Is The Newfoundland Dog Newfoundland’s Best Export?

Exercise

Newfies enjoy outdoor exercise and need at least half an hour per day to maintain their mental and physical wellbeing. They love all outdoor activities , especially what they were originally bred for – their ability as strong swimmers to rescue those at sea and in peril. So they really appreciate being given the opportunity to swim regularly. And after all what could be better than watching a Newfoundland with its unique breast stroke retrieving a ball from a lake!

The Newfoundland is very strong and so also appreciate any opportunities to pull carts and love agility, flyball, herding and obedience training.

The Newfie as a companion dog for the walker or hiker is hard to beat since it comes into it’s own on long walks or hiking. And as an added bonus it can easily carry your flask and sandwiches or even a picnic hamper!

Health

Many Newfoundland dogs live happy and health lives into old age whereas others may have health issues. Therefore we list steps you can take to minimise the risk of getting a Newfoundland Puppy that is predisposed to genetic health conditions as well as health conditions that have been experienced by Newfoundland owners. Newfoundlands are prone to the following conditions:

• Cataracts
• Cherry Eye
• Elbow Dysplasia
• Hip Dysplasia
• Hypothyroidism
• Thrombopathia
• Von Willebrand’s Disease

Breeder Checklist

If you are considering adding to your family with a Newfoundland here’s a checklist to minimise the risk of choosing a puppy that’s likely to have health problems later:

1. Ask for the medical history going as far back as the great grandparents to determine if any diseases have been present in the family history.
2. Ask the breeder how you can inform them of any serious genetic disease should it occur in the lifetime of the dog. Bona fide breeders will ask you to let them know of any such diseases to help them make future breeding choices.
3. Only buy from an AKC registered breeder if you live in the USA.
4. Buy from a breeder who uses or is happy to use the AWF Puppy Contract and Puppy Information Pack (PIP): www.puppycontract.org.uk and who follows the Dog Breeding Reform Group’s (DBRG) Standard for Dog Breeding: www.dbrg.uk/the-standard-for-dog-breeding.html
5. Or alternatively a breeder who follows the Kennel Club’s Standard for Dog Breeding: Standard PDF | Guidance PDF

Newfoundlands Potential Health Conditions

Addison’s Disease

Addison’s is a rare disease caused by a dangerous fall in the body’s natural steroid levels. This condition can occur when the steroids produced by the body’s adrenal glands fail. Addison’s symptoms are difficult to pinpoint. This makes the disease difficult to diagnose. Treatment consists of using steroids to bring the natural steroid level back to normal. Diagnosing Addison’s early is critical and if so a successful outcome with steroid treatment can be expected. Hwoever Addison’s is fatal if left untreated.

Aortic Stenosis

Certain breeds are prone to this hereditary condition – mainly the Newfoundland, Boxer Dog, Golden Retriever, Rottweiler and Dogue de Bordeaux. It has also been reported though not to the same extent in the Samoyed, Bull Terrier, Mastiff, German Shorthaired Pointer, English Bulldog, German Shepherd and Great Dane.

Aortic Stenosis is the narrowing of the heart’s aortic valve either in, above or below the valve. This makes the heart work harder to push the blood from the left ventricle through the aorta and can lead to heart failure.

Often there are no visible symptoms meaning that discovery is usually made when a vet makes a routine check and finds a heart murmur. Sometimes if the condition is moderate or severe aortic Stenosis is discovered at birth. However if mild it may not be detected until the dog is 6 – 12 months old.

Symptoms of heart failure may be seen in severe cases such as coughing, lethargy, breathlessness, open-mouth breathing and fainting.

Treatment isn’t needed if the aortic stenosis is mild although your dog should be closely monitored.

Moderate to severe cases will require medication in the form of beta blockers and surgery is sometimes another option to clear the valve constriction.

Cancer

There are various forms of cancer some more serious than others that a dog can suffer from. If your dog is diagnosed with cancer it can be devastating because you may automatically assume cancer is a death sentence. However , you need to be aware that not all cancers are fatal.

Cataracts

Cataracts are common in all dogs especially older ones. Cataracts are a cloudiness of the eye that happen from changes within the lens of the eye. They prevent light from reaching the back of the eye, reducing vision and ultimately causing blindness. A variety of health issues can result in cataracts forming. Once a cataract has formed it cannot be cured unless removed by surgery. If your dog’s eyes become cloudy, the first step is to book an appointment with your vet to identify the cause since there are several possibilities.

Cherry Eye

In the corner of a dog’s eye sits a third eyelid with a tear gland you cannot see provided it is healthy. The name cherry eye is given to the condition that exposes the gland so you can see it and this condition is commonly called cherry eye because the gland looks like a small cherry.

You need to get this condition treated by a vet as soon as possible. Usually surgery is needed to pop the gland back into the correct position.

If your dog has anything at all wrong with its eyes please treat this seriously and contact your vet immediately.

Cystinuria

This condition is a genetic condition that results in a build up of the amino acid, cystine in the bladder and kidneys. Cystine crystals and/or stones then form which can block the urinary tract. Symptoms to look for are typically urinary tract infections, flank pain, hematuria and nausea. Treatment focuses on the prevention of stone formation and the relief of symptoms.

Elbow Dysplasia

This condition is a painful swelling of the elbow joint that leads to arthritis. Often it starts when the dog is 5-18 months old. Elbow Dysplasia mainly found in medium and large breed dogs and is usually hereditary. Surgery is sometimes used to alleviate the condition along with pain relief, exercise, weight management and physiotherapy.

Elbow Dysplasia is a very painful condition that can be prevented by only breeding from healthy dogs.

Some breeds are particularly susceptible to this condition and such breeds need to have a good diet and exercise regime.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is frequently hereditary and often causes seizures in dogs aged between six months and six years old. There is no cure for epilepsy. It can be controlled using drugs. Sometimes dogs that are perfectly healthy can have an epileptic fit perhaps once or twice in their lives.

Gastric Torsion

Otherwise commonly called bloat, this is a serious painful condition that requires immediate emergency treatment. It’s caused by a bloated, twisted stomach. Your dog must be treated by a vet immediately to increase their chances of survival. Obvious symptoms are a swollen and distended stomach that’s hard to the touch and retching. Dogs with this condition require immediate surgery to un-twist the stomach and even then GDV as it’s called can still prove fatal.

Breeds most at risk to this condition are large and giant breeds with deep chests.

Hip Dysplasia

This painful condition is usually inherited from one of the dog’s parents and results in abnormalities in one or both of the hip joints during puppyhood. It causes the joins to swell, eventually leading to arthritis. Hip Dysplasia can be found most often in medium to large breed dogs. The prescribed treatment is weight management, pain relief and carefully controlled exercise. If the condition is severe surgery may be needed.

Before mating two dogs it’s essential to check both for hip dysplasia to minimise the risk of passing on the condition to puppies.

Hypothyroidism

This condition is caused by underactive thyroid glands. Dogs with hypothyroidism are subject to fur loss, weight gain and low energy. The treatment is medication to replace the absent thyroid hormones. The prognosis for dogs receiving this treatment is excellent. You need to contact your vet if your dog is showing signs of hypothyroidism.

Ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligament

The first sign of a cruciate problem is limping. The cruciate ligaments attach one bone to another and can be compared to elastic that holds the knee together. A rupture to the cruciate ligament makes the knee very painful and unstable. The damage is commonly caused by turning, twisting, jumping or skidding. Cruciate ligament injuries are most common in dogs that have inherited a weakness in this area or overweight dogs.

Cruciate injuries don’t always need surgery to repair the damage. You need to contact your vet if your dog is limping so that they can assess and recommend the best form of treatment.

