At the time of this photo, Valentine’s day was more than a week past, as was the candy in the velvet candy box. The empty box was practically begging to be used as a photo prop for this candy-themed litter. Cocoa’s eyes were just starting to open, but the box was made so warm and cosy, she had problems keeping them open. What a cutie now and then. We had no idea of how this sweet, rambunctious puppy was going to change our lives in the years to come.

Our wish is that you, too, have been blessed with a pet as special, either now, in the past, or yet to come.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A French Bulldog wearing a WiggleLess back support. www.wiggleless.com

If you’ve ever had a Frenchie with back problems, you know how scary and worrisome they can be, for both the owner and dog. Unfortunately, back issues are not unusual for French Bulldogs, so it’s always nice to have ideas of how to spot, and how to successfully treat, back issues.

Found the link to the WiggleLess at the bottom of an article about Intervertebral Disc Disease by the AKC Canine Health Foundation. While the article does not list French Bulldogs as one of the chondrodystrophoid breeds, they certainly are one. (The Merck Veterinary Manual is listed as a reference and the article’s breed list is a perfect match.)

To read the full, informative AKC/CHF article, click: Overview of Intervertebral Disk Disease.

To read more on Intervetebral Disc Disease from AKC/CHF, go here: AKC/CHF Intervertebral Disk Disease

For an very through and clinical look at Intervertebral Disk Disease in animals, visit the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s page on the topic. Chapter 62 - Intervertebral Disk Disease by Andy Shores (And yes, they do include French Bulldogs in their list of chondrodystrophoid breeds!)

Today may be the Super Bowl for football fans, but the real action is next week: the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show!

Starting early Monday morning, breed champions from the Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting, and Herding Groups go in the ring, competing head-to-head for the coveted Best of Breed title. Winning this title is a career highlight and also the chance to to compete in the evening’s televised Group competition.

Frenchies hit the ring Monday to compete under the discerning eye of judge Leonard S. Reppond. If all dogs attend, he’ll have 39 Frenchies from which to choose his Best of Breed, Best of Opposite, and Award of Merit winners.

Every year Westminster issues invitations to five Champions of Record, per breed. These aren’t random picks, but dogs holding the top five spots in their breed, based on AKC show win numbers from January to October. This ensures top dogs don’t miss their chance to compete at Madison Garden. If they decide to attend, their entry forms are given special, guaranteed entry status – but invited or not, their form must include a $75 check for the entry fee.

Submitting an entry form by deadline and then having it randomly selected for processing is one of the main hurdles to attending this show. For 2012, entries were limited to the first 2,000 properly processed forms. It takes four Premium List pages to explain all the nitty-gritty details of how to successfully send in an entry form: 2012 Premium List (pages 14–17 for entry rules) If you read the rules, it’s easy to see how a paperwork technicality could eliminate an entry form – even if the check is good!

Time for the nitty-gritty of when to watch or record:

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

Mon­day, Feb 13

French Bull­dogs enter Ring 1 at 1 PM
Judge: Mr. Leonard S. Reppond
Breed judg­ing video will be avail­able on the West­min­ster site later in the day. (Video of Non-Sporting Breed Judging.)

See list of French Bulldogs entered: 2012 Westminster French Bulldog entries

See Breed Show Results: 2012 Westminster French Bulldog Breed Judging Results

8–9 PM East­ern Time, USA Net­work, then the live broad­cast switches net­works to,
9–11 PM East­ern Time, CNBC
Non-Sporting Group com­petes Mon­day evening, along with Hound, Toy, and Herd­ing groups
Non-Sporting judge: Mr. Randy Garren

Tues­day, Feb 14

8–11 PM East­ern Time, USA Net­work
Sport­ing, Work­ing, Ter­rier Groups, and Best in Show com­pete
Best in Show judge: Mrs. Cindy Vogels

In alphabetical order, Westminster’s Five Invited French Bulldogs for 2012 are:

• GCH CH Bandog Bayou’s The Warrior
• GCH CH Fabelhaft Robobull Hot Commodity
• GCH CH Highwood’s Big Shot
• GCH CH Lebull’s New Hope Wooly Bully
• GCH CH Lionheart’s Thumbs Up!

