Pure Dog Talk Laura Reeves

Study Shows Purebred Dogs Healthier Overall than Mixed Breeds
Dr. Kiersten Forsyth, DVM cardiology resident at Purdue and lead author of the recent paper from the Dog Aging Project discussing findings on health in our canine companions, joins host Laura Reeves with the details, which are not necessarily the same as what you might have heard.

“The Dog Aging Project is this really cool community science project,” Forsyth said. “Essentially, there are some researchers that are involved at a few different universities, but the main people that are involved in this project are the dog owners themselves. People can nominate their dog to participate.

“It is a longitudinal observational study, which basically means as a pet owner, once a year you fill out this really big survey that tells all about your dog, what their history is as far as their health, but also where they live, what kinds of things they do, the environment they're in. And that information for one dog might not tell us a lot, but when we have tens of thousands of dogs participating, we can pull a lot of information from this.

“And so once a year, you get to refill out this survey, and we can follow these dogs throughout their lifetime to see what changes, what they're exposed to and our real goal is to learn more about all of these dogs in the U.S., but also what makes some dogs live longer than other dogs and can we get more information about aging in these dogs?

“For the specific research part that I was involved in, we were looking at all of the dogs who were enrolled in the study during the year of 2020. We had 27,541 dogs included. So, a huge number.

“Of those, about 50 percent of them were mixed breed dogs and 50 percent of them were purebred dogs. We tried to look at what the 25 most common or popular dog breeds were that made up the dog aging project pack at that point in time and then really focused on those top 25 breeds to then say, 'okay for these specific breeds, what are the most common medical conditions that their owners are reporting their dog to have experienced in their lifetime'.

“So, for each breed, we came up with a list of their 10 most commonly reported conditions, and then we looked to compare how those changed between different breeds and between the mixed breed population and the purebred population to see is there really a difference in the amount of medical conditions that a dog gets if they're a purebred dog versus being a mixed breed dog.
“When we looked at it, one of the things we were wondering was, do purebred dogs have more disease than mixed breed dogs? And we found, no, that's not the case. In fact, it might even be slightly suggested into the opposite, 'cause we looked at, of all of these dogs, how many of them did not have any health conditions reported?
“These are our healthy dogs. Nothing has been reported to be wrong with them. And we found that 22 percent of the purebred dogs had no reported medical conditions. And just under 21 percent of the mixed breed dogs had no medical conditions. So, there was really a 1.6 percent difference between the two of them, which is not a huge difference, but it was actually statistically significant that the purebred dogs were actually more likely to have no owner-reported medical conditions than our mixed breed dogs.
“It’s really not more likely to have disease in your purebred dogs.
“Now, specific breeds may be more likely to have specific conditions. And that goes along with, you know, I do a lot of stuff with the heart. I know that if we think of degenerative valve disease, Cavaliers come to the top of your mind, or if you think of dilated cardiomyopathy, Dobermans come to the top of your mind. And we're not saying that certain breeds

NOHS Regional Events from the Club’s Perspective
Ryan Horvath and Sandra Pretari Hickson join host Laura Reeves to discuss the upcoming first ever NOHS Regional Event at their Harvest Moon Classic dog shows Oct. 17-20 this year.

“Since the inception of the owner handled competition, we've included it in our shows every year,”  Horvath said. “And we've also recognized the need to elevate it to a status on par with the rest of the show. So, we've offered similar trophies. We have the event taking place right in the main hall with the rest of the show so that you can kind of go pick and choose what you want to watch, who you want to cheer for, you know, and make sure that you can make all your ring times because, you know, it can get a little hairy sometimes.”

“(NOHS Regional) is happening on Saturday,” Pretari Hickson said, “on the same day as the regular dog show, but it is a standalone event. So we're not offering the traditional owner handled that day.

And we have rings dedicated to just owner handlers. And we actually have brought in judges just for this.”

“It’s challenging being one of the first clubs to put this on,” Horvath added. “Trying to invent it from the ground up. And we are in a new site that we've had two years in and we continue to evolve and develop new things that we need to improve each year. So this is one more thing that we have to integrate in and kind of start out without anyone to look at and see how they do it.

“One of the things that we try to pay attention to, and something we've definitely done for this regional event, is to have judges that are approved for these groups. And so you're gonna have judges who, judge them, know the breeds, and many times we've had them on our panels doing similar breeds and groups in the past. So, we're thrilled to be able to provide them with an equal stake.”

 

Best Advice from Best in Show Judge, Roz Kramer
Roz Kramer, Best in Show judge for Westminster Kennel Club last week, joins host Laura Reeves with advice, stories, suggestions and tips for all exhibitors.
On judging Best in Show at Westminster
[caption id="attachment_12915" align="alignleft" width="255"] Kaz Hosaka, winning BIS at WKC with the Miniature Poodle, Sage.[/caption]

“You know, you're sequestered and so you don't really know who you're getting and they come in the ring one at a time and it was one gorgeous dog after another.

