Jinx Arrives at the Rainbow Bridge

As a puppy, Jinx let out her first deep “Boo-woo” bark as a heavy rain hit the roof. So funny was this, watching her tilt her head at the ceiling to determine if that gush of water was friend or foe. She jumped up on sofa, looked out the window, and then came another, “Boo-woo, Boo-woo, Boo-woo.” The rain was an intruder and she needed to alert us!

Adele, Jinx (center) and her son, Linx

This feisty Norwegian Elkhound girl, officially known as Ch. Elvemel For Your Eyes Only, CGC, has traveled far and wide with me. We’ve been to dogs shows in Colorado, Kansas and Wisconsin. We’ve done media events in Manhattan that has landed us together in the pages of Sports Illustrated and New York Dog magazine. We’ve attended AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day events from New York City to Raleigh, North Carolina, the latter to earn her Canine Good Citizen title at 9-years-old. She became a champion show dog and appeared live from Times Square on a pet dental health month media tour while a vet brushed her teeth for major TV markets all before she was 2-years-old. And she made her last show appearance of the famed Morris & Essex Kennel Club in October.

Jinx hangs out with Beckham and Leyna and their owner Gail Miller Bisher

She made friends of her own like Leyna, the Manhattan-based smooth miniature dachshund. Besides doing the Sports Illustrated photo shoot together, these two hounds traversed tri-state dog shows in search of championship points. Jinx even broke the mixed-breed barrier making lifelong friends with Flirt, an adorable blonde labradoodle from Westchester County. Jinx would attend parties and sleepovers with Flirt, playing in her owner’s “enchanted garden,” as we called it.

Jinx at Flirt’s Enchanted Garden

And Flirt came to visit Jinx in Newtown, as her owner Renee Richmond, came to help build a garden of Jinx’s own.

Flirt visits Jinx in Newtown!

By 3-years-old, Jinx became a mother, giving birth to two lovely puppies, Linx & Minx. Minx went on to a wonderful home to become Elvemel All That Jazz. Linx, a.k.a. Ch. Elvemel Casino Royale, CGC, stayed with us. Just last week, he won an award of merit at the Norwegian Elkhound Association of America National Specialty dog show at 9 years old, doing his mommy proud.

Jinx checks to make sure Ray has a good hold of Linx (left) and Minx, aged 7 weeks.

Wait ’til I Get Home

But before leaving for the national specialty three weeks ago, I had a conversation with Jinx. I asked her, “Please, wait until I get home.” She knew what I meant. I kissed her before loading Adele and Linx into the van for our 10-day trip.

She was in good hands with my husband Ray and still able to walk and manage herself. Then a week into my trip, Ray texted me to call him. Jinx had taken a turn and needed help walking and doing her potty business. I had Ray take her to the emergency hospital and put me on speaker phone with the vet. We all determined that she was not in a critical situation and she left the hospital with new medication.

Jinx always liked the vet’s office better than Ray!

Three days later on a Monday night, I was home, and reunited with Jinx. I immediately tended to her care, bathing, clipping and making her as comfortable as possible as she was incontinent now. The next morning I set out to Petco and bought her diapers (a first for me) to keep her dry. For the next 24 hours I stayed by her side and watched her mostly sleep and struggle to stand up. Tuesday night was rough. By Wednesday morning she refused breakfast. She could not stand up on all fours anymore. I held her up in order for her to eat breakfast to get her medication into her. Her decline had been swift. As she laid in the backyard, I came into the house and Ray and I watched her sleep.

“Jinx is not doing well,” I said. I took a deep breath and whispered, “It’s time.” Then I burst into tears, sobbing heavily into Ray’s shoulder. I called her vet and scheduled a home visit.

Saying Goodbye

The rest of the day Jinx and I spent time together among the backyard gardens she loved to rummage through. Several times I would look over at her call her name and tell her, “We Love You, Jinx.” Although she had lost the use of her tail, the tip of that once-tightly curled tail wagged ever so slightly.

Jinx amidst clover in earlier years

All throughout the day as Jinx dozed on the grass, Mr. Cardinal, with his bright red plumage, flew around the property, with at least a dozen sightings. Jinx’s last journey across the yard was to my side as I sat in the lawn chair. I stroked her grey grizzled head and looked deeply into her dark brown eyes. She spoke to me silently and said, “It’s time.”

