PDTE 2011 July Newsletter

Living with Newfoundlands
Pippa Woodward-Smith, England
I count myself very lucky to have two
lovely dogs as part of my family, both
Newfoundlands. I do not claim to be an
expert on the breed, but I thought I would
share the knowledge I have picked up in
the last three years and some of the challenges
people can face when they choose
the breed!
The one thing that those people involved
in the breed can agree on is that nobody
knows the exact origin of the Newfoundland.
However, it is thought that the breed
was developed as working dogs to assist
fishermen with towing the boats to shore
and in draught work carting loads of logs
and timber. It comes as no surprise that
the Newfoundland is well built for these
tasks, with a thick double coat with a water
resistant top coat and a fluffy insulating
undercoat. They have large webbed feet
which act very efficiently as paddles when
they swim; incidentally, when they swim
they move as if they are swimming breaststroke
and power through the water with
a level back. They grow to approximately
65 cm in height at the shoulder for an adult
female and 70 cm for an adult male, with
the females weighing approximately 55 kg
and the males 65 kg. There are three colours
recognised in the UK: black (the most
common), brown and landseer (named
after the artist Sir Edwin Landseer - white
with distinct black markings).
My older dog is a male Newfoundland
and I brought him home as a puppy at 10
weeks old and I therefore had the joys of
many of the challenges that Newf puppies
bring! I mention some of these below.
Mouthing
While most puppies mouth and try to grab
at clothing, some Newfoundlands take this
to a new level as they have a very strong
instinct to carry things in their mouths. This
instinct is clearly important for the task
they were originally bred for. However,
puppies often get over-excited with carrying
their owner’s clothing and will get far
too hyper and end up ripping and tugging
at the clothing. It didn’t take long for me
to realise that the situations most likely
to illicit this behaviour in my puppy were
exciting situations and my return (whether
in the morning, or through a new door
or after leaving the house). Once I could
predict when he was likely to do it, it was
easy to either occupy his brain prior to him
trying to mouth by scattering some of his
food on the ground or, if he was calmer,
to offer him a toy or chew to hold in his
mouth instead. I also used this to teach
him to help me with tasks such as carrying
my small plastic rubbish bin back into the
house once I emptied the garbage. Where
cues were missed, I found it very helpful
to say, “uh-huh” and then walk to the other
side of a dog gate (sometimes a challenge
with a puppy hanging onto your trousers!)
and ignore until the trousers were set free.
Jumping up
Like many puppies, Newfoundlands often
jump up at people in their desire to greet
them and lick at their faces. One thing
that is paramount in raising all puppies,
but is so clearly highlighted with Newfs, is
the need to be consistent in teaching the
puppy what behaviour you want from it as
a puppy. Newfoundland puppies are adorable
bundles of fluff about the size of fully
grown cocker spaniel and the biggest challenge
is training other people not to reward
the behaviour that you (as well as they)
will not want in the dog as an adult. I found
mostly turning my back was a very clear
signal for my puppy, although sometimes
he would grab at my clothes when I did
this and so I often used similar techniques
that I did for his mouthing behaviour.
Walking on a loose lead
Due to their size and weight as adults it
is imperative that Newfoundlands learn to
walk nicely on a loose lead. I have seen
many people allow their Newf puppies
to pull them all over the place and it is
inevitable that when the dogs are adult
they will continue to do so. As a conse-
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