Hip & Elbow Scoring

One of the health testing requirements for Bernese is hip and elbow scoring. Cody is now 18 months old, which is actually commonly agreed to be the upper 'ideal' age range to complete these; although I will add they can indeed be carried out at any time once the dog is over a year old. So we took Cody in today at the vets for both his hip and elbow x-rays, which will be sent to the BVA (British Veterinary Association) for scoring, this is done based on the degree of dysplasia of the joint - the top possible score is 53:53 so 106 - the lower the score, the better.

Every breed has an 'mean' score (whereby you mix all the results of all the dogs together), which gives you an 'average' score which isn't actually the score of the 'average' dog, if that makes any sense?! Let me explain a bit more - to create that number, you are going to have some dogs with very high scores, which is going to skew the picture, and make you think the hip status in the breed is worse than it really is. For example, the mean score for Bernese is 15. Therefore, someone might think that breeding from a dog with a score of anything under that would be perfectly acceptable - and until recently, the BVA's recommendation actually followed this. However, it has now been adjusted to 'well under' the BMS instead.

They are now also publishing the 'median' scores, which means there are an equal number of both lower and higher scores, so what the dog in the middle of the populations hip score is. Instead of using the BMS, you are actually better to use the median scores to determine your 'cut off' point for breeding dogs - they need to be under the median score (for Bernese, 10) - unless in the case of an otherwise exceptional dog (and even then it should be very carefully considered). 

Elbows are quite different in that you only have four possible results, 0-4 (or a mix of those, such as 1/0 which would make a total score of 1). Again, you are hoping for the lower score the better and advice is to only breed from dogs which score 0/0 (occasionally, like with the hips, you could consider a score of 1 but it is an exception to the rule).

Anyhow, Cody got on just fine today, I had planned carefully how I wanted things to go - we arrived, took him in for his pre-med and then waited back in the car until he was literally ready to go straight in; we left him after they had injected anaesthetic and he was totally zonked. Then afterwards when he had sorta woken up (basically only opened his eyes, although when we walked in he tried to get up to see us, bless him!) we put him in our car until he was okay to go home. He's been sleeping for the afternoon and ate his dinner with great enthusiasm! 

Naturally, I am hoping Cody will come back with amazing scores...We looked at his x-rays with the vet; the elbows look fine and the hips look okay too, although one seems to be noticeably better than the other so I would expect the scores to reflect that. Now we've just got to wait 4-6 weeks to find out!

Planning...

So we've been thinking of breeding Amber again, she had her first litter in 2013 and had six puppies, one of whom was our Cody. She is fully health tested, has an excellent temperament and has been very successful in the show ring. We hadn't especially planned for another litter as I really wanted to see how the puppies turned out first (as well as the fact that we would always keep a pup back, and I wanted Cody two years before we added another). Now I have a good idea of how those other six puppies have developed, we can decide based on their good and bad points, which would be the most suitable sire for another litter. Re-search begins...

Now, a few months later, after many discussions with Amber's breeder, we have found a potential sire. He was imported from Sweden (hence bringing new bloodlines) and is a gorgeous dog. I have spent countless hours re-searching pedigrees, looking at photos of different relatives, reading show critiques and also talking to the dogs owner. They came to our house to visit today, along with their dog (plus two others, one of whom is from the same kennel). He has a lovely temperament, very laid back and friendly. His main 'fault' as such are very light eyes and therefore he couldn't be bred with a female with the same fault; however Amber has good dark eyes so that wouldn't be an issue. Amber has a tendency to 'fly her tail on the move' (I can also see this in a few of the puppies, including Cody) but this dog's tail carriage is normal even on the move

This dog has, like Amber, been fully health tested, had several fantastic wins at shows; including Best in Show at a Bernese Club Championship Show. He has a stunning coat and lovely movement with lots of drive. He isn't the biggest male (weighs 52 kg) but I prefer the more compact, shorter and stockier shape and believe that many Bernese are now too big - they are not supposed to be a giant breed, but a large one!! His lines have also been successful in working and at Obedience competitions, they seem to be very versatile dogs and that's a big plus for me. 

I tried to get some pictures of him but only one turned out okay:

So overall it's coming together, really pleased and now just got to wait until Amber comes into season and hope all goes to plan. 

