Long walks, happy dogs...

Suprisingly enough, this is a controversial topic 😂but then perhaps maybe not so suprisingly, since everything related to dogs seems to be controversial topic (seriously, enter any dog related FB group or forum and you'll learn that soon enough). 

Anyway, when as a child I pestered my parents for a dog, one thing I heard every time was: "But the dog has to be walked. Every day, in every weather, for all of his life". Of course there were also other concerns and in the end I only got a dog only when I was living on my own, but the point is that those 30+ years ago even non-dog people, like my parents, understood that walking the dog every day is like a pillar of dog care, apart from feeding it, training it and providing vet care (seriously, my parents are totally smart people as there is not much I could add to this list). Actually, one of the main reasons why I wanted a dog was so that I wouldn't have to walk alone anymore. 

Somehow, what was obvious all those years ago, is no longer obvious, especially when it comes to puppies. I was blissfully ignorant and just walking my puppies from day one (that is, when I got them from their breeders at 8 weeks of age). The first one got shorter walks initially, since I never kept quarantine (except with Vigo - my vet scared me that there was some vicious diarhoea attacking puppies at that time - I regreted it later and never made the same mistake), all the others had normal walks from the beginning, just with an option to rest when needed (Brava got in the baby pram, since my son was a baby then, with the others I used puppy backpack for a couple of weeks), nevertheless, all my puppies walked the whole distance with the rest of the pack by the time they were 4 months old (yes, they also got special walks just with me for training, bonding and socialisation reasons). 

Mojo at 8 weeks during walk with Brava 

3mo Mojo swimming

If I had entered any (particularly UK based) FB groups before, I would have learnt that I was a bad owner, ruining my puppies' health and future, since (and this is an actual quote from British Kennel Club site):

 "Puppies need much less exercise than fully-grown dogs. If you over-exercise a growing puppy you can overtire it and damage its developing joints, causing early arthritis. A good rule of thumb is a ratio of five minutes exercise per month of age (up to twice a day) until the puppy is fully grown, i.e. 15 minutes (up to twice a day) when three months old, 20 minutes when four months old etc."

Fortunately I haven't read anything like that until quite recently, so I managed to raise 7 healthy dogs from puppy to adulthood (the others came to me as adults, so I have no data on how much exercise they got as puppies), walking them from day one, teaching them to retrieve, allowing them to play with my other dogs , starting agility training way before their growth plates closed etc. Some of those dogs are old now - Sunday is no longer with us, but when I x-rayed her at the age of 12 yo, the vet said if she didn't know her from puppyhood, she would have never guessed those were the joints and spine of an old dog. Vigo is 15 yo, so obviously he has some ailments - but most days he still goes for a long walk with us. Brava was x-rayed in spring, as a 10 yo, no sign of any arthitis. 

4 mo Zelda chasing daddy Evo

3 mo Brego retrieving

So when I found out such puppy exercise recommendations, my approach to them was rather of advanced skepticism, not religious devotion. 

You might of course question my qualifications here. I'm no vet, I'm no physiotherapist either, my evidence is purely anecdotal (plus I own dogs who are medium sized - the biggest breed I've ever raised was a Dutch Shepherd). But, as I mentioned before, I am quite skeptical and down to Earth, I also cooperate and consult with a very good vet and physiotherapist that deals with sport dogs, and I will provide some sources that I trust at the end of the post, so what I do and how I raise my dogs is based on more than just "it was always done this way and it works for me".

Very often you might see the diagram of when particular growth plates close in a dog. You might also see completely misinterpreted picture of a new born puppy, claiming the puppy has no joints when born and the bones have to grow a lot to form them (😂 the emoticon is quite appropriate, since I really can't decide whether to laugh or cry when seeing this). You also see totally stupid posts like "you wouldn't ask your 6 mo baby to walk 2 km, so why are you doing that to your 6 mo puppy" (duh, because puppy rate of development is EXACTLY the same as human baby rate of development, right?). You also see super detailed charts of what and when can you do (some are downright ridiculous, like actually listing the number of steps you can walk your puppy on leash), some of which are at the same time promoting advice which I find harmful - like letting the puppy explore the garden without limits (wait, what? do they actually expect a puppy to EXPLORE the garden on their own? Now I no longer wonder where all those posts about "My puppy is digging in the garden" or "My puppy has eaten stones" come from) or doing kibble trails in the garden (yeah, right, wonderful idea to teach your puppy they can eat anything they find in the grass and start looking for it). But basically the common thread through all this advice is LIMITING puppy's activity. Avoid the stairs (yes, there is actual research you should to do... until the puppy is THREE months old, later it doesn't matter at all). Avoid the slippery surfaces. Don't let the puppy jump on and off the furniture (the Puppy Culture website actually claims they do it until the dog is two year old! I don't even know how to comment). Don't jog. Don't go for long hikes. Do not throw the ball. Do not... the list just goes on and on and on.