NYC FBDCA Independent Specialties

While these are not televised, there is an additional treat for Frenchie show fans attending Westminster, two days of French Bulldog Specialties immediately prior to Westminster.

New York Metro Specialties
NYC FBDCA Independent Specialties
Hotel Pennsylvania
Penn Plaza Pavilion
Mezzanine Floor
New York, NY

Saturday, February 11, Ring 1
9:30 AM EST Sweeps (28 entries) – Judge Dr. Nancy Rose Newcomb
11:00 AM EST Regular Classes (80 entries) – Judge Mrs. Sari Brewster Tietgen

Saturday – FBDCA Specialty Judging Results

Sunday, February 12, Ring 1
8:30 AM EST Sweeps (24 entries)  – Judge Ms. Elena Siegman
9:45 AM EST Regular Classes (79 entries) – Judge Mr. John C. Frederick Peddie

Sunday – FBDCA Specialty Judging Results

$10 Admission for the public. Download the Premium List here. The Judging Schedule here.

If you’d like more information, visit the FBDCA Other French Bulldog Specialty page or the FBDCA Facebook page.

iPad Raffle

Sad you can’t attend either show? Would it perk you up if you had a chance at winning a new 32 GB Apple iPad for as little as $10? And you don’t have to be present to win? An iPad raffle is being held ringside at the NYC Specialties, but tickets can be bought online. Prices are: $10 for a single ticket, $25 for three, or eight tickets for $50. Wanna know something sneaky? Not only do you not need to be present, you don’t need to be owned by a Frenchie! Winner to be drawn Sunday, February 12, 2012.

Buy iPad Raffle tickets online – $10 each • 3 for $25 • 8 for $50
(Proceeds benefit the FBDCA Top Twenty Event.)

For those of us without mezzanine or ringside seating, time to make the stay-at-home TV-watching treat shopping list. Be sure to add something for your snub-nosed pal. Not such a bad deal if you think about it. You save travel and ticket costs and get to snuggle in and watch the Show of the Year with your Best in the World, four-legged pal!

From the site:

The French Bulldog Mannequin originated as a companion dog. The breed is small and muscular with trademark “bat” ears. This Dog Mannequin is active and alert, but prized for it’s even disposition.

Should we tell them the bat ears need a bit of work? Bat ears don’t have points, they are rounded at the top.

From the AKC breed standard:

Ears – Known as the bat ear, broad at the base, elongated, with round top, set high on the head but not too close together, and carried erect with the orifice to the front. The leather of the ear fine and soft. Other than bat ears is a disqualification.

A well-trained French Bulldog mannequin. Click to see his page.

Oopsie! Time to call someone at the mannequin factory.

What is a Twitter List or Twitter Widget? A bit of Twitter 101 today: one of the things you can do with Twitter is make a List. A List is a grouping of Twitter accounts you’ve decided to categorize and curate. Now you can quickly focus your Tweet consumption to only those generated by accounts within the List.

A Twitter Widget is a small box that displays the latest Tweets either from your own account, or you can choose to display Tweets from a List you or others have created. (There’s a couple more variations, but let’s stick to these.) You can make your List Private or Public; widget color, size, and number of Tweets are all customizable.

Our Twitter Widget is limited to North American rescues, which exclusively work with the French Bulldog breed or the breed is one of its core breeds. (Frenchies do occasionally appear at all-breed rescues, so if you are actively looking, don’t forget about them.) Not all Frenchie rescues have Twitter accounts yet, but we’ll add them to our list as they become available. Our rescue list is Public and you are welcome to use our List as a shortcut to making your own Widget. Good Bloggie!’s French Bulldog Rescue List.

Perhaps you are partial to another breed or cause and want to make a Widget for that instead? The steps are the same:

1. Log into Twitter,
2. make a List or find a List you like,
3. create a Twitter Widget thru Twitter Resources • Widgets,
4. grab the code,
5. install onto your site or blog.

