Bernie & Basil

A big baroOoOoOoO to Katie R.’s Corgi kids Bernie and Basil of Tampa, Florida!

“The Sable Corgi is Bernice “Bernie” Brisen. We call her The Bern, Bern Bern, and occasionally Bernie Bee. Depending on what she’s getting into she may also be called “The Badness”.

“She is three years old and has to be one of the smartest dogs I’ve ever met. She is what prompted me to really get into dog training so I could learn how to handle such an intelligent dog without going nuts. The typical female, she is quite bossy and moody. If she doesn’t want to do something you can’t make her do it. Despite this, she is very eager to please and she’s learned many tricks so far. I also use her as a demo dog to teach new clients how to do free-shaping using a clicker.”

“Bernie learned how to file her own nails (part 1 and part 2) as well as the beginning stages of climbing into a paper bag. She loves learning and would do clicker training all day long if her belly could hold all the treats. Bernie was trained as an agility dog but cannot compete because of a re-occurring shoulder injury. So we just do it for fun on low-impact stuff. She is very fast! I had to get a pair of soccer cleats so I could keep up with her on the turf.

“Bernie is always on the lookout for squirrels. She learned the word squirrel without us even teaching her what it meant. Now we ask her – where’s the squirrel Bernie? She bounds outside in search of the squirrel, checking each tree.”

“Bernie’s favorite thing in the world is meeting new people. We sometimes wonder if she will explode with joy when meeting strangers. Her second favorite thing in the world is a sterilized hollow bone. She loves to carry them around the house and throw them onto the floor. We’ve gotten into the habit of “shuffling” through the house so we don’t trip over a carefully placed bone and fall.”

“Earlier this year, Bernie was diagnosed with a very large bladder stone and underwent surgery in February to have it removed. A few days afterwards her urinary tract infection flared up despite being on heavy antibiotics and she went into sepsis. We thought we were going to lose her. After a week in the hospital, we were very happy to have her home and making a full recovery. The house was so quiet without her around, alert barking and hearing her little feet click clack across the tile.”

“The tri-color Corgi is Basil Bennington. He turned two in March and is still our baby. We also call him Mister Basil, Sir Basil, the Bas Bas and most frequently, Basil Bear. His little face reminds us of a bear all the time. Basil is our little clown.”

 “Basil is timid and I use much of my training to help him gain confidence with trying new things and exploring new areas. He is learning agility right now and we hope to begin small trials in the Fall. Basil’s favorite thing is bounding over the dog walk at full speed.”

Basil earning himself some treats.

“Basil is the hungriest Corgi in the world. No, seriously – you thought your Corgi was hungry? You have not met Basil The Bottomless Pit. He often tries to convince my husband and I that one of us forgot to feed him and that he’s in desperate need of food or he will wither away and die. This has worked more than a few times but we have caught on to his scam. He will follow us around smacking his lips and drooling onto the floor. Basil will do just about anything for food, even conquering his fears.”

“He especially loves swimming and is learning to dock dive. Right now he is regularly retrieving toys in the water and jumping off a low step. In his downtime he tries to find and destroy the blanket monster.”

“The current project they are working on is trying to spawn a new Corgi out of all of the Corgi hair tumbleweeds around the house. I believe they are 65% there and trying to grow more tumbleweeds every day.”

Basil’s bunny buns.

“We live in Tampa, Florida and hope to experience snow one day. :)”

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Thanks for bringing some serious Corgi Power to the blog, Bernie and Basil.

Welcome to The Daily Corgi!