Happy Gotcha Day, Tori
Yep, we’re celebrating another BIG anniversary here at Champion of My Heart. It is one year today that Tori first came home on a “trial basis” (ha ha). Happy Gotcha Day, Tori!
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Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue | Dog Brag | Dog Life | Dog Training | Dog Training Update | New Puppy | Newsworthy | The Story of Clover
Happy Gotcha Day, Clover
Today, we celebrate the second anniversary of Clover’s adoption — Happy Gotcha Day! It’s hard to believe we’ve been Best Friends for 2 whole years. In case you missed the AMAZING story of Clover’s adoption all the way from Virginia to Colorado, revisit that happy story now! Or, if you wonder how Clover got her…
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Dog Brag | Dog Life | Dog Training | Dog Training Video | Dog Video | Newsworthy | The Story of Clover
Herding Instinct Test
Over the holiday weekend, I drove Clover 195 miles round-trip to do another herding instinct test. We tested her the first time in June 2015, just after she turned 1. This time — maybe thanks to more maturity — it went quite a bit better in several ways. The raw video file added up to 1.5 GB. Yikes! So, I edited it down to a few highlights.
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Dog Brag | Dog Life | Dog Photo | Dog Video | Dog Video Gallery | Newsworthy | Puppy Pix | The Story of Tori
Happy Birthday Tribute Video – Tori Turns 1
I’m not sure if I can keep up this tradition of making tribute videos for the puppy-girl’s birthdays for all the years to come, but here is the latest video that celebrates Tori’s first birthday. When we adopted her in September 2015, we counted back 12 weeks (a guess on her age) and picked a date — July 1 — as her birthday. What’s great about that is that we’ll always be able to extend her birthday fuss into the Independence Day holiday. We do the same thing with Clover’s birthday since it always fall close to Memorial Day.
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Tips for Living in a Tiny House With Dogs
Today is publication day for a book called Living Large in Our Little House: Thriving in 480-Square Feet With Six Dogs, a Husband and One Remote — Plus More Stories of How You Can Too (Reader’s Digest Books). It’s written by my dear friend and colleague Kerri Fivecoat Campbell. She really does live in a TINY house in the mountains of Arkansas with several dogs. Because I’m sure you’re as curious as I am about how exactly that works, I asked Kerri for some tips on living in a tiny house with dogs.
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Pupppy-Girl Medical News
I didn’t want to say anything until I knew what was what, but Clover had some tests done last week, and Tori is having surgery this Friday, May 13. Details just ahead.
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How a Hospice Veterinarian May Have Prevented My Pet Loss Regrets
Right around the time our Old Man, Ginko, died in January 2016, I was working on an article for a veterinary trade magazine about the growing field of pet hospice. Not the easiest thing to be talking to people and writing about dying dogs when your own dog is dying. Among the many things I learned about palliative and hospice care for pets, I found out about “emergency kits” many hospice veterinarians provide. Such a kit may have prevented the deep regrets I have about Lilly’s last day. Here’s how.
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Canine Genetic Tests Thumbs Up (and Down)
The same day we had Clover spayed, I asked our veterinary hospital to run genetic tests too. My primary goal was to learn Clover’s MDR1 status (multi-drug sensitivity gene). Depending upon the genetic test you choose, you can also find out your dog’s breed heritage and whether or not your dog tests positive for other kinds of disease-causing genetic markers. The good news is that Clover is indeed 100% border collie (cute family tree graphic ahead), and she tested NEGATIVE for all 90 genetic markers. The bad news is that the testing company won’t tell me what all 90 of those markers are, which makes me really crabby.
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Why I Chose a Traditional Spay for My Dog
When it came time to spay Clover, after letting her go through one heat cycle and waiting for her extremely LONG false pregnancy to end, I had a LOT of questions about a traditional spay versus other surgical options. I know that seems silly considering that I’ve had dogs my whole life and write professionally about veterinary medicine, but I had NOT had to have a dog spayed since 1990 (because Lilly was spayed prior to our adoption), and I didn’t know how much had changed. I wanted to make a good decision.
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Urns Schmurns – What I Did With My Dogs’ Ashes
It took me more than 2 years to find something just right for Lilly’s ashes. I thought about it often, but I didn’t look around much until after Ginko died in January 2016. Suddenly, I needed a container for each of them. Off we went to a local antique mall.