Twitter explains more in their Help section: About Twitter Widgets.

Viola! Now you are supporting your cause 24/7, and for this year, 366 days! Oh my, was that a perfectly wonderful, available Frenchie that just rolled by in the Widget below?

Our mystery plant.

Well, this blog entry was originally to share details, benefits, and ease concerns about Chickweed (Stellaria media); a weedy plant I briefly researched a few years ago because the dogs like to nibble on various bits of greenery in the backyard, this one in particular. Our plant looked like it matched Chickweed photos, ours just had brighter yellow flowers. (Must be a Texas thing, right?!) However, better research shows I misidentified. Our plant is actually called Horseherb or Straggler Daisy (Calyptocarpus vialis). Misidentifying is an easy mistake, I’m assured by the blog Texas Herbs. By either name, our dogs seek it out and graze away, making the yard look as if an odd herd of miniature cattle invaded the yard. (Albeit squirrel-chasing cattle!)

Vivian, munching on Straggler Daisy.

The now-properly-identified Horseherb/Straggler Daisy makes its appearance in our yard every spring and late fall. It likes moderate temperatures and damp soil. Something we’ve had a bit of lately, so we are seeing an early, early appearance this month.

Took notice of this plant when the dogs were nibbling on it along with blades of grass. Concerned whether it was poisonous, I was originally relived to find that not only is Chickweed not poisonous, it is a plant actually sought out by human foragers and has reported health benefits. However, now that I know our plant is Horseherb/Straggler Daisy, not finding much support for its edibility. A bit concerning, as the dogs love to nibble on it and I tested it myself the other day to check the taste. Funny thing, it tastes as Chickweed is described, a mild baby corn or corn silk taste. Neither I, nor the dogs, seem to be ill after consumption. They have been nibbling on it for a few years with no apparent ill effects…though I wouldn’t recommend making a salad out of it based on this very unscientific study; certainly without proper toxicology testing.

Because your dogs may like nibbling on greenery, too, and it’s easy to misidentify this plant (pleading guilty!), here’s what you need to know about each one.

Horseherb/Straggler Daisy (Calyptocarpus vialis)
Horseherb/Straggler Daisy is both a valued US native groundcover plant and a reviled lawn weed, depending on its location. It attracts butterflies with it’s bright yellow flowers. Grows in southern US States.

An authoritative source of Texas plant info is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The Wildflower Center’s, Ask Mr. Smarty Plants feature gives a response to the question of toxicity. The following is excerpted from Ask Mr. Smarty Plants:

QUESTION:
Hello, I find horse-herb everywhere. Is it edible, too? Thanks!

ANSWER:
Mr. Smarty Plants hasn’t been able to find any information about the possible edibility of Calyptocarpus vialis (straggler daisy). None of the reference books listed below under “Bibliography” have listed it.

However, we also haven’t found it listed on any of our favorite toxic plant databases:
Texas Toxic Plant Database
Poisonous Plants of North Carolina
Cornell University Poisonous Plants Informational Database
Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System

The City of Austin’s Native and Adapted Landscape Plants says that is “somewhat deer resistant”, which might indicate that it isn’t very tasty — at least not to deer. You probably wouldn’t get violently ill if you tried some (if it were deadly poisonous, I feel sure it would appear in at least one of those toxic databases), but you could possibly have some unpleasant reaction to it.

My advice is: Don’t try it. Since it is so very common, if it were really delicious, someone would have talked about it by now.”

Of course read the above advice after my taste test! More on this plant from the Wildflower Center: Calyptocarpus vialis Less.

Curious and still want more Horseherb/Straggler Daisy info? Try these other sources:

• City of Austin, Landscape Plants – Horseherb
• Great Stems.com – Love It or Leave It: Horseherb
• The Grackle – plants: Straggler Daisy
• Where Plants Rule – Straggler Daisy
• USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service – Calyptocarpus vialis Less. straggler daisy

Chickweed (Stellaria media)
This plant has a lot going for it! It’s safe to eat and used in various herbal remedies. It gets its name from its appeal to chickens and is even planted as a feed source for chickens and canaries. There are several types of chickweed and it grows all over North America. The flowers on this plant are white to light yellow.

For Chickweed info, try these links:

• Aggie Horticulture – Central Texas Garden Weeds
• Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide – Common Chickweed
• USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service – Stellaria media (L.) Vill. common chickweed
• Wild Food! Wildman Steve Brill – Chickweed Stellaria Species

See “Wildman” Steve Brill explain Chickweed health benefits in this Fox News video:

While, I’m relived to know Horseherb/Straggler Daisy is not on a list of toxic plants and Chickweed is fine to eat, maybe I’ll just put “salad greens for dogs” on the next grocery list! 

The purpose of the database is to supply health information to owners of pets with cancer and confidentially collect health data of dogs, cats, and even people, diagnosed with cancer. Signing up is voluntary and by signing up you will have access to the most recent cancer treatment information, names of oncology-qualified veterinarians, surgeons, and doctors you might not find on your own, and may be selected for clinical cancer treatment trials. Your pet’s collected data will be used to advance cancer research and treatment.

Even if you don’t sign up, there is a valuable and growing list of Texas oncology and radiation vets on their website: TVCR Oncology and Radiation Vets. (Had the privilege of hearing one listed vet, Dr. Heather Wilson, speak at an AKC Breeder Symposium last year. She really knows her stuff. )

This registry is lead by A&M Veterinary Chair Dr. Terry Fossum along with the nonprofit CARE Foundation (Clinical Animal Registration and Education), Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, and the Texas Oncology Group. Dr. Fossum is also the Director for TIPS (Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Studies).

Learn more about this new database and what is has already done and plans to do, from the articles below:

• Austin American-Statesman – Pet cancer registry could help your cat, dog and humans, too
• MySanAntonio.com – Treatment may help dog — and humans
• TheEagle.com – One lucky dog: Cancer treatment saves pooch’s leg

And, of course, directly from TVCR:

• Texas Veterinary Cancer Registry (TVCR) – Website
• Texas Veterinary Cancer Registry (TVCR) – Blog
• Texas Veterinary Cancer Registry (TVCR) – Facebook page

Last year, blogged about an 8-bit dog sculpture, now bringing you a way to create your own art in the retro style of pixel computer art – for free! Zoom on over to MakePixelArt.com. If you get hooked, it’s available as an Apple app or a Chrome download for under $3 (assuming with a few more bells and whistles).

Tried my hand at it today. Whadda ya think? Does this character look a “bit” like our favorite topic?

If you want to incorporate this character into your pixel masterpiece, here’s the link: Frenchie Face.

We’d love to see what you create, so be sure to come back and share your finished art link.

Rather than reinvent the wheel each time, I created a chart to make this task easier and are sharing it with you as our holiday gift. This is a gift we hope you never need, but if you do, it’s here and available for download as a PDF.

Once-Daily Medication Chart. Click image to download

Twice-Daily Medication Chart. Click image to download.

There are two versions of the chart, 1) once-daily medication, and 2) twice-daily medication, each with slots for 10 days.

Each PDF file is set up to print two per 8 1/2″ X 11″ page. Either cut the page in half or simply fold it in half. Use the second side if medication dosage exceeds 10 days or save for later use.

For medications ending sooner, or those which need to be tapered off, just scribble out the days to be missed. (See the example below for the fictional dog Max.)

To make a drug’s name fit at the top of the column you may need to abbreviate it, but you will have the full name at the bottom, once you fill in that information.

The chart is black & white so it won’t use up expensive color ink or toner. This also allows any highlighter or colored pen to stand out if you want to do some color-coding.

Scribble out blocks for days a medicine is no longer needed.

The wide space to the left is in case you want to use a small clipboard. Some clipboards have magnets on the back making them idea for keeping a chart on the refrigerator door.

Once you’ve completed a chart, add it to your dog’s home records to give yourself a reference in case he or she has another incident in the future.

So there you have it: a gift we hope your dog’s continued good health never requires. Happy, healthful holidays to you and yours!