Birdsboro Pointers
Stand By Me of Woodsong NA, NAJ, OAJ
“Hopkins”
About Hopkins
8/15/1995 - 10/7/2006
Breeder: UKC Breeder
Color: Tricolor
Meaning of Name: Hopkins doesn’t officially mean anything. It is a surname, which Hopkins would probably tell you is proof that she is a human and not a dog. I named her after Johns Hopkins University because there were about three years of my life where I wanted two things very much – to go to Johns Hopkins for Medical School and to get my own dog. By the time I got Hopkins, I had changed my mind about the school (although not the profession yet), but I decided to name Hopkins after it.
Nicknames: Shorty, Beagle, Hopper
Special Talents: Best watchdog in the house
Song: Ben E. King “Stand By Me” of course
Hopkins the Obedience and Tracking Dog
Hopkins is a phenomenal obedience and tracking dog. However, we have had some issues with performance anxiety and Beagle antics in competition. Her true love is agility, so that is where we focused our time and energy.
Hopkins the Agility Dog
Hopkins is an awesome little agility dog. She has qualified almost every time in competition, and has just about always gotten first or second place in her class. With very few days of competing with her, she was actually ranked as one of the top 10 NAJ Beagles in the country for the year she was competing. Hopkins just needs one more OA leg to have her OA title. From there, I’ll have to see if we’ll keep going on through Excellent. The qualifying course times in excellent are pretty tough for a Beagle because, as a breed, they are definitely not built for speed like a Border Collie. Not to mention Hopper just turned 10 years old!
Pictures of Hopkins
The first picture was customized by my former roommate. The balloon says, “Enough with the freakin’ Pointers already!”
Hopkins and Alopecia Areata
Over the last year, Hopkins started to loose her hair. The first to go were her “sideburns” as I call them, which were black in color. I was immediately concerned about hypothyroidism and Cushing’s Disease. I had all of the appropriate bloodwork run on Hopkins. The good news was every panel I ran came back normal including the usual bloodwork (CBC, Chemistry), a thyroid panel, and a urinalysis; Hopkins was in great health for a nine-year old dog. The bad news was that it didn’t provide a diagnosis. I finally brought her to the Dermatology Department at MSU and they quickly came up with a diagnosis of Alopecia Areata. Luckily, this disease is not painful, and while it can cause serious social problems for people, dogs with the disease do not notice people staring. However, it can appear to people as mange, so it takes some education to let people know that she is healthy and not contagious.
For more information on this disease, please look at:
The National Alopecia Areata Foundation at http://www.naaf.org/
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at http://www.niams.nih.gov/hi/topics/alopecia/alopecia.htm
A Tribute To Hopkins
This is the last picture taken of Hopkins, and it was taken just a couple hours before she died. Hopper was such a stoic dog. She is the portrait of death with dignity. Her belly was shaved from the ultrasound the weak prior that revealed a large tumor on the right atrium of her heart (a hemangiosarcoma). Her abdomen is distended because she was in heart failure. A week prior to this, she appeared to be the picture of health and middle-aged.
This is an e-mail I sent my friends and family that knew Hopkins after she died:
The greatest Beagle that ever lived, Hopkins, went to Beagle heaven tonight... just in time for rabbit season. She was diagnosed with a hemangiosarcoma last Friday, and had her pericardial sac tapped to give her some extra time. She had a great week and for the first time ever got to do just about anything she wanted. Tonight she went peacefully on our couch (we euthanized her at home). She was probably the smartest dog we own, and although she was often a pain in the butt with all of her antics, you couldn't help but adore her spirit. And she definitely taught me about patience.
I trained her in competitive obedience and tracking, but she didn't like to perform those in the typical venues. She knew over a hundred words, and was constantly learning new tricks. She was happy to show off during vet school demonstrations, and all of the students know her as "the Beagle that retrieves" or "that really good agility Beagle". Just a day before she died, I threw a stuffed giraffe for her to retrieve, and on the way back she tossed it high up in the air and jumped for it. She felt good until just a few hours before the end when her belly started filling back up with ascites and it was getting tough for her to breathe.
Agility was her true calling. Almost every ribbon she earned was a first place (a couple were second place)... she would either beat them all or be a Beagle and fail completely, so no ribbon at all.
Hopper was always awesome with kids and amazingly tolerant of even the most obnoxious puppies. She was an awesome volunteer at a residential school for kids with serious emotional and behavioral issues that were wards of the state - she would go there so that the students could "train" her (to do tricks that she already knew). The best day was when my roommate brought her home and told me that all of the kids loved how she could "speak", and I said, what do you mean... the kids had really taught her something. For a week, she barked all of the time... it was her new trick.
We will miss her breath inspections (to see what you ate and make sure she got some), her impeccable ability to find food in the most hard to get to spaces, and her arr-oooh... which she reserved for special occasions unlike most Beagles.
Hopkins 8/15/95-10/7/06, the Best Beagle, my first dog, and one of the biggest reasons I am where I am today
Birdsboro Pointers
1875 Burkley Road
Williamston, Michigan 48895
(517) 648-1666