For The Love Of Dogs

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My most recently deceased dog, Heidi Rose, in her favorite place on earth: Point Isabel Dog Park on the San Francisco Bay. At low tide she loved running across the exposed bay floor. But she also a strong swimmer and diver off the rocks. This is a compilation of her running around this park in her youth.


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Her tree game was better than any of my other dogs by a country mile.

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Her work as garden ornament was likewise excellent

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She was also good in bed. 😉

 

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dobielvr said:
What a treat watching these videos..thanks for sharing.
She's so precious.

RIP Heidi Rose
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Thank you DobieLover. We suspect she was at least heeler and German Shepherd but many guessed Aussi and Husky as well. Whatever else she may have been, she was a keeper and a joy to watch.

No one can tell me the pain of their passing isn’t justified by the joy they add to our lives.
 
Mark, those videos were awesome!! So fun to watch. She was a special baby. No matter how much I grieve when one of my babies passes it was definitely worth it. I have enjoyed 19 wonderful years with my dogs.

My favorite dog died 6 years ago and I think of her often. I remember them all. The two I have now got me through this last divorce and my friends dying. Don’t know what I would do without them.
 
Teacher Terry said:
Mark, those videos were awesome!! So fun to watch. She was a special baby. No matter how much I grieve when one of my babies passes it was definitely worth it. I have enjoyed 19 wonderful years with my dogs.

My favorite dog died 6 years ago and I think of her often. I remember them all. The two I have now got me through this last divorce and my friends dying. Don’t know what I would do without them.
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Heidi died from complications from Degenerative myelopathy just a couple years ago this April. I probably took video of her because she did so many interesting things with so much animal grace. I even got a few of her in her wheels at some of her favorite places.


But the Aussie we inherited just before her, Fletcher, was more photogenic so I at least have a ton of photos of him ..
and of the two of them together.

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He was a rare beauty of a dog, at least when I hadn’t buzz cut him for summer.

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And affectionate too.

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I found another old YouTube of her playing in the bay with other dogs while he strode around all stately with a full load of hair.


When I first brought Heidi home she was content to accept his authority and he was delighted to psych her out as he did with many dogs. Absolutely not a fighter. Probably a coward if it came to that but he loved to get into their heads and fool them. I’m this video Heidi left her softened and unrolled rawhide untended and Fletcher picked it up. She clearly wants it back and that just increases his enjoyment of it.


Later it was clear to both of them who the real muscle was and he didn’t mess with her anymore. Here she had coaxed him into playing with a ball with her but wasn’t taking any crap from him when he tried to bluff her.

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In his last couple days she wouldn’t leave his side. They were like an old married couple.

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i do wish I had so many photos and videos of all the dogs I’ve had.
 
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Pinky said:
You are so fortunate to have these videos .. they are so precious. Isn't it something, how they get into
our hearts and never leave.
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It really is and how much easier to hold them there with the ease of electronic photography and video with a device that is almost always ready to hand. Would have been nice to have that sooner but at least we didn’t miss the boat altogether.
 
RadishRose said:
So touching!
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Touches me too. I loved both of those dogs as lifetime favorites. Both were rescues and so was the lab golden before them. Both of my current crew are in the running to join them in that lofty designation.

Other photos from the same day as the last
one:

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Makes you wonder just how much they know/feel about what is happening at the end. These and that last one were taken July 25, 2013.

These next two were taken September 1, the day he died. His last outing to the dog park by the bay via wheelbarrow and then laying beside me as I checked out those last few photos. He died peacefully right there. I noticed my leg getting wet from his saliva. When I picked him up to see if he was still there he tensed and then went limp. He is the only dog buried in my garden.

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Two days later I came home from my first day of teaching and Heidi looked a little forlorn alone on the floor.

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Pinky said:
Mark, I think dogs sense a lot, including when they are near the end. Our first lab was very attuned to me,
and came to me when he wasn't well. It was so difficult to let him go, but we have to let them go, out of
love.
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Yes I agree completely. My first few dogs suffered too much because of my singleminded desire to keep them alive. I call it "sticking the landing". There must inevitably be an end. We have a responsibility to determine when enough is enough. My measure is based on appetite and desire to sniff. When they don't eat and being taken outside they have no desire to nose the ground, they don't have enough reason to go on. If they're in pain or must endure pain for the chance to go on, it's time to pull the plug.
 
BC Flash said:
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I'm just getting to know my first Border Collie hybrid, a McNab shepherd. Do you know that newish, California breed? Mostly border collie with something more but no one knows what. That's what my youngest is.

I took 1.5 year old McNab Ember and 7.5 year old Aussie x heeler cross Smokey for a hike above the beach at Fort Funston in San Francisco today. Ember is fast in what looks like an effortless way like a gazelle. Smokey is grizzly fast, not pretty but powerful. Took me a while to think of getting the camera out. They were pretty tuckered out by the time i took this one.

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When I’m walking Smokey has always fallen in behind me like this in typical heeler fashion. Other McNab owners tell me that doesn’t come naturally to this breed so she must have learned it from Smoke. I wonder if borders heel naturally?

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This video was shot by holding my phone out facing behind me to see what they’re up to.
 

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