We are very excited to inform PON owners and breeders of our new health survey which was recently mailed out to every PON owner in the United States whom we have an address for. If you fail to receive one in the coming days, please email us at ponparadise@coloradoweb.com and we will send you one immediately! While this mailing was done at our own expense we felt this was such a worthwhile project that it was imperative we start the task of gathering health information on our beloved PON from everyone willing to devote some time to helping us track health data.
While Karen and Susan are both members of the American Polish Owczarek Nizinny Club (APONC) we know there are many PON owners who, for various reasons, do not belong. Therefore, in order to give every PON owner the opportunity to submit information in a "non-political" environment we decided to put together a long overdue survey of the current health issues of the breed.
We sincerely hope PON owners will feel comfortable submitting information to us - so let us give you our backgrounds so that you will be assured of our utmost integrity.
Susan Stekoll has a BS in Nursing, a Masters degree in Community Health Nursing and a Post Graduate fellowship in mental retardation/developmental disabilities. As a nurse, she is accustomed to patient confidentiality of all medical records. She is also acquainted with looking at the needs of an entire population rather than the needs of the individual from her background in community health. Further, her experience in working with retarded/delayed individuals has given her a strong working background of genetic disorders. Currently, she has three wonderful dogs, a 13 year old bearded collie mix who has lupus and is dysplastic, as well as two PONs, mother and son, ages 7 and 3. She has bred two litters of PON puppies to date under the kennel name DarBozy PONs.Karen Willson has extensive computer knowledge including database management and statistical analysis derived from her ten years of experience as an Administrative Assistant at Lockheed Martin Corporation. She has three PONs, ages 4, 2 and 2.
Steve Willson (Karen's husband) is our "advisor" and is presently employed with Lockheed Martin Corporation, a major Defense Department contractor, in a supervisory capacity as an Electrical Engineer. He has extensive computer experience in many disciplines and we rely on his technical expertise to help us with data analysis and database programming.
Our survey is the cornerstone of our proposed "semi-open" registry. Semi-open meaning that we highly encourage the submittal of the owners name, dog's name, sire and dam of the dog, and the breeder's name, whether or not you intend to breed your dog but the information received will be held in the strictest confidence - NO ONE will have access to this information without the PON owner's written permission. In order to accomplish better health in future PON generations we feel it is extremely important that as many people as possible submit ALL of this data to us for the following reasons:
1) We do not want to repeat information that is already recorded in the database; we hope to distribute this health survey on a yearly basis so that we may continuely record new information and be able to track what progress we are making and which areas we need to work more diligently on (or which areas acquire professional assistance such as locating specific genetic markers for illnesses which are particularly distressful in the breed). Without names of dogs meaningful progress cannot be tracked and dogs may inadvertently be submitted more than once leading to inaccurate recordkeeping.
2) We intend to follow-up on all health problems that arise. If we do not have the owner's name and the dog's name we cannot contact the owner to screen the responses given. Here is an example of why this is important. A breeder friend recently got a call from a buyer of one of her puppies. The puppy buyer was very upset because her dog was diagnosed with a condition believed to be genetic in origin and wanted her money back from the breeder. When the breeder contacted her veterinarian to inquire as to the possible cause of this particular condition she was appalled to learn that this condition was linked to the use of certain pesticides as well as being a genetic disorder. The very pesticide that she had used in her yard and which her pregnant bitch had walked on! Consequently, it could not be assumed that the disease was truly a genetic one when in all probability the pesticides had contributed to the disease. Without careful follow-up by the breeder, this puppy would have been entered into the survey database incorrectly as having a genetic disease!
3) Dr. George A. Padgett, highly respected veterinary pathologist at Michigan State University and one of the founders of the Institute for Genetic Disease Control in Animals, presents numerous seminars to pure breed dog clubs throughout the country citing "the need for open record keeping which will report all evaluations (abnormal as well as normal) as being essential to health improvement in a colony of dogs or a breed as a whole". Further, Dr. Padgett states, "It is the obligation of the breeder to register all animals that are known or potential carriers with an appropriate open disease registry".
4) In order to make wise breeding choices it is essential that breeders know the health history of the dogs they wish to mate. Without this they are merely guessing at what they will produce!
We are grateful to the following breeders who are endorsing our health survey as a positive and necessary step in the improvement of the breed:
Because the PON is a long-haired breed with a dense undercoat, it is important to establish a grooming routine from the time your puppy is brought home from the breeder. Using a table, whether it be a professional groomer's table or a waist high table with a non-skid mat, is good for three reasons. It will save you from getting a severe backache, and your dog will learn that being placed on the table means it's time to be groomed not to play. This will also make it much easier for the dog and the professional groomer should you decide to hire someone to do the job. As an alternative, you may lay the dog on his side while you proceed first with one side and then the other. A non-skid mat is important because if the table surface is slick, the dog will slide which can cause him to panic.
Before you begin to groom your dog, gather all the tools you will need to do the job: a good quality metal comb, a pin brush and your detangler and /or spray conditioner. On puppies, a small slicker brush can be used over most areas. Be careful to use gentle easy strokes and keep your groom time to a minimum at first. Use the comb to do the puppies face and legs. PONs of any age hate to have their legs and feet handled so it's a good idea to be especially gentle on those areas. Handle your puppies feet regularly so they get used to the touch. This will make it less distressing to the puppy when the hair starts to grow longer and you must spend more time grooming the feet. As the puppy gets older the comb and pin brush will be used predominantly as the slicker brush tends to remove the fine undercoat which is not desireable. Begin by spraying your slicker or pin brush with a fine mist of either water or a conditioning product. First go over the coat with the pin brush to remove any loose hair. Brush the coat in the opposite direction of how it grows. Then take your comb and gather small sections, gently combing each section starting from the tips and working toward the base of the hair shaft to remove any matts. If you encounter any tiny fuzzies too small to remove with the comb, you can remove these gently with your slicker. Work across the dog in rows so as not to miss any spots paying special attention to the arm pits, chest and stomach areas.
If you come across any tough to remove matts, you can try spraying the matt with one of the many matt detanglers on the market to help in its removal. Some people use a coupon-cutter or seam ripper to make several slits in the matt starting near the skin to break it up. This helps to remove the matt more easily but can also remove more of the coat so may not be an appropriate method for the groomer of show dogs.
Not all PONs require the same
amount of grooming time! Mostly black and mostly grey PONs seem
to be the easiest to groom as their undercoat tends to be less
dense. Cream/tan PONs are moderately difficult to main. White
and chocolates have the most dense undercoats and take much more
time to maintain. Of course, clipping your PON down in a "puppy
cut" keeps groom time down to a minimum. The condition of
the coat also makes a difference in the amount of groom time.
While I have not added it to my puppies' diets (discuss this with
your vet) the use of products such as "Bioderma", "Lipiderm"
or other food supplements containing omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids
can make a major difference in the coat and skin condition of
your dog. This virtually ELIMINATED the itching and paw licking
Casper experienced and dramatically decreased the amount of time
it takes me to groom her. Remember to use these products as directed
- more is not better and can do more harm than good.
There is an article about canine coat and skin which goes into
alot of detail about proper bathing techniques with an overview
on grooming products to use for a beautiful show coat at: http://www.duurstede.ca/articles.html.
It's worth a look.