Jinx spent the few remaining hours of her life sleeping among her gardens. However, true to her stoic old bitch fashion, as soon as her vet, Dr. Fran Paulin, walked into the back yard, Jinx had to alert us to the intruder. “Boo-woo, Boo-woo, Boo-woo” she barked. Her last bark eerily echoing that first puppy bark that made us laugh so long ago.

Jinx always knew how to make us laugh and smile!

Jinx slipped away peacefully with respect and honor (thank you Dr. Paulin and Sarah). Ray lovingly prepared a grave for Jinx near Roxanne, her great-great-grandmother, and Burt, our first champion. We brought her old pack mates, those Elvemel champions who had passed before her — Bruno, Basia and Obie — and placed their ashes with her. We covered them all with earth and roses. We then drank champagne to celebrate their wonderful lives and all the unconditional love they had given us over the decades. We are truly blessed to share our lives with this wonderful breed.

The next morning, as I stepped outside, a sadness came over me as I missed Jinx rummaging through the garden. Then, I looked into the backyard and spotted Mr. Cardinal sitting on a rock overlooking the Elvemel ancestral burial grounds. A smile of happy Jinx memories came over me as he flew away and disappeared into the clouds leading to the rainbow bridge.

A New Year ~ Same Old Routine

Posted by Lisa Peterson

Until you rediscover something, you don’t realize it’s lost. For the past decade I commuted into Manhattan five days a week. Two hours each way. Four hours a day I was locked on a train, away from home, away from my family and away from my dogs. Add to those 20 hours per week, another eight-hour stressful work day and maybe eight hours of sleep. During the weekdays, I was left with four hours per day to eat, keep up with personal hygiene and be with my husband Ray. Those were mandatory items. After that, came the dogs. Or course, there were the weekends, but frankly after a typical week, all I wanted to do was sleep, despite the nagging errands to be done.

Time spent with my dogs was fleeting. A pat on the head, a quick snuggle on the couch while being debriefed on their day from Ray. Despite all this, I added a puppy to our pack, which literally forced me to devote all my free time to socialization, training, grooming, and traveling to classes and events to make sure we had a well-adjusted companion. Now, I was really exhausted!

At this time last year, I decided I’d had enough with my job, my crappy commute and being disconnected from my dogs, I’d so loving bred myself. All of a sudden, a few minutes at home each morning and evening turned into 24/7 with three Norwegian Elkhounds, ages 11, 8 and 8 months. Each day a pack of high energy, barking, furry friends invaded my coffee time wanting attention, attention and more attention! The household needed, “A return to normalcy” to quote Warren Harding’s 1920 presidential election campaign promise.

Setting Goals

But what was normalcy for my dogs and myself? We both needed time to heal and heel! As I sat like a zombie on the couch, my dogs would gather, jockey for position, move in for the snuggle attack. Jinx would bat me with her paw to pet her. Stroking her soft coat felt calming. Linx would rest his handsome head on my thigh and look up at me with those big brown cow-like eyes. His gaze soothed me, as I took a deep breath. Adele would run around and play with toys, which made me smile.

This simple morning routine grew into playtime in the yard, walks around town, long grooming sessions and eventually back to training classes to meet new competitive goals. Adele barely managed to calm her puppy self enough to pass her Canine Good Citizen test. Jinx stepped into the dog show ring as a veteran.

But it was Linx and I who worked the hardest with conditioning, training, grooming and showing to become my first champion in 30 years to have earned all his championship points from the Bred-By Exhibitor class (meaning I was the owner, handler and breeder of the dog). AKC sent us a special medallion.

A new routine at home had lifted a veil of canine hierarchy where Linx had played second fiddle to our older male, Obie, who had passed away two years earlier. I could see him enjoying each successive dog show with more self-confidence, more tail wagging and more enjoyment as he met each new judge and a slew of new fans. Linx had finally emerged into his own sparkling personality and overdue recognition.

A New Routine

Beyond these competitive goals, we all gained something even more special. Our connection through daily routine has not only revitalized us, but grounded us in love. For them they now have an ever present outlet to share their unconditional love. Now, after Ray feeds an early morning breakfast before heading out to work, we have our morning coffee hour, completely with the bitches playing in the living room and Linx eating a bone. We have our ball retrieving in the yard followed by morning nap time (theirs, not mine).