Thrombopathia

This is an inherited disorder characterised by excessive loss of blood from an injury or during surgery. It is caused by abnormal platelets that lead to blood at the site of an injury not clotting. If this happens to your dog he must be treated by a vet without delay to avoid him going into shock and dying. Cases of thrombopathia have been reported in Basset Hounds and in the Finnish Spitz.

Von Willebrand’s Disease

This condition prevents the blood from clotting which like hemophilia A in humans is an inherited defect. High risk breeds such as the Scottish Terrier, Doberman Pinscher, Golden Retriever, Rottweiler, Standard Poodle, German Short-Haired Pointer and Miniature Schnauzer should always be screened prior to breeding.

How to Groom Your Newfoundland

Grooming a Newfoundland is no mean feat. At 150 pounds and sometimes even more there’s a lot of coat to cover. If money is no object then you can of course use the services of a professional groomer. The more frugal or those that don’t want to entrust the care of their Newfoundland to someone else may want to groom their cuddly “big bear” themselves.

The Newfoundland has a coat with two layers – a soft, thick undercoat and a long outer coat that’s quite coarse. Both coats are water – resistant as you’d expect with this breed’s remarkable ability as a swimmer/rescuer.

Daily grooming, at least to remove mats are essential to ensure their coats and skin are in tip-top condition.

Should you choose to groom your dog yourself it’s imperative that you learn how to do so correctly. Mistakes can prove costly since you may need to take your Newfoundland to a groomer to rectify them!

How to Brush and Comb the Coat

Your busiest times for this activity are likely to be during the Spring and Autumn (Fall) because that’s when the Newfoundland’s shedding is at it’s height. During those seasons you will probably need to comb your dog daily to remove the undercoat being cast off. This is vital to maintain the condition of the coat and skin.

Remove any mats you find using a large slicker brush. The way you brush is very important – always in the way the hair grows using slow, short strokes. Use your detangling comb to free any mats you find gently and if that fails then your will need to cut the offending mat out using scissors.

Following the direction of the hair, brush the coat with a large wire-pin or firm bristle brush. Always do so gently using long strokes and start from the dog’s head, then the shoulders, along the back and finally the tail and legs.

Next use either the wire-pin brush or bristle brush on the undercoat. In this case you need to brush the undercoat against the direction of the hairs’ growth using strokes that are short and gentle.

How to Trim the Coat

Trimming your Newfoundland’s ears, feet, legs and chest can prove tricky especially if you haven’t done this before and you do need to learn to do this properly to avoid accidentally injuring your dog. Trimming your dog’s ears correctly is important to avoid a pseudomonas infection which the breed is predisposed to. You can go a long way to learn how to do this properly by a demonstration from a professional groomer using YouTube videos like the one below:

For the Newfoundland’s chest you will need to use a grooming rake to thin his coat there. You need to hold this grooming tool at a forty-five degree angle to the body. Rake his coat in the hair growth direction quite firmly. When the dead hair accumulates you need to remove it before continuing.

Trimming the feet is the next step and apart from comfort and appearance this is an important activity to avoid infections. You will need straight edged scissors for this to cut any excess fur between your dog’s toes. You may choose to use a professional groomer to avoid injury for this task which can prove to be tricky if your dog is fidgety or you are not used to doing this.

How to Bathe Your Dog

This task should only be undertaken twice a year and only when absolutely necessary to avoid removing the oils that make your Newfoundland’s coat water-resistant. Excessive bathing can lead to problems with your Newfoundland’s skin.

Only use tepid water to avoid scalding your pet, filling your bath tub with to around 8 inches depth. You may need to bribe your Newfoundland with a treat to get him into the bath! Pour water over your pet and massage it into his coat. Ideally use a shower head for this to make sure you soak this coat through.

Thoroughly massage good quality dog shampoo into his coat using just your hands or alternatively a bath mitt. Ether way works provided you take care to make sure you penetrate all areas of his coat.

Make sure you rinse all traces of the shampoo out by using a combination of the shower head and massaging his coat. This is vital since any traces left can cause drying of the coat leading to irritation of the skin.

