By now, most of you know about this puppy rabies situation in Colorado with a Denver-area rescue group called Moms and Mutts that specializes in pregnant and/or nursing momma dogs and their litters. I contacted the state’s public health department to get answers to some of the common questions people ask about this case and why the entire litter of puppies needed to be euthanized and tested for rabies.
Our home state Colorado has seen some bird flu issues recently. Bird flu sweeping through farms with egg-laying hens. Bird flu in dairy cows. Even some cases of bird flu in people and now cats! One other related news item coming out of Japan also caught my eye.
People often seem stunned that our home state of Colorado gets such huge snowstorms when other places in the country already see spring blooming. It’s really quite common, though. Local weather people love to say, “You know, March is our snowiest month!” And, it’s true. The worst was 2003 when we got huge storms back to back and were stuck at home for a week before we dug out by hand. This latest storm wasn’t that bad, but still … bad enough (for more than one reason). Here’s our advice on how to keep dogs safe in snow. Plus, extra photos and videos of the storm. Jump to the very bottom for the bad news.
A new databank of dog genes at UC Davis may provide genetic insights into 3 common (and devastating) cancers in dogs & people.
Why I carry an emergency dog leash pretty much all the time — it’s a good time to get some yourself with fireworks season starting.
Current foster dog FOREST (who is a German Shepherd mix dog) ended up in our local shelter after likely being hit by a car in late February 2023. His prognosis looked grim at times, but he came to us in early March and has been staying with us since then. He officially went up for adoption on April 22, but so far no adoption interest. I made a little video to try and help. Don’t miss it. Also, an FAQ below.
Clover and I attended our first NW2 trial at the end of March 2022. Thanks to our early successes in canine nosework, we had high hopes for getting this new title on the first try as well. Alas, I botched one of the first two searches of the day (mostly because of how trauma from the November dog attack started affecting my heart, so I wasn’t feeling well). But, we rallied the entire rest of the day — with Clover getting 4 of the 5 searches, 7 of the 8 hides, so still an incredible success for us. Check out the videos of our searches and other details on how the day went and what I learned from our failure and our successes.
Honestly, I cannot fathom that our Champion of My Heart site is celebrating 15 years. This little indie site keeps on chugging along. Forget so-called DOG YEARS. That’s way more than an EON AGO in publishing. The first post went live on April 13, 2007, which was a Friday the 13th. It’s funny looking back at early content. Apparently, I had more time for my craft and was much more lyrical back then. Lately, I focus on providing interesting and practical information about dogs and veterinary topics, with the occasional more personal post about my current generation of dogs. Take a look back (and ahead) with me, won’t you?
Nationwide Veterinary Analytics released the second of three white papers with important canine cancer risk data in March 2022. Here’s a video talking through the headlines and showing the main charts and much of the same information in text below too. They focused on the 25 top / most popular dog breeds, so many of us don’t get information for our own dog breeds. It’s still really interesting, though. Let’s take a look at what we’ve learned.
One of the things we’re most famous for are FREE audio/video files that make the canine relaxation protocol easier to do. It might look like simply a way to teach dogs to stay, but the RP is much more complicated than that. It’s meant to teach dogs prone to fear, stress, or over-arousal to defer to you and relax no matter what weird stimuli happens (noises, movements, etc.) Hard to believe I never made a canine relaxation protocol demo video before, but here you go. Below is a video of what it looks like when I do it with a behaviorally normal dog. In this case, first Clover and then a short snippet with Mr. Stix.
