Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons this summer were exciting to say the least. Of our three dogs, Jackson LOVES the water. He likes to wade and he likes the excitement of swimming, but oh my goodness is he bad at it. At the lake, he paddles with his front feet above water (shallow enough he likely can still touch), making this horrible face, and it is all just a panicky frenzy. But like I said, he loves it. Lemon LOVES water, chasing the sprinkler and hose, getting in the shower, but she doesn't like to get in the lake or pools. Hilga... once, we picked her up in her life jacket, set her up to her elbows in the lake and she froze like a statute, the tide slowly started to carry her out and she never moved, just floated along...so needless to say we've given up hope on her.

The first thing we do with swim lessons (thanks to my parents for pool usage), is get them to calm down in the water. Frenzied swimming is never good. So we hold them up against us until the thrashing stops, then they get to swim a little bit. The pool helps us see the problem... that they don't paddle their back legs... at all. Their rears just sink to the bottom while their front feet splash above the water. So Chris will hold onto their front legs while they paddle with their back ones (think little kids doing kicking exercises at swim class).

All of this really doesn't help that much, but maybe it helps a little bit. And it is certainly fun to participate in (albeit slightly dangerous...I usually leave covered in scratches with possible tears in my swimsuit) and fun to watch. I should have prefaced all of this with the fact that Berners don't know how to swim naturally... they have to be taught (for the most part). That has certainly been our experience. Even after swim lessons... I'm thinking they will probably still have to wear their life jackets in lake water where they can't touch.

Rescue Heartache (with a good ending for one guy)

This is a blog I've been procrastinating writing. Chris and I do what we can to volunteer with the HBMDC rescue (occasional transport, foster), but in all honesty, it isn't like there are hundreds of Berners pouring into the rescue every year. This is a testiment both to good judgment on part of breeders and Berner rescuers, and more significantly, a breed that isn't that common. As the breed becomes more common, as they are more often on sale in pet stores and byb, rescue numbers will inevitably climb.

Chris and I have had tough fosters before (Polo and Hannah come to mind), but those dogs have been physically healthy (at least healthy enough) when they came to us, just REALLY fearful from lack of socialization. The dog pictured below we didn't foster, all I did was drive him from Wichita to North KC. I spent about 3 hours with this dog, but he is the one that is lingering with me, making me lose sleep at night, motivating me to do more... not because of him necessarily (he gets a happy ending), but because of the class of dogs he represents and how hopeless the situation appears for that class of dogs.

His story... Brute (now Sirius) lived with a woman in TN. This woman never treated her dogs very well, and rescuers had pulled dogs from her before that were starving. It begs the quesiton why some people even get dogs? Anyways, woman decides to move, and "asks" her son to come take care of Sirius until he can find him a new home. Son does not do this. Sirius is left tied up in woman's yard, uncared for (except just enough to survive on from neighbors) for the majority of the summer (think how hot it was).

Good hearted dog people who also do rescue take him from the yard and he is in horrible condition. Emaciated, COVERED in ticks (handfulls of black tick soot or whatever it is called...unbelievable amounts), but still sweet as can be. They take him home to OK for 2 days, contact HBMDC rescue who is willing to take him. I am taking my bar exam, but follow the emails, volunteer to go pick him up the day after and take him from Wichita to North KC.

We did the transfer in Wichita, and I was shocked to see what he looked like. I've never seen a dog in that bad of shape in person. He clung to either car (not picky) to soak up the A/C. When we walked him, he calmly clung to our legs, wagged his tail... to be perfectly honest, I think his temperment was more solid/friendly than any of my 3 dogs who would not be thrilled about getting in a car with a stranger (except for Lemon who would be crazy).

On the ride from Wichita to North KC, he laid in the back floor of the truck and didn't move for the whole trip. He never once stood up, didn't look out the window... just laid in the same position, sleeping off and on. Throughout the trip I would reach back and poke him a little, just to make sure he was still with me. When we got to North KC (met a transfer who would take him the rest of the way to Des Moines) and I got him out of the car for a potty break, I was shocked all over again to see what he really looked like. But again, he clung to me while we walked around the grass, and was as sweet as you could ever hope he would be. I was afraid someone would call the police while we were there, but no one did... Hopefully the reason was it was obvious he was on transport, not that people didn't care.

The pictures below show how thin he was. But there was something about touching his coat that really brought home just what bad shape he was in. His coat was coarse to the touch, sunburned red, and you couldn't touch his coat without feeling the handfulls of grit and dirt, caused by fleas and ticks. However, Sirius was taken to the vet who runs the HBMDC rescue, got healthy, and ended up in a wonderful home.

Unfortunately, after leaving Sirius in North KC with the vet tech, my day did not end. Chris and I drove to rural MO that evening to pick up the motor home (which had been broken down a few weeks back, different story) from a tow yard. The tow yard was at a man's house, the man wasn't there yet. Chris and I step out of the car, and don't make it more than a few feet before we start hearing dogs barking. I walk to the outside kennel and see two labs in separate runs. They are thankfully well fed and have water, but their runs are filled with feces and... they live in runs. After spending the day with Sirius, I shake my head but remind myself that at least they seem healthy enough.

About an hour later, a cat comes limping out from the tow yard ("must have been bit by something"), with a foot that has obviously been flattened by something. The cat is yowling every step it takes, and I'm looking at this guy telling him he needs to get the cat to the vet. He dismissively says he will... a certain kind of rural mentality. At that point, I'm looking around and off into the distance at his neighbors in rural Missouri... wondering how far away I am from the closest Sirius, tied up and slowly starving to death, how far I am from the closest puppy mill... 20 mile radius? 10? 5? 1? Probably.

I don't think the people are bad people by any means, but they have a mentaltiy about their animals that I don't agree with and that I hope will change in the future. I'm not surprised by that... my folks grew up in rural Missouri, and while their perspectives have certainly evolved throughout their lives, when remembering visits to grandparents as a child, it is easy to see that the people in their community continue to have a different perspective on animals.

I read a line in a book recently that stuck out to me, so much that I just flipped back through the book to find it, and then was surprised at how unremarkable it actually is. But the quote is from a vet in a fictional book, "This is Maine. We have people who still think that taking care of a dog means chaining it up in the backyard and throwing food to it once a day." I don't know anything about Maine, but I do think that expresses the problem. People lack compassion for dogs and their needs, which are both physical and mental, because they don't see dogs as thinking, feeling beings. Those of us who have close relationships with our dogs understand that not to be the case and have a very different understanding of how deeply they feel.

I'm not saying you can never have an outside dog. I don't think it is ideal for the dog as they won't be getting the necessary socialization, however I think an outside dog that recieves daily attention, clean living space, clean food and water and vet attention is okay, and certainly in a better situation than most. I understand that some dogs enjoy living outside. Some dogs are true working dogs, not pets/companions, and so they live outside. If they are being used in the way that they were bred for and are being challenged and mentally satisfied through their work, then I think that is ok.

I'm not quite sure where this blog is going, other than to get out all the frustrations of the past few weeks. But, I'll end with this story and my response. The Berner-L was up in arms a few weeks ago because a man drove to the mall, left his golden mix and chihuahua mix in the car, they over heated and the golden died. By up in arms, I mean there were threats of a planned seige upon his home... really enraged by what he did. I never responded, but here is what I wanted to say...

Granted, he made a stupid mistake... perhaps didn't know how quickly cars heated? But I strongly doubt he maliciously brought his dogs to the mall, then left them in the car so they could die a slow death in which they would draw attention to other mall-goers at which point he would be arrested and charged with animal cruelty. The more likely scenario is that he brought his dogs along for a car ride, didn't understand how quickly cars heat up, then was shocked/grieved to find out what happened. At the end of the day, my feeling was that while of course you shouldn't leave a dog in a hot car, at least he cared enough about his dogs to bring them along for the ride. Its a little bit of a sad and jaded place to be (especially since I'm not really the jaded type), but at some point you start to measure people's bad acts towards animals against each other... saying this is really bad, this is kinda bad, this isn't perfect but better than kinda bad, etc... and the whole situation is really overwhelming. It is getting more difficult for me to think about the individuals rather than the situation as a whole, which is much more disheartening.

But enough negative blogging for the day. Remember that for Sirius, all is well, and that sometimes it is important to look at the individual cases. Even one less dog sitting in that type of situation is nothing but a success. On a happier note, next blog with be swimming lesson pictures!

Bewildering Love Triangle

This bewildering competition, HSUS vs. HumaneWatch and the common love interest, animal lovers, has me totally flabergasted. Of course there are more players, including the agriculture people, the PETA people, the hobby breeder people and I'm sure the list goes on and on. Here is my understanding.

You have the HSUS. A LARGE national animal advocacy group (companion and wild). They make a LOT of money in donations each year, hundreds of millions. Some of that money (NOT MUCH) is contributed DIRECTLY to shelter animals in need (maybe 1%). A larger (but still NOT MUCH) percentage (maybe 2%) is spent on employee salaries. The rest of the money appears to go INDIRECTLY to the animals through campaigns, advertising, litigation, legislation, lobbys, etc... To me this is the most beneficial use for the money, because I think it is better to fix the problem then to continue to save the animals that result from the problem. However, the HSUS may not be completely straight forward in fund raising efforts that the money is not going DIRECTLY to that particular otter shown in the video clip. An even larger problems is that there are MANY who suspect (I still haven't discovered the source for this suspicion, adds to the flabergastedness) that HSUS is just another PETA... an animals RIGHTS organization rather than an animal WELFARE organization, with the ultimate goal for humans to lose all rights to animals (no more pets, no more meat, etc...). As I mentioned, I just haven't seen any proof of this myself as ALL of the efforts I've seen from the HSUS appear to be in WELFARE.

Next up you have HumaneWatch, an organization of what I can only assume to be the agriculture lobby (but also somewhat deceitful in that they don't come out and say that), that is WATCHING the HSUS with a critical eye and promoting the idea that the HSUS is an animal RIGHTS organization. Today to support that argument, they cited articles on topics such as Ohio legislation which requires NEW farms to provide space for livestock to TURN AROUND (HSUS was involved in the creation of the legislation). That doesn't sound like the end of meat as a food group, but rather a SMALL implementation of BASIC animal welfare. They cited an article in which a judge (at the HSUS's urging) denied hunters the right to hunt a particular kind of wolf in a few states...a wolf that just a few short years ago was endangered and specifically populated for regrowth of the species. Again, it sounds reasonable to postpone hunting for a few years so that when hunting does start up again, there are still sufficient numbers of wolves to keep the species from going extinct. THis group does point out the FLAWS of the HSUS on occasion as well... pointing at complicated number figures that the reader can't understand but the HumaneWatch guarentees to be "unethical", pointing out the difference between the HSUS and local humane society's and blaming the HSUS for any confusion between the two, condemning their use of funds for lobbying efforts rather than individual animal care, etc...

Obviously you can tell what side I'm on. I haven't seen any proof that the HSUS is an evil organization that wants to take away my rights to own dogs. All I have ever seen the HSUS do is promote cases and legislation that are focused on animal welfare, not animal rights. Is it possible they have a secret motivation for animal rights? Absolutely it is possible, but in the mean time they are staying focused and raising societal awareness on issues of animal welfare. For that mean time, I'm totally on board (and they have a LONG way to go before we will lose our rights to own dogs). So it sounds like I am pretty straight on my opinion, right? But, this is where we get into the third part of our triangle... the animal lover.

I know many people from our dog show world who I respect a GREAT deal who are on the HumaneWatch bandwagon. I think they are pretty smart people and I know they love their animals. So what gives, where is the discrepency? What do they see that I don't? The answer is that I don't know and it is somewhat of a taboo subject...money, politics, religion and the HSUS... so I am not likely to find out anytime soon.

Many of them are reputable breeders (not puppy millers), and often the HSUS promotes legislation with puppy mill focus that could end up effecting hobby breeders (although usually hobby breeders are so small compared to puppy mills the legislation overlooks them, so I think it is a fear of the regulation concept). Yet, these are people who are very anti-puppy mill. So what are our good, ethical breeders willing to give up to put a stop to puppy mills? That is a different topic for a different day, but I know they are willing to make some sacrifices. Anyways, I would still love to relaly understand what draws these people to HumaneWatch, and when I find out, I will blog it.

But it still begs the question... why do some animal lovers choose HumaneWatch and some choose HSUS? Are people being scared into assumptions promoted by ag lobbiests and HumaneWatch? Afraid of losing their right to own a pet? Afraid of losing the right to eat meat? Afraid of losing the right to breed? On the other side, are they being conned into donating by the HSUS in a belief that the HSUS represents something it really does not?

And I think the problem ultimately arises when you have two extreme groups. You have the HSUS which promotes welfare (I'm going to say welfare because I haven't seen evidence otherwise) at the cost of American's rights to make decisions about their own property (legally animals in America are property), at the cost of increased prices and economic effects. You have the HumaneWatch (lovingly referred to as the ag lobby) who don't want their property rights taken away for any reasons, particularly the reason of animal welfare (or perhaps animal rights disguised as animal welfare).

I'm starting to discover a life lesson perhaps: extremes are never good. Should animal's welfare suffer at times to promote a better economy and American health? It breaks my heart to say so, but perhaps it should. There is ALWAYS a bigger picture to consider. Most likely if the American economy and health is in a better state, American's animals will be as well. Things tend to work that way. Should American farmers operate under a basic legislated standard of care so that animals are guarenteed minimum welfare goals? Probably, being able to stand up and turn around doesn't seem like much to ask for. I think it is often the goals of extreme organizations to lead their followers into believing that there is no middle ground. But there is always middle ground, room for compromise, room for give and take.

So that is the rant of the day. I really need a job!

Haiti Animals

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/08/06/haiti.animals/index.html?hpt=C1


The above is a link to a CNN story on the animals in Haiti. It is a story that is fairly unsurprising... animals in Haiti are recieving vet care from charitable animal organizations. This is obviously beneficial to animals, but also to people so far as their good-producing animals go and to decrease the spread of disease.

What gets me about these articles is the comments sections, and I know from experience that I should NEVER read comments, they just make me upset. But the consensus from this round of comments seems to be a rather typical (in my opinion, non-sensical) response that frustrates me. People disapprove of these efforts to care for Haitian animals because they feel that while humans are still suffering in Haiti, ALL efforts should be focused towards people...people first mentaltiy. I understand the concept, but like I said, I think it is non-sensical.

People have different qualities and qualifications that make them eligible to volunteer in certain areas. Many of the volunteers on the specific project referenced above are veternarians. Is it right, does it make sense, to say that veternarians shouldn't help animals in Haiti because people are still suffering? There are many human doctors doing NOTHING for Haiti, but because they haven't volunteered for the "wrong" organization (haven't volunteered at all), they don't get criticized. What kind of society do we live in where people have to be defensive of the good and charitable work they do, often defending that work to judgmental people who do nothing, for the simple reason that the judgmental people don't "approve" of how or to whom help is being given. Give me a break. I think there are too many problems in this world and too many many people capable of making a difference (many of whom chose not to) to be picky or critical about who does what.

So, this is me rolling my eyes at the invisible commentors sitting at home (not volunteering), criticizing those with their sleeves rolled up in Haiti doing what they can to make Haiti a better place to live (for both the people and the animals). Rant of the day is over.

Jackson's Website

Now that Jackson has his RN, CGC and hopefully soon, his CH, he has a website on his breeder's page. Dawn made a beautiful page for him at: http://www.classiquebmd.com/Jackson.html.

For other news... I've started working on the 2009 blog to photo book project. It is actually REALLY easy with Booksmart, a program that you can download from one of the photobook webpages. Looks like the "scrapbook" goal may be met after all!

Exciting Weekend--Jackson Achieves His Goal!

Jackson finally achieved his goal this weekend. He got to take a nap above-the-cab with his papa. But more on that later.

Jackson and I also achieved another, less significant goal (in Jackson's mind at least). Jackson got his second major this weekend. That means he only needs one more minor point to finish his championship. Then he will be: CH Classique's Original Moonwalker RN, CGC. We've been saving the last minor point in case a major fell through at some show, so hopefully it won't be too tough to put that last point on him. It will, however, be bitter sweet, as I will really miss showing him in conformation. But, it will be on to focus our minds towards the versatility title.

Lemon also had a great weekend. Her temperment is just as sweet as can be, and the judge's love her for it. Everytime they come back over the top of her body, she is craning her neck back, face in the air, body wagging like crazy with happiness. The judge on Friday gave her a kiss on the nose he thought she was so cute. In addition to being a bundle of sweetness, she also is becoming a nice conformation girl. On Sunday she took the major reserve, a nice compliment when she is amongst a group of lovely bitches.

Congratulations to Mike and Orvis who recieved points on Friday! To Dawn and Patsy who recieved points on Friday! To Gary, Penny and Spencer who took a major (and on a puppy!) on Saturday. And to Layal, who finished Liesel this weekend by taking both majors Saturday and Sunday. The Berner group is great. Supportive and fun. We were thrilled to meet a few new faces this weekend, and had a great time bbqing out with everyone.

On Sunday, the atmosphere was somewhat special...for me of course as Jackson got the major, but I think for everyone there. There was quite a crowd of Berner people, being that 26 Berners were entered. But the crowd grew even larger. The Berners were the last group in the ring before lunch, and all the other rings finished before us. Everyone in the building had kind of migrated that way. When Jackson took the boy's major, a big cheer went up. It gave me goosebumps, and made the judge jump a little, but it was such a nice reaction from our Berner friends. When Layal took the girl's major (and Lemon reserve), another big cheer went up and the judge turned and addressed the crowd, commenting on how nice the selection of Berners was at this show.

When we all went into breed, she went over the specials and addressed the crowd again, commenting on how nice the dogs were. The big group of spectators was cheering. I haven't seen that kind of thing before at a show, so I was glad we got to be a part of it in addition to getting the major.

To explain the photos below... We didn't take any photos of the dog show, oops. But we did get evidence of Jackson's weekend highlight (not the major). Ever since Chris and I started sleeping above the cab (less dog hair), Jackson has also wanted to sleep above the cab. He is somewhat indignant/pathetic that he has to sleep either on the dinette benches, the floor or one of the two twin beds in the back. So he stands on the dinette with his feet on the bed over-the-cab silently pleading to be allowed to sleep with us rather than suffer such a trauma as to be forced to sleep in one of the other options. We have pretty much ignored these pleas for compassion...until Saturday morning.

Saturday morning, while Jackson stood with his hind legs on the dinette, trying to climb into the bed above-the-cab (no way he could get up there on his own, poor guy) I promised him that if he won the major, he could go up there. Well, he didn't win the major. But he was beautiful and expressive and tried his darndest, so Saturday afternoon he was allowed to climb up in the cab and take a nap with his papa. A good lesson in enjoying the smaller pleasures in life. It may have been my favorite part of the weekend as well, as it was about the happiest, most content he has ever been. And...I guess the restful slumber did him well as he went on to win the major on Sunday.

My two favorite boys:

Everyone was very tired after a long Saturday:

This isn't actually from the weekend, but I thought it was a super cute photo of my girls, snuggled up together:

Gardner Show

A few weeks back we were in Gardner for a show. I totally forgot to post pics, but here they are. Thanks Mom for taking pictures!! That was the show where Jack got his RN. Jeff and Diane were there as well, so there are some pictures of those strange golden colored Berners.

Diane w/ Ruckus who took a Group 2 on Saturday:

Me with Fisher who took Best of Winners both days. He definitely taught me something that weekend about handling. On Saturday I was struggling with him because he didn't want anything to do with me. On Sunday, Jeff was watching me bait him and made a comment about the teeny, tiny pieces of chicken I was giving him. I tried giving him a big chunk, and it was love! With the Berners, I give them such tiny chunks, that sometimes they don't even notice if I don't give them anything at all.

Jackson watching the goldens show before he goes in for rally:

Jack in rally:

The motor home set-up with Jeff and Diane:

Grooming Jack:

Showing Lemon: