Dog Breeds - Basset Hounds

I thought it would be fun to have posts now and then about different kinds of dogs, not just Yorkies like me.  This is the first post, but in time, if you want to find all the posts that are about different kinds of dogs, then click on "Dog Breeds" under "Categories" to the right, and you'll find them.

At the same house where I was born, the owner had a Basset Hound, he was a great big dog, I think I am smaller than his head was.  But in memory of him, because he has gone over the "Rainbow Bridge", I thought I'd start with an article we found about Basset (sometimes spelled "Bassett) Hounds.

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Although we are unable to identify the exact time period in history when the Basset Hound was created, some historians have noted that the first mention of this type of dog was found during 16th century text that made mention to “short legged dogs used for badger hunting.

We also know that comparable dwarf breeds that had short legs were used during the ancient times, but it is very difficult to focus in on exactly when and why the Basset Hound was intentionally bred.

The word “Basset” is French and is derivative from bas, which means “dwarf”. We know that short legged dogs were normally used for slow paced hunting during the French Revolution. History of this dog breed indicates a much clearer snap shot after French Revolution.

During this time period that Basset Hounds became a whole lot more common as a hunting companion. Many Hunters needed a dog that was intelligent enough with its scent ability to hunt prey and at the same time was slow enough so that they could be followed and hunted with guns. This is where this animal received its small dwarf like body; it became the perfect hunting formula for these needs.

Ultimately, there are four different variations of the short legged kind were created. One of these variations is know as the Basset Artesien Normand. The Basset Artesien Normand is what closely resembles today s Basset Hound. In the late 1800s and then again around 1930, crosses were developed with Bloodhounds to bring up their size. The first Bassett Hounds were sent to England and the United States during the late 1800s.

Personality

You will discover that the Basset Hound is one of the most calm and relaxed dog breeds alive today. They are very good natured with nearly every other animal and human they come into contact with. The Basset is enormously suited for kids and is well behaved even in the company of other strange dogs. Even though these dogs are considered high in affection levels and friendliness, do not underestimate its watchdog capabilities. In addition, these Hounds made great watchdogs.

Taking Care Of A Basset Hound

Basset Hounds need a dose of daily exercise, but not an over dose. One or two walks each day on the leash around your block will suit just fine. But, like any animal, it is always good for extra playtime and games when possible. Basset Hounds should sleep indoors with the family during the evening. During the day, having these dogs should have access to an enclosed yard. There’s no need for that much grooming. Just a little brushing and bath times throughout the week will be fine. Also, make note that these dogs tend to drool frequently.

Health Information

Basset Hounds have a live around 9 and 12 years, sometimes they live longer, it all depends on their health. Big health concerns are ectropion, vWD, CHD, gastric torsion, OCD, thrombopathy, otitis externa, and elbow dysplasia. Minor health problems may include patellar luxation. Obesity is a common issue with these animals when owners overfeed them. Make sure that you place caution on how much food you provide.

About the Author: Written by Kelly Marshall of http://Ohmydogsupplies.com, which has a huge selection of over 300 http://www.ohmydogsupplies.com/dog-supplies/grooming-tools dog grooming tools and dog grooming supplies.

Image Credit: businessgreetingcards.com

I Feel a Lot Better Now

I'm back to my old tricks again after not feeling good for a day or so.  Yesterday I started feeling pretty good, and today, I'm feeling too good...that means I'm begging for treats, begging to have my owners throw my toy bunny, begging for them to kick my ball, a whole lot of begging.

At this update, we're adding the post that came just before what is written above, because it was lost when we transferred the blog to a new site:

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Sorry that we haven't posted in a few days, I've been a little bit sick, and my owner has been busy taking care of me.

I don't want to gross you out with details, lets just say that I had a tummy ache, and had to go outside a lot, when we could make it on time.  My owner gets all worried when I get like that, because I am small, and if I lose my food and water, it's more serious than if I was a big dog.  But today, after I got all "cleaned out", my owner gave me just a very little bit of chicken cut in tiny pieces, and I love chicken so was able to eat it. Then I took a long nap, then when dinner time came, my owner was so happy to see me come to the kitchen to play ball.

Whenever she is in the kitchen, I bring my tennis ball to her, and she kicks it into the other room, then I get it and bring it back, and...well, you get the idea.

I had a little more chicken, and my usual organic healthy salmon snack tonight, and so far, so good!  We'll see how I am tomorrow.  We will go to the vet if I don't keep improving.