I wouldn't be discussing it if I didn't think it's actually harmful advice. First thing, and this is something you really notice if you come from stlightly different cultural approach is how understimulated lots of those puppies are. Seriously, through all the years with dogs, I've never seen that many posts about puppies destroying the garden, eating socks and having to be operated, biting hands, vocalising during the night etc. as I do regularly on (again) particularly British groups (I guess the responsible Polish owner still thinks it's mandatory to walk the puppy, whereas the responsible British owner reads the KC recommendations). Secondly, to give good support for the joints, the muscles need to develop somehow - it won't happen properly if you stick to 5 minutes per month of life / 1 minute per week of life rule (and I also seriously wonder how on Earth anyone is realistically able to do it and not get mad). 

Human growth plates close in the late adolescence, in some bones even later, around 30 years of age. Did you ever hear anyone actually telling you to limit your children physical acitivity? This is obviously very different from generation to generation - my generation couldn't be kept inside, whereas now we have huge problems with children using the electronic devices all the time and not getting enough exercise at all, having problems with obesity, proprioception and many others. Bear in mind I'm not discussing professional sports here, as that might actually not be so good (moderation in everything). Still, noone in their right mind would tell you: don't let your son play football with friends, his growth plates are not closed yet! Don't let your daughter ride the bicycle, she is not physically mature to do so! Sounds absurd, right? Moreover, has anyone seen a mother wolf telling her children - enough of that running and wild play, let's explore in slow pace? Or adolescent wolf that he cannot hunt just yet, as it might get arthritis later? (BTW, if you're interested, some info on wolves development - here).

So why would anyone think similar advice concerning dogs is reasonable? (also, and that's a philosophical question, why doesn't anyone try to sell the same advice concerning cats? oh yes, because good dogs do what they are told, whereas good cats do whatever they want). 

I seriously wonder if anyone writing "puppy needs much less exercise than fully grown dogs" has ever met a real puppy older than 5 weeks or so. 

You know, there was an experiment conducted once in which the researchers asked a group of physical education students to follow and repeat the activities of kindergarden children on a playground... guess what, the students were soon exhausted and couldn't do it.

I found similar to be true when it comes to puppies. My adult dogs are happy to spend most of the day napping, whereas with every puppy that I've ever owned I wondered if there is something wrong and they forgot to equip it with the snooze button (oh yes, they got tired now and then... they also recharged awfully quick). 

Honestly, I think any formal recommendations for puppy exercise are not necessary if you own a couple of brain cells and a bit of common sense. It boils down to the following guidelines:

A/ Observe the puppy. Puppies vary in their temperament, structure and rate of development. When the puppy seems tired (that might also mean getting more hectic, barky or nippy), let it rest. If the puppy is reluctant to perform particular movement, don't ever force them to do it and consult a smart vet. Maybe there is something wrong with the puppy or maybe there is something wrong with you to ask that of a puppy. 

B/ Avoid drilling and repetitions of the same movements (drilling is stupid and boring anyway). Best what you can do is let the puppy move offleash in varied environment, but if you need to walk the puppy on pavement to get to the park or wherever, don't obsess about the number of steps you need to take. 

But if you feel you need more detailed guidelines and from an actual authority in the field, here is the website and chart you can consult.

EDIT: if you also need a bit more of actual research, take a look here (and I was so glad that was published AFTER my blog, because some arguments sound awfully similar... common sense?). 

Three days, three weeks, three months...

The title of this post refers to how it is said a dog adapts to his new home. Pucek has been with us for a little over than 6 months now, so perhaps time for a little summary 😃. 

Three days... the beginning was totally honeymoon 💙. As I wrote before, the circumstances were sad, since we got Pucek after death of his owner, who was our friend, but Pucek seemed to fit right in. House trained, crate trained, with perfect recall, nice loose leash walking skills, friendly with people, nice with dogs, tons of drive and being super cute on top of that - we could hardly wish for a nicer dog. Some years ago I've met Nanga's brother (Nanga is mother of Zelda and Puck) and he was so totally beatiful that I've dreamed of having a dog in this type ever since. Well, Pucek is even more beautiful (of course). And since he did a bit of agility before, I started with some training with him right away - wow, tons of speed and enthusiasm, really nice reaction to handling, super potential in general, awesome, just awesome in every aspect. 

Three weeks... the reality hits. I guess Pucek realised that it is not just a holiday🏊 and he's here to stay and then suddenly he became a bit stressed. It didn't help that Zelda got in season and he started fighting with Brego over her. A bit later he started having some minor health problems (everything under control now) and it turned out he didn't like going to the vet at all, we had to use a muzzle to do a blood test.  At the end of summer I also wanted to start a bit more "serious" agility training, weaves and contacts and initially that wasn't going so well either. Even though as I said, he was really well trained in general, and was physically mature to learn "adult agility stuff", he lacked the kind of preparation I normally do with my puppies and at some point I realised he lacked some skills that I assumed were there. Sometimes he got frustrated, started biting me or barking like crazy 👾, sometimes he struggled with coordination or compression skills, sometimes after he made a mistake he couldn't really get over it and would just repeat it again and again. Obviously, he was still super cute and super nice dog in general and we also understood that some of those things were to be expected, as he underwent a major change in his life, so we just started working on the issues step by step.

Lots of socialisation with our vets, just coming along for visits with our other dogs and getting treats. Teaching him I can restrain him and nothing bad would happen. Fun activities alongside with Brego, so he had positive associations with him. Lots of shaping games, some tricks to help him with coordination and body awareness. Physiotherapy to get rid of some ugly tensions of the muscles. 

