Posts by Laura Reeves
533 – Meet Dr. Darin Collins, Saluki breeder, new CHF CEO
Meet Dr. Darin Collins, Saluki breeder, new CHF CEO
Dr. Darin Collins, DVM, joins host Laura Reeves to discuss his new role as Chief Executive Officer at the Canine Health Foundation. Collins, a longtime Saluki breeder, came to CHF in October, leaving his role as the Director of Animal Health Programs at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.
Collins’ trajectory in the world of purebred dogs started as a boy in Central Illinois with hunting dogs, specifically a Brittany.
“It wasn’t really until after vet school that I got a Saluki,” Collins said. “I got a Saluki that nobody else wanted, that had recovered from a broken leg. That was my experimental Saluki. I made him live with me in an apartment in Chicago. And then I moved him to Seattle in 1991, when I took the position at the Zoo.”
In Seattle, Collins contacted George and Sally Bell, of the famed Bel S’mbran Salukis. That encounter began a lifetime friendship with a direct through line to his new role at CHF.
“When Dave Frei and George strategized how to film the breeds during the day at the Garden, I was one of the camera people selected. I had that for about 15 years, until which time the contract ended and I was no longer a camera person. But at that point the habit of going to New York in February had already been established.
“I met people (during that time) and one of those individuals was influential in helping (my name) actually surface when the search came out for a CEO for the Canine Health Foundation.
“I went from working with 300 taxonomic groups and over 1000 individuals of 600 species, to working with one species. Looking at all the divergence within the dog world, I find that very, very compelling. I love canine health and I’m very well suited to be in the position that I’m at right now.
“I’ve only been here six months so I’m still learning the in’s and outs of the organization and the job, but it’s a phenomenal organization. I work with phenomenal people. We’re all devoted to dogs and dog health and understanding disease and treatments and cures and diagnostics. It’s phenomenal vortex of opportunity.”
532 — Breeder, Buyer, Vet: Let’s TALK!
Breeder, Buyer, Vet: Let’s TALK!
Dr. Marty Greer, DVM, best-selling author, dog breeder and practicing veterinarian, is back with host Laura Reeves to talk about the delicate and critical communication protocols, best practices and successful strategies for Breeders, Puppy Buyers and the Buyers’ Veterinarian.
“This is a challenge,” Greer said. “How do you have that three-legged stool and make it all work?”
Reeves questions, “How do we set our puppy buyers up for success? Is their language that we can send home with that puppy buyer, that they can then take to their veterinarian to help bridge this three legged stool?”
“I think the first thing that really has to happen,” Greer said, “is before the puppy buyer gets their puppy, they need to research the veterinarian that they’re interested in using.
“Now they may already have a good relationship with the veterinarian that they trust, that they know is open to a certain protocol for vaccinations, delaying spaying and neutering, certain other medical management situations, but I think the first thing they really have to do is know who they’re seeing. If they have a great relationship and they’re already doing that, that’s great.
“If you find yourself in a situation where you have a veterinarian that you’re butting heads with, you’ve chosen the wrong clinic. You need to start doing some research and finding other alternatives. It may mean that you go as far as somebody that does integrative medicine, holistic medicine. You may have to kind of go to that level to get the kind of care that you need.
“But if that’s what it takes, in almost every community there are going to be veterinarians that are open minded, that are willing to work with you, that are willing to talk to breeders, that are willing to accept the fact that you wanna do some of these things somewhat differently. But you gotta know who they are. You have to do it before you get the puppy or before you have a crisis. ‘Cause in the middle of a crisis is not the time to figure this out.
“You may kiss a couple frogs before you get there, but it’s OK. Go in for something simple. Go in for something that isn’t complicated. Go for a heartworm test. If the vet clinic does nail trims, go for a nail trim. Just kind of get a feel for who they are, what they are, how they do things.
“You just really need to make good decisions. People come to us frequently, and this makes me and my doctors and my staff crazy, they come in and they say, ‘well, we come to you for the really important stuff, but we just go to the local place because it’s just shots.’ I’m like ‘no, no, no, no, no. They’re not just shots!’ First of all we don’t shoot dogs, we vaccinate them. But as Dr. Ron Schultz and Dr. Lori Larson will say, vaccines are one of the strongest medications you give your dog.
“Frankly, not every veterinarian has everybody’s best interest at heart. Sometimes it’s all about money. I hate to say that about any profession. But the reality is, you need to be very careful how you select your veterinarian, and how you work with them, because that will make or break your pets long term health. It is a hugely important situation that you work well with them. That you understand them.