This peaceful downtime from barking out the front bay window let’s them get some sleep and let’s me get some writing done. After lunch, we may take a walk or attend to grooming. After dinner, they hang with both of us while reading or watching TV unless I have them signed up for an evening class.

But the biggest achievement this year, was a gift from my dogs. Their constant need for attention, physical activity and mental stimulation reconnected me to them. Sticking to our daily routine brings health and harmony to the household. While I’m eagerly mapping out our competitive goals for 2016, I’m also making sure our daily routine does not diminish having found that lost connection with my dogs. As we all make plans for the New Year, remember to connect — or reconnect — with your dogs on daily basis. They will thrive and love you for it. Happy New Year.

Take My Dog to Your Work Day

Posted by Lisa Peterson

Seventeen years ago Pet Sitters International (PSI) came up with the idea of taking your dog to work for a day as way to celebrate the canine-human bond and promote companion animals. They picked the Friday following Father’s Day. During the early years, when as a pet sitter myself, my company offered tips to other businesses that wanted to join in on PSI’s Take Your Dog To Work Day^TM (TYDTWD) for the first time. This annual celebration is today, Friday, June 26^th and everything you need for this year’s fete can be found at petsit.com.

Adele’s first visit to my AKC office at 9 weeks old.

During my professional life, it’s been a challenge to partake in TYDTWD from my varied workplaces from newsrooms, courtrooms and corporate offices to barns, stables and kennels. However, many times I’ve found my work space at home, which means every day is take your dog(s) to work day. This year, I’m going to propose a new tradition for us freelancers, telecommuters or subcontractors who share our home office every weekday with dogs. Welcome to “Take My Dog to Your Work Day!” Think about it for a minute. We can send our boisterous dogs with their daily, if not hourly, distractions that interrupt our workflow to your workplace so the rest of us can actually get some work done!

The Elvemel Gang at Work in the Home Office! Today, Adele leads the pack, while Jinx keeps a watch out the window. Linx, left, looks out the other window. They’ve got my back!

Distraction Faction

Currently, Jinx and Adele, my two Norwegian Elkhound bitches, are leaning over the back of the living room couch, looking out the big bay window through a thin sheer white curtain. “Bark, Bark, bark, bark,” at what they think is a threat. Could be a squirrel, a school bus, or maybe even joggers or bicyclists on the highway. Heaven forbid! But that’s what they do. They alert to any movement that is out of the ordinary, much like if they saw a moose in the wilds of Norway and needed to let the hunter know where to get dinner.

But then it subsides and work can resume. Problem is, one never knows when there is something else to announce. A bird flying by, the delivery man arrives, a busy woodchuck scuttles across the front yard or maybe they smell the foxes playing in the backyard. And you just can’t tune them out, because you never know when they are actually in need of something. Like going outside to take care of business or maybe they are thirsty. Maybe they are up from a nap and want to go outside and play fetch the geo-ball. But now, I hear the howl of the old bitch bark, followed by the puppy yelp. Old bitch is just being annoying but puppy needs to tinkle. As time passes, puppy will learn the different pitches and pauses to have me completely trained to do her bidding. So far this morning she has told me about, two tinkle breaks, one woodchuck, one empty water bowl and the neighbor’s SUV leaving the shared driveway.

Jinx takes a break from a a hard day's work.

Jinx takes a break from a hard day’s work.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Finally, the bitches are sleeping. The constant rhythm of their breathing, especially the deep slow exhales from the oldest of the pack, keep me focused, grounded into the work of the day, the writing, the reading, the surfing, the updating, the whatever.

Still silent, I hear the male dog of the house, Linx, downstairs, apart from the girls because, well, it’s that time of the year for Adele. “Pheeft, pheeft, pheeft, pheeft,” strong nails scratching on his favorite cot as he nests to find that perfect place to plant his butt. But wait, he needs a drink, “Thup, thup, thup, thup,” he laps fresh water which spills onto the cool concrete floor where I now hear he’s decided to now rest his well-coiffed pantaloons. All this activity followed by a heavy sigh, “Whew,” as he drifts off into his morning nap dreaming of fjords and forests.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch,” back in the living room, Adele has found her favorite bone, or rather moose antler, with that distinctive sound it makes similar to nails on a blackboard as she gnaws her way to canine bliss. In the background I detect the softest of snores of an old girl in her twilight years.