Hope to have something more fun to write soon!

Scottish Terrier Barney, the White House Dog

After doing a post about something Barney did that wasn't very nice, I decided I should follow up with something nice, because after all, Barney is a cute dog, and a lot of fun.  My owner is of Scottish heritage, I always wonder why she has me, a Yorkshire Terrier instead of a Scottish Terrier, but am happy she does.

Anyway, back to Barney, early on in President Bush's presidency, before people and press decided to go negative, Barney's Christmas videos were popular.  I think they are still very good.  I hope to post a few of them here for you, as we remember that this is going to be Barney's last Christmas in the White House.

First, a link to the OFFICIAL Barney page at whitehouse.gov.

And here's a few videos for you from years gone by:

Well there you are, hope you enjoy...and don't be fooled by "Barney Cam" videos that aren't the official "Barney Cams", or any websites other than whitehouse.ORG, please!

All My Yorkie Baby Pictures

A little birdie has told me that many of you that visit are looking for yorkie pictures, and since my pictures are scattered throughout the blog on different posts, and at other places on the web, I thought I would give you a link that will take you to a place where many of my pictures are.

Also, if you go to "Yorkie Pictures" in the "Categories" list on this page, you will find the posts on this blog that contain pictures.

Here is Yorkie Pictures and Art Prints for your viewing pleasure, most of my pictures are there, and much more.

Thank you for stopping by, hope you are having a great day!

Dog Biting, What Is It?

Recently I had to ask my owner what biting is, what does it mean when a dog bites you?  She smiled, and explained to me what it is, I just didn't know because I've never, ever done it or thought of doing it. I've made my version of a growling sound before, which for some reason makes everyone here laugh, I guess it's not very convincing...but that's about as bad as I get.

Biting sounds so mean, but since there are dogs that have this problem, we decided that we're going to ad an article page about it to the "pages" section of the blog, so look for it in the list under "Pages" to the right.

We Updated My Squidoo Pages

We have been updating Squidoo lenses over the past few days, including mine, and would really like you to visit!

Please visit Yorkshire Terrier and Aspen, the Best Yorkie Ever Squidoos, they aren't long, and easy to visit.

Then you might want to visit my owner's main "Lensmaster page" to see ALL the Squidoos she does, her most popular is "Is New Jersey Weird", the Yorkshire Terrier one is 2nd in line, but you might want to visit some others too...like "Strumming the Autoharp", and her blogs about Bird Feeding, Box Turtles, and even Gravestones. Have fun!

Help for Abused Animals a Click Away

I hope all my animal and people friends are doing well today!

My owner received an important email from a friend, and her friend checked it out, all appears to be legit, so read on, and see how simple it is to help our animal friends:

"Hi, all you animal lovers. This is pretty simple... Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (How about 20 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals' for free. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass this info along to people you know.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/"

PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS !!!

Cops Make "Kissy Faces" At This Friend

I have another friend to introduce you too, and from this picture, I'd say this is one lucky dog! I mean look at her, she can lounge in the grass...I can't do that 'cause I have allergies to flea bites, even if they just hop on and give me one little bite, and that happens even if I have my Frontline on. Kelly is 12 1/2 years old, and is part Yellow Labrador Retriever and part something else, maybe terrier.

Her full name is Kelle Belle, and her owner, Debra Shiveley Welch said saying her name is kinda' like singing "Wooly Booley", my owner laughed, but I was a little confused? After all, my owner is a LOT older than I am...oh, I'm not supposed to say that!  But she remembered a song and started to sing it.  Very strange human behavior.

I guess you're wondering about the "Cops" thing. My owner said Cops are Police men and women. They ride around in cars that have sirens and flashy lights sometimes.  They are there to protect humans from danger, but she said that once in a while, VERY rarely (ha!) one pulls up behind her and she has to pull the car over and show the police person some little papers in her wallet.  Then he gives her something called a ticket.

But for Wooly Booley, I mean Kelly Belle, that doesn't happen. When they are driving behind her owners car, they think she's so cute they make kissy faces at her, I bet that has saved Debra LOTS of tickets! I'll have to try that sometime, because even though I don't know what a ticket is, it sounds like something bad.

I'm happy to have another new friend! She takes good care of Debra's son, Chris, too. Oh, did I tell you that Debra and her son are both authors? You'll have to visit Debra's website!

Tips on Buying Horses

My owner loves horses. She used to have one, and wanted us to write about horses on this blog, so we talked about it, and I let her add a page to the site with some simple horse buying tips.

