Once every five years, like some kind of enchantment, the Morris & Essex dog show appears on the grounds of Colonial Park in Somerset, New Jersey. The Park’s 685 acres are home to a botanical garden and various recreational activities for the community, but when the dog show takes over, it becomes a vibrant and colorful link between the past and the present.
I was raised in a tightly knit family. A sister and a brother born to my maternal grandparents married a brother and sister born to my paternal grandparents. In the forties, this was not as unusual as you might think. Young adults went out with the friends of their siblings. Like my parents, they fell in love. Eventually, one couple married. Soon after, the other couple married, too. That, obviously, created a very close family group. Both sides were the same. I grew up with all female first cousins. We always celebrated holidays, birthdays, and larger family occasions together. Meeting for Chinese food dinners on Sundays was a family favorite. My parents dressed my older sister and me in matching clothes when we were together. Both of us hated that. My sister’s face in all the family photos made that quite clear. I kept my opinion to myself.
When you’ve been gone and come home, does your dog dance around wagging his or her tail? Or, has your dog growled when another dog approached him or her? We interpret these actions as the dog being happy to see us or that they love to see us in the first situation, and that Fido doesn’t like the approaching dog in the second.
Dog management is second nature to Canine Chronicle readers. We live in the mindset of preventing trouble. When was the last time you witnessed a dog fight at a show? It rarely happens. When was the last time you saw something like that go down on the street, the dog park, the vet, the groomer, or anywhere multiple dogs congregate? Everyone doesn’t operate on our wavelength. They fail to recognize dodgy situations before they go crosswise. Unfortunately, plenty of us have been caught in that crossfire.
The Barbado da Terceira (BDT), a cute, shaggy, medium-sized herding dog, originates from Terceira, one of Portugal’s Azore Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. For over 500 years, this hardy breed has worked alongside farmers, facing the island’s most formidable bulls and livestock. While clearly thriving on the farm, the Barbado da Terceira’s story extends far beyond herding.
With no small amount of trepidation, I’ve made a decision: I will be breeding my first litter in nearly 30 years.
There’s not one of us who hasn’t stared into their dog’s eyes and wondered, “What the heck are you thinking?” Or if you’re like me, it’s more like, “What is wrong with your brain?”
I still remember my first time asking Siri a question in 2011. I felt like I was living in the future–this little computer that could answer anything! I asked about weather, restaurants, who won the 1958 World Series, and more.
Anyone who follows my writing or has had conversations with me will surely remember the words: “Trust your Breeder Instincts.” They just might be the most important four words in the lexicon of the sport of purebred dogs. Every success or defeat can be traced back to how one used those words
A few days after the procedure my dog progressed into irreversible renal failure.
