Blue Ridge Canine

08/19/2025

Zira and Lula’s flight from Dulles to Louisville! Lula was amazing. Through TSA, on the train, 6 elevators, tons of people, and going outside to walk the ramp up to our tiny regional plane! So proud of Lula you would think she had been flying her whole life!

08/15/2025

Rose is progressing amazingly on her item retrieval!!

08/13/2025

Amazing day at Great Falls National Park with Rose & Schatzi 🐾 Konnor & Scottie were a huge help! The girls got a ton of proper socialization around a very busy day with tons of people and other dogs on the trails 🐕‍🦺🥰

08/13/2025

Had a great time last week taking Rose and Schatzi out to Great Falls Park with Konnor and our good friend Scottie! Can’t believe how busy the park was for a Friday and super happy the girls got so much proper socialization and public access work in!

08/06/2025

Zira and I had a fantastic trip to the International Association of Canine Professionals conference in Savannah, GA! got to meet up with some friends from previous years, hear from an amazing lineup of speakers, and meet other wonderful trainers! Every year, I learn something from the speakers they have. It’s such a wonderful chance to meet new people and collaborate together as dog trainers.I’ve been a member of the IACP for many years and thoroughly enjoy the conferences that I’ve gone to. Upon joining the education committee, I have been able to volunteer with some great trainers to help build educational material. It is through working together that we are able to build up relationships between trainers, dog owners, the dogs, and other canine professionals around the world that truly makes this organization stand out!On the way back I got to spend some time with a great friend and we were able to rescue a dog off the highway and reunit him with his owner! Truly an amazing trip showing the power of people coming together for dogs! 🐾🐕‍🦺

08/03/2025

Happy Update!!! Owners have been found! The dog was supposed to being watched by a friend while they were out of town and they are on the road asap to come pick him up!!!! Thank you for the power of sharing posts and helping!!!

URGENT - I am on my way back from the IACP conference in Georgia and headed back to Virginia. I found this dog running back-and-forth across the highway and Gaffney South Carolina and took some time to catch him. The shelter is out here will not take him in and one of the staff members for the shelter said that they have Pavo going through. I really don’t wanna have to take him to a shelter situation. If there is anybody who would be willing to foster him for us to find a home I am happy to update any medical preventatives for him. He did not have a collar and he does not have a microchip. We have given him capstar and generic Frontline. We will get his distemper vaccine and a dewormer done today. There are currently no vets in the area or vetshot clinics that we can get an updated rabies on him until tomorrow. Please let me know if anybody can be of assistance and share this post as much as possible. Let’s find this guy a safe place to be.

07/28/2025

We have made it to Savannah, Georgia for the 2025 IACP Conference! 💕🐾

There are a lot of dogs here with their handlers and some great sessions scheduled every day this week! Let me say it is warm here though 🥵 so we will be keeping to the A/C and only out for a few minutes at a time.

07/23/2025

Schatzi rocking out a field trip to Lowe’s. Absolutely love her focus throughout the whole trip!

07/01/2025

06/25/2025

Stay cool and safe!! Know signs of overheating and heat stroke for you and your animals. We are making sure water buckets for our goats & chickens stay cool, a huge fan in the barn, cool water for the barn cats, short potty breaks for the dogs and playtime inside instead of out.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15HQYoM3sY/?mibextid=wwXIfr

🐕HEATSTROKE IN DOGS🐕

We've been banging on about this for years! HEATSTROKE is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY! Fortunately, now more and more professionals are communicating the same message!

Whilst the need for rapid cooling with COLD water (1-15°C) has been recognised for decades in equestrian and human medicine, the dog world has lagged behind, and very poor information still circulates. e.g. "cool the paws", "cover with wet towels", "avoid cold water as it will cause shock"

THE KEY MESSAGES ARE............

💦"WET THEN VET"💦

💦"COLD WATER IMMERSION" (1-15°C)💦
(If you can't immerse, keep pouring ANYTHING COLD over the dog - hose, soft drinks, milk, etc)

💦Dogs die of heatstroke because they were NOT COOLED QUICKLY ENOUGH, NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE COOLED!

♨️RISK FACTORS FOR HEATSTROKE IN HOT WEATHER♨️

♨️Large dogs
♨️DOUBLE-COATED breeds
♨️Brachycephalic breeds
♨️June, July, August (UK)
♨️Exercise, being outdoors, left in cars

EDIT: - If a dog is PANTING, it's struggling to control its body TEMPERATURE! 💦HOSE IT TO COOL IT DOWN!💦

❤️PLEASE SHARE - Spread accurate information; potentially save a dogs life!❤️

CHECK OUT FREE RESOURCES HERE: https://askanimalweb.com/managing-dogs-in-hot-weather/

Welfare in the Heat: https://askanimalweb.com/heat-welfare/

If you don't believe me, look at the research: Beard S, Hall EJ, Bradbury J, Carter AJ, Gilbert S, O'Neill DG. Epidemiology of heat-related illness in dogs under UK emergency veterinary care in 2022. Vet Rec. 2024;e4153. https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/vetr.4153

04/26/2025

It’s an amazing journey and one that is accomplished with the support and help of amazing people! We will keep on keeping on as these three pups grow up to be someone else’s lifesaver.

04/18/2025

My office helpers for the day! 🐾💕🐕‍🦺🥰 and the baby chicks are getting bigger!! 🐣🐥