So join me in establishing the Friday before Independence Day as Take My Dog to Your Work Day, to gain freedom from doggie distractions preventing work from being accomplished. Wait, I tried that once, working off-site in solitude. I remember the silence was stifling and I was unable to concentrate without all my nurturing noises near me. Never mind, I’ll take my dogs to work everyday, any day!

Happy Birthday – In Dog Years!

Posted by Lisa Peterson

After celebrating my husband’s birthday Monday, I teased him that our oldest dog, Jinx, an 11-year-old elkhound, is the about same age as him in ‘human years.’ We joked about it because we call her “the ol’ bitch” because she has that grizzled look of a wise old dog. This look – white hairs nearly covering her once black muzzle – afflicts many species. My husband joked back, “We are both grizzled.”

Puppy Bitch ~ Ol’ Bitch

Dog Age in Human Years
In my previous career as the American Kennel Club’s communications director and in-house dog expert, I’d routinely answer questions from the media such as, “Where did the one dog year equals seven human years in calculating a dog’s ‘human age’ come from?” Press inquiries usually came after the death of really old dogs, like a 21-year-old dachshund from Long Island or an allegedly 29-year-old mixed breed from England. Over the years, I’ve answered this seven-to-one conversion question for Esquire’s Answer Fella column, the Wall Street Journal’s ‘The Numbers Guy’ Carl Bialik, and even Slate’s Christopher Beam.

The origins of this conversion as unknown. Most journalists tend to point to the first mention of a human to dog year equivalent in 1268, based on an inscription on the floor of Westminster Abbey in London. Human and canine ages were used in calculating how old one would be around Judgment Day. Ancient scrawl stated that a dog’s average life span was nine years and that humans lived to be 81 years. Another notable comparison example is from Georges Buffon, the 18th century French naturalist, who declared that dogs live about 10 to 12 years while humans live about 90 to 100 years.

Using a rough mathematical formula a nine to one rule was born from these early notations. Then, according to William Fortney, a Kansas State University veterinarian, as quoted in the WSJ piece, human life expectancy was pegged at 70 years (thank you life insurance expectancy tables) and dogs at 10 years and thus the seven-to-one rule was forged into our dog-loving psyche. I tend to believe Fortney’s explanation for the origin of this rule, “My guess is it was a marketing ploy…a way to educate the public on how fast a dog ages compared to a human, predominantly from a health standpoint. It was a way to encourage owners to bring in their pets once a year.” Or you could believe Esquire’s Answer Fella who reported my quote on the rule this way, ..the origin of the seven-year rubic is — like Keith Olbermann’s colon — “shrouded in mystery.”

The Dog Age Formula
But more than half a century ago, science, researchers, and canine studies started to debunk the seven-to-one rule as not a “one-size fits all” for determining you dog’s age in human years. In fact, they learned that the formula varies based on the dog’s advancing age and the dog’s weight as an adult. So unfortunately, like most well-executed marketing campaigns, the seven-to-one rule lives on in popular culture and now must be continually debunked. But if you want to accurately calculate which dog in your household is closest in age to your husband then follow these tried and true guidelines that have been around for the last decade.

Ol’ Bitch Jinx Stealing Ray’s Spot

The first year of a dog’s life is very similar across all the size categories. Most calculating charts have four sizes based on the adult weight of your dog: Small (under 21 pounds); Medium (21-50 pounds); Large (50-90 pounds); and Giant (90 plus pounds). The first two years of a dog’s life show tremendous growth and aging.

1-year-old
Small (under 21 pounds) = 15 years
Medium (21-50 pounds) = 15 years
Large (50-90 pounds) = 14 years
Giant (90 plus pounds) = 12 years

Two-years-old
Small(under 21 pounds) = 24 years
Medium (21-50 pounds) = 24 years
Large (50-90 pounds) = 22 years
Giant (90 plus pounds) = 20 years

But as dogs age, another mystery enters the formula. The larger the dog the quicker it ages (in human equivalents), so by the time a giant dog is 8-years-old, its human equivalent would be 64-years-old. Compare that to the 8-year-old small dog, who would be only 48-years-old, a difference of 16 years aging between the two! Curious to find our about your dog’s human age? Here’s a complete chart for equivalent age in human years.