Our Fostering Journey

In 2011, when Amber was around 16 months old, we knew we would love another dog some day. However, we weren't ready for the long term commitment another puppy would bring, so when we heard about fostering we decided to look into it some more. Initially, we wanted to do fostering with an animal rescue charity but they were a long distance away and wouldn't accept homes with young children. It was then that we heard about an Autism Assistance Dog charity who we're looking for puppy fosterers and we decided to apply to see if we'd be eligible. 

The puppy coordinator called around to our house, met us and Amber, and said that they were happy to accept us as fosterers! They said they had a black Flat Coat Retriever puppy who they'd be needing to place in a few weeks time and we could take her. We were so excited and couldn't wait. This was 'S' puppy so needed to have a name in that letter, we had a few suggestions, and they picked one of them - Skye.

Skye came to us in March. She was 9 weeks old and a very cute little girl. Over the next year, she came loads of places with us - shops, restaurants, cinemas, children's play parks, pet stores and more. She had a few health issues (ear problems mainly) but luckily these cleared up as she got older. She was full of energy and very clever. She hated her working jacket which was weird, eventually though she was okay with it. Skye was a handful but we felt very privileged to have spent a year with her!

Just before Skye left, my sister got her dog, Holly (Papillon X Cavalier). I also took on another assistance dog puppy, Bramble, who was a Labrador X Newfoundland. She was totally different to Skye, overall more chilled out and mellow. She was rough with Holly though and would freak out in butchers - we worked on that and she improved lots. She left us at eight months, and she had great potential. However, over the next few months everything unraveled and she turned into a nervous dog who would shake with fear whenever you tried to bring her into a busy place. It made me so upset to see what this dog had turned into. The trainers thought she had had 'something in her' which suddenly switched on at as she got older, but I don't agree with that. I think something went wrong with the other fosterer she was with, she had some bad experiences and that caused it. Whatever it was though, it meant she was no longer able to qualify as a fully trained dog and instead is now living as a pet.

We had a break for several months whilst Amber had her litter, one of whom was our Cody. I needed to spend time working with Cody and wouldn't have been able to give a service dog puppy everything they needed.

In March of this year we took on Louis, a Labrador Retriever puppy. He was so easy, took everything in his stride, a truly fab little pupster. I really think they should have considered using him for breeding (health tests pending, of course) but they decided to castrate him. He stayed with us, like Bramble, for six months. Cody and him were best buddies and loved hanging out together. Louis is still young and won't enter formal training until early 2015. I hope he makes it!

We have also had a few puppies for boarding - Abbey a Labradoodle, Rozie a Labrador Retriever X Golden Retriever, Chester a Chocolate Labrador and Orla a Labrador Retriever.

It's hard to cover in one post everything about fostering these dogs, but to sum it up in a few words - it's hard work, but extremely rewarding!

We won't be fostering  in the upcoming future, for a few reasons, but I have another project, involving a puppy in the pipeline, which hopefully will work out! Stay tuned :)

Anna xoxo

Skye with Abbey (with us for boarding)

Skye just before she left..

Bramble

Enjoying the beach, she was a true water baby

Little Louis...can it get any cuter!!

Smiley boys, Cody & Louis

Holly & Wilson's Toileting Problems..

This blog is mainly about my Bernese Mountain Dogs but today I'm going to be talking about my sisters little dogs, Holly the Papillon mix and Wilson the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Holly is 2 years and Wilson is 18 months.

Over the last few weeks, they have started toileting in the house. We were finding Holly peeing on dog beds and Wilson cocking his leg on random things in the house. They were also both pooping around the house. This for us was very annoying, because we put a lot of effort into housebreaking them as puppies and by this stage they should be reliably clean in the house.

We think they are doing this because they hate going outside in the dark, cold and rain. And fair enough, it's not all that pleasant to be outside in that kinda weather, but they still need to go out to toilet. Our dogs have a dog flap with access to a secure grass pen 24/7. So it's not like were not letting them out enough! Both of them know how to go through the flap and will happily do so.

We decided our 'training plan' was to take them outside on a regular basis (ideally every 1-2 hours) on leash to toilet. Then rewarding them with a treat when they go. They've already learnt a cue for this 'busy busy' which should make the process easier, I hope!

We've started doing it today. Mostly I'm doing it to begin with, then in a week or two when they are getting into the hang of things, my sisters can take over and then we can wean it down until they'll take themselves out.