She used to own an Appaloosa, and said that I am smaller than a horses head. I guess I must be pretty small, or horses must be really big. I like writing about me the most, and thought we had agreed we would just write about little dogs, but she loves other kinds of animals too, abd begged me, and promised me an extra snack that she's giving me right now!

Enjoy the horse article, we'll be back with something about dogs tomorrow. Snack time!

Snack Time Yorkie Pictures

Hi people, it's me, Aspen the Yorkie, with pictures of myself waiting for my snack. I LOVE snack time, it's my favorite time of the day!

Here's a (blurry!) picture of me waiting while my snack is being broken into tiny pieces, I know, you're wondering why they have to break my snacks in tiny pieces. I guess I'm kind of strange, but I don't like chewing or gnawing on things. I've been given every kind of chew thing you can think of, and I don't like them. What things do you dogs out there like to chew on?



And finally, here's me eating, I'm so happy!! I love my snacks.



My owner may try making some snacks sometime, I hope I like them!

My New Rescue Dog Friend

I got an email today introducing me to a new friend named Copper. I know you will be fine, Copper, because my owner said that the people that took you home are so very nice, it looks like you figured that out already. I like taking naps with my toys too, especially my worn out bunny that I have had all my life. I hope you feel at home real soon. Here's the email, and a picture of Copper:

Hi Aspen,

I wanted to introduce you to our new four legged son, Copper. We rescued him from the Vet who was going to have to turn him over to the animal shelter because his family didn't come claim him. Copper has some separation anxiety problems but we are working on helping him. He loves his squeaky toys. He got a new squeaky turkey today and is taking a nap with turkey right now.

This picture was of when we went to meet Copper for the first time at the Vet. He took to me instantly. It took him a couple of days to warm up to his new daddy, but now they are best friends!

Blessings, Betty

Natural Pet Remedies for Yorkies and Other Pets

We've done a brand new page on natural pet remedies, you'll find it in the list under "pages" in the right column.

I have some allergies from the tree pollen, and the fleas and ticks are all over, so thought it would be good to share an article like this. Hope you like it!

What Yorkie's Like to Eat

Hi everybody! It's a new week, and I want to talk about food. I LOVE food, even food that isn't good for me. I don't care, as long as it tastes good...but sometimes even though it tastes good, later it makes me sick. So I've been listening to my owners talk to each other about what they are feeding me, and here's some of the things that I've heard them say:

• Don't give Aspen cured or overly seasoned meats. Yep, that's right, those are the ones that taste so good, but always make me sick. And some cured meats have chemical additives in them than aren't even good for humans, so why feed them to me?


• Don't change Aspen's dry food to a new food too quickly. Just recently they changed my dry food to another brand, and they gradually added a little bit to my old dry food, then a little bit more, then a little bit more, each time them fed me, so I gradually got used to the food.


• Do consider food if Yorkies or dogs like me throw up a lot (I know, yuk, sorry about that), but only if you have changed foods in the past couple weeks. If we get sick a lot, we should be taken to the vet right away.


• Do occasionally let us have a little bite of food when we beg for food at the table...well, actually I'm just throwing that one in. That's a really bad habit, but the big guy owner here who said that would never happen if he ever had a dog sneaks treats from his plate to me all the time. My most favorite is chicken!!!

Those are my tips for today, if I think of more, I'll let you know! Have a great day and a tail waggin' week!

How My Owner Groomed Me

It's been a scarey couple of days for me, but not as scarey as going to the groomer...I used to love going for rides in the car until my owner started ending some of those trips at a groomer, now every time we go anywhere, I'm afraid that's where I'll end up. So my owner decided to groom me herself. She used to do this all the time, but she doesn't as much anymore. This is what she did:

• She put a large towel on the table, and got her best scissors, a small and large pair, and my brush.


• I had so much hair, that she just took hold of it between here fingers a bit at a time and cut off a few inches almost all over my body, leaving enough to shape later. I moved constantly, so it wasn't a very pretty site when she finished.


• She went outside, and put the hair on the ground not to far from the bird feeder, because sometimes the birds like my nice, soft hair to make their nests.


• Finally, she gave me a bath...that felt good because it was a hot day.

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That was all she did on day one. I noticed she kept looking at me funny, like she was an artist looking at a sculpture, planning what she was going to chisel away next. And chisel she did, the next day! Out came a clean towel and those scissors again.

