind and all manner of impressive tasks that most of us take for granted. While bird dogs are born and breed for the jobs the have in he field, it can still be a dangerous job and there are many ways for dogs to get hurt. While the sporting dog community has come a long way in its preparedness for dealing with injuries in the field, its a whole different story when it comes to injuries at home.
In our minds, home is the safe place. No hypothermic waters or barbwire to worry about. That said, accidents can still happen at times and in places we least expect. The entry below is a glimpse into the story of Remi. A boykin/cocker cross that expereinced one of these unexpected accidents on the home front. In the wake of this accident she never quit and more importantly her people didn’t quit on her. Remi has never lost her drive in the field, even after a life threatening accident.
A Story From Trainer Tori Gilliard Foster
Remi is a 5 year old boykin spaniel/english cocker spaniel cross. The product of an oopsie litter that turned into the best thing to ever happen to me. I’ve hunted alongside her doing just about all of it. She doesn’t prefer any one bird over the other, she just loves it all. She retrieves on land and in water and she’s run flush with me on both quail and pheasant hunts. Last summer she injured her back the week before Memorial day. It was a Sunday and she was chasing the water hose stream in the yard while we washed our boat. As soon as I realized what had happened, I had her at the vet and later sent to Tallahassee for surgery. She had herniated a disk in her lumbar region. She was given a 50/50 chance of survival because it herniated up into her spinal cord instead of out. Spinal cord death was the main concern. They removed the disk and within a day she had feeling back in her right leg and it took a week for feeling to come back on her left side.
They told me she’d never hunt again. I knew she would. So I left her in Tallahassee for a little over a month for rehab and they got her to where she was able to stand unassisted. They told me to hold off on a wheelchair for as long as I could so she wouldn’t become dependent on it. So I waited about 4 months before I got her some wheels. After everything that had happened, she needed her independence back. I haven’t been able to keep up with her since. Remi LIVES to chase birds. I’ve seen a lot of bird dogs, but I’ve never met one that didn’t treat it like a job. Remi loves it. So I’ll do what I can to help her chase birds until she can’t anymore.