Shetland Sheepdog Club of Northern New Jersey

11/14/2025

Meeting Friday, Nov. 7th
Nosework Presentation

11/05/2025

COMING SOON! ~ Nosework Presentation
November Meeting 11/7/2025
Gale Meadow,a UKC Nose Work Judge, and an AKC Scent Work Judge will be presenting at our next meeting. She is also a Certified Nose Work Instructor (CNWI) and has been teaching nosework since 2010 at St. Huberts Dog Training School. She competes in both AKC Scent Work and NACSW Nosework with her two Portuguese Water Dogs, Fiji & Bali. Fiji has her Elite Championship in NACSW and her overall Scent