I needed to work on myself as well - on how to best explain behaviours to him, how to schedule sessions, how to reward, how to keep myself from getting into similar frenzy as he did (not so easy, when you're trying to think while someone screams in your ears or bites your hand). Sometimes I got frustrated as well - methods and ways that were tried and proven with my previous dogs didn't really work with him - so I made notes, I experimented, I tried this and that. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. It's still work in progress, though progress I see. And a lot of it. 

Three months... or actually a bit more. We have so many successes together. He doesn't fight with Brego anymore, they can walk, train, be in the same room together at home. There is still a bit of tension between them, but now they can communicate, say a few insults at each other and then go away rather than actually fight. He doesn't need a muzzle with our vet anymore and he even started enjoying his physiotherapy sessions.  He learnt to weave and then all of a sudden he can do even quite difficult stuff, work distance etc. His contacts training is still work in progress, but we're getting there. We competed in jumping competition last weekend and he was perfect, doing sit stays, listening, paying attention to bars even on slices <3 It was so fun to run him!

At some point I checked my messenger history with Jitka, Zelda and Pucek's breeder, and I saw that when she was sending me puppy videos, I always liked the boy in the red collar. So guess who is that puppy now? Yes, it is Pucuś and I feel like we were meant to be. Now I cross my fingers for our next thirty years together 🐕👧😍

Photo: Leona Ortenberg

How we approach behaviour is an ethical stance

I watched "Dogs, Cats and Scapegoats" today - and I could write a whole post about that documentary and it's logical fallacies, but one sentence in particular caught my attention and nudged me to write a post on a subject that I was thinking about for a while now.

That sentence, said by Bernard Rollin, PhD, distinguished professor of philosophy, is:

"How you approach behaviour is an ethical stance".

Now, I need to make a disclaimer, before I continue - what follows is my view on the subject, it is what I find acceptable and ethical - am I no expert, nor I consider myself an authority on matters of ethics, dog training etc. Moreover, my stance might change over time and hopefully it will, otherwise it would mean I stopped learning. And while I do believe there is black and white distinction between the opposite ends of the dog training spectrum and approaches to dog ownership (which in itself is a controversial term), I also believe there is a lot of grey area and while there are some universal guidelines, each and every dog is different, each situation is different and all of that might determine your personal choice. 

But the reason why this sentence struck me as so true, is that I really believe your choice of training methods, your approach to the relation between yourself and your dog is an ethical stance. No more, no less. Some people claim that aversive methods don't work (while on the other hand disdainfully labelling them as "quick fix"), other people claim purely positive training doesn't work either - the truth is, dogs are wonderful creatures and are so adaptable and so forgiving, that pretty much every method can work, provided the dog can get at least some clarity what is expected of them. So yes, you can achieve results that you are looking for, with different methods. Therefore, the big question is: which methods work for your dog (and yes, that might differ depending on your dogs sensitivity, temperament, drive etc.) and which are morally acceptable for you. 

I've read really interesting post today, unfortunately only in Polish, about giving dogs choice. It started with assumption that the very term of dogs ownership is somehow outdated, and more and more people are perceiving themselves as caretakers of their pets rather than owners. Personally, I don't really see it as mutually exclusive - I am my dogs' owner in legal terms (that also means I'm legally responsible for both their well-being and for their possible misbehaviour), but that very term means an obligation to take care of them in the best possible way - in terms of meeting their needs, providing them with food, exercise, appropriate veterinary care, training, cuddles (yes, there is an emotional factor for me as well). 

But from that assumption of not really owning another living, feeling creature comes a conclusion that we need to give our dogs choice (and what follows is a list of situations in which we should do it and I generally agree with it) and this is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. And it actually determines the use of training methods. Because if I believe dogs should always have a choice, that limits my choice of methods to the ones that make my dogs happy, if I deny them choice, it means I use whatever methods I deem appropriate for getting a behaviour I want. So while I consider myself to be on the positive/ respectful end of the spectrum, I wouldn't be myself if there wasn't a BUT. 

I somehow have a hierarchy of things pertaining to dog training. Some things are important. Coming when called is the most important. Accepting touch / grooming / veterinary procedures  is important.  Resting at house is important. Loose leash walking is quite important, because few things annoy me more than a dog trying to walk me rather than the other way round (oh, they do get offleash walks every day and they are allowed to run, smell things, roll in grass etc. to their hearts' content then). Doing agility is not that important. Doing tricks is not important at all. My dogs playing with other dogs is totally not imporant - they don't like it mostly and I protect them from people and dogs who think they should. And so on. How much choice my dogs are given relies on that hierarchy.

So yes, generally I want my dogs to have a choice, first of all, out of respect - they are living, feeling, thinking beings. Secondly, I want them to feel safe and let me know if they don't want to do something. I make sure their good choices (like working with me or doing what I ask them to do) are so rewarding that if they refuse to do it, they must have a very good reason, and usually it is a physical reason and a signal we need to head to the vets asap. But sometimes their choice can be really limited: if I think the reason for not working with me is that an adolescent male would rather lick bitches' pee, sure, he can choose not to work with me, but he won't be given the option to lick the pee either (so yup, there is a choice: you either do something fun with me or you don't do anything fun at that time). Bear in mind that I believe dogs have certain needs (food, safety, play, social contact, rest, investigating the environment and so on) and before you ask anything of them, you should be sure they actually satisfy those needs on regular basis - denying them this option is an abuse as well, but sometimes I'm the one to decide when they can do it.

I also avoid using physical coertion when teaching behaviours, particularly when it concerns agility, because, well, it's just agility. I want my dog to let me know if they are afraid of let's say, see-saw - they can refuse to get on it, they can jump off it, etc. I want my dogs to let me know if they find the exercise frustrating, difficult, if they don't understand what I want from them - then it's my job to adjust, explain, make it easier. If my dog ever left, refused to work with me - that would be a wake up call and I would try really hard to understand the reason and then, give them the better reason to keep working (not the "or I make you do it" kind of reason). I do my best to prevent such situations in the first place - for instance, I teach my dogs that keeping on trying pays off really well, that generally working for me pays really well and it's really fun, I plan my sessions, I analise them and so on. 

But before you assume I'm all rainbows and unicorns, there are also some situations in which my dogs don't have a choice, same as there are situations in which my child doesn't have a choice, simply because sometimes I know better. Basically it boils down to any situation which concerns safety of my dogs, myself or any other being. Like at the vets, my dogs ultimately don't have a choice and I teach them early on to accept it. If I want to have their blood tested, the blood will be tested, even if the dog is like "naah, I don't feel like it today". If there is something painful and the vet needs to examine it, it will be examined. If my dog wanted to chase and kill another animal, I would stop that behaviour by whatever means and so on, and so on.  I always start with positive approach and 99% of time, I get what I want. But if this is something I consider very important and if I'm not able to get the result I want by solely positive approach, I would eventually use other methods as well - this is sort of last resort, I give lots of consideration if it's really necessary (what I'm writing about here is conscious decision to use an aversive method or to deny a dog a choice and not getting angry at the dog and flying off the handle - which we shouldn't, but then, let him who is without sin cast the first stone). 

Some things are not acceptable for me. Using a shock collar to teach puppy to sit is not acceptable (and stupid). Burning the bowl (that is feeding ONLY from hand in exchange for certain behaviours) is not acceptable for me either (well, maaaybeee it can come useful as a temporary measure in some cases). Dragging a dog that knocked down a pole back to agility field after it been yelled at and fled, is not acceptable. But then again - some behaviours are not acceptable either. Dogs do use aversives themselves (and they do is SO WELL: immediately, never dragging it on, stopping the unwanted behaviour once and for all... think of an older dog teaching a younger one not to disturb them when they are sleeping). And no, it doesn't destroy your relation forever (BTW, it is interesting how some people getting on high horse of ethics in dog training fail to represent truthfully the use of certain tools and methods).

That's my ethical stance. For now. 

Eye examination in Pyrshep on B.A.S.E. 2019

*La traduction en français se trouve en bas de la page, traduction: Virginie de Andrea

Eye testing in Pyrsheps is still not that common, not all the breeders do it and there are several reasons for that.  First of all, for now we don't really have any genetic test for the eyes diseases in our breed (apart from PRA-prcd, which however most likely is not the type of PRA that causes early vision loss in Pyrsheps - there are several forms of PRA). So the only thing we have at our disposal is ECVO test, which is only checking for clinical signs, hence it's valid for only a year (some disorders may develop later in life, what the eye test does is just saying "at the moment of the test the dog is clinically healthy"). In my opinion since it's not very expensive and it's not invasive, it's still worth doing before the dog is bred, just to minimise the chance of passing something to the offspring.

 Also, people often assume that dogs would show clear signs of  vision problems, hence they presume their dogs are healthy  - this is understandable (I would call it human-bias: vision is so important for us that we notice immedietely if something is wrong with our own sight), but not entirely true. Sight is not the main sense for the dog, they can cope really well even with significant vision loss and we actually experienced that with one of our own dogs, Flaszek. All our dogs were tested in the early spring, as soon as the idea of broader research on Pyrshep's eyes was born and that is when we learnt that Flaszek has huge lesions in his retina, one of them really close to the centre of field of vision. His left eye is normal for his age, in the right eye he most probably has like a big black spot in the centre of vision. This is most probably post-inflammatory and we'll never know what caused it, could have been even tooth infection that went unnoticed - we will re-examine him in a couple of months to make sure this is not anything progressive, but we don't think it is. We never noticed anything. Well, now that we know, we're thinking MAYBE that's the reason he's always been a bit careful in agility, like never going really full speed, even though he is the fastest of our dogs when chasing a ball in an open field. Anyway, no, we couldn't tell.

Flaszek's left, healthy eye

One of the lesions in Flaszek's right eye

Bigger lesion in Flaszek's right eye.

I was really counting on agility people being interested and open to the idea of testing and I was not disappointed - lots of people volunteered to test their dogs and it has proven to be very important already. Of course, given that the majority of the dogs tested were actually actively competing in agility, the sample was somewhat not fully representative, yet still a number of problems were caught,  fortunately most of them not causing any serious vision problems at the moment. There is a need to retest after a while to check whether they will be progressive or possibly linked with more serious issues that can develop over time. Buccal swabs were taken for the dogs, so there is also hope that some genetic component might be found, especially for one of the things observed. The full results of the study won't be available for a while yet, but I would like to share a summary written by the leading doctor conducting the test, dr Natalia Kucharczyk:

"Dear all,

Thanks to organizers and participants of BASE 2019 we were able to examine over 70 Pyrsheps.

