I attended the Canine Reproduction and Whelping seminar by Myra Savant-Harris yesterday at the Basset Hound Club of American National Specialty at The Little Creek Casino.
First of all, I would of never thought a casino for a dog show but the site was very nice! The show is being held indoors in the Casino Event Center, there is plenty of parking and grassy areas to walk the dogs outdoors. The Casino has a beautiful hotel just across the parking lot from the event center and is right off the freeway. I couldn’t really believe the amount of bassets there! If you would like to see some Bassets their specialty is 5 days long, officially starting today Oct 5th till October 9th.
The seminar was held in the hotel in one of the conference rooms, the hotel is very large and there were no directions on the seminar registration form and the hotel staff kept pointing us to the show site. After “touring” the entire hotel to find it we finally got settled.
Very nice room, comfortable and well lit which are important when your in there from 9am till 5pm !!!! Overall I liked the seminar and would highly recommend it for first time or new breeders.
According to Myra she normally does a two day seminar but for this event she was requested to put it all in one day. Since I have oodles of experience in this arena it was easy for me to follow and frankly there was little to no new information to me but I did attend with two young would-be breeders who were alittle lost at times and had quite a few questions after the seminar. For newbies I would recommend that you attend one of her two-day seminars and perhaps even read her books prior to the seminar so you have a foundation to start with.
Myra did a great job of explaining the importance of environment on fertility and health of breeding dogs and bitches, I especially liked the way she explained the heat cycle in the bitch using laymen terms. Myra recommends the Fertile Focus as a means to determine estrogen peak in the bitch, which supposedly indicates ovulation in 5 days. Combining the Fertile Focus with progesterone testing to determine optimum breeding was her recommendation. Myra also presented her opinions on sperm survivability and timing for optimum breeding depending on fresh, chilled or frozen sperm which would be helpful for any breeder to understand.
Most of the information and products she recommended and sold I agreed with, the only point of contention I had was her opinions on diet and their relation to c-sections. Myra was passionate about the effects of too much calcium given to bitches which therefore lead to high incidence of uterine inertia (failure of the uterus to contract or expel a puppy/ dystocia) and therefore led to the need for more c-sections.
Part of her theory is correct calcium is related to muscle performance and too much calcium is not healthy for dog or bitch. Myra took it further by explaining that she felt all bitches on raw feed diets were at higher risk for c-section because “raw diets are too much bone”. I hate to say it, but this is just mis-information, I spoke with Myra specifically about this and while she couldn’t give me any direct citations to studies she did share that she had plentiful antedoctal sources from toy breeders that were feeding chicken wings only, calcium tabs and yogurt that when they switched to a mid-grade kibble their incidence of c-sections went down.
I could write several novel length blogs to dissect the nutritional components of her seminar but in an effort to be brief I will say that many things can and do go wrong when pet owners switch to a raw diet, the reason they go wrong (in my opinion) is lack of education and understanding! Why would you feed a toy dog chicken wings only ? and add calcium tabs ? of course that is too much bone/calcium! The foundation of a feeding a BARF diet is VARIETY!!! Why Variety ? To ensure that no one mineral, amino acid or nutrient is overlooked or provided for in-correctly. VARIETY !
Myra also indicated and I agree that dogs are opportunistic feeders, carnivorous but opportunistic in nature. Yes, that is true and what do opportunistic feeders have ? VARIETY.
What does a well thought out raw diet provide ? VARIETY.
If your concerned about your raw diet then you should consult with a veterinary nutritionist and take the time to evaluate what it is exactly you are providing your dog. Myra indicated that she fed her cavalier 3 chicken wings a day along with mixed veggies, now I don’t know which veggies but the chicken wing is one of the highest bone ratio pieces of a chicken! Add calcium tabs to that and I bet her Cavalier had too much calcium. If other toy breeders are following that same incorrect raw feeding methodology then I can understand that they are probably having health problems not only whelping problems.
In closing, because I have stop at some point, I give the seminar high marks and still recommend it and definitely recommend her books and products. I only have contention with the nutritional component of her seminar. I think that all breeders or dog owners who are thinking about breeding should attend one if able!
If you would like to learn more about Raw Feeding which when done correctly is indeed healthy visit:
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