{"id":3646,"date":"2020-05-14T14:52:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T18:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/?p=3646"},"modified":"2020-05-14T18:40:37","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T22:40:37","slug":"nina-is-13-wait-nina-is-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/?p=3646","title":{"rendered":"Nina is 13! (Wait, Nina Is 13?!?)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200503073539866_COVER-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200503073539866_COVER-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200503073539866_COVER-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200503073539866_COVER-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200503073539866_COVER-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200503073539866_COVER-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption>Nina, May 3, 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>My most beautiful Bean, my heart dog, turns 13 today (May 14). It&#8217;s so hard to believe that the sweet, sassy little puppy is 13! She&#8217;s doing amazing, especially since we thought we might lose her a year and a half ago to a horrific bout of pancreatitis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For my own reference (and for anyone who might be interested), I thought I&#8217;d note what I&#8217;ve done throughout her life to try and build on her good genes and keep her here, Nina-ing, for as long as she wants to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>good genes are obviously the single most important factor, her daddy Birk was 16 1\/2 when he died, his mother (Nina&#8217;s paternal grandmother or farmor) Ebba was 17<\/li><li>Nina has been lean and fit for her entire life, in fact an acquaintance who has Vallhunds (who are, to be polite, kept considerably plusher than mine) actually called Nina&#8217;s breeder Ulla to tell her how my dogs were far too thin. Given that I evaluate body condition as part of my job, and was taught how to do so BY A VETERINARIAN, I think I have a reasonable handle on body condition. Nina has been between 4.5 and 5 out of 9 for just about her entire life. Lean dogs live longer and are healthier. Now if I could just get someone to control MY kibble the way I control hers&#8230;.<\/li><li>I wish I could say diet was a big factor, but&#8230; She&#8217;s eaten everything from raw to the now-discredited grain free diets to what she currently eats, which is ProPlan<\/li><li>she&#8217;s had a job (agility) her whole life and she loves it, plus it gives her a focus and a purpose<\/li><li>she&#8217;s been on Adequan since she was 7 years old (and in fact I started Alice on Adequan at just 10 weeks since there&#8217;s a study showing benefits to doing that, and it has no contraindications)<\/li><li>she&#8217;s been on a high-quality high-dose Omega Fatty Acid supplement (currently Catalyst Chews) since I brought her home<\/li><li>she&#8217;s been on Cosamin ASU Advanced (human version of Dasuquin Advanced and much cheaper) for several years, after being on Dasuquin since she was a year old<\/li><li>she sees a cardiologist every 6 months (not right now obviously), for her age-related valve disease, and she started cardiac meds (pimobendan and enalapril) as soon as they were recommended<\/li><li>she&#8217;s been on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denamarin.com\/#home\" target=\"_blank\">Denamarin Advanced<\/a> (liver supplement) for both liver support (as pimobendan can affect the liver) and brain support (it&#8217;s an antioxidant which can help with canine cognitive dysfunction)<\/li><li>she&#8217;s been on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/ProNeurozone-Small-Dogs-60-Tabs\/dp\/B00076KRC8\" target=\"_blank\">ProNeurozone<\/a> for a few months for brain support and I think it really makes a difference<\/li><li>I fed ProPlan Bright Mind 7+ for a while and I really think it made a significant difference to her overall brightness and interactivity, but it&#8217;s a bit too high in fat for her with her pancreatitis issue so now she&#8217;s on the ProPlan Savor Weight Management Reduced Fat and she LOVES it plus she gets extra because she doesn&#8217;t need to lose weight and it&#8217;s lower calorie. Great to have a decent and over-the-counter lower fat food, it&#8217;s 8% fat which seems to be suiting her really well. I am seeing the same sorts of effects on the Denamarin and ProNeurozone, which is great. She&#8217;s often the bounciest dog in the house some days!<\/li><li>she is hormonally intact. I had her hysterectomized (&#8220;ovary sparing spayed&#8221;) when her breeding career was over, but she still has her ovaries and the hormones they produce. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_20200514_141732-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3665\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_20200514_141732-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_20200514_141732-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_20200514_141732-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_20200514_141732-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_20200514_141732-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption>Nina on her birthday walkies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what I wrote on Facebook today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In honor of her 13th birthday, here&#8217;s Nina&#8217;s QQ #19 towards her PACH (here&#8217;s hoping we get to actually run for QQ #20 at some point!) from March 8, 2020, which (as it turns out) was the last time we ran before the COVID lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I&#8217;d known Nina&#8217;s JWW run here was going to be the last run we&#8217;d have for a while I&#8230;.wouldn&#8217;t have done anything differently. Having had runs in the past where I was frustrated and let my dog know it, and then having had health scares with my dogs, I made a vow to myself and, more importantly, to my dogs, to always ask myself at the start of a run &#8220;if this ends up being your last run with this dog, how will you feel?&#8221;, and I try to run every run with joy and with the thought foremost in my mind that I love agility because of the teamwork with my dogs. I love agility because my dogs love playing it with me. I love my dogs before I love agility. But I sure do love agility. In large part because Nina loves agility so much. Her joy in her work is infectious and when runs go well, it&#8217;s like a Vulcan mind meld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nina has owned my heart since she first stood up on her back legs as a baby in the puppy pen at Ulla&#8217;s house and looked me straight in the eye. Her face said &#8220;take me home, I&#8217;m supposed to be yours&#8221;. She has always loved playing agility with me more than anything in the world, I am honored that I have played this game with her for so many years now. I am so very honored that she finished 2019 as the top AKC PACH Vallhund and qualified for the Invitational as the top PACH dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope we will have more trials in our future, I hope she gets that last QQ for her PACH one day, I hope we can run at the Invitational this year. But if none of those hopes come to be, I will still have the fact that this amazing little dog changed my life, I know people I would never have met because of her. She produced some amazing puppies whose families love them dearly. She is truly my heart dog and I wouldn&#8217;t change anything about her. Happy birthday my most beautiful, wonderful Ninabean. I love you so much.&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"16\" width=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/static.xx.fbcdn.net\/images\/emoji.php\/v9\/tf3\/1.5\/16\/2764.png\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DnjvPh9Et0A\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q9TQPcdsJP0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My most beautiful Bean, my heart dog, turns 13 today (May 14). It&#8217;s so hard to believe that the sweet, sassy little puppy is 13! She&#8217;s doing amazing, especially since we thought we might lose her a year and a half ago to a horrific bout of pancreatitis. For my own reference (and for anyone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,62,67,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agility","category-dogs","category-nina","category-vallhunds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3646"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3666,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions\/3666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}