HEALTH-TESTING YOUR EURASIER

Why should you heath-test your Eurasier, even though s/he seems completely healthy?

Well, there are lots of benefits from health-testing, not just for your own dog but also for the breed as a whole.

·       It is important to know the state of your dog’s joints so that if there are problems, you can adjust your dog’s life accordingly and allow it to enjoy it to the full.

·       Your dog will also benefit from you knowing whether they have developed, or are in the process of developing, any conditions such as hypothyroidism, so you can act swiftly to ensure your dog maintains the best possible quality of life.

·       You may have promised your breeder to undertake health tests as part of your puppy contract.

·       Testing would have the additional benefit of giving your breeder a good insight into the health status of their breeding stock, so that they can best ensure they are producing healthy puppies.

·       You may have already paid a health-deposit that would cover much of the cost.

·       Finally, your club’s Code of Ethics might require the parents of your dog to return good health results in their puppies before they can be bred again.

Hopefully you will agree that our wish is to breed dogs that will, to the best of our knowledge, have bright futures and live long and healthy lives. If so, you would certainly expect your breeder to have undertaken all the recommended tests on the mother, and the stud dog owner to have done the same on their male. These results do give us a lot of information, but this really is the minimum. The more we know about the health of the relatives of dogs that are being bred, the greater is our knowledge of what is likely to be carried by the parents of a litter. This is a bit like in humans, when diseases in close relatives increase your risk to develop them. Therefore, even if you have no plan to breed your dog, please, please do get your dog health-tested; it’s important in so many ways!

• What can you do VERY easily and (usually for FREE) – at any visit to the vets: 

    Check: patella (for luxation), eyes (ectropion, entropion and distichiasis/double eyelashes)

• What can you do EASILY (cost about £120)– at any visit to the vets: 

    Check: Patella, eyes, a LARGE Thyroid panel (including TgAA antibodies)

• If you can, please get your dog’s large joints (hips and elbows) checked as well. 

    This will need SEDATION only and not anaesthesia (!) and could cost from £350 - £500, so         shopping around is a good idea

FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE, PLEASE SEND RESULTS TO YOUR BREEDER AND OUR BREED HEALTH COORDINATOR (for entry into the international Eurasier health database, unless you ask for it to be kept confidential)

All the recommended/required tests are also listed here: https://www.southerneurasierassociation.co.uk/thinking-of-breeding

Our recently published ‘Looking for a puppy’ page on the SEA website can give you more information on health deposits and health-testing in Eurasiers, as can the dedicated ‘Health’ page. However, we have a vast range of experience within our community of members and our committee, and we are all willing to help where we can. If you have questions about health-testing, health deposits or anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

At the upcoming AGM, there will be lots of opportunity to chat about health tests, so please come and fire away!  

Boo & Charlotte

Before Boo came to live with us, I decided - determined as I was to be an excellent dog owner – that I would read lots of books on the subject. I don’t recall their titles now, but my memory of them was that their advice varied from ‘all you need to do is love your dog and everything will be ok’ through to ‘you must completely dominate your dog as they thrive in hierarchies and woe betide you if you are not the alpha dog in your pack’. If you knew me, you would know which of these I would incline towards. Let’s just say, I love to love. 

I was beyond excited that Boo was going to be our puppy. I say ‘our’ but to be honest, she was to be mine. My husband Gary was very willing to go along for the ride, but the deal was that she would be my charge. I was to be her owner / companion / teacher / best friend. And I don’t think I’ll be ruining this story to note that in the end she was, of course, all those things to me.

I will never ever forget the day we went to collect her. We had met her a few weeks before and she was cute beyond measure. Beautiful, and daft, and glorious, and a total heart-melter. Anyone who’s met a Eurasier puppy will know exactly what I mean. I felt honoured and excited – and was armed with all my reading. And I was also aware that we were about to take her away from her mum. I was thrilled and over the moon, but I felt for her. 

 

I felt for her all the way home, while she cried and climbed under the car seats and peed repeatedly on Gary’s lap. (I’m the designated driver in our household) I felt for her while she cried for her mum and siblings that first night, so forlornly, I almost drove her back to Brigitte! And I continued to feel for her while we slowly got to know each other and became increasingly entwined. Me and my Boo. And Boo with her Charlotte. (I know that second statement may sound trite and anthropomorphic, but that is how it felt.)

 

There were times when her judgement was way off. Like when she would charge at other dogs in the park no matter how large and quite obviously unfriendly they were. (A phase, thank goodness.) And there were times when my judgement was way off. Like when I thought I might prefer it if she didn’t sleep in our room! 

She chewed shoes and wallets, and I thought no dog would be so stupid as to run up to horse and nip at its hind legs. Our efforts to walk each other on a lead reduced us both to tears I think, and I definitely cried in those first couple of weeks, when she resolutely refused to let me go to the loo without destroying something in my brief absence. There were times I wondered what on earth I’d done, and there were times when she probably thought the same.  One Saturday quite early on I remember spending the whole day cooking homemade food for her, only for her to sniff at the bowl and walk off. I could disappoint. And on a few occasions, she did too. But my god, I loved her. I absolutely adored her. And as any wise dog owner will tell you. It’s never them that’s the problem, it’s always you. 