Empty the bath and then towel dry your dog’s coat with a large towel removing as much water as possible. Finally use a hair dryer set at low heat to complete drying his coat.

Other Important Grooming Tasks

How to Trim a Newfoundland’s Nails

Trimming any dog’s nails should only be undertaken by a professional groomer, veterinarian or the dog’s owner provided he or she has had proper training. Trimming your Newfoundland’s nails is without doubt the most difficult grooming task. It’s fraught with danger since it’s so easy result in bleeding and pain. Generally a Newfoundland’s nails will need to be trimmed each month.

How to Check Your Newfoundland’s Ears

Your dog’s ears will need to be checked daily for any signs of infection or inflammation. At the first of scratching his ears or shaking his head you need to take your dog to your veterinarian for an examination.

How to Clean Your Dog’s Ears

Newfoundlands are prone to ear infections such as Pseudomonas. This bacterial infection is extremely difficult to treat so prevention by cleaning your dog’s ears once a month is essential. Using a dog ear cleanser you need to squirt the prescribed number of drops into the ear canal. then you need to massage gently for around 10 seconds to make sure it’s evenly distributed. You then need to remove any dislodged dirt or ear wax and remaining cleanser using cotton balls.

Nutrition

Newfoundland Puppies

The golden rule is to follow the breeder’s diet recommendations and continue with the diet they have been offering your Newfoundland puppy. Changing any puppy’s diet suddenly can lead to stomach upsets. If you do want to change your puppy’s diet do so gradually over say a week. The weight of your puppy up until 6 months old should increase by roughly 3 -4 pounds per week. It’s important that you prevent your puppy from becoming overweight since this can damage the growth of his legs and joints. The acid test is you should be able to feel all the ribs when you run your hand along the ribcage. Always buy the best quality food for your puppy consisting of 24 percent protein and 15 percent fat to support their growth. Remember your puppy does not need milk after 8 weeks old.

Newfoundland Adults & Seniors

The Newfoundland does well on any high quality dog food you prepare your self or manufactured reputable brands. The recommended amount of quality dry food per day is 4-5 cups, divided into two meals. Your Newfoundland’s diet will of course vary according to their stage in life (adult or senior). You can use treats for training as longs as you avoid giving too many because this could lead to obesity. Some Newfoundlands can become obese so always be aware of the relationship between calorie consumption, exercise and weight. Some human foods are toxic to dogs so make sure you know what these are so you don’t give them to your dog or allow access to them. You can weigh your dog at your local veterinarian and ask his advice for maintaining a healthy weight. The Newfoundland because it’s a large deep chested breed is prone to bloat which means the gut twists trapping air in the stomach. This leads to the blood supply being cut off to vital organs and if not operated on immediately to untwist the gut is often fatal. Although the cause of bloat is not known how to minimise the risk is. And that advice is to feed small meals per day and avoid vigorous exercise before at least an hour before and an hour after meal times.

Waggly Dogs recommends this dog bed to ensure your Newfoundland has a good night’s sleep.

Recommended Toys

• Chuck It! Rubber Ball Dog Toy
• Kong Extreme Goodie Bone
• Kong Extreme Original Chew Toy
• Outward Hound Interactive Puzzle
• Nylabone Pacifier Teething Toy
• Kong Puppy Stages Stick Cleaning Toy
• Zippy Paws Skinny Pelts Three Pack

Training Your Smarty-Pants Newfoundland

The Newfoundland is a member of the working dog breed group. Dog breeds in this group share certain traits. According to the AKC ” dogs of the Working Group are intelligent, strong, watchful, and alert. Bred to assist man, they excel at jobs such as guarding property, pulling sleds and performing water rescues. Doberman Pinschers, Siberian Huskies and Great Danes are part of this Group, to name just a few.”

Any similarities between your Newfie and one of these other members of the working dog group end there as you’ll discover as soon as you welcome your cute fur ball into your home.

