Newfoundland Breeders Despair After Deaths and Deformities
Many Blame Pet Food for their Breeding Problems
By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.Com
July 18, 2007
Professional dog breeder Lisa M. is ensnarled in a frightening mystery.
The case centers on her beloved Newfoundlands and why these gentle giants have experienced so many baffling reproductive problems in the past year.
Lisa has searched tirelessly for clues about what’s caused her healthy dogs to suddenly stop getting pregnant or -- if they conceive -- to deliver deformed and dead puppies.
“These are dogs that have all delivered healthy puppies before,” says Lisa, owner of Lighthouse Newfoundlands in Grafton, Ohio. “I’ve been a full-time breeder since 1998 and I’ve never experienced as many problems as I have in the past year. It’s horrible.”
The first signs of trouble surfaced last November.
Lisa’s dog, Vella, had a litter of four puppies.
Two were healthy. But two were mummified fetuses.
“That’s like a miscarriage in the dog world,” Lisa says. “It looks like a mass of bone; the puppy is not alive. Breeders occasionally will have mummified fetuses. I’ve never had it happen, though.”
Twice in Two Months
But now it’s happened twice — in just two months.
In January, 2007, Lisa’s dog, Juliet, had nine puppies.
Five were healthy. Three were mummified fetuses. And one was deformed.
“That puppy had its elbow stuck to its side; it didn’t live,” Lisa says. “And having three mummified fetuses in one litter was unbelievably horrible.
“All this was just so unusual for me. It just wasn’t right. Like I said, it’s never happened to me -- or my dogs -- before.”
Her dogs never had trouble getting pregnant, either.
“I bred four of my dogs and a friend’s dog in February. None of mine got pregnant. I usually get two or three, but never zero for four.
“My friend’s dog had three puppies, but two died (two days after delivery). One of the puppies had a deformity — a cleft palate.”
Every Dog Has Its Dance
By Lisa Wade McCormick
The Kansas City Star Magazine
November 25, 2007
Some dancers worry about their partner’s two left feet.
Not Pam Kern.
This Excelsior Springs grandma knows her dance partner has two left feet.
He also has two right feet.
And all his feet are covered with fur.
Kern’s partner, you see, is her 7-year-old standard poodle, Davis.
“This was something he was just begging to do,” Kern says of Davis, already accomplished at agility and obedience.
But how do you teach a dog to spin, whirl and strut its stuff across the dance floor?
Take a doggy dancing class, of course.
Never heard of hip-hopping with your hound? Polka-ing with your pooch? Disco-ing with your dog?
It’s a trend gaining popularity across the country and around the world. Doggy dancing has even made its debut in Kansas City.
Kern and Davis — along with four other dogs and their owners — learned to shake, rattle and roll in perfect “heel to paw” rhythm from Kansas City pet trainer Stasi Malloy.
“Doggy dancing is a marriage of obedience training with some tricks,” says Malloy, owner of A Better Companion Pet Training. “And it’s all done to a certain rhythm.”
So forget “Dancing With the Stars.”
It’s gone to the dogs.
T he song “Who Let the Dogs Out” echoes down the gravel road that leads to Malloy’s dance studio, a refurbished barn at the Deogi Pointe pet training and boarding facility in the Northland.
The upbeat tune matches the mood inside the studio on this warm Wednesday evening.
This is night one of Malloy’s doggy dancing class, and the always smiling pet trainer is ready to shake a leg with her students and their canine partners.
In addition to Kern and Davis, the dancers include Sharon Kelsey of Smithville and her Bernese mountain dog, Mojo; Debra Murray of Grandview and her golden retrievers, Jesse and Jake; and Candace Wilcox of Liberty and her border collie, Hannah. Malloy will groove with her golden retriever, Dakota.
“We’re working on something special for Stasi and Dakota,” says Northland dance instructor Katye Coates. She has teamed up with Malloy to create routines for each of the dancing duos.
“You are going to pick a song to dance to with your dogs,” Malloy tells her class. “Keep your dog in mind when you pick your song. If you have a large dog with bad hips, you don’t want to pick a fast song.
“And on our last day of class, we plan to have a recital where you’ll perform your routines.”
Recital?
Some of the two-legged students shift uneasily in their chairs.
Malloy pauses, sensing their concerns. She smiles. “Any questions?”
Mojo whines, right on cue.
“Yes?” Malloy jokingly responds.
This lighthearted banter continues over the next few weeks as Malloy works with her students — canine and human — on their dance moves.
Songs like “Hound Dog,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and “Copacabana” reverberate through the studio, fueling the students’ happy feet.
Malloy doesn’t miss a beat either.
She be-bops around the room and shows her students how to get their dogs to spin, bow, walk backward, heel and perform other dance moves.
T he secret to teaching these not-so-old dogs new tricks, Malloy says, is to give them lots of treats. A cocktail smokie or piece of cheese can persuade even the most reluctant canine to dance, she says.
