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Farewell Cody

On Cody From Susan | A Surprise for Susan and Martin at the Grooming Shop | On Cody From Martin | Share Your Respects | Download as PDF

While writing my farewell for Cody, I just couldn’t start it there. Cody meant so much to me I wanted to share more; how much he has blessed my life and touched the lives of so many others.

My Sweet boy “Cody” came into my life during a difficult time for me. I had lost my last Standard Poodle, Ralph, a few months earlier when he was just 12 years of age, and I had lost Ralph’s mother, Cassie two years before that.

It was the summer of 2015, and I was mourning the loss of my dearly beloved standard poodle companions. I was working full time as a professional dog groomer, managing Tyner’s Grooming, and training new employees, which I had been doing since 1982 when Martin and I opened our business.

I was also co-founder of the Southwest Wildlife Foundation, assisting my loving husband, Martin, in his care for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife and migratory birds, specializing in birds of prey. I was Martin’s personal secretary as well as the secretary for the SWF Board of Directors. We started this nonprofit organization in 1997, however Martin had had been caring for raptors since he was a young boy. He was curator of Birds of Prey at Bush Gardens in Van Nuys, California when we met and began dating.

Our Board President, Tim Cretsinger, had done so much for the SWF, in addition to inspiring and supporting musicians as they developed their talents in the art world. He and his wife Lisa own a record store, Groovacious, they were also the founders of the Groovefest Music Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Tim and his wife provided so many opportunities for aspiring artists to share their talents in our community over the years, and now, he was also fighting cancer.

My oldest sister who lived close to me had stage 4 breast cancer and my mother who suffered from Alzheimer’s needed to be moved into a local assisted living facility so she would have 24/7 assistance. My sister and I had moved her from her home in St. George to an apartment in Cedar City a couple of years earlier as her dementia and health deteriorated. We checked on her at least twice daily during this time, spent quality time with her, helped her with meals, shopping, doctor visits, musical theatre, church, etc.

Martin could see and feel my pain and stress as I tried to keep myself together. He started looking at puppies online as I continued with my secretarial duties for the SWF in the evening after I finished with my responsibilities at the grooming shop for the day. I assured him I was not ready for another dog. Martin’s beloved Brittany, “Hawk Bait Brit” had passed away a few years after I got Cassie so I told him he could choose the next puppy. He missed Hawk Bait and would love to get another Brittany. In his efforts to lift my spirits he continued to tell me about all the online adds listing labradoodle, goldendoodle, bernadoodle puppies and so on. I finally told him, “No overpriced mixed breeds.” If I was going to get another dog, I would call a reputable standard poodle breeder I knew in St. Geroge to see when she would have a another littler available.”

After I spoke with Karen Green, Desert Reef Poodles. I told Martin she had one female pick of the litter, and one male pick of the litter from another mother, but the pups had the same father. All of her dogs were ACK Champions and fully health tested and she was very particular about getting her puppies good quality, loving homes. Martin said we should make an appointment to go look at them. He assured me that if I wasn’t ready for another dog, we could wait, unless I found a very special pup that really touched my heart.

Upon visiting, I met Cody’s mother and father, 2 beautiful silver standard poodles. His father wagged his tail and greeted us with a big happy smile! His mother also greeted us wagging her tail. We were introduced to 3 available puppies and we took them out into the back yard to play with and assess each one of them. Martin and I spent a lot of time with each puppy and talking to their breeder. There was one puppy that caught my attention and my heart, not the two show prospects, but the other pet quality male.

On the drive home we talked about my feelings. I told Martin the only one that caught my heart was the pet quality male pup. He had something special about him. All the pups were very beautiful, well socialized, friendly, playful and healthy, but the one who became our “Cody” seemed to sense my pain and wanted to be close to me, more so than his brother and sister. I told Martin I would not be showing dogs anymore, but another standard poodle would be perfect for me to continue training my new apprentice groomers on.

A few days later we went back for a second visit and if I still felt the same way, we could place a deposit on our pick. We met with the 3 pups again and although Martin liked the more outgoing personalities of the show pick female and male, my heart was touched again by the pet quality male. We had a made a connection and I decided what I needed most right now was a therapy dog that I could take with me for daily visits to the assisted living home where my mother lived.

So began the journey with Cody, my therapy dog, the puppy that caught my heart. He was therapy for me at home and work in this difficult time, and he was a wonderful natural therapy dog at the assisted living facility visiting not only my mother, but the other residents as well. Everyone who worked at our grooming shop fell in love with him as well. Cody had a new big wonderful family.

Cody had a soft temperament and was very sensitive to everyone around him. He enjoyed lots of love and affection as well as being a silly clown and making me laugh. He was the perfect companion for me and went to work with me almost every day. Because I was so busy, and Cody loved to chase toys, it was easy for me to toss a frisbee for him to fetch in our big yard every day for exercise. Unfortunately for him though, I should have done less frisbee throwing at Cody’s young age, and instead taken the time to walk him more.

