Copley

John Singleton Copley, CGC


Early Life
Copley was adopted on June 25th 2010 from Henderson Animal Care and Control.

 Agility and other Dog Sports
He passed his Canine Good Citizenship Test in February of 2011 with only the help of me and a book I got on how to train your dog for the CGC.  Over the years he has been involved in agility and occasionally a Rally-O class.  He doesn't have great hips and at the higher level agility was getting a little too serious for him, so we probably will never compete, but he still loves the occasional romp on a course.


^Copley on his last day of intro agility^

^Copley on his last day of intermediate agility^

Lyme Disease
In December of 2011 Copley started showing some mysterious symptoms- most notably lameness that seemed to travel from leg to leg and be either in the knee, ankle or hip.  He was ex-rayed in January and sent to an orthopedic specialist.  His joints all checked out although his hips were not great.  The specialist said that while his hips were not amazing that they were really not bad and a dog his size would not typically experience symptoms of hip displasia with hips like his.  Particularly a dog like Copley who is lean and fit.  Our old vet was CONVINCED Copley's problems were in fact his hips, but the orho vet insisted it was not.  Based on the fact that he had full range of motion, good muscle tone in both legs, and a normal running gate I really believed the ortho vet.

On a whim I asked for a tick panel.  My vet thought I was crazy- because we don't have ticks around here- but they were happy to take my money and send the blood out.  The panel came back with a low titer for Lyme.  We sent out a second sample for a C6 antigen test, it came back at 33.  If you know anything about lyme disease you will know that 33 is a very low positive for a C6, but it is still a positive.  I believe the threshold is anything above 30.  Our vet was still convinced that his problems were his hips and their solution was o have him on a low dose NSAID for the rest of his life.  Even these lyme numbers they insisted were merely indicating exposure.  Looking back I can't imagine what would have happened if I listened to them.  They wanted me too stop hiking, "keep him quiet" put him on Science Diet J/D and medicate him for the rest of his life.  It makes me sad that so many dogs live like that, slowly dying as vets convinced a prescription kibble solves everything watch dogs waste away.  In Copley's case it would have been a short life because the lyme was already causing his blood-work to be off and I have no doubt he would have died of renal failure within a year or so.  My vet at that time blamed the iffy blood-work on my feeding a raw diet.

Luckily for Copley I was smart enough to dump my vet for a TBD literate one.  I got him on Doxycycline for 30 days and within a week he was like a different dog.  Sadly a week after that he was miserably sick from the antibiotics but at the end of his treatment he really had turned around.  We worked with a new vet who got him on supplements, looked at his blood-work and saw it was actually showing him fighting an infection and generally helped us get off on the right track.  Copley started seeing his chiropractor and next thing you know he was like a different dog.  Now years later he continues to be a happy and healthy dog with no more limping!

Favorite Activities
Copley's favorite past time is sleeping on the couch

He also enjoys hiking with his humans

Removing stuffing, tags and ears from toys

Meeting new people
(No pictures of that, sorry)

And of course agility!

Fun Facts
  • Copley was named after a Subway Station and Square in Boston.  That subway station and square were named after John Singleton Copley a painter whose paintings of people like John Hancock and Paul Revere you have probably seen.  Considering he painted all those people and has whole areas in Boston named after him one might think he was involved in the Revolutionary War.  According to wikipedia he actually went to Europe in 1774.
  • We thought everyone had heard of Copley when we named the dog.  Based on everyone we have met out here pronouncing it cope-ley we have come to terms with that not being true.
  • Copley's favorite food is beef kidney.
The Marathon Bombings
One horrible day in 2013 everyone suddenly knew Copley's name.  In fact I was in agility class when the woman next to me said "Your dog is named Copley right?  You might want to look at the news."  This Atlantic article explains more eloquently than I ever could how I felt that day, and perhaps why my love for Boston was so much that I named a dog after a landmark in the city.