“It goes back to relationship. It may mean that you buy a bottle of wine for your veterinarian or take a plate of cookies to the receptionist or you take pizza for the whole staff. It really does all come down to relationships. The better relationship you have, the better communication you have, the better chances are that your dog gets the kind of care that you’re looking for.”
531 – Elaine Lessig: “Fashionista” Passionate About Dog Judging
Elaine Lessig: “Fashionista” Passionate About Dog Judging
Judge and self-proclaimed “fashionista” Elaine Lessig joins host Laura Reeves to share her passion for dogs and dog judging.
Lessig started her purebred dog journey in the 1980s with Cavalier King Charles Spaniels before they were recognized by the AKC. Today she judges the toy, sporting and non-sporting groups.
“I love (judging),” Lessig said. “But I’m smart enough to know that I don’t want to judge everything. Every breed has its detail and I think coming from toy dogs was a distinct advantage. Every toy dog breed is a boutique item. I don’t look at sporting dogs as retrievers and pointers and spaniels, they’re each a unique breed and I think I bring that detail into it.
“I have no other reason to be here than I love what I do and it gives me so much pleasure. I am not a professional judge in terms of this is not my income. I don’t have to go out and judge. I’m very happy doing just my three groups. This is a passion. It isn’t a product.
“I love to see the connection between whoever it is that’s handling the dog and the dog. I think the dog is better with somebody that they have that wonderful relationship with. I think they perform better. I’m looking for a show dog on those days and then I want to see a dog in good condition. Conditioning is everything here. I’m most offended if you bring me a dirty dog.
“You have to take your losses and you have to put your losses in the loss pile. When you have a chance, you can get them washed and cleaned up again, but you can’t dwell on those things because tomorrow is another day, said Scarlett O’Hara. I won’t get negative about this. I refuse to do it.”
Known for her fabulous wardrobe and keen sense of style, Lessig shares memories of Sandra Goose Allen, meeting David Fitzpatrick’s Pekingese Malachy the night he arrived in the US and celebrating after the team won the Garden in 2012.
Hear more from Lessig on health in the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels here.
530 – Poodles, Professional Handlers and Public Image
Poodles, Professional Handlers and Public Image
Christian Manelopoulos is back with host Laura Reeves for more Pure Dog Talk on Poodles, Professional Handlers and the sport’s Public Image.
“I think really great people are very generous with their time and advice,” Manelopoulos said. “In the end, the thing we all struggle with is having time to do things. And so when people are generous with that time, you really have to soak that in. But the really great people are willing to do that.
Winning the stud dog class at PCA.
“People think of handlers in one way and breeders another way and that they are two separate things. But they’re very dependent upon one another. I do think people don’t realize how much professional handlers actually influence breeds positively. We always get the negative….
“We’ve seen a rapid decline in big breeding kennels. There’s still a lot of people that breed but when you breed one litter a year or one litter every two years, it’s really not enough. As dog show people, we need to pay a little bit more attention to these kinds of things. We do need people to breed litters of dogs. There’s just not enough dogs out there for the people that want them, especially purebred dogs. But we need to market ourselves correctly and we need to promote the breeds, the dogs, in the correct way.
“I mean, we can’t be elitists. When people come to dog shows and you’re rude to people and you talk to them like they’re idiots, they’re not going to want to come back. We need to be encouraging to people about the dogs. We need to breed healthy dogs. People buy purebred dogs because they want dependability. It’s like what Apple is. You buy an iPhone because it works. You buy a purebred dog because you want to get a poodle that looks like a poodle, acts like a poodle, has a temperament and then is hopefully healthy.
“The first poodles that I bred, I have none of that bloodline in my lines today because of health reasons. So you can’t be afraid to start over. You have to eliminate dogs from your breeding programs and move on. That doesn’t mean you need to eliminate all of them. You have to be diligent in what you do and examine correctly ‘what I can work with, what I can’t work with.’
“We need to promote a positive image of the sport. We see people flying with their fake service dogs and they post videos on Facebook and people talk about how cute it is that you are committing a federal crime. I don’t think that that’s the right message we should send people. You could see why that would come off the wrong way to the general public. We need to self-examine.”
529 — Christian Manelopoulos: “I’m Going to America”
Christian Manelopoulos: “I’m Going to America”
Professional handler Christian Manelopoulos joins host Laura Reeves for part one of a wide-ranging conversation about professional handling, working as an apprentice, the toughest dogs to trim and the challenges of moving to America to begin his career.