		Dog Size
Dog Years	Giant Dogs (> 90 lbs.)	Large Dogs (51-90 lbs.)	Medium Dogs (21-50 lbs.)	Small Dogs (< 21 lbs.)
1	12	14	15	15
2	20	22	24	24
3	28	29	29	28
4	35	34	34	32
5	42	40	38	36
6	49	45	42	40
7	56	50	47	44
8	64	55	51	48
9	71	61	56	52
10	78	66	60	56
11	86	72	65	60
12	93	77	69	64
13	101	82	74	68
14	108	88	78	72
15	115	93	83	76

New Year’s Hope

Posted by Lisa Peterson

There are two paths we take as one year passes into the next; one looking forward to the coming year another looking back on what just transpired. Some face firmly in one direction or the other, some do both, a moment of reflection before planning another year. I used to take that two-faced approach, looking back over my shoulder then looking ahead to the unknown. This New Year’s ritual I found mostly depressing as it forced me to focus on what I didn’t accomplish looking back. Then along with setting new goals for the future I found myself putting the same items back onto the resolution list all over again. So, I stopped doing it! Instead I followed my dogs’ advice, which was staring me right in the face, usually after they just licked it.

No Resolutions
My dogs’ advice is simple. Live in the moment. When you spend a great deal of time observing your dogs, you watch them in a variety of moments. I watch them eat, I watch them sleep, I watch them play. I watch them steal bones from each other. I watch them run outdoors. I watch them ‘nest’ before lying down on a blanket. And to borrow a phrase my grandmother, “When we work, we work, when we eat, we eat and when we sleep, we sleep.” This phrase used to come up when someone tried to do something like read at the dinner table or take a nap in the afternoon. In fact, to her, all waking hours were devoted to either work, eat or sleep. Kind of like my dogs. And if you notice that when dogs are eating, they are not trying to play or do basic commands like sit or down. They are focused on the getting to the bottom of the ceramic bowl, to eat every morsel in sight so they can lick the bowl clean and find that blue paw print on the bottom. Then, the bowl is picked up, and eating is done. Fully lived. Finished. Forward. All of us should aspire to live life this way.

So like my dogs, I too live in the moment, I don’t dwell on what just happened and try not to think too far into the future. This has worked out pretty well for both me and my dogs. It also includes not making any resolutions because that would be focusing way into the future where what I’m planning to stick to may never actually happen. Actually, sticking to those resolutions has never happened. So watch and learn from your dogs and discover how they live, from moment to moment to moment. By doing this they create a journey of life moments that flow with ease and take no emotional baggage with them. Besides baggage is heavy, cumbersome and we tend to trip over it. I find their zest for life curious as dogs also thrive on routine, while us humans tend to get bored by routine, especially a dull routine. But to dogs, that routine is again nothing more than lived moments, enjoyed to their fullest, and then moved on to the next one.

All puppies need love!

Hound Hopes
While I don’t make resolutions anymore, I do still have hopes. Buy my hopes are bigger for all dogs and the owners who love them. Here are my New Year’s Hopes for 2015 and that if you find yourself in these moments, no matter how good or difficult, embrace them fully.

– To be in such a still place with your dog – so close, so connected – that you feel the canine-human bond and it becomes the moment.
– To be reminded of the joy your dog feels during the daily walk, evening playtime, couch potato hour watching TV, weekly grooming, and fun training sessions and you don’t let those moments slip by.
– To be considering getting rid of your dog because you made a bad judgement in getting it – and it was just too hard to keep the dog – that you changed your mind in a moment to keep the dog and work it out.
– To be in the position of having to say goodbye to an old or sick dog and you finally found the right moment to do so – and you did with grace and compassion.

Puppy’s First Christmas

Posted by Lisa Peterson

One of my favorite holiday traditions is celebrating with the newest member of the family, the puppy! No matter when the puppy arrived during the year they will always have a first Christmas. Like most of us dog lovers, I’m guilty of overindulgence of my treasured pets. Besides the toys and treats, monogrammed stockings were ordered for them this year. Ok, that was more for me than them.