So yeah, hoping they'll break this annoying habit because we're fed up of cleaning up after them in the house!

Here's a picture of the two pups. I'll update next week about how we're getting on!!

Anna xoxo

Chilling with Simba :)

Dog Training Classes Continued...

Following on from yesterdays post, I thought I'd update on how Cody & Holly got on at dog training last night. When we first arrived, as I predicted, Holly started barking non-stop! So this meant Cody got really excited (he usually does anyway, when he realizes where we are!) and started pulling on the leash. However, within a few minutes he calmed down. We started off doing musical sits - you walk around with the dog on a loose leash, when the music stops your dog sits, the one that takes the longest to sit is out of that round until you only have the winner left. We also did musical downs - Cody won a bag of treats, which he thought smelt very tasty! However, as he's still getting used to his new kibble, he hasn't tried them yet.

After that we moved onto doing routines and each person added a new cue each time until there were so many cues you couldn't remember how it went! For example - we had touch, down, sit, sit, down, touch etc. Cody really enjoyed this one.

Then we did some recalls. The other dogs were stood not that far away, and the dog had to run past the other dogs who were to the side, in order to come back to you. They used a long line in case the dog tried to run off - Cody really doesn't like it for some reason (normally he's fine with it as I have used one with him in the past) but he is very hesitant to run with it attached, it's like he knows he isn't supposed to pull on the leash (the trainer is holding the end of it, you see!) However, he still recalled back to me which was good.

Next was 'stays'. I was really pleased with how Cody did with these. At one point I was 50 yards away from him, and he didn't brake his stay, I was really impressed! I sometimes ran away, sometimes had my back to him, sometimes faced him, sometimes walked zig zag, sometimes straight, so really mixed it up and he did brilliantly every time :)

Holly did good too, she barked but not as much as we had expected! She was awesome at her stays - my sister did a 75 yards away down-stay with her at one point, which considering it was her first class, was fantastic. In the middle of the class the trainer had a pug doing a recall and Holly started barking at it, Cody tried to run over to it but managed to come back to us before he went right up to her. It showed us how much Cody responds to Holly's barking though, he wouldn't have done that had Holly not been there. We're hoping working on Holly will in turn help Cody's behavior at times too.

I also did some loose leash walking where I would change pace, sometimes walk really slowy,  then my normal pace, then jogging, then running and mixing that up. Cody loves that, he thinks it's a great game, and it's good way to keep his focus on me.

Really pleased with how the pupster did. They gave us a Agility tunnel and hoop jump to borrow for the week, so we're going to have some fun working with those in the garden. Cody did the hoop jump at class, but as it was on sand, when he ran through it, it fell over! Luckily these things don't faze him.

Amber & Wilson got a long walk in the afternoon and then stayed home with the rest of the family whilst we were out. I tried to get a picture of Cody at dog training but they all turned out fuzzy (annoying phone camera!)

Enjoying walkies

Dog Training Classes

Tonight we are taking Cody to dog training classes. At the end of September we enrolled him into a six week obedience course and we've now got three weeks left. It's all taught using positive methods (not that we'd ever use anything else) and it's held in a local horse barn, meaning there's lots of space and it's weatherproof. Cody normally comes home with sand in his fur, but that's not a big deal, it brushes off!!

There are about half a dozen other dogs and owners attending so it's a good opportunity for Cody to socialize and learn in a distracting environment, something that for the first week he struggled with at times, but is focusing brilliantly now and it's not just at classes, out and about generally too. 

He's shy with new people, always has been. Who knows why, since we've always tried to make meeting new people a fun thing. I've worked hard with him and he is making good progress. He will now go up and sniff new people, even wagging his tail when he sees someone. However, if they go to pet him, he backs off :-/ So I'm hoping this class will help with that, and certainly so far it is - he will now take treats from strangers for the first time! Onwards and upwards :)

He's also met a toy poodle, Mossie and a pug (can't remember her name!). He was friendly with both of them. Sometimes he gets on great with other dogs, sometimes not so much - it's more with males though, especially larger breeds. 

Holly's also coming along, although tonight will be her first time! My sister is going to be working with her on her barking habit whenever we meet a new person or dog on a walk (she thinks she owns the forest!!). As she barks, she sets Wilson off, which then makes Cody very excited! Hopefully she'll get on well, I'll report back tomorrow :)

The first night, Cody working on some sit-stays.