@doomspaniels / doomspaniels.tumblr.com
sucks the freckles are disqualifying, because theyre sooo cute. all cockers should have them <3
Yes! They're so cute! Ridiculously cute! And, twice as unfair, Tristan's freckles are allowed, because he is particolor. Technically the disallowed marking is the white on her face; solid coats can have only a trace of white on the chest. INJUSTICE. Every cocker should get to have freckles, even the solid colors.
I had a dream that you got a cocker spaniel that looked like Yvaine but with Gwynevere’s coloring and you named her Ms. Frizzle. It doesn’t fit your King Arthur naming scheme but it was such a good name I wanted you to know.
This is wonderful, and I love it. I unfortunately missed The Magic School Bus but from what I know, "Ms. Frizzle" should suit just about any cocker out there ❤️
How’s Guinevere doing?
Well, your timing is fortuitous. The hard-to-pinpoint pain (that seemed to start while I was in the hospital in October) keeps getting worse. We keep upping her pain meds, but the pain is still affecting her.
She had a spine MRI yesterday[*] . They didn't find anything to explain the pain, which seems to be across her shoulders & ribs, and across her hindquarters & thighs. They did find some "hydromyelia without evidence of cerebellar herniation" but it doesn't explain this pain.
They did a spinal tap, which also didn't find anything to help.
They referred us over to PT & Rehab, who can look for more rheumatological-type muscle & joint issues. Apparently there's no Rheum department. We'll keep upping her pain meds while we keep trying.
[*] Yes, the day after Tristan was diagnosed with back trouble
Are you the reason I’ve started saying “shameless bribery for the win!”?
I just did that after calling Peaches off a squirrel this morning :)!
😅 That's probably my fault, yeah. IIRC I've been saying it since at least 2005-ish, when I was working with a skittish rescue horse and then my baby horses (Firefly and Serenity). I might have picked it up from somewhere, but if so, I don't remember where.
Good Peaches! For the WIN!
What does TFaTB stand for?
Hey there! I'm Guinevere's Royal Treasurer (GRT), I belong to Guinevere, the red wocker. Tristan's Fetch and Tug Buddy (TFaTB), my spouse, belongs to Tristan, the black and white ticked American cocker.[*]
I try to type out our full titles each time I use them, then shorten them to GRT and TFaTB after that. I apologize if it's not entirely clear ❤️ Though I hoped that including them in my blog description would make up for any confusion.
[*] Yes, Tristan has assigned himself the job of looking after me, and he's not even my dog. He'll tell me so, too. I just need that much help, I guess 😅
Does Tristan grow that little white mohawk naturally, or do you have him groomed to emphasize it?
Oh I absolutely groom him to emphasize the skunk streak mohawk! (post about clipping Tristan's head)
When Tristan first arrived, he had a 4-month-old's show cocker coat. The skirt obviously couldn't stay and the bouffant was silly.
But would you look at that perfect mohawk? I only intended to keep it briefly, but I love it too much to remove it for long.
It... took some time to get it right...
... when it goes wrong, it's WRONG...
Occasionally I have to clip it off, but so far I have been able to let it grow back out every time.
And when it's right, it's perfect.
Hi! I’m not sure who to ask, so if this isn’t okay to ask you, please let me know! I’m pretty new to posting things, and I was wondering what the etiquette for the dogblr tag is. Is it frowned upon to tag my dog posts with dogblr even if I don’t post/reblog only dog stuff? Or is that best left for the dog only blogs?
I don't think there is a definitive keeper(s) of dogblr etiquette, or rules beyond "dog stuff in this post" 😅 In my observation, posts tagged #dogblr are dog pics, dog anecdotes, joys and challenges, accomplishments and failures--some from blogs only post dogs, some from people who post everything on their mind in a continuous stream. All valid.
If it makes you feel better, you can lurk for a while, observe how other people use the tag, see that the tags don't belong to anybody. Or you can make a side blog just for pet pics, which a lot of people do. We're all just here for the pups, really.
Just happy to share, if you are too!
Are you guys getting the hurricane? Good luck to you, humans and critters alike!
Thank you! 💗 It's not going right over us, but passing by overnight tonight. We will mostly get some wind, some water, maybe lose power. We have some spare power sources so we should be able to check in via phones tomorrow even if the power goes out.
It's 8pm now, and we have enough wind that it was time to put rainsheets & flymasks on the mares to protect them from flying debris. The Spaniels accompanied us, they are tired & damp.
For the rest of tonight, the Spaniel-kites will only go out with necklace-LEDs and on leashes to keep them from being carried away to Oz. But we'll probably just rest here, waiting out the storm.
Hi! I just wanted to let you know how much seeing pics of your spaniels, especially of Tristan brightens my day! In my childhood and youth my family lived with Queeny - a b&w American cocker spaniel. She was the loveliest and sweetest dog I’ve ever met. She looked a lot like Tristan - which is very special to me because I’ve never met any dog nor seen pics of any other dog that looked like that (most spaniels I’ve seen have at least some brown in their fur). Sadly I don’t have many pictures of Queeny because she passed away before I had a phone with a camera and my family didn’t take many pics of her. So yeah - it really warms my heart every time I see a new photo of Tristan you posted 🧡
I'm always so glad to know that my Spaniels are bringing joy into another life ❤️ That's the goal, always the goal.
do you have advice for taking good pictures of dogs? your pictures are so nice, and while i love my dog she never stops moving ever and especially not when i have my camera out so every picture of her looks blurry and weird, how do you get your dogs to pose so well?
I thank you for the kind words, but seriously I have no photography skills. I wave a smartphone camera around clicking somewhat randomly, and occasionally get a decent pic, which I then edit badly because I don't know much editing either 😅
My dogs do know a stay, and we practice it regularly; they do several tricks for a carrot when they come inside, or when I am in the kitchen, so we practice tricks every day for fun.
They also know "hat" and "pose for pictures," which is "stay as still as possible while I wave around the flat rectangle," for which they are very well paid 😁 because "still" is very difficult for a short-attention-spaniel.
For posed pictures I use my phone's "portrait mode," which can actually get Tristan's eyes, but they have to be very still for that.
Most of the pics I take are in motion, though, and the great majority are blurry. I just also get a few (kind of) in focus. And then I hope my subjects are cute enough to make up for the poor quality. I mean, they're really cute.
