Author: Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related. I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

Entirely Off Topic

Allergy Warning: Gain Detergent

If you have anyone in your house who is at all sensitive allergy-wise, DO NOT switch laundry detergent willy-nilly. I bought some Gain recently because it was on sale, and I practically poisoned Tom. He was sick for three solid days (over last weekend). He couldn’t breath. His eyes were bright red. He sneezed and sneezed and sneezed. Unfortunately, I’d done a whole day’s laundry while he was gone on Saturday. It wasn’t until Sunday morning we figured out the cause. …

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Dog Photo

Lilly’s Friend – The Goat

Earlier this week, Lilly’s friend the Boer goat spent a lot of time in the pasture behind our house. We’ll go a whole week without seeing her, then she’ll be back, grazing with the horses. Tom and I each left the dogs inside and went to smooch on her at the fence. (We think its a her.) And, she loved the attention. Do you think a raised paw means the same thing in Goat-Speak as it does with dogs? …

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Dog Training Update | Dogs on Drugs

Weekly Training Update (Feb 6)

We had a pretty mellow training week for a number of reasons, but Lilly did have two play dates with her pal Katie. And, in our ongoing study of canine body language, I noticed a few funny things. …

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Dog Photo | Musings

Half-Dog with Toy

Keeping with yoga poses named for things our dogs do, here is Ginko showing the classic Half Dog (with toy). …

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Info-Share | Musings

Canine Body Language

So, I went through Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide by Brenda Aloff a second time. Much of the info I already knew, but here are a handful of things that struck me while thinking about Lilly and Ginko’s use of their bodies to communicate. …

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Brag for a Friend

In honor of the Super Bowl

As a kid, I watched football with my family. As an adult, however, I found and married one of very few American men who doesn’t give a rat’s behind about sports. He doesn’t watch them. He doesn’t care. He dives for the remote when sports reports come on TV news. All that is fine by me. So, these days, about the only things I enjoy about football are the famous Super Bowl commercials. So, in honor of this weekend’s big game, here’s a quick plug for our Border Collie friend

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Dog Training Update | Dogs on Drugs

Weekly Training Update (Jan 30)

This week Lilly, the intrepid protagonist of our ongoing canine love story, went to a group pet obedience class with our big-picture trainer and mentor in all things relating to living with a fearful dog (Gigi Moss). Lilly and I stopped taking this drop-in class weekly in summer 2008 on advice of our dog behaviorist, who wanted us to do some hard-core behavior modification work instead. But, we’ve made enough progress that we’re picking up a group class once a month as time and temps allow. Suffice it to say, this was …

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Hot News | Musings

Vaccination Decision

In general, I follow the American Animal Hospital Association’s Canine Vaccine Guidelines. That means, I only vaccinate my adult dogs every 3 years (not every year). Since it’s required in our county by law, that means a 3-year rabies vaccination. I also do not do annual boosters for some of the others, like that combo one many dogs get for distemper, etc. because I once interviewed the top canine infectious disease expert in the country, and he told me that many such vaccines have MUCH LONGER duration of immunity that we’ve been led to believe. I absolutely want …

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Musings

Parlez-Vous Dog-lais?

I found a copy of Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide by Brenda Aloff at my local library and checked it out, based on Dog-Geek and KB‘s recommendations, after I shared my Calming Signal confusion. I’ve read through the whole thing once, and I have plenty thoughts to share soon. Today, the topic is this: I believe Lilly speaks Dog-lais with either a heavy accent or poor syntax. She mixes her metaphors. She conjugates her verbs incorrectly. She reads like electronic assembly instructions translated from the original Chinese. …

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Info-Share

Scat-Watch 09

Considering the significant increase in coyote activity in the valley due to mating season (which happens mid-winter), I assume this scat below is from a coyote, not a fox. Fellow poop-ologists agree? If so, it was deposited about 30 feet from our front door, right on the edge of our gravel driveway. …

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