• She was more careful in shaping my hair this time...it was more of a puppy cut, and you have to remember I have curly hair, so she would a section of hair between the length of two fingers up and down, pull it out from my body, and cut, and did the same thing pretty much all over my body.


• The tummy hairs she cut very short, very close to my body. By the time she was done, I looked so much better.


• Around my face is tricky, since that's my least favorite place to be cut, she holds me gently but firmly by the scruff of my neck, like my mommy would when I was a baby, and that just did something to make me still, and she could trim around my face. It looks much better now, I used to look like I had a long beard, now my hair circles my face kind of like a lion. She uses little blunt but sharp scissors around my eyes, and I can see again!


• She was real careful cutting the hair on my legs, once she did it so short I looked like I had chicken legs, and we both hate that look.


• She also trimmed the hair under my tail pretty short so.


• Oh, and my little feet, she trimmed the hair following the line of my paw so there was just enough hair to cover my nails.

That's enough for now, I feel much better, and next she's going to learn how to clean my ears. She's getting some help from a good instructional publication, it's VERY detailed, and costs so much less than a grooming. You can Click here for more information. We were impressed.

Happy weekend to you!

Historic Day for Animals, ASPCA 142 Years Old

Today is a really big day for all of us animals. 142 years ago today, the ASPCA was started by a man who had a lot of money and liked to use it for good causes. His name was Henry Bergh.

In case you forget what ASPCA stands for, it is American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Abraham Lincoln was President when Bergh's passion to help animals came about. It was under unusual circumstances. He had been appointed by Lincoln as a diplomat for the Czar of Russia, Alexander II. He was shocked and dismayed to see how the work horses were treated, beaten an abused.

There was already a Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in London, which he visited on his trip home to America. This was his inspiration to start a similar organization here in the USA, making it against the law to abuse animals. He called animals the "mute servants of mankind" when he argued his case.

Ultimately, his efforts lead to the incorporation of the ASPCA on April 10, 1866, 142 years ago today.

It is interesting that AFTER this organization was started, a similar one to prevent cruelty to children was formed, and Bergh served as a Vice President of the organization for a period of time.

For more information on the ASPCA, visit their site at http://www.aspca.org.

Health Benefits of Owning Cats and Kittens

I can't believe my owner convinced me to add a page on owning cats and kittens, you'll see it listed in the right column under "Pages". I think it's because so many people in her family have cats...there's more about that on the page.

I made sure to add a comment or two of my own, that was our agreement, if we have to write about cats, I have to add at least my two cents worth.

We think we noticed that you can't make a comment on the pages, so if you have something to say after you read the article, come back here and comment!

Have a happy day! Aspen

2 New Yorkie Blog Pages

I just wanted to let you know that two more pages were added to the "pages" section of the blog today (see the list of pages to the right)....one about aging pets, and another with the start of a list of food recalls, food warnings, and foods that are not dangerous for you, but may be dangerous for me.

Hope you had a great weekend, my family was out a lot at church and visiting family, I missed them.

It's National Professional Pet Sitters Week

People who take care of pets for their owners when they can't be there are very special people, and this is a special week in the year when Pet Sitters are honored.


There's even a Pet Sitters International website.

These helpful sites will have information about finding the best sitter for your pet, or will help you if you are a Pet Sitter or thinking of becoming one.

Yorkies in a Basket - 6 and 7 Weeks

Here is Aspen and her brother in the Spring of 1999.  Aspen is the one that has more brown in her face, the one on the left in this picture. They are 7 weeks old and we took them to the vet in this basket for their checkup and most likely a shot. They had to go to the vet a lot when they were puppies and always got LOTS of attention wherever they went.

We decided to update this page in August of 2013, written a little over 5 years ago, to say that my brother passed on earlier this year.  

And now I am updating this page in March of 2014 to say that Aspen passed on just weeks after we did the August update above.  We miss her terribly, but both she and her brlother lived good long lives with loving owners.

Yorkie Puppy Pictures - 10 Days/3 Weeks Old

In the Yorkie puppy pictures below, I am with my brother, Brutus.  In the bottom picture, we were 10 days old. In the top picture, we are about 3 weeks old.  We're sorry the pictures are blurry, they were taken with an old camera about 14 years ago at this update. 

My brother and I were always together. I am the one on the top in both of the pictures.

My owners lived right next door, so they came over almost every day to see us, and took pictures every week so we would have them to enjoy and share with you!