Cody was happy going to work with me every day, visiting my mother and others in the assisted living facility, and coming home to play in our big yard. He was so happy and he loved everyone! He made me laugh so much and was so silly that Martin started calling him dumb-dumb, just to make me laugh more! Unfortunately, this offended many of our YouTube viewers who loved Cody so much! They would defend how smart and wonderful he was. And Cody was wonderful, they were not wrong. He was so great with all the other animals that came through our home for care as well as touching so many human lives.

Cody began to have pain at a fairly early age, but was relentless about his frisbee and obsessed with the game. Although he knew how to walk up and down our three steps to our front and back door, he much preferred to leap off the porch to see how far he could fly. I called him my “flying reindeer”. He has so much energy and diversity. I also called him my border collie as he’d stand and stare, with head down begging me to come and play with him. He pranced like a beautiful horse as well as trying to fly like Santa’s reindeer, and he was a natural clown always looking for attention from his humans. He loved to jump and fly and play games and fetch. At night he was a bed hog, no matter how much room there was on the bed, Cody always wanted to be pinned up against us or on top of us. Martin and I would roll away, only to have him press closer to us until one of us was falling off the side of the bed.

The last 2.5 to 3 years of Cody’s life we could see he was having some problems, but he wanted to play so badly that he continued to push the games he liked, and jumping and flying and chasing the frisbee was the game he liked most. Even when we’d put his frisbee out of reach or hid if from him, he’d be relentless to shove another toy in our hands begging us to toss it for him, even in the living room. He didn’t want to walk up or down the stairs, he only wanted to jump as high and as far as he could. He didn’t want help getting in or out of the car he only wanted to jump. He didn’t want to go for walks with Martin and I, he only wanted to jump and play and chase the frisbee around the yard. When we were doing yard chores, he’d run around try to get us to toss a toy for him. He’d jump up and down, while barking at us when we ignored him.

My mistake was letting him do this as a puppy and it caused problems later on with age. Cody also had occasional seizures for several years; not very frequently, so luckily, he didn’t require medication for that. I’m guessing he had probably hit his head on a tree or outdoor furniture a few times while running to chase his frisbee, and not watching where he was going. I blame myself for that too, not watching where I threw the frisbee, because he kept dropping it right in my way while I was on my hands and knees in the garden, and I’d just toss it over my back and Cody delighted in this came of jumping to try and catch it, even if I wasn’t paying attention.

Even though Cody always felt good enough to run and jump to play the chase game, we knew he wasn’t walking right. We took him to the vet for X-rays and bloodwork. His bloodwork all checked out excellent and the x-rays showed he had perfect hips and upper back, but we learned had compressed discs in his lower back, which was causing him pain. The vet told us he was stoic and trying not to show his pain. Our vet prescribed Carprofen an anti-inflammatory and Gabapentin for his pain. He suggested trying them each separately to see which medication worked better for him. The problem was, Cody always wanted to play, jump and run, like there was nothing wrong with him. He would only show the symptoms of pain when getting up after a nap or just simply walking, instead of running.

We finally decided to try monthly Adequin injections to prevent his osteoarthritis in his lower back from getting worse. We stuck with this for a year, but there was never improvement and he had another seizure the day after his last injection, which I feared might have something to do with it, but the vet assured us it didn’t. We ran more blood work and found the medication was causing some damage to his liver, so we stopped giving the Adequan injections but continued to give him Carprofen or Gabapentin off and on, as needed, but he continued getting worse.

How do you keep a dog that wants to jump and run calm so he can heal? We got rid of Cody’s frisbee which broke his heart. He would still bring us other toys jumping and barking, begging us to play so more toys had to go. Cody was prescribed prednisone to help reduce the inflammation in his lower back. We were instructed to keep him on the carprofen and gabapentin medications for best results, as using it off and on was not beneficial. Several days after starting the prednisone with these other medications, Cody began vomiting and having bloody diarrhea. We stopped his medications and the vet prescribed Cerenia and Metroniazole to help his stomach heal.

After Cody’s stomach improved, we tried a chiropractor, instead of other medications, but after the second visit, it appeared it did more harm than good. Cody was started again on the carprofen and gabapentin but no prednisone this time. After a few days, the diarrhea and vomiting returned, we went back to treating the stomach only. Once his stomach got better, we started Cody on the Gabapentin (painkiller) only and it did not seem to bother his stomach. We continued this option for some time, as well as trying physical therapy. Without his toys we encouraged walking around the yard, but Cody still preferred to jump and run, rather than walk. He jumped on and off the porch, the bed, the car, the couch and eventually we needed to increase his dosage of Gabapentin.

Without improvement and finally decided to try another type of long-lasting monthly injection called Librela to help control Cody’s OA pain. I was told the first shot would likely not show much improvement, but hopefully the second one would. As we were told, first dose didn’t seem to help. On our visit for Cody’s second dose, I asked the vet what else we could do to help Cody and he asked if we were still using the anti-inflammatories. I said no, because they upset his stomach. I was instructed to give Cody Prilosec an hour before breakfast and then to give him his anti-inflammatory and pain med with his morning meal. That would help protect his stomach.

The evening after his second injection, Cody played with our cat, Autumn, more than he had in quite a while. We were hopeful. The next morning, I took Cody to work with me and he ran in the grooming shop like usual, but was so animated and greeted each of our groomers with a happy smile. We were all hopeful that the injections were going to help, but that was the end of Cody’s improvement and he was soon the same as he had been. At least he was tolerating the anti-inflammatory drugs now that he was taking Prilosec and he continued to take his pain meds.

About 2 weeks later, just 1 hour after he was given his evening pain pill and dinner, Cody started walking stiff and uncomfortable. It quickly got worse, he was having terrible spasms in his lower back and right rear leg. Martin was supporting him and comforting him, but we could see the pain and misery he bore in silence, with his eyes pleading for help. We quickly gave Cody an extra pain pill, hoping it would relieve the pain and not cause an overdose.

It took about an hour for the extra pain pill to stop the terrible spasms Cody was experiencing. During this time while we tried to comfort Cody, we discussed taking him to the emergency Vet, but we couldn’t just put him in the car for an hour drive the way he was spasming in pain. We held him and I called my daughter to see how much medication I could give him without causing an overdose. Our daughter is a registered nurse and we call her often for all kinds of medical advice for our family of humans as well as animals. She quickly looked up Cody’s medication, his prescribed dosage and Cody’s weight and let me know when I could give him another pill to help him make it through the night until morning when we could take him to our local vet.

Cody was still uncomfortable, but at least the spasms had stopped so he could sleep. We spent extra time cuddling with him both on the bed and on the floor throughout the night, knowing that we could not let him go on suffering this way. We took him to the vet first thing in the morning where he was finally released from his pain, with Martin and I giving him as much comfort, love and support as possible, until he breathed his last breath on this earth and crossed over the rainbow bridge.

The tears and pain were too much for Martin and I to share with anyone. We did not even tell our family, but that evening my daughter called to see how Cody was doing, and that was when I told her. The next day I told the rest of our family at the grooming shop and we all shed tears together.

I’m sorry it has taken me more than a month to share our loss with the rest of our friends. It was just too hard for Martin and I to talk about. I have blamed myself the last few years because I encouraged Cody to be so active as a growing puppy, causing his pain later in life. My family, coworkers, and friends have not blamed me but tried to comfort me with the fact that Cody was given so much love by so many people and for all the love he gave to everyone he met.

I wasn’t going to get another poodle. I had compressed discs in my back just like Cody did, in addition, torn rotor cuffs in both shoulders. I haven’t been able to groom dogs without pain for several years and I had spasms in my back and sciatica in my right leg just like Cody did. I went to physical therapy and pain management until I finally got a steroid injection into my compressed discs to calm down my back pain and spasms. While the injection and PT helped me, sadly an injection into Cody’s back was not an option, and PT hadn’t seem to help him.

I told Martin I was not ready for another dog, but if he was, he could find one, but he was still grieving and was not ready for another dog either. Autumn aka “Our Kitty from Hell” was also missing Cody. She loved to cuddle up and sleep with him, but she also loved to torture him, stalking him and attacking him instigating play. After Cody was gone, she started something new, walking through the house calling softly and looking for him. We were surprised how much she missed Cody, this continued until Martin decided to drive by the shelters to check out what dogs needed homes and also started looking online.

Martin had missed his Brittany he named “Hawk Bait Brit,” since she passed away many years ago. He called her “a real dog,” not like my poodles. Although Martin loved all of our dogs, Hawk Bait Brit was always his favorite. She was his hunting dog and constant companion riding shotgun with him in his little Dodge ram D50 PU truck. He had hoped to get another Brittany, someday, but I’d had always wanted to raise Guide dogs for the blind and he fully supported me with that.

After 4 years raising guide dog puppies for a year each, then tearfully sending them back to the school so they could finish their training to be placed with someone who needed them more than we did, Martin supported me in reaching a new desire to own a standard poodle. Cassie was my first and I showed her in AKC conformation a little bit, but didn’t have the time or money to keep that up. I did however show her and her sons Ralph and Hass, with IABCA (International All Breed Canine Association) All three became IABCA Champions and they won Best Family Group at the show.

By this time Martin had been calling our dogs “the Poodle Plague,” for very good reason. Obviously, one was never going to be enough! After showing them in conformation, and raising a second litter, I began entering “Creative Grooming Competitions” with Cassie and two of her sons. Having these poodles at the grooming shop was also great to help train my apprentice groomers on poodle cuts as well as teaching them how to dye dogs and get more creative themselves.

I didn’t want another puppy; they were too much work to train. I figured we’d wait a few months or even years until a rescue dog came along that fit into our family. Autumn’s sad, soft calls for Cody as she wandering the house looking for him continued. We finally decided it might be best for Autumn and both of us to get another Brittany puppy, and Martin had been so waiting so many years. It really was his turn to choose a dog since I had been responsible for bringing the last 8 dogs into our home over the past 20 plus years.

We miss you, Cody. You will forever be in our hearts!
-Susan Tyner

Thank you for your care and concern for Cody.

If you’d like to give in honor of Cody, for Susan and Martin, it is all about the critters.

You may visit our donations page here.

There is also a fundraiser at the Farewell Cody video on YouTube.

Download Susan’s Story as PDF

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