Champion of My HeartA dog blog, where everything is a work in progress, by Roxanne Hawn

Thanks to diligence on my part, Lilly is MUCH better about the toenail thing than Ginko. I take the tiniest bit off of each of her nails once a week, both so that they don’t get too long and so that she never gets out of practice with this grooming task. We jokingly call it Turkey for Toenails, but most times I use cheese instead. One toe, one hunk of cheese. It’s a good trade.

For comparison, I offer this photographic evidence of the difference between weekly nail trims and the more like quarterly pedicure smackdowns I have with Ginko over his toes.

Ginko                                                                Lilly

Truth in Adversiting: I am not perfect, however, in my execution of these dog mom duties. This shows Lilly’s foot before her latest trim over the weekend.

This is immediately afterwards. I cut one too short, and it bled. She is such a good girl for putting up with my mistakes.

I get all kinds of interesting alerts via email. This includes tidbits from something called Packaged Facts. Today’s missive touts a 5% or $2.5 BILLION increase in pet-related spending in 2009 — despite the recession. Those outside the dog world might be surprised by the data (which is used to promote a whole, big report on the pet market), but I am not. It’s really quite simple.

For people like me, our dogs are NOT discretionary.

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Saturday, I caught up on my dog grooming duties. Most weeks that means Lilly and only Lilly, but I decided I’d attempt to trim Ginko’s front toenails. With a muzzle and enough cheese, I can occasionally get him to cooperate. Just as I imagined myself drafting a victory blog post, our celebratory dog training jackpot went terribly wrong.

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Hey, kids. I did a FeedBurner thing (now owned by Google, I guess) that allows people to subscribe to the blog via email. It’s in ye olde sidebar to the right. It seems to be working OK. Not great, but OK. The problem? There is a sizeable delay between when I post new blog entries and when they arrive via email.

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One of the best ways to get readers’ (and, therefore, editors’) attention is to use superlatives. If something you write about is the biggest or smallest, best or worst, or better yet ONLY or FIRST, then chances are you’ve got a winner of an idea. However, the problem with such thinking is that it can warp you.

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Well, kids. Today is my birthday, so rather than reinvent the wheel. Allow me, please, to merely point to my latest post over the Dog Food Dish (my new paid blogging gig), where I talk about the role of fat in dog food.

Some days, my brain buzzes with larger, more philosophical sides to dog training. In part, this happens because of items I see in dog world news such as this dog training summit. At some point soon, I may rant a bit on that very topic since I’m not shy about the fact that I’m no fan of “He Who Shall Not Be Named.” But, today, I wanted to share a distinction I think will help.

Answer me this: When your dog responds to cues or offers default behaviors or just generally behaves like a civilized canine citizen, do you feel a sense of power or pride?

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Based on discussions with my dog writer & dog blogger friends, I’ve began to wonder … just how many dogs does it take before you (or anyone) truly knows anything about anything when it comes to dogs.

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A lack of attention and concentration resulted in a comedy of errors, involving laundry, a game of fetch, and a somewhat famous border collie girl who spins when she gets excited.

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Ginko and Lilly express their expectations differently. The more I ponder yesterday’s Signs Point to Yes, the more I realize that the disparity in their responses to disappointment or anticipation reflect their formal (and not so formal) dog training.

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