French Bulldog Websites… a LOT of French Bulldog websites!

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OK, there comes a time when you wake up and realize “Holy crap. I need to get a life.” For me, that moment came when I sat down and really took a look at how many French Bulldog websites I have created.

It started out simply enough – we shared info space on bulldog.org *, which was one of – if not the – very first dog info pages on the web. This morphed into a stand alone French Bulldog informational site, with my kennel tacked on as an afterthought. Then, I decided that having my kennel info included on a .org site was unethical, since the very intent of .org domain names is that they are non profit. With this in mind, I created our first .com kennel website, almost seven and a half years ago. Due to a combination of timing and inattention, I lost our first Frenchie specific domain name, so created a new site, which focused more on games and fun.

From there, it all sort of snowballed…

Now, today, I’m rather afraid to admit that I have currently on the go nine French Bulldog specific websites. Yes, that’s right – nine. This number doesn’t include the ones that are still in development, like the Wiki site, the Forum site, the Missing/Stolen site, the Bookshelf app site, the… well, you get the idea. I think that I currently own about fifteen Frenchie specific domain names. It’s possible that this is some sort of addiction, and that I should get help. Read more →

A tiny change…We're now FrogDog Blog

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No Frogs - Yes FrogDOGSIt’s been pointed out to me that there’s already a “Frog Blog” out there, written by a guy who is interested in (what else?) frogs.

So, to save confusion, I’ve renamed this blog :

‘Frogdog Blog’.

That should prevent anyone from coming here and looking for tips about their sick tree frogs.

I hope.

Carol

"Placing" Dogs and Picking Homes

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TessaI have been thinking lately about the concept of ‘placing’ older dogs. ‘Placing’ is synonymous with ‘retiring’ – it means that we find good, loving, preferably close by homes for our older girls or boys who are no longer active in our breeding program. The theory is sound – dogs who have had to be part of a pack get to be a solo dog, or perhaps one of two dogs. This means increased attention, and perhaps a chance to sleep on the bed. In practical terms, this also leaves room for new puppies to be kept as the future of our breeding program.

All in all, placing older dogs is really the only practical way for a small scale breeder to be able to advance in their breeding program. After all, if you only want to keep six or seven dogs at the most, but five of those are retired dogs or bitches, you aren’t really left with much room to advance. The problem isn’t with the logic of this concept – it’s with the reality of it, and the reality of it is that ‘placing’ is another term for ‘handing your dog over to strangers’. Read more →

Maybe Unicorns Aren't Such a Bad Idea

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Oh boy. Today was one of those days that make you wonder why you didn’t decide to own cats, or raise unicorns, or potted plants.

I got up to discover that not only had Sailor had an accident in her crate, but that she’d done so in her own, incomparable fashion  – by sticking her butt up against the crate door. Sailor is an unbelievably clean dog – she will literally do almost anything to avoid going in her crate. Outside of her crate, all bets are off if you’re not quick enough opening the door . Oh, she’ll give you a warning bark or two, but if you miss it, tough luck for you, and enjoy cleaning up that pee spot on the floor. In her crate, though, it’s a different matter. She’s one of the most fastidious Frenchies I’ve ever known.

So, instead of lounging around drinking coffee and working on a few files, I got to spend the first two hours of my day scrubbing a crate, and the crate tray and the floor, and then washing all of the blankets, just for good measure. Sailor just sat there looking at me, with an expression I can only assume was meant to convey “Next time I bark at 3 am, you’re going to pay attention, aren’t you?”. Lesson learned, and yes – I will pay attention to 3 am barking much more closely from now on.

Carol

Filing, Frenchies and D.H. Lawrence

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Filing old paper work is an interesting endeavor. You run into things you haven’t seen for years – correspondence from people you’d forgotten you’d written to, snippets of articles started but never finished, research that stalled part way through. I stumbled across an old folder with some of the research I’d used to write an article for the “Historical Frenchies” series I had done for the French Bullytin. This one was on the writer D.H. Lawrence, and his brindle French Bulldog, Bibbles.

Lawrence, author of such famous works as “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and “Women and Men”, was also an accomplished poet. In a collection entitled “Birds, Beasts and Flowers”, he wrote three poems which featured his little brindle Frenchie bitch. The main poem, and the longest in the collection, is entitled ‘Bibbles’. It describes his love for her, and her somewhat indifferent and indiscriminate return of that love. Lawrence then writes of his frustration at her egalitarian approach to affection, her habit of showering everyone she meets with equal adoration –

“To you, whoever you are, with endless embrace!” Read more →