Welcome To My View

2014 Dog Fancy Has Started

We have our first Canadian shows behind us and Westminster has crowned its 2014 winner, so we are getting back into the swing of making our entries, bathing dogs, making hotel reservations and packing the vans.  I am looking forward to seeing all my peeps and meeting new folks at the shows.  This year, we are getting involved in Field Trials.  We can’t wait to test our boy, Chase, in the fields.  We are breeding our first litter of standard wirehaired dachshunds under our Kennel name, Sweetwires Dachshunds.  We will spend this year focusing on, Dillon Conod, our fabulous junior handler and his wonder dog, Cooper!  It’s so exciting to see this young man and his dog grow in knowledge and skills. 

I invite all of you to be an active part of this blog.  It is meant to be fun, informative and insightful.  Please send your stories, or write an article for the blog.  Send me your club announcements.  Remember to send in your “Spotlight” suggestions for those people in your area you catch doing nice things for others.  Make 2014 the best year ever by bringing your best out to compete, remember to use good manners and be a good sport no matter.  You never know who you are influencing.

Our Best Friends, Our Workmates, Our Heroes

Researchers have spent years and countless dollars trying to understand the relationship between man and dogs.  Researchers have figured out that dogs will carry their human's gaze off into the distance.  They have spent countless hours in a lab discovering that dogs have a sympathetic yawn reflex with their people.  Dogs have demonstrated they can identify hundreds

Anubis as a baby with broken leg

of items from verbal commands and can understand hundreds of spoken words.  Is it any wonder that dogs are also our heroes?

Lynda McFadden of Jalynn Kennels recently had a unique experience, when her Newfoundland puppy proved to be a hero to a little girl in the neighborhood. 

Anubis saved a little girl from being abducted by a sex offender in front of Lynda's house several weeks back.  The man grabbed an eight year old girl. He had rope and was dragging her to his car in the snow. Anubis, the Newfoundland puppy,  noticed the behavior and the young girl credits him with saving her. He barked and drew a lot of attention to the situation and scared the man away. She told her parents and the police what happened.  The police went to Lynda's house to let them know what a brave thing Anubis did. 

According to Lynda, Anubis was in his pen playing in the snow and they were all in the house and had no idea what was happening. Fortunately, the McFaddens had  installed a video surveillance system recently and taped the entire incident. They were able to give a  description of the man and  the car he was driving!!!  That was a good start for the police to locate the man.

Anubis did what comes naturally to our canine companions.They want to protect their home and family. He realized a little girl, that he didn't even know, was in trouble and he saved her from untold danger.  Lynda, explained to me that Anubis has been special from a small puppy.  He broke his leg in a freak accident and Lynda spent weeks being his litter mate.  Lynda

transformed her living room into sleeping quarters for Anubis and herself.  She slept on a mattress on the floor and she spent countless hours playing with him.  When the other litter puppies were outside running, Lynda would  take him on the other side of the fence so he could run and play at his own pace with his leg in a cast without being tripped by the other raucous puppies. 

Lynda says that Anubis will likely be a service dog.  This will be the second service dog placed by Jalynn Kennels.  Newfoundlands are not just great water rescuers, they have untapped abilities to understand and respond to humans.  Some, like Anubis, are even HEROES!

Are You Kidding Me??

Why in this world do we need 56 options to describe our gender on Facebook?  I consider myself to be a fairly liberal thinker.  I have many friends that are gay and lesbian.  I am a firm believer and would fight for equal rights for all people, regardless of race, religion, nationality or sexual preference.  Why can't people just be people?  Why is there this need for labels?

In my humble opinion, its the labels that create problems.  It makes the whole issue of gender too complex and when things get complicated, people stop trying to understand.  Whatever happened to the KISS philosophy?  KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!   If gender identification is this

complex then what is next?  Are we no longer married, single, divorced or widowed? Perhaps, we need several hundred labels to describe more fully our individual circumstance.  I'm not just married.  I am agender-married to a cis-male in an intersex non-binary free spirit marriage.  

We are just people all wanting the same thing. Understanding, inclusion, fairness, equality, love and family.   Drop all the labels and let's just be Non-discriminatory, Open-minded human beings.