Consider this lesson on teaching a dog to spin: “What I want you to do is put treats at your dogs’ noses and guide them to where they’ll chase their tails,” Malloy says.
The dogs catch on quickly.
“Awesome job!” Malloy tells Davis, the poodle.
“That’s it,” Kelsey tells a spinning Mojo. “That’s my boy!”
Malloy also shows her students how to use two unusual pieces of dance equipment: a dowel rod and a plunger.
“The dowel rod helps you guide your dog,” she says. “Tap your dogs gently on their hind quarters, for example, to get them to sidestep.”
And don’t forget to reward your dogs.
“What you want your dogs to learn is that wonderful things happen when they see this funny thing,” she says, pointing to the dowel rod.
As for the plunger, “what this turns into during your routines is a cane,” Malloy says. “All you’re going to do is make your dog walk around this object.”
B y week four, the dogs and their owners have mastered most of the basic moves. Now they’re focused on their routines.
Like all dancing duos, their goal is to move in unison to the rhythm.
But Malloy has another goal for her dancers: to just have fun.
“That’s what I want everyone to get out of this class,” says the KC native, who has trained pets professionally for more than 25 years. “This is something the dogs enjoy, and it’s another way for people to bond with their babies.
“I’m not training people to compete nationally in canine freestyle competitions. I’m training people how to have fun with their dogs.”
The dancers’ routines mirror that happy-go-lucky philosophy.
“I am more excited about your routine than mine,” Malloy tells Pam Kern, who picked the Trace Adkins song “Swing.”
“You’re going to be an umpire, and Davis is going to be a baseball player. It’s going to be awesome.”
Sharon Kelsey chose a slower song for her routine with Mojo: “The Mojo Boogie” by the Janiva Magness Band.
“We want your routine to have a Mardi Gras feel to it,” Malloy says. “Maybe you can get some beads or a mask.”
That works for Kelsey, who says the song’s Big Easy flavor fits Mojo’s personality. “His routine is going to be very dum-de-dum because he is a very dum-de-dum kind of dog.”
Debra Murray decided to perform with only one of her golden retrievers, 6-year-old Jesse, to James Brown’s “I Feel Good.”
“Jesse has hip dysplasia, and I wanted to find something for him to do … something where he could shine,” Murray says.
The doggy dancer mastered all the moves, including spinning, twirling and gliding between his partner’s legs.
Remember Candace Wilcox, who wanted to boogie with her border collie?
Well, the pooch was terrified of the dowel rods. But Wilcox ended up dividing her dancing time between her shepherd mix, Red, and Malloy’s golden retriever, Dakota.
Speaking of Dakota, he and Malloy learned how to “beat it” to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
W eek five. The final class before the recital.
A few sparks of nervousness flicker in the warm night air.
“Maybe someone can help me with my timing,” Kelsey says.
“Let’s go through your routine without Mojo,” Malloy suggests.
The dancers practice their routines — over and over — for another hour. Before long, their canine partners are panting. They take a break between songs and head for the cool cement floors or the big bowl of water.
Malloy knows her dancers are hot and tired. But before she calls it a night, she gives them some last-minute advice.
“Go home and practice. Next week is our recital, and I’m going to get some people to come and watch you.
“But don’t stress out about it. Look how far you’ve come in just a few weeks. And this is all for fun.”
The night of the recital finally arrives.
It’s a warm, clear evening, and Malloy moves the performance outside, to the agility ring behind her studio.
A confident-looking Kern paces along the sidelines. Davis, who has advanced training in obedience and agility, is right on her heels.
“I’ve been practicing. That helps,” Kern says.
A few guests sit in lawn chairs around the makeshift dance floor. They applaud when Malloy takes center stage.
“We’ve only been doing these routines for five weeks,” she says. “They may be rough and look a little lopsided. But it will give you an idea of what you can do with your dogs.”
The crowd goes wild over Kern’s baseball-themed routine with Davis.
“That was cool!” says Jared Dehart, 11.
Malloy’s “Thriller” routine with Dakota receives similar accolades. The animated Malloy even dons a costume for her performance: a pink poodle skirt, white shirt, bobby socks, sneakers.
Two of the doggy dancing teams — Kelsey and Mojo, and Murray and Jesse — couldn’t attend the recital.
But Malloy and Wilcox perform those dance routines with Dakota, much to the audience’s delight.
“Shake it, Stasi,” the crowd cheers as she and Dakota sashay to “The Mojo Boogie.”
After the recital, an exhausted Malloy applauds all her doggy dancers.
“I’m very happy with the progress they made during this class,” she says. “They basically had three weeks to learn the dance steps and three weeks to work on the routines.”
Still it’s not a class for everyone or every dog.
“Mojo just isn’t a dog who is going to spin and turn around,” Sharon Kelsey says. “He’s a slow, lumbering dog. But he’s awful sweet. And he still does a bow every time any music starts to play.”