 

She continued through all the years to be utterly beautiful, adorably daft, yet gloriously wise, always a complete heart-melter – and also a wonderful mother herself. 

And….. well, I think I might stop there. I’m afraid we know how this story ends. And the hole in my life left by her absence continues to be as wide and as deep and as true as the love I felt for her. In the end, that first book was right. And my, how lucky am I to have been Boo’s Charlotte. 

Walks to Build Bonds and Increase Calm Behaviour

 By Barry Woods ('Mr Bones')

 A few years ago, my Eurasier, Balthazar, was the most challenging adolescent I’d ever encountered. A real handful! Recently, I was delighted when we were complimented on how nicely he responded to me. I believe these improvements have come about by consistently bringing fun interaction into our walks. 

 

I recommend thinking of a walk as containing four quadrants that increase responsiveness, promote calm and build a great bond between you and your dog. These quadrants are interspersed liberally throughout the walk, don’t worry about focussing on each one individually. 

 

I tend to teach new activities at home with fewer distractions, then gradually take them outside to quiet locations. You’ll find that once your dog really understands what’s going on, and has had lots of practice, the techniques will become second nature in new and stimulating environments.

Games with You

Devote time on the walk to playing with your dog, finding games that they love. I avoid high-arousal games that release extra adrenaline, such as repetitive ball chasing. This is because adrenaline is a stress hormone that impairs learning and prevents our dogs from making good choices! They are far more likely to run off, ignore you, chase wildlife when already amped up on adrenaline.

These are some of the games that we play:

 

Find It! – Simply scatter treats into the grass and ask your dog to “Find It”, praise for finding them. Sniffing and seeking lowers adrenaline and releases calming endorphins. It is highly enriching and also tiring. When your dog understands the “Find It” cue you can make the game more difficult. Ask your dog to find one treat, when they’re searching for it throw a second so they can’t see where it lands. Praise for finding the first then immediately ask to “Find It” so they need to use their nose to locate the second. Don’t interfere while your dog is searching, only help if your dog stops and looks to you for assistance.

 

Cheesy Trees – amaze your dog with your ability to find the amazing trees that grow cheese! Mild cheddar is great for squishing and sticking. I squash three small pieces around a tree at slightly different heights to encourage my dog to search up and down. Recall your dog and then give the “Find It” cue. You’ll be surprised how your cheese finding skills start to improve your dog’s recall.

 

Doggy Parkour – we know how our Eurasiers love to climb. Encourage them onto tree stumps or benches, lure them up with a treat if necessary. Teach them to jump over logs by following a treat initially, put it on cue, “Over!”. Eventually work on your “Wait” and then cue them “Over!”. Dogs under 18 months shouldn’t be encouraged to do too much jumping as their growth plates won’t have closed. We can teach them to commando crawl under benches by asking for a “Down” and then luring them along while in that position.

 

Hide ‘n’ Seek – pop behind trees when your dog isn’t looking, wait for them to notice you’re no longer there and then call them. You’ll find they start checking in a lot more often when they realise you can disappear! 

 

Fun Training

Be sure to put some fun training into your walk to build value for when you really need it. Keep it light, remember training is something we do WITH our dogs, not TO our dogs. It should be enjoyable for both of you.

 

Recall – scatter lots of mini-recalls throughout your walk, especially when your dog is most likely to succeed. Reward highly then tell your dog to go play again. Don’t make the mistake of only using recalls to call your dog away from fun, this will make your recall toxic. Avoid asking your dog to sit when they return as you will then be rewarding the sit, not the recall.

 

Wait – build lots of value in your waits outside. Start in very low distraction environments. You may need to just build some duration before even trying to move away. I love to join up our skills so will combine waits with recall, or call my dog into heel position and reward for walking to heel, or simply return to him to reward for remaining still. 

Can you teach my favourite, a stand/wait? I love working in the stand position, when dogs are on all four paws they’re more likely to do something undesirable.

 

Spin/Twist – lure your dog in a circle with a treat, reward when they complete the circle. Repeat this a few times, then move your empty hand as though you still have a treat in it. When the dog completes the circle reward from your other hand. You have now taught a spin to a hand signal. Teach a twist by turning the dog in the other direction, you don’t want a dizzy dog!

 

Distance work – when your dog really responds to the three positions outside, (sit, down, stand), then try giving your cues one step further away from them. Once successful, try two steps away. Over time build your distance so your dog learns to respond when you’re a couple of metres away.

 

Settle

Spend some time just sitting and relaxing, read a book, look at your phone, check out from your dog. We want them to learn to be calm while you’re busy doing something else. Teach them to settle close to you by keeping them on lead. I often just step on the lead. You may have to reward calm behaviour intermittently at first. I do this by just placing a treat without looking at my dog. I try to do this when he’s not looking at me as I don’t want the exercise to be about anticipating food. As always, set your dog up for success. Start teaching this somewhere quiet. I start all of my training at home before taking it to different locations, gradually increasing distractions.

 

Let a dog be a dog!

Our final, and highly important, quadrant is to simply let a dog be a dog. Give them time to sniff, take in their environment, explore, run off-lead, visit new locations. Watching my dog doing what he enjoys brings me most joy on my walks.