It’s that time of year again. Yay, Clover! Honestly, I’m kinda freaking that it’s yet another dog birthday in the house. How can she be 5 already? Don’t miss this year’s video tribute, and a few other news items below. Hint: Have you seen our foster puppy?
While Clover and Tori may or may not ever compete in various dog sports, we are working on earning some Trick Dog titles. In 2017, when I considered Clover’s debut into agility competitions, I did the paperwork for her PAL listing through the AKC. Tori didn’t have an official dog name yet, so I just did hers recently so that we could apply for their Novice Trick Dog Titles. Alas, we hit a snag on choosing Tori’s “registered” name. Somebody bought some of the words I wanted to use in Tori’s registered name so that no one else can use them for like 5 years. Really. So weird. Usually kennel names are more original than that.
It’s that time of year again. I cannot believe that Clover will be 4 years old this weekend. How is that even possible? It’s kind of freaking me out how time is flying. We have so much more to do, so many more adventures to have. From the (literally) thousands of photos I took of her in the last year, I selected about 75 of them for this year’s birthday tribute video. I like the final photo to be something really special, but I haven’t (yet) taken the perfect 04 photo of her yet this week, so we’ll stick with a photo of her sprinting so fast that all 4 feet are off the ground. She does fly. Happy birthday, baby girl. Here’s to many more!
The veterinary costs detailed inside the latest Nationwide Purdue Veterinary Price Index show interesting drops and increases in what people pay for veterinary care for their pets — particularly in the immediate aftermath of The Great Recession as well as in the most recent couple of years. My general sense is that my experience overall has been different as a Dog Mom in Colorado, where the recession wasn’t particularly bad, with costs going up and up. However, one point about veterinary costs at primary care / general veterinary hospitals versus at specialty veterinary hospitals rings true. Eerily true.
It took several weeks into an online dog training class that I’m taking with Clover for me to gain some insights into why I sometimes fail in my training efforts with her. That doesn’t mean the answers and solutions will be easy, but I see things more clearly now. Eureka moments in dog training just ahead.
The American Animal Hospital Association updated its Vaccination Guidelines in September 2017. The guidelines include some important decision flow-charts about titer testing and how to respond to the results in a variety of situations. This is an important topic if you want to avoid over-vaccinating your dog. So, I figured it’s a good time to talk about Clover’s recent titer test results and about titer testing in general since it may be a new thing for you. This is a LONG post. Grab a snack.
Looks like I waited TOO LONG to write about our success completely rebuilding Clover’s agility teeter-totter training last summer. It was going so well that Clover even did the agility teeter-totter at our group class in early October 2017. Alas, in recent weeks, Clover has gone back to treating the agility teeter-totter like her sworn enemy (again). If nothing else, dog training gives people the chance to practice patience and creativity. Thank goodness I shot some video of what worked last summer so that I can try the same things again. Cute 1-minute video ahead.
Clover saw the board-certified veterinary internal medicine specialist again last Saturday. We rechecked her CBC (complete blood count), and I’m happy to report things continue to improve. I even made a neat chart to explain how things look with her latest canine neutrophil counts. Yay!
The summer Clover turned 2, we saw an increase in fearful episodes. These included things she had NEVER had issue with before, including the agility teeter-totter. That’s when we tried the CBD oil to help her feel calmer, but then we had to ditch that when we found out her neutrophils were way low. It is not uncommon for dogs — especially sensitive herding dogs — to go through a renewed fear period at that age. Things did seem to improve after she turned 3. She can still be a little freaky about strangers without dogs, especially if they pay too much attention to her, but all in all, she seemed better. Until around Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, and suddenly she started having 1 freakout on most days. Honestly, we’re starting to think the answer to the question Can Dogs See Ghosts? is yes!
How is this possible? Three years already ! Clover flew clear across the country 3 years ago on September 13, 2014, to live with us. Happy Gotcha Day, darling girl! Cute pix and some medical news ahead.