That should not come as any surprise to you because you chose the Newfoundland because of their quirkiness – didn’t you? I hope so otherwise you are in for some big surprises not to mention potentially big bills for repairing damage to your furniture and fittings!

The good news is properly trained and socialized your Newfoundland can become a paragon of virtue! Well perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit maybe it would be fairer to say that you can expect your home contents insurance premium to increase slightly rather than substantially post Newfie.

Every Newfie’s personality is different so getting to know your oh so huggable puppykins is paramount before training begins. By all means start with finding out about what you can expect from the Newfoundland breed in general. I hope you have done that already before making the decision to invite him to become a member of your family – after all forewarned is forearmed!

Next you need to home in on those nuances that make your dog who he is, otherwise known in human terms as his authentic self.

If you had the opportunity of observing your Newfie interacting with his litter mates this will have given you some pointers already.

Is your Newfie a dominant character for instance or does your Newfie always seek your approval?

Perhaps your Newfie is a fun Newfie who takes great delight in clowning around or perhaps your Newfie is a rather sombre retiring character? – VERY UNLIKELY!

Is your Newfie a chilled out Newfie or one that tears around your home looking for his next adventure?

Whatever your Newfie’s personality you need to start training him from day one and thereafter every single day to make sure your Newfie can lead a happy, fulfilling life.

How To Find Out How To Train Your Newfie

Thanks to the Internet there’s no shortage of “how to’s” out there. Remember though it’s ultimately your decision and responsibility on how to train your Newfie:

If you don’t feel confident in undertaking your Newfie’s training all by yourself you may wish to use the services of an accredited dog trainer – ideally someone who has some experience of training Newfoundlands.

Don’t Be Let Boredom Creep In

Remember that training your Newfie should offer variety. The Newfie is a highly intelligent breed who needs mental stimulation and for that reason you may find your Newfie’s attention starts to wain after a few minutes of using a command like “Stay.”

You can avoid this happening by closely observing your dog to check that he is still focused. It also helps if you don’t use same command for longer than 10 minutes or until you see that his attention has gone whichever happens first.

Train Your Newfie Everywhere

Training your Newfie shouldn’t be reserved for a training class or in the comfort and quiet of your own home. All dogs need to be socialised and that needs to be done from day one. This means every situation can and should be viewed as a training opportunity.

This means taking your Newfie to the park, on walks, to the shops or any places that you frequent. Meeting other people and other dogs is a crucial part of the Newfie’s training and socialization program. It allows you to socialize too as you will find there is no better people magnet than a Newfie!

Do You Have The RMA?

How do you feel about training your Newfie? Do you see training a necessary evil or an opportunity to have fun with your Newfie?

Having the RMA or right mental attitude is key to achieving any task in life and perhaps none more so than training your Newfie. Remember that your fluffy friend is ultra sensitive to your feelings and he will soon detect if you are viewing training as a tiresome chore and switch off.

So try to always view your Newfie’s training as a fun activity for you and him!

Training For Life

How long do you think training your Newbie Newfie should last – a month, two months, 6 months or perhaps until he’s a year old? The fact is training should be a continuous activity all your Newfie’s life!

Your reward will be a happy dog that’s safe everywhere you take him because he will obey your commands.

Have a Fun Time

Living with a Newfie demands you see every situation as an opportunity to have fun. I would suggest that apart from having love in your life (something you will certainly have with your Newfie) having a sense of fun comes next. What could be better than sharing your life with a dog who appears to think his only purpose in life is to find ways to make you laugh!

Get You And Your Newfie Into A Routine

You really need to train your Newfie every day using the same method you have chosen whether that be positive reinforcement , clicker, relationship based training etc.

When using treats only use them for training NOT for any other purpose and make sure that everyone in your household is aware of and use the same commands that you use.

Practise What Your Professional Trainer Preaches

Make the most of your investment in training classes for your Newfie by continuing to practise what you learn in training classes each and every day.