That was an amazing opportunity to look closer at the breed.

Until now there are no publications dedicated to this breed so all we know about these dogs is from ECVO certificates. 

I did a really short summary of what we discovered and the result is surprising!

Some of lesions we found are because of age and some are probably genetic.

None of lesions (beside one cataract) cause vision problems in your dogs - at least until now. The cataract can progress to vision loss!

To share with you the results we will go through the short list:

- Cataract - 2 forms are described on the ECVO manual. Fiberglass-like cataract is the 3rd one we observed. We saw it in 12 dogs. 

Some of them will progress, some not. We need a second exam in a year (next BASE probably) to tell you how fast the cataract progresses and if it needs to be operated. 

The number is HIGH in this group although in most cases these are for now small opacities that doesn't cause vision problems. 

- Vitreous degeneration - HIGH prevalence - presumed hereditary eye disease; strands of vitreous or liquefaction of the vitreous gel which may predispose to retinal detachment! In most dogs it don't cause any problems but in advanced stage might cause vision problems, glaucoma, lens luxation (in predisposed dogs). 

There is also a discussion between ophthalmologists about this disease because we started to see it in YOUNG dogs. When we ask about feeding it showed up that most of those dogs are on BARF. Because it needs more data and scientific aproach then we don't want to blame BARF just like that but I would say it is interesting coincidence. 

So for sure you will all get emails with one more question about the way you feed your dogs. 

- Choroidal hypoplasia -  is characterized by inadequate development of the choroid present at birth which is nonprogressive. THIS IS THE MOST INTERESTING THING we found in your dogs. As according to ECVO it is not caused by CEA gene, we will try to look for a gene in your breed. 

The interesting thing is that in Collies this anomaly shows sometimes with optic nerve coloboma or retinal detachment which cause vision problems. We didn't expect this in agility dogs so it will be really valuable to examine next time also dogs that doesn't take part in runs because we would like to know if this problem is also seen in your breed (but we coudn't catch it now).

- PRA - none, but it is said that in this breed it causes blindness before the dog is 3 years old so I didn't expect to see a dog with PRA on BASE.

- Retinoscopy (this is whether the dog is short-sighted or long-sighted, intrusion by Olga) - most of the dogs were normal around -0,5 to + 0,5. We will compare it with ETO answers. 

We found few more abnormalities related to age and few puzzles that we need to solve after recheck in a year. 

The full results will be available in the publications in the future! 

So as you can see the day was full of surprises and gave us a wide view of what is going on in eyes of working Pyrsheps.

It would be a great thing to look at them in a year and also check dogs that don't work to have a better understanding of the eye problems within the breed. 

The breed was considered "healthy" and some people assumed it didn't need eye exams, but I think after this day nobody has doubts that they are needed and there is a great value in research on your breed. 

I hope you enjoyed this day with us even though we broke the "healthy Pyrshep" image!

I want to thank you all again for a great cooperation and patience!

Special thanks to Virginie de Andrea and Olga Kwiecien for help and Radka Kopecka for organization of BASE 2019!

Hope to see you soon,

Natalia Kucharczyk"

_________________________________________________________________________________

Le contrôle des yeux chez le berger des Pyrénées n’est toujours pas une pratique courante, pas tous les éleveurs le font et il y a plusieurs raisons à cela. Tout d’abord, nous n’avons pas vraiment de test génétique pour les tares oculaires dans notre race (à l’exception du test pour la prcd-PRA qui ne couvre cependant pas toute les sortes d’APR observées chez le BP, comme dans le cas de l’APR précoce décrite par le Dr Chaudieu dans le manuel ECVO actuel). Une des seules ressources disponibles est donc le test de dépistage ECVO, c’est un examen clinique, c’est pour cette raison qu’il n’est valide qu’une année (certaines maladies sont progressives et peuvent se développer tardivement, l’examen dit en quelque sorte : « A ce moment précis le chien est cliniquement sain »). Selon moi, cette procédure n’étant ni onéreuse ni invasive, je pense qu’il vaut la peine de faire cet examen avant de faire reproduire le chien, afin de minimiser les chances de transmettre quelque chose de problématique à la progéniture.