Holiday Decorating for Dogs
Puppy’s first Christmas is full of wonder and investigation, so in the spirit of safety, no decoration reaches into the puppy zone. Believe me, it’s taken multiple puppies and years of broken ornaments, knocked down large trees, drinking Christmas tree water, licking pine needles, ripped open packages, eaten candles and close calls with poinsettias to come to this design. There are just too many holiday hazards with poisonous plants, glass ornaments, tinsel, chocolate, electrical wires, and open flames to even consider using them. I prefer simplicity and peace of mind for my newest puppy and family pack of high energy hunting hounds.

Adele and Jinx with their elevated Christmas tree

The centerpiece, a two-foot tall Douglas Fur tree in a bucket, rests atop a three-foot tall table placed behind the couch. This keeps it above puppy’s sightline and out of the indoor play area (i.e., the center of the living room). By wrapping a tree skirt (I’ve repurposed an old horse’s dark green quarter sheet) around the bucket and draping table, it keeps inquisitive puppy noses away. Tree decorations are kept to a minimum: one strand of gold garland, a handful of little ornaments and one string of lights. Lights are strung from the tree across the narrow passage way 3 feet above the floor behind the couch to behind a secretary to plug in. This way, no electrical cords are on the floor for a nosy puppy to check out.

Elevated electrical wires for tree lights safely above a prying puppy’s nose

With no room under the tree for the gifts, again, we elevate them even higher, on top of the secretaries near the ceiling. A few larger ornaments previously hung on the big tree now dangle from hutch door fronts and wall sconces. My favorite are two lovely gold painted horseshoes adorned with jingle bells given by the NBLA as party favors at one of their holiday celebrations years ago. Every decoration and wrapped gift is placed 3 to 5 feet above the puppy zone.

Keeping all decorations way above the elkhound’s sightline keeps all elkhounds safe for the holidays.

Christmas Eve Fables
I don’t know when I first heard this fable, but as a child I always believed that all animals bowed down on their front legs at midnight on Christmas Eve to pay homage to all the animals at the Bethlehem manger watching over the birth of Christ. In my childhood home we had a miniature manger complete with biblical action figures, glittering wise men, and an assortment of animals. While counting down the 12 days of Christmas I’d play out this fable with cows, camels and sheep all bowing down in front of the little cradle with the baby Jesus. One day I noticed baby Jesus’ leg bore teeth marks, no doubt from one of the family dogs, who thought he was a toy! The following year, the manager moved from under the tree to the table top. I was never awake at midnight, since I didn’t want to scare away Santa Claus, to see if my pets took part in this tradition.

For the first time in decades, just my husband and hounds will be home, just the five of us, to open our gifts on Christmas Eve. Our puppy will be introduced to the giving of the gifts. The celebration begins with the unwrapping of numerous toys that all three dogs will vie for. After they rip off the wrapping paper, the fun begins. Anyone with a pack knows that what ever toy/bone/treat the other dog has is always better than what they have. The pack plays what I call musical bones! And it usually starts with the youngest puppy going after the alpha dog’s bone, if successful, the alpha goes after beta’s bone, who then turns around and goes after the puppy’s bone. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

This bone-stealing ritual continues unrelenting until they are all exhausted from posturing, chewing and the sheer excitement of something new to play with. After about an hour, the puppy collapses on the floor into immediate slumber, the old dogs soon follow. Then us humans can open our gifts in relative peace. This year I’m hoping to extend the celebration to midnight to finally see for myself if the dogs bow down in honor of the animals in Bethlehem. Happy Holidays to all Hounds from Adele, Jinx & Linx.

Be Thankful for Purpose-bred Puppies

Posted by Lisa Peterson

This past weekend dog lovers descended on the “Thanksgiving Classic Cluster” in Springfield, Massachusetts. This cluster of dogs shows is presented by the Springfield, South Windsor, Holyoke and Windham County kennel clubs who join together to offer four days of dog shows at the Eastern States Exposition, home of the iconic “The Big E” fair. Amongst the more than 2,500 purebred dogs representing 167 breeds at the shows, were dozens of darling puppies.

Dog shows are put on by volunteers who then give a part of the proceeds to needy canine causes in their communities. Yes, dog shows are fundraisers. But the best by-product is meeting all the puppies! There is nothing cuter than a ring full of wagging and wiggling puppies waiting to kiss anyone who calls their name. Every size and shape were on hand, from the handsome Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen to Miniature Longhaired Dachshund in the hound puppy ring. There was the large Great Dane and the little Chihuahua, and of course, everyone’s favorite, the Golden Retriever puppy.

Count Our Blessings

Adele in the wilds of the backyard in Dodgingtown

During the annual turkey tradition many are faced with the “Let’s go around the table and say what we are thankful for” routine. Heard are the familiar refrains of spouse’s and parent’s names and the occasional ‘good health’ thrown into the mix before consuming an 8,000 calorie meal. But this year when asked that question, my reply will be, “I’m thankful for puppies!” Everyone at the table will giggle and laugh but to someone who has spent a lifetime “in dogs” I really mean this as something serious.

Ray welcomes Adele to Dodgingtown

I’m thankful for all the dedicated responsible breeders who plan and lovingly raise litters of puppies. I’m thankful they have spent decades of scientific study in health research, genetics and pedigrees. I’m thankful that when families want a happy, healthy purebred puppy, that meets their needs and lifestyle, they can find one at the home of a responsible breeder. I’m thankful that purebred puppies come with predictable personalities, sizes and coat types, making a lifetime match with a new owner’s needs a very simple and rewarding process.

I’m thankful for the hundreds of breeds (and therefore puppies) in the world. This past weekend I met a 15 week-old Pumi puppy. What’s a Pumi, you say? An adorable Hungarian herding breed with a soft coat like a Poodle and erect ears with floppy tips that give it the cutest expression ever. I melted when I met a 6-month-old Maltese puppy so tiny with its white flowing coat, yet so calm you could cradle him in your arms. Then I met a 17-week-old Norwich Terrier puppy all the way from Finland. His hardy coat, “like a hedgehog” the owner said was a tactile delight. Oh, did I mention the puppy kisses? I am thankful for all of them.

Puppies for the 21st Century
These breeds all had a fundamental purpose to help mankind survive the millennium. Whether to help us with hunting for food, guarding our farms and flocks, or just keeping us warm at night. Some simply being small enough to fit up the sleeve of a royal princess’ robe to ward off the chill in the palace at night. Today I’m thankful for their 21st century purpose. The Pumi is going into Agility, a fast-paced and athletic dog sport to keep her owner active. The Maltese belongs to a senior couple who needs a small lapdog to keep them company in retirement. The Norwich Terrier will be bringing genetic diversity to a breeder’s responsible breeding program. Each puppy has a story, each breed has a purpose. I am thankful that in America each new puppy owner has the freedom of choice for the type of puppy they want.

Adele and Lisa Visit the Enchanted Garden

I’m also thankful that there are smart people who combat and defeat proposed mandatory spay and neuter laws of all puppies sold in America. If that were to happen, eventually, there would be no more puppies. And that would be a very sad world indeed.

So this Thanksgiving I’m thankful for all the puppies and the people who love them. I’m thankful for the volunteers that put on dog shows so the public has easy access to learn and meet scores of breeds and breeders on any given weekend. And I’m thankful for the breeders who preserve and protect them for future generations to enjoy. I am thankful that after the Thanksgiving meal there will be a purebred puppy curled up by the fireplace for everyone to enjoy.

My First Canine Good Citizen Dog: Bruno the Norwegian Elkhound

Posted by Lisa Peterson

In honor of AKC’s Canine Good Citizen program turning 25 years old, I unearthed my first CGC certificate in my canine archives. Good Job Bruno!

AKC Dog Lovers

By Lisa Peterson

Bruno and I were minding our own business on a walk around the hotel at the Norwegian Elkhound National Specialty in 1996 when a friend spotted us and said, “Hey, come take the Canine Good Citizen test, it’s right over here.” I had no idea what this was, in fact, I didn’t even know the 10-steps prior to signing up for the challenge. Bruno – an AKC Champion who had just turned 4 – and I had been training to start Novice obedience a few months earlier, so I though why not, he can sit and stay and heel.

We entered the ring ready to begin. I got nervous. Bruno took one look at me with his big brown cow eyes as if to say, “What’s the big deal? I can do this.” And off we went. The more steps we completed, the more fun Bruno…

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