“I mean, all of them showed like a million bucks. They all looked wonderful, fabulous condition. And it gave me goosebumps. It really did. I was so happy and so thrilled.
On her mentors
“I have had three incredible mentors for me Annie (Rogers Clark), Janey and Bob (Forsyth). I had so much respect for the three of them. Annie, she was such a teacher in many ways. I never worked for any of them, but you saw them at shows all the time and they'd give you little hints or little suggestions all the time and or you’d just sit and listen to them and you'd learn.
On how newer exhibitors can succeed
“You should stick around (after showing in the ring), learn your history of your breed, learn who the greats of the breed were, learn your pedigrees, figure out who the best multiple breeders of your breed, and it wouldn't matter if they're ones on the west coast and ones in Texas and ones in Maine. Seek those people out, learn the best you can. And then if you get a dog, don't be afraid to go, not just ask other breeders for help on trimming or showing.

“I'm telling you, you go to most of these handlers, it doesn't matter who they are, they are more than willing to help. We need the new people in the sport and everybody knows it and I think that what people also need to do is don't think that you're better than everybody else, be kind and caring to people because you know something, we all have to ask for help at some point in our lives and don't be afraid to.

“You know one of the ways that I learned when I was a kid is my mentor on the Scotty's John Sheehan. He'd trim the show side and then he'd say ‘okay now you trim the other side. Copy that.’

“(There) is the conditioning part. And it was a teaching tool to me that you do this day after day, hour after hour, and don't stop. And it's going to pay off.

"(It's) hard work and don't stop, even though you may get discouraged. Keep pushing on because you know what, it pays off in the long run and it gives you so much joy and reward.





"And you know what the best part of it is the dogs. You're spending time with our best friends ever. I mean, I don't know where my life would be without the dogs themselves, seriously.





“It's artistry, and I think people prefer the quick fix and the easy fix. I think that people should give themselves a challenge, prove what they can accomplish and they might be surprised."

[caption id="attachment_12912" align="alignleft" width="310"] Kramer's Etsy shop features home decor and fashion items like this pillow cover.[/caption]

Visit Kramer's Etsy shop to see her beautiful breed specific designs on home decor and fashion items.

 

The New Voice of Westminster Kennel Club
Host Laura Reeves is joined by Valerie Nunes-Atkinson, handler, breeder and the new color commentator at Westminster Kennel Club.

“So I think one of the reasons why I've been brought in is because of some of the things that you mentioned, being a handler, having lived it and been there. So I'm hoping to bring the insight from that perspective, from the handler's perspective, the excitement of it, what goes on a little bit behind the scenes, but then also from a breeder perspective, you know, having bred dogs that have done well there and bred dogs for decades.

“Jason has been a breeder and a handler and a judge, but he's more from the judge's perspective and the historical importance of the breeds and details of the breeds. And I hope to bring a little bit of the other type of knowledge. And Chris is our fun guy that asks interesting questions.

“You learn how to listen to someone in your ears and still talk… It's something, I will say it's something to get used to. So they're talking in your ear. ear and they're counting you down. So literally we have about 20 seconds after the announcer gives all the breed details on that particular breed to make a point about something and keep it somewhat interesting.

“Twenty seconds is a long time, but it's really not a long time. So to be concise and get your message across and be done before he starts going into the next breed. So they're counting you down as you're talking and trying to make your point in these 20 seconds and you have to be done by the time they get to one. Otherwise, someone might be screaming in your ear.

“So learning that and learning how to go back and forth between the three of us and not step on each other, so that you're not talking over the other person.

“There's a huge learning curve and we'll see because, you know, it basically scares the, you know, what out of me to be doing this. And I really considered not doing it. But my dad always told me, and this was before he passed, he said, ‘If you're not doing something that is scary and challenges you and really scares you, you're not growing.’ So you've got to live your life. You've got to push yourself and reach for other goals. And so I'm doing it.

“And that's where I think, you know, through this broadcast and through Jason and Chris, I mean, we hope to, you know, give breed details. We hope to give breed information to the general public. That'll be interesting that maybe allows them to think about other breeds and hopefully maybe even learn how to find a preservation breeder.

“I think being able to, for my role, step in and maybe tell some little tidbits of stories or experiences that I've had that might bring other people in to say, ‘Hey, maybe I could try that or that sounds fun.’ Or maybe they don't even know about things we're talking about like the agility. trial that's gonna be there as well. There's other sports within AKC that the general public can do wth their dogs, which is very exciting. And I think it's a way to bring everybody else, the general public into a scene, what else you can do with your dogs?”

Expert Tips for Expanding Puppies' Minds
Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves for their ongoing conversation about raising puppies. This month they’re talking week four, when the puppies’ minds are exploding with new sensory input.

[caption id="attachment_12902" align="alignleft" width="528"] From Dr. Greer's "Canine Reproduction and Neonatology"[/caption]

“When the puppies first open their eyes, first open their ears, we should have gentle lighting, we should have gentle sounds,” Greer said. “We shouldn't just have this loud TV with Rambo on. So, you know, things like just have the lights starting to come up, their vision isn't great, their hearing isn't great, but it went from almost nothing to something and so we want to ease them into that world.”

Four weeks is when many puppies are introduced to solid food. Mothers of wild canids vomit for their puppies as their introduction to solid food. Laura describes making puppy food the “consistency of dog vomit.”

Marty recommends shallow water bowls for puppies to prevent drowning hazards, as well as Lixit bottles for smaller breeds.
100 experiences in 100 days
“I try to do a lot of variation in the enclosure. I have a rabbit hutch that's got a two story ramp on it so they can go in and out of doors and up and down the ramp. I have all kinds of little beds that have holes and places for them to go. Honestly the best toys are the kids’ toys that I pick up at garage sales. So you pick up, you know, baby walkers and all kinds of toys and they're brightly colored and they're hard plastic. They're not durable enough for the aggressive chewer or adult dog. So you probably don't want them in with mom if you've got a lab that eats everything, but they're fun. They make interesting noise and you can do variability.

“I think both Sophia Yen and Ian Dunbar, veterinarians that talk a lot about behavior and development, talk about a hundred experiences in a hundred days.

“I have a series of 11 bath mats that are all different sizes, shapes, colors, textures. The mesh ones I put under the puppies when they're really young because the urine runs through and so they stay dry. When you're in that transition period between when mom stops cleaning them, that two to four week transition period when they start urinating on their own, they stay dry and it doesn't soak into a pad directly on their skin so it's cleaner and neater.

“And those again can go in the washing machine. But I went to Walmart during COVID and they had 11 styles of bath mats. They had some with bristles, they had some that were shiny, some with round holes, some with square holes, some were dark colored, some were light colored. Just this whole variety and again I throw them in my washing machine when they get soiled and then I hang them to dry. And I have two sets so that they can rotate through. And you've just given now a puppy 11 different surfaces, so of the 100 experiences you need to do in 100 days, you just did 10 percent of them, with a bath mat.”

 

Eye Emergencies Can Go From 0 to 60 in a Blink
Host Laura Reeves is joined by veterinary ophthalmologist Stacey Halse for a deep dive on eye emergencies in our dogs.

[caption id="attachment_12861" align="alignleft" width="385"] Dr. Stacey Halse, veterinary ophthalmologist, with one of her Dobermans.[/caption]

“Eyes are a very unique structure when it comes to every other organ, well, most other organs in the (dog’s) body,” Halse said. “They have what you call the fancy word for is a blood aqueous barrier. It kind of protects the inside of the eye from the rest of the immune system. The eye itself is called an immunoprivileged site. And so when things go wrong and the regular immune system kind of gets into the eye, it can go very wrong very quickly.

“And so emergencies can go from, oh, it's just a little scratch, just... to suddenly you're like, "Oh, now the eyeball's melting out of the face." And so that's always very scary, both for an owner and a dog.”
Eye Infections in Newborns
“One of the biggest things that you can do is get that eyelid open even though the eyes are only supposed to open at about two weeks old, you don't want that material to stay in there. And so if it's not draining yet, warm compressing and just gently massaging those eyes open to get that material draining because if it stays in there, it's going to ruin the eye. It's going to cause scar tissue that can affect the puppy for the rest of its life. And I haven't seen it a ton, but in the worst case. case scenarios, usually the shelter dogs that are kind of not brought in to care, but they can lose their eye. And so outside of medications, just getting that eye open is really the most important part.”
Steroid Cautions
Generally, any ulceration or scratch of the eye’s surface should NOT be treated with steroids.

“If there's an ulcer there and you don't know because you don't have the staining and all this stuff, you just wanna be cautious and kind of just do the topical antibiotics. In general, something like neopolybac, which a lot of people have, or a topical drop, most often if I'm prescribing it, I'll use Tobromycin because you only need something that's superficial. But I feel like a lot of the time people have neopolybac in the dog world.

“You just have to make sure there's no steroid in it. So the two steroids that can be a neopolybac is hydrocortisone or dexamethasone. Dexamethasone probably the most common, but hydrocortisone is the one that's most commonly missed because people are just looking for dexamethasone on the thing. And one little trick that I teach students as well as owners is that if there's a pink strip on the box, it's a steroid. Tan is antibiotic, pink is steroid.
Corneal Ulcers
“The cornea is only about 0.8 millimeters thick, so it's super, super thin. And so an infection anywhere else, not a huge deal. An infection on the surface of the eye can be very bad very quickly. You can lose the eye within 24 hours. I've had one in the hospital that I was medicating aggressively and then we still lost the battle. And it like developed an ulcer in the hospital. This was like during my residency and we started treating right away and we still lost it.

“I don't wanna freak everyone out but that's the worst case scenario. - If there's a little bit of squinting, and if you ever see a divot on your dog's eye, just take it in.”