Small Update on Lycan the Big Puppy 💙

Lycan the fluffy pup is growing into a beautiful young man.

• 

• 

We have started developing his canicross now he’s a year old we are doing little tiny runs in harness ❤️

Today he did a 300m run and loved every minute 😊

Being a giant breed we want to make sure he is growing well and not put too much pressure on his joints. He now weighs 50kg 6 weeks ago and we will be weighing him again soon to get an update, he is a big stribg lad 💙

• 

• 

We also take part in obedience training which is also going well. Keeping his mind focused and busy he loves a job to do 😊 although recall is still a work in progress when his friends are around 😂

• 

Obedience Training

Whoever decided it was a good idea to get a white dog 😂 Lycan absolutely loves the mud 💙 although surprisingly he’s easier cleaned than he looks lol

• 

• 

• 

• 

Muddy Fun 💙

Keep checking back for more updates, Lycan will have lots more adventures soon 💙

Bentleys Legacy Carries on…

Bentley my champion 😍

It’s been around 10 months since I last wrote a post. Sorry its been so long I have still been running with friends and their doggies to keep my mind active and carry on for the love of Bentley and his running 😍

Well I thought it was time for a wee update 😁

Meet the newest member of Team Bentley on the Trails 💙 Lycan!

Photo of Lycan the night he arrived home ❤️

Lycan is a Polish Tatra Sheepdog (Owczarek Podhalanski) he’s a wee goofball who can be crazy. He has now just turned 10 months old and we have just started doing some running up a few small hills (not canicrossing yet) just free running for the boy as he is classed as a giant breed 💙

Lycans current weight is approximately 49kg so a very large lad.

We have an Instagram page where I have been putting lots of photos of Lycans adventures over lockdown.

I am definately going to begin writing our blog again if anyone is interested. If you would like me to write a blog on anything specific let me know what you want to hear 😘😁

Exciting times ahead, thank you for your kind words after Bentley passed away it was much appreciated and I hope to keep you all amused with Lycans adventures as part of Team Bentley on The Trails 💙❤️

Sleepy time

• WordPress
• Instagram

Thank you to our sponsors: The Happy Go Lucky Dog Company and Canine Pawsibilities for keeping us going and supporting us through all times ❤️

Bentleys Legacy

First of all I would like to say a massive thank you to the support Bentley and I have recieved throughout the years.

Unfortunately due to complications after cruciate ligament surgery Bentley has passed away 😢.

The big fluffball was our world and at just under 7 years old it just doesn’t seem fair.

Our baby boy will always be with us and I’m certain he will always be looking down on us.

Bentley loved to run from the moment I introduced him to canicross. After only a year of running he became Scottish SDAS Canicross Champion, he managed this again 2 years ago as well.

Bentley also pulled me round to top 20 in the European Championships and we were selected for the world championships.

He was an amazing boy who was sometimes misunderstood, but I think he showed more and more people his goofy side as he got a wee bit older.

One things for sure I will miss running with him, however it is currently the small silly things like running through the house when he heard the cheese rattle.

Or when you said you were going outside he would run so fast to come to the garden with you.

I definitely miss his wee face using his ball a bit like a dummy as he squashes it, but leaving a slight damp patch where he had dropped in that area.

Team Bentley will always be alive and if I ever canicross again i will make sure it’s with Team Bentley on my tshirt, he was my whole world, my buddy and helped me with so many hard situations.

He is running pain free over rainbow bridge now and being looked after by Becky and Lexi ❤🌈🕊 Run Free and Rest in Peace wee man 😢💜🏃‍♀️

Pre-Surgery Update

Sorry for no posts recently unfortunately Bentley is in for his lumbo-sacral distraction fusion surgery in 4 days time. We will keep you updated.

It has been such a rough year since he first became occasionally lame and eventually leading to him not able to even walk 1km without feeling the effects later in the day. So it was decided surgery is the best course of action.

Today we went out for a wee walk lots of smells and took it slow as it may be the last one prior to surgery on Wednesday.

We are now chilling out infront of the fire and enjoying a chilled out Saturday. Thanks again for everyone’s ssupport especially The Happy Go Lucky Dog Company, Canine Pawsibilities and the K9 health Centre in Aberdeen.

Bentley is hoping to get back to some of his adventures in the new year fingers crossed but keep your eye on our page for post surgery updates ❤

Love you all from Bentley and Chantel 🐕❤😃

The Beginning of Recovery

Bentley boy has been through a lot over the last couple of months. We have found out what is wrong and have been told it is now trial and error to see if he is able to run again.

So for the time being we will keep you updated with his recovery journey 🙂

After 6 weeks crate rest Bentley was seen again by AVR and they have given him the all clear to build up exercise and reduce his pain medication.

Thanks to everyone who donated to go fund me. We have managed to get Bentley a back support to help the lower spine and hips. Photo above was his first walk in it and I think he did well with it on.

Week 1 went well every day was a half mile walk. We saw no stiffness and he just loved being back outside.

Week 2: we have moved up in distance and are trying to walk a 1km/15 minute walk most days. The days we are not walking we are doing other exercises such as cavaletti.

He loves doing different activities. Along with balance ball and strength activities to try and strengthen his legs.

Finally we have also started heading back to hydrotherapy, today was the first day back. He loved it and is no really tired.

Keeping fingers crossed we can again up the distance of the walks next week. We will keep you updated over the coming weeks.

We really appreciate the support Bentley has had and fingers crossed you will all see him in good form soon.

Injury Update

Hi everyone I know you have been waiting for an update on Bentley boys injury. So after a long drive to Aberdeen Veterinary Referral Centre, I left Bentley in the capable hands of the Veterinary Staff.

After Xrays and CT scans I received a phone call within two hours of leaving Bentley with them. They had found the problem in his lumbosacral area and they would tell me more when I picked him up. Well, I started googling, this is the worst thing for anyone to do. My imagination started going a bit wild but all my fears were partially put to bed once I got back to the centre.

So Bentley has been diagnosed with lumbosacral disease, meaning he has spondylosis of part of the lumbosacral region, which has possibly, in turn, caused a trapped nerve in this region also.

They also found a partial cranial cruciate ligament rupture, which due to research we are very unsure whether it will heal on its own. So far the vet has recommended 6 weeks strict crate rest with no running, jumping or slippery surfaces. He has also been given a couple of different anti-inflammatories and painkillers to hopefully help it all come back into place.

Due to the cruciate injury, I have been recommended getting him a brace that he could use for the rest of his life if necessary, but it will also help the healing process. However, these are expensive so we have set up a go fund me page to ‘Get Bentley Running Again’ as currently he is doing no exercise at all and hasn’t been able to for the last few months 😦

https://www.gofundme.com/help-bentley-run-again&rcid=r01-155152340386-e12c1330746944f7&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

If anyone fancies reading our Go Fund Me page feel free, in the meantime we will try and keep you updated as to what we are doing to keep his mind active while we are trying to get him back to fitness. The silver lining is at least we now know the issue isn’t just 1 injury but a couple of things.

Bentley is still a happy go lucky boy photo of him flat out after yesterdays antics.

Unfortunate Injuries

Sorry we haven’t posted for a while. Between Bentley still being injured and myself being injured we haven’t been up to much. The whole season has had to be scrapped as its not fair on Bentley competing when his legs aren’t capable.

We still aren’t sure what the main cause is at the moment. However physios and vets can’t seem to determine the cause. So currently raising the funds necessary for xrays and CT scans for my big fluffball.

Despite being injured the stiffness decreases over time so we can still run once per week to keep his mind active. I only started him back running two weeks ago and he absolutely loved it.

Bentley free running in the hills with a massive smile on his cheeky face. We have done this 2 weeks in a row now.

However what a difference 1 week makes. 2 weeks ago we had crazy snow up the hills, Bentley loved rolling and going crazy in it. Followed by this week it was a beautiful say but almost to warm at times. But we bity loved it this week with friends 🙂

Bentley was very tired after yesterday’s fun in the hills.

Over the last 2 months Bentley has been going to k9 hydrotherapy and spa in Aberdeen to help his legs. He has begun enjoying the wee spa at the end of the session and his legs don’t seem to stiff after these sessions.

This Saturday passed we went to visit Tom the Doggy Chiropractor. He found Bentley to have sore muscles in his front legs however his rear leg where he seems to present stiffness seems okay. So still not much further forward but a good all round treatment for Bentley.

We are doing our best to get us both back to full fitness. In the mean time I will try and keep updates coming through on how he is progressing and hopefully get to the bottom of it.

Next weekend we are off to try an introduction to tracking workshop so look out for the wee story on how it goes 🙂

Thanks to everyone who reads our blog and fingers crossed we can get some good news soon.

Bentley in the mean time says hi to everyone 🙂

Injuries, Stitches and Regaining Fitness

This year has been full of ups and downs and unfortunately team Bentley had to delay our start of season.

We had a good check up with Tom Middlemass the Doggy Chiropractor and he confirmed Bentley was in great condition.

However Bentley was diagnosed with a Hemangioma on his back right leg (nothing to serious thank goodness). We organised removal and thought that he could be back running in a couple of weeks.

Well he had different ideas lol after 2 weeks we discovered the wound had re-opened. So the bet tried staples a few days, these also didn’t stay in. So poor Bentley had to be knocked out once again in order for the vet to cut and restitch.

Finally after 8 week’s since the initial lump was found and after the holiday of a lifetime. Where Bentley loved being with his Granny and my brothers 🙂

We managed to get moving again.

Both very unfit but enjoying the hills and just being able to run together again.

After a couple of weeks I realised Bentley was definately gaining fitness faster than me. So more running was needed this ended up in bad knees where I had to take 1 days rest after 1 day running which was frustrating.

However we took part in the Dundee Cani-Cross time trial and loved it although our endurance is something that definately needs working on.

Finally this last week I felt like we were back on par with each other and I was helping Bentley a bit more. However once again whilst Bentley was on an amazing pace I go over on my ankle 2 days before our first run of the season.

Today I have 1 very swollen ankle. Not sure if we will make it now but we are keeping fingers crossed.

If all else fails we definately hope to make a race in December and get out race season well and truly underway.

The moral of this story keep going no matter what.

Bentley looking handsome after the Dundee Cani-Cross Time Trial

Munro Bagging :D

Yesterday team Bentley decided to join the be pack leader walk up Ben Venue. This was going to be Team Bentleys 3rd munro 😮 (although I’ve now found out that Ben Venue is a Graham so classed as a small mountain) lol

It states with a 1hour 45 minute drive to the venue, where Bentley is always excited watching out the window and speaking every so often 🙂

There were less people than we expected so it began with 5 pups and 5 people ready to tackle Ben Venue.

What a beautiful place, it becam4 quite chilly the further up we climbed but perfect for the dogs who were having a blast. Bentley was loving all the river and water stops.

About three quarters up there were quite a bit of scrambling sections, so working as a team I followed Bentley and gave him a hand up some of the screes.

It took just under 2 hours of continuous walking to make the summit. And wow it was worth it!

Despite the change in weather towards the top the cloud didn’t ruin the view too much.

We met a few hillwalkers including a man in his kilt 😮

Next was the decent, some of the screes on the way down were pretty tough. It was easier to sit on my bottom and slide than it was to try and walk down. Bentley however was becoming more nimble with every step and knew the best routes down.

The weather cleared and as we made our way back down it got very warm again. All in all an amazing walk with beautiful views and all the dogs did amazing. It was between 8-10 miles of walking and just under 800m of ascent: https://www.relive.cc/view/1781298868

Hopefully team Bentley can start bagging some munros before the year is out.

Happy Hillwalking 😀

The Ups and Downs of Summer

Sorry to have kept you all so long since our last blog.

Since the last blog a lot has been happening it all started amazingly well half of team Bentley went on to win (1st female) in the Glas Tulaichean Hill Race. Which was unexpected. Followed by a half marathon PB (1.37) and 1st female a couple of weeks later over a tough wet hilly course at the Run Mhor half marathon.

Glas Tulaichean Hill Race

Guide Dogs 5k

Run Mhor Half Marathon

After these events the weather really began to heat up and because of this team Bentleys training dwindled. Poor Bentley was unable to even go for a walk.

Every dog is different but most of the time I use a general rule of temperature x humidity and if it’s above 1000 then it’s too warm to run. However I’ve noticed Bentley for running struggles in anything above about 12/13 degrees so the majority of the summer 😮

However there was still one thing we could do together and that was swimming.

Bentley absolutely loved his swimming using his ‘Baltic’ lifejacket and me with my wetsuit and life jacket we aimed to do between 300-500m of swimming each time.

It has been said in the past that 5 minutes of swimming for a dog is the equivalent of a 5k run as it’s a tough exercise mentally and physically for them.

Unfortunately as Bentley couldn’t run I then lost the motivation to run as well. I tried a few techniques such as following a program, trying to get out early morning but when you start work at 6am that’s a hard task.

This week however thanks to the drop in temperature I got out running with my boy for the first time in a while. I’m hoping it’s given me the motivation I need to continue training. Today is the fluff ball rest day as he loved yesterday’s run in the hills, but no rest for me I’m off to train with the running club for a speed session, wish me luck haha.

I also think one way to gain motivation is to have some set goals. I have a long term goal of racing with Bentley in Europe however I think short term goals to lead up to this is key. So I’m looking for dogless races to keep me in check.

A few photos from yesterday’s adventure in the hills for you all and I hope to be back online soon 🙂

Big thanks to Alpha Performance Dog Food and the pet food store in Dundee for keeping Bentley nutritionally in good shape 😀