Une autre raison est que souvent les gens ont la certitude qu’un chien ayant des problèmes de vision montrerait des signes évidents de ces problèmes et considèrent donc leur chien comme étant en bonne santé - ceci est très compréhensible. En effet, pour nous la vision est tellement importante que nous remarquons tout de suite si quelque chose ne va pas, mais ce n’est pas vrai pour les chiens. La vue n’est pas le sens principal chez le chien et ils peuvent très bien s’en sortir avec une vision limitée. Nous en avons fait l’expérience avec l’un de nos chiens : Flaszek. Tous nos chiens ont étés testés au début du printemps, lorsque l’idée d’une recherche à grande échelle sur les bergers des Pyrénées a été lancée. Nous avons appris que Flaszek a d’énormes lésions sur sa rétine, l’une d’entre elle en plein centre de sa vision. Son œil gauche, lui, est normal pour son âge, mais son œil droit a probablement un gros point noir en plein centre. Ces lésions sont très certainement le résultat d’une inflammation et nous ne saurons probablement jamais ce qui les a causées (peut-être une infection dentaire qui est passée inaperçue). - Nous allons l’examiner dans quelques temps pour voir si les lésions progressent, mais nous ne pensons pas que ce sera le cas. Nous n’avons jamais rien observé d’anormal dans son comportement. Enfin maintenant nous pensons que c’est PEUT-ÊTRE pour ça qu’il a toujours couru doucement en agility, jamais en pleine vitesse, bien que lorsqu’il s’agisse de courir après une balle dans un champ il soit le plus rapide de nos chiens.



Flaszek, oeil gauche, sain



Une des lésions dans l’oeil droit

Une lésions plus conséquente, toujours dans l’oeil droit

Je comptais vraiment sur les agilitistes d’être intéressés par l’idée de participer et de faire tester leurs chiens et je n’ai pas été déçue - beaucoup de personnes se sont portées volontaires et cela a déjà montré l’importance de faire ces tests.
Bien sûr, il est important de noter que la majorité des chiens testés étant des chiens actifs en agility, le panel n’était pas totalement représentatif (NDT nous ne nous attendions pas à trouver des problèmes véritablement handicapant car il est plus facile de les discerner sur des chiens pratiquant l’agility). Dans certains cas, il faudra aussi retester afin de voir l’évolution et ainsi savoir si ces problèmes peuvent être liés à des conditions plus sérieuses. Des prélèvements d’ADN destinés à la recherche ont également étés faits. La publication de l’étude complète va prendre du temps et ne sera pas disponible tout de suite, mais je vous partage un résumé rédigé par la responsable de l’étude, Dr Natalia Kucharczyk:
(NDT, ceci est un rapport préliminaire qui ne comporte que les observations faites lors des examens cliniques réalisés dans le cadre de la BASE et en comparaison avec les données actuelle du manuel ECVO concernant les bergers des Pyrénées)


"Merci aux organisateurs et aux participants de la BASE 2019, nous avons pu examiner plus de 70 bergers des Pyrénées, c’était une opportunité unique d’étudier la race.
Jusqu’à maintenant il n’y avait aucune publication dédiée entièrement à cette race et la majorité des informations que nous avons proviennent des certificats ECVO.
J’ai fait un bref résumé de ce que nous avons pu observer et le résultat est surprenant!

Certaines lésions observées sont dues à l’âge et certaines sont probablement génétiques.
Aucune de ces lésions ( à part pour une cataracte) ne cause de gros problème de vision - du moins pour le moment. Car les cataractes peuvent progresser vers une perte totale de la vision!

Afin de partager une partie de ces résultats avec vous, voilà un petit résumé:

- Cataracte - 2 formes étaient décrites dans le manuel ECVO (NDT 1. Anterior/posterior cortical, dogs > 3 y.o. 2. Posterior subcapsular (suture lines) in 2 y.o. dogs, maybe associated with uveal hypoplasia). Nous en avons observé une 3ème la cataracte dite « fibre de verre » (NDT il s’agit d’une traduction littérale de « Fiberglass-like cataract »). Nous avons observé 12 chiens avec de la cataracte. Certaines de ces cataractes vont progresser et d’autres non. Nous devons prévoir un deuxième examen dans une année (sûrement à la prochaine BASE) pour connaître la vitesse de progression et s’il est nécessaire d’opérer. Dans ce groupe, le nombre est élevé bien que dans la majeure partie des cas, ces petites opacités ne causent pas de problèmes de vision pour le moment

- Dégénérescence vitréenne - haute prévalence - présumé héréditaire; les modifications du vitré lié à une rupture de l’état de gel peuvent prédisposer a un décollement de la rétine! Dans la plupart des cas observés à la BASE cela ne pose pas de trop gros problèmes mais à un stade avancé cela peut causer des problèmes de vision, des glaucomes et des luxations du cristallin (dans les races prédisposées). Il y a actuellement des discussions entre ophtalmologues à ce sujet, car nous avons commencé à observer cette dégénérescence chez de jeunes chiens, lors de questions concernant l’alimentation nous avons observé qu’une grande partie de ces chiens était nourris au BARF. Mais pour le moment nous ne rendons pas le BARF responsable car nous devons recueillir plus de données à ce sujet avant d’établir des corrélations, mais la coïncidence est intéressante. (Nous allons très certainement vous poser des questions par email concernant l’alimentation de vos chiens).

- Hypoplasie choroïdienne - caractérisée par un développement inadéquat de la choroïde, présent à la naissance. EXTREMEMENT INTERESSANT, car selon ECVO il n’est pas causé par le gêne du CEA, et nous allons tenter d’identifier le gêne responsable chez le bergers des Pyrénées. Ce qui est intéressant c’est que chez les collies cette anomalie se manifeste dans certains cas avec un colobome du nerf optique ou un décollement de la rétine. Nous ne nous attendions pas à trouver cela chez des chiens pratiquants l’agility, il serait dont vraiment intéressant d’examiner des chiens ne provenant pas de la discipline afin de pouvoir éventuellement observer ce problème (car nous ne l’avons pas vu pour le moment).