Christian with his first show dog, Taraglen Nicholas
Manelopoulos started in purebred dogs as a teenager in Australia after a knee injury ruined his cricket game. He eventually worked his way up to earning expense money showing dogs for the president of the Victorian Kennel Association.
But what he really wanted to do was move to the US and show dogs like the pictures he saw in Kennel Review of Frank Sabella’s poodles.
So, when he had a chance to work for Joe and Pauline Waterman in Southern California in the early 1990s, he jumped at the chance.
Christian in a team photo with Joe and Pauline Waterman during his apprenticeship.
“Going to Joe and Pauline was fantastic because being in Los Angeles, Dick Beauchamp and Frank Sabella would call the kennel. At that time (the Watermans) were still breeding Bichons a little bit. I would study the pedigrees of all the Bichons and all the dogs. I knew their pedigrees better than they did. I was so eager to learn at that time and so that was a tremendous experience.
“The dog show world in Los Angeles in the early ‘90s was a world of its own in that sense. Corky (Vroom) was like the king and then Bruce and Gretchen (Schultz), and then Joe, so it was a tremendous learning experience.
With other assistants in Los Angeles, Jason Hoke, Tracy Szaras, Andrew Peel, Doug Carlson, Jr Alacantara, Amy Thurow.
“I tell people it was different also because we didn’t have as many dog shows. Most of the shows were only Saturday and Sunday shows. So, all of the assistants, Woody’s assistants and Bruce and Gretchen’s and Corky’s, we would often get together on Tuesdays and go and do things. So it was a very communal thing.
“Pauline, Sue (Vroom), Gretchen and Bergit Coady, they were very motherly influences on a lot of the (dog show) kids in the LA area. Especially someone like me, I came from another country, my family was thousands of miles away, so in many ways these women replaced my parents for me. I’m very appreciative to all of them. Sadly most of them have passed away now, but it was definitely a different time.
“I groomed all the time. I mean, that’s the story of my life for 30 years. I tell people that I started working 15 hours a day and here I am 30 years later, I still work 15 hours a day. Everyday. It hasn’t changed.
“You’re very much an entrepreneur in this business. You’re self-employed, so the businesses is you. When you start out, you go out from being an assistant, you go out to become a handler, you’re literally saying ‘for the next 15 years of my life I am gonna work every waking minute of every day. I am going to forego going to people’s birthday parties and weddings and things like funerals and baby showers. I will regret many of those things.’
“But those are the compromises you make to be really successful. Now people can say ‘well, I want a work life balance.’ Those people either generally come from wealthy families or they’re not that successful. The most successful people, time and time again, that is their story. If you think it’s going to be different, then you should probably try something else, ’cause it’s not.
“You have to run it as a business. A lot of kids, they think ‘oh, I wanna get a big winning dog and then they travel around (in) a big truck, with a big mortgage for that truck, and make no money. They do some winning and then it’s all over. The most common issue dog handlers run into is tax issues. You’re self-employed, you don’t save enough money for taxes and things like that. Probably lesson number one I tell everybody get a great accountant.”
528 – Amanda Kelly on Sportsmanship, Spine and #squeezethejoy
Amanda Kelly on Sportsmanship, Spine and #squeezethejoy
Amanda Kelly, Fwaggle Toy Manchester Terriers, joins host Laura Reeves for part two of their wide-ranging conversation discussing subjective sports that was sparked by this year’s Winter Olympics. Today’s topics touch on sportsmanship, “spine,” mentorship and Amanda’s new hashtag, squeeze the joy, about tasting every last drop of joy the sport brings its competitors.
Sportsmanship
“We see the Olympic spirit in many stories every time there’s Olympic Games,” Kelly said. “This year the one that really stood out to me was (a skier) from Finland who won the gold in cross country skiing. (Then) he waited for the last place skier to cross the line before he would celebrate his gold. Because he had respect for the fact that every person in that race, no matter where they finished, had worked really hard to get there. I think that maybe we need a little bit more Olympic spirit in our sport.
Spine = Courage
“This type of subjective sport tends to draw people who are looking outside of themselves for reassurance and validation. Dog shows are an ego sport. We do it on some level for some sort of return in that area of our lives. Thinking about what that is and being able to overcome the challenges that come with whatever reason we’re doing it for. I think that’s a self-awareness piece.
“(That self-awareness gives you) the spine to be able to stand your ground and say ‘it doesn’t matter to me if it’s unpopular. It doesn’t matter to me if all of the cool kids are doing it and I don’t want to. I’m gonna do what I wanna do the way I wanna do it based on my own opinion and my own values.’
Perspective
“I really think that in the dog world we have to be cognizant of context for the importance of our sport and the people in it. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world right now and there’s a lot of stuff that’s going on in the world right now that is a a lot more important than who wins at the dog show. A little perspective is number one. Number two, do not ever drink your own koolaid. It doesn’t matter who you are in the dog world, your importance, celebrity, “fame” is a tadpole in the mud puddle of life. When Ernesto Lara, or anybody really, goes to the grocery store, people are not queuing up for an autograph.
#squeezethejoy
“Sometimes we lose sight of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I took a really great pleasure in watching the last Olympic competition for the amazingly great snowboarder Shaun White. He finished fourth. (He was) an incredible competitor, had an incredible career and when he finished, he said that this time it wasn’t really about winning, it was about squeezing the joy out of it. I thought, ‘wow, what a great way of looking at our sport. Squeezing the joy out of the moments that you’re there means making your trip about more than the ribbon that you leave the ring with.”
Listen today to hear the entire conversation. Listen HERE for the first part of the discussion.
527 – Pre-Breeding Veterinary Exams and Why They Matter
Pre-Breeding Veterinary Exams and Why They Matter
Dr. Marty Greer, DVM joins host Laura Reeves to discuss pre-breeding veterinary exams for female dogs and why they matter. Among the important clinical observations may be vaginal strictures.
“I think stricture kind of lumps together a couple of different disorders that probably shouldn’t really be categorized together,” Greer said. “But we don’t know where else to put them. So, a stricture is, by definition, the inability of the vaginal vault or vaginal opening to stretch adequately to allow either a natural mating with a tie and a penis or the vaginal delivery of puppies.
“So what does that really mean? That means that when we do a vaginal exam, for whatever reason the normal amount of space isn’t there. It can be that the lips of the vulva, the skin part are really tight and you just can’t adequately get them to stretch. It can mean that there’s a circumferentially stricture meaning all the way around, it’s just not stretchy enough once you get into the vaginal vault. It can mean that there is a column of tissue, a septum, down the middle, usually it runs from top to bottom, so we can reach in sometimes and feel these when we’re doing our pre breeding exams.
“If you do find one, you may decide that you’re not going to do the breeding at that point. You may see if it’s something that’s surgically correctable. Some of them are and frankly some of them aren’t and until you’re in that situation it can be really hard to know. Then we have to make a decision, do we put the semen in? Do we plan a C-section? Do we see what’s going to happen…”
Greer noted that brucellosis tests are currently being sent to outside diagnostic labs, so results are taking much longer to return. Regular testing of breeding animals should take place at least every 6 months, she added.
Listen in for Greer’s recommendations about additional complications that may hinder natural matings, including size mismatches, lack of libido or pain in the stud dog and poor ovulation timing.
526 – Chinook: The Gentleman’s Carriage Horse of Sled Dogs
Chinook: The Gentleman’s Carriage Horse of Sled Dogs
Rare Breeds Month continues today at Pure Dog Talk. Our final conversation is with Karen Hinchy and Ginger Corley about the Chinook, the Gentleman’s Carriage Horse of Sled Dogs.
Corley, one of the longest-term Chinook breeders in the US today, acquired her first in the 1980s.
“I wanted a dog that was large but not bigger than me,” Corley said. “I wanted a dog that was friendly. I wanted a dog that didn’t require a lot of grooming. Eventually, I kept narrowing down the list and came to Chinooks without really grasping how rare they were at the time.
“It was designed to be a mid-level dog … it fills the niche between the smaller, racier Siberian and the large freighting Alaskan Malamute. The Chinook is the gentleman’s carriage horse of sled dogs. It may not be as fast as the Alaskan Husky, which is the racing machine that is on your Iditarod teams. Those dogs are much smaller than your average Chinook. It’s not going to be the huge freighting dog that the Alaskan Malamute and some of the other indigenous freighting breeds of the northern extremes were.
“But it can go for a reasonably long distance at a darn good clip carrying a relatively heavy load. Plus it is the sled dog you can live with. They don’t want to run away from home like your average Siberian. And they have very little urge to fight with other dogs. A lot of us will own multiples.
“They were developed in the New England area by Arthur Walden, a gentleman who had been up in Alaska during the Yukon gold rush. He had worked as what was known as a dog puncher back then. He was delivering supplies and mail to the prospectors that were looking for gold. His favorite dog while he was up there was one he called Chinook.
“Eventually he decides to breed his ultimate sled dog. They were a unique look of their own. They were a big yellowish, what we now call tawny or might be considered fawn, sled dog. Their coat rather than standing off from the body like you see in a show Husky or Malamute, it’s more of a short-coated Saint Bernard type, where it lies flatter to the body, but there is a substantial undercoat. There were three in the initial litter and they turned out to be just magnificent sled dogs. And from there, things took off.”
“The Chinook is the state dog New Hampshire,” Hinchy noted. “I think there are only a few States and dog breeds that we have where American breeds are recognized as official state dog, so we’re pretty proud of that. The actual dog Chinook, and his progeny, were a large number of the dogs that competed in the first races in the New England sled dog club, which is a pretty famous group up here. This is before Leonard Seppala and some of the Siberians arrived and took over the speed scene.
“The interesting thing about Chinooks is Arthur Walden sort of created them and stewarded their future and their breeding for the first 10 years (in the 1920s). Then he went off to Antarctica and when he came back, ultimately the breed ended up passing through one person at a time as the main breeder. All the way through the ‘70s there was generally one single breeder in the country that controlled the breeding of Chinooks. As a result, of course, it kept the numbers low and the breed very rare.
“In 1965, Chinooks were listed in the Guinness Book of world records as the rarest dog in the world, with 125 alive. Fast forward to just before Ginger stepped onto the scene, we know there were eleven intact Chinooks anywhere in 1981. There are still only about 1,100 chinooks in the world.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more fascinating details about saving and growing the population of this rare breed, the cross-breeding that was done to salvage them, and their unique characteristics in the working group.
Breeders Voice: Dog News: 10 Questions asked of Laura Reeves | Pure Dog Talk
Shout out to my friends at Dog News! One of the fun features in a GREAT Dog Show magazine.
Read Full Post525 – Nederlandse Kooikerhondje: The Original Duck Decoy
Nederlandse Kooikerhondje: The Original Duck Decoy
Marlene Valter and Susanne Martin join host Laura Reeves to share their passion for the Nederlandse Kooikerhondje during Pure Dog Talk’s Rare Breeds Month.
The progenitors of these rare Dutch duck decoy dogs are depicted in paintings dating to the 1600s, Martin noted. Saved from near extinction after World War II, they received full recognition by the American Kennel Club in 2018.
The breed was used to lure ducks into traps in man-made Dutch ponds. Their flashing white tail acts as a decoy. In fact, the word decoy derives from the Dutch name for these water features, Eendenkooi.
“I fell in love with how pretty they are first of all,” Valter said. “They’re really beautiful and attractive. It’s a double coat, so it’s weatherproof. My dog Harvey, he’ll go out, run around in the mud and you can put him away, sometimes not even showered him off or anything at all, he’s just full of mud. A half hour later, all the mud is on the ground and his coat is completely white.”
Hallmarks
Kooiker coloring is very specific, Martin said. They always should have a white blaze and the orange patches. (It was) thought that ducks were most attracted to the orange and white color combination.
“So, the blaze, it goes to the nose,” Martin said. “The orange covers the eyes and then you have these black earrings which are pretty much the signature, the black eartips, and then the white plumy tail. But the real way that you know at Kooiker, in many respects, is because if you look at the standard it talks about lively, agile, self-confidence and that’s what they are. They prance and step in this very deliberate kind of movement.”
Temperament
“There’s a 30 second rule with Kooikers,” Valter said. “You meet them and you give them 30 seconds to just think about it. Then, when they come to you, you pretty much got a friend. They’re just a discerning group. They’re watching whether I’m accepting this person. If I do, they tend to. If I’m being aloof, they tend to be also. They’re very kind of quick. One of the most unique things about them, in my mind, is that they’re puzzle solvers. So almost the more complicated the situation, the more interested they are.”
Summary
Susanne Martin works Search and Rescue with her Kooikers.
The Kooiker is a “dainty, pretty, sensitive, active and versatile dog with low maintenance that needs a very special owner with the right intuition,” Martin said.
“I’ll share a story of my experience,” Valter said. “So, we’re getting ready to go to this show and … we get to the hotel and it has a pond… I need to go take my dog out for a walk. So, he goes out walking, without a leash, and he just starts trotting along and I look up and I see a duck. And then he’s trotting along and I look up a few seconds later and there’s ten ducks. And then he’s moving right along in this very deliberate, quiet movement. I felt like I went back centuries the way he was moving quietly along … I quit counting at 35 ducks within a matter of minutes, (just following him)…”
Be sure to LISTEN to the full episode for more details on this fabulous little sporting dog.