- APR - aucun cas, mais celle décrite dans le manuel rendant les chiens complètement aveugles dès l’âge de 3 ans, il semblait peu probable de l’observer à la BASE.

- Retinoscopie (si le chien est myope ou hypermétrope) - tous les chiens étaient normaux, entre -0.5 et + 0.5, nous comparerons avec les réponses données concernant l’ETO (early take off).


Nous avons trouvés encore d’autres anomalies, certaines liées à l’âge et certaines plus mystérieuses qu’il sera nécessaire de revoir dans une année.

Les résultats complets seront disponibles dans le futur dans la publication prévue!

Comme vous pouvez le constater, cette journée nous a réservé un bon nombre de surprise et nous a donné une idée de ce que nous pouvions déjà trouver dans les yeux de bergers des Pyrénées «sportifs».
Il sera vraiment intéressant d’étudier la progression dans une année et il serait encore plus intéressant de voir d’autres chiens que ceux pratiquant l’agility, afin d’avoir une plus large compréhension des problèmes qui peuvent être rencontrés dans la race.
Jusqu’à maintenant il n’était pas nécessaire de faire des contrôles car la race était considérée comme « en bonne santé » mais je pense qu’il est plus facile à présent de se rendre compte de la nécessité de faire des contrôles réguliers et surtout qu’il y a vraiment un intérêt à mener des recherches sur la race.

J’espère que vous avez apprécié cette journée avec nous, même si nous avons découverts des problèmes avec certains de vos chiens. Merci à tous pour votre patience et votre coopération!

Un grand merci à Virginie de Andrea et Olga Kwiecien pour leur aide ainsi qu’à Radka Kopecka pour l’organisation de la BASE 2019!

J’espère vous revoir bientôt!»

B.A.S.E. 2019

After extreme and difficult EO, B.A.S.E. 2019 (annual Pyrshep competition) was just pure pleasure. First of all, well, Pyrsheps :D As always, it was just lovely to see so many of them, so different yet so similar, and to meet old and new friends. The atmosphere was just awesome. 

 Family meeting: Marinka (I guess, her and mother Nany are clones so not sure), mother Nany, Puck, Zelda, father Evo. 

Secondly, the organisers did really wonderful job - from choosing the place which allowed us to run either outside or inside depending on the weather (and also run a bit in between out and in carrying the obstacles when the it changed unexpectedly ☀️⛈️), with great inside bar with lovely Czech beer, through dedicated and capable helpers, to the very best team of judges: Alice Glocknerova (CZ) and Rene Blank (D). I even liked the fact that the barbecue on Saturday was not barbecue as the food was ready for everybody at the same time and the little starters were just SOOOOO delicious. 

Thirdly, the judges and the courses were great - and after EO 😈 I appreciated it even more. Level appropriate, fluent, challenging, fun - even getting eliminated on those courses was fun :D - it was real pleasure to walk them and to run them and after each coursewalking I just coulnd't wait to test myself on them :). 

Brego says he was awesome, I was too slow :D. 

And to make it even better, the competition was organised in four height categories - small, medium (calculated together, as there was just one small dog), and minilarge and large (again, calculated together). I ran Flaszek and Brego in minilarge category (jump heights 50 cm) and it was great - Brego had times better than the medium dogs, he's just flying on 50 cm and was really finally able to show all his power and Flaszek also broke his own speed records 🏎️.


I was running Flaszek in A1, and Brego and Brava in A3. Flaszek of course forgot all his contacts, but since we weren't really training that hard lastly, he is of course forgiven, otherwise he was super fast, did nice weaves and even in the end reached 3rd place in combined A1 category. I'm super pleased with him.

Brego was just freaking amazing, it's a pity I ruined two of his runs (once I was really out of breath and once I was just to slow and hesitated with the handling option, which resulted in elimination), but it felt great to run him again.

Brava as everybody knows already, is pyrfection, she had four clean runs, all of them on the podium, she never put a foot wrong and in the end won the whole event (you know, third time lucky so finally we managed to win the beautiful B.A.S.E. 2019 jump :D).

Last but not least, thanks to dr Natalia Kucharczyk and her collegues as well as amazing and brave Pyrshep community, we were able to do quite extensive eye testing (around 75 dogs were tested during and after the competition). The aim on the study was not only to find the common eye problems in the breed, but hopefully also help working on genetic testing for some of them - the results of the study will be published later, but we already know that it was worth doing it and that it looks promising. Since I was engaged in the project from the beginning, I would really like to thank Radka Kopecka for allowing us to do it during the competition, owners of the venue for providing the place to conduct the testing even though we have to move furniture around a bit, dr Natalia Kucharczyk to take such interest in our breed, partner in crime Virginie de Andrea for all the help and design below (it was used on the jump and leash that were drawn between the participants of the study)  and of course everybody who decided to have their dogs tested and was so cooperative and helpful. 

EO 2019

Ok, so a year has passed since my last post 😮. Time sure flies, lots of things have changed, including the fact that all of a sudden we have a new dog - Evo's son and brother of Zelda. His name is Puck, which we changed to Pucek somehow and he's awesome and I'll try to write more about him soon. 

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts after EO 2019. 

Well, one thing is obvious and lots of people have said it already - something has to change. EO has become an extreme competition for everybody involved and as much as I love big events (I do), I think we are dangerously close to risking people and dogs' lives with the current formula of EO. Noone can deny the climate change anymore, end of July is extremely hot and dry year after year after year, and this time it was over 40C during day and over 30C during the night. It was just horrible - even though the organisers were AWESOME and changed the schedule completely to make it safer, it was still too hot to sleep, rest, walk or do anything. Fortunately we were able to go to the lake on Friday afternoon, which I think allowed us to survive at all. I can imagine how horrible it must be also for the judges / helpers and no wonder finding good judges for this event becomes more and more difficult as it must be a challenge to get anyone in their right mind to agree to this. 

So first of all I think EO's date has to change - my idea would be end of August, so at least the nights should be cooler, people would still have holidays and it wouldn't interfere with qualis everywhere or AWC.

Secondly, I tend to agree that maybe it should be a bit smaller.... maybe quit the team part (ok, this is a bit of bias on my part and I know lots of people would disagree, but I'm not really fond of the team final formula with huge ring and four dogs running four different courses on this crazy layout... it's super difficult to follow for once and perhaps also not the best way to prepare mentally and physically for the run) or maybe limit it to 24 teams per country... but an event lasting 5 days, if you include the vet control and training, is really taking the toll on everybody, in financial, physical and mental aspect. 

And actually one good change could be the formula of trainings. Normally it's some alloted number of minutes per country and even though there was always enough time, I've always hated it. It was always really hectic, really loud and really nervous. If you had more than one dog it got ever crazier and it was almost impossible to warm up, reward and cool down properly (which we REALLY should be doing). This year they just decided to open the training rings from 5am till 11am (which was later changed to 10am since it was already quite hot). Everybody could come whenever they wanted and have one go at the training course, although the helpers were nice enough to let you correct the mistake or repeat one obstacle as long as you didn't drill it over and over. For me it was perfect - I came with Brava first, later I could cool her down, walk her, and then I took Mojo. It was calmer, more relaxed, just freaking better in every way and I think pretty much everybody who wanted, had a go and it lasted much shorter also. 

I know introducing those changes must take a while, but it would be really great if the FCI dealt with that rather than insisting on judges using the flat tunnel or forbidding the use of safe bar for the double jump. And I really hope it happens before we have some fatality. 

Otherwise, well. As I mentioned before, the organising crew was SUPERB. Really friendly, really helpful, really going out of their way to make everybody safe in the extreme heat and working really hard. Generally the progress of the competition was very smooth, some things of course were difficult because of the last of the moment changes in schedule, but all in all I think they did a great job. 

I was quite disappointed with most of the courses, especially the final courses, which IMHO were either stupid (like the contact approaches in the small individual final or the turn on the spread jump) or really boring (both the medium and large final courses). There was also a fair amount of really weird judging decisions, but let's just blame it on the weather. It must be extremely hard to stay focused for so many hours, with so many dogs on the same setup, till midnight one day and from the crack of dawn on the other, in burning heat. 

The surface was simply not maintained properly, the sand was too soft and too deep in places, most dogs, especially the smaller ones, were struggling to accellerate and even to take off appropriately. Mojo felt really slow and I still think she was actually at advantage being on the large end of small category and super muscled mini pitbull. There was also huge difference in surface between the first dogs to run the course and the last ones... 

The facilities, food etc were more than ok :) (like really, for once there was enough showers!!!). 

And when it comes to our dogs... well, I'm impressed and grateful they agreed to run in those conditions, moreover, they did it with all their usual enthusiasm and really really tried as hard as they could. We have the greatest dogs on the planet, I'm super proud of them and of our runs, even the ones with mistakes. Brava finished all courses - three clean, one with weave entry mistake and the final run with a bar - she managed to qualify for the final even, which I think at her age, after a long break and among such awesome competition is a real achievement. I'm really really grateful I could run the EO final with her one last time, it felt really special. I realised when walking to the start that she has been at EO EIGHT times, and seven times she got into the final, and two times she was on the podium... it's just an incredible, one in a billion dog and I feel so privileged to have her as my teammate 💚💙❤️💛💜🧡🖤.

Mojo was 6th in agility individual small, qualifying to the final and had 5th time there (and we lost TONS of time because of my handling mistake after the weaves, so it could have been even better) - she was amazing and I found the right amount of crazy in two of our best runs (individual agility and final).

Brego, Evo and Zelda were running with Roman - for Brego it was not the right kind of surface really, but they had some great runs, Evo decided he's too old to bother with contacts anymore (and when he jumps them, he does it with style), but otherwise was crazy, fast and loud as in good old times. Zelda is waiting for imaginary puppies and also we didn't exactly do her a favour when we decided to spend last couple of weeks before EO in Scandinavia with temperatures around 18C, she doesn't cope too well with the heat at best of times and now it was even more difficult for her. She still was quite ok for her first EO and we're are looking forward to the future :). 

Some videos of Brava:

Jumping individual:

Final:

And Mojo, individual agility:

And somewhat messy, but still awesome (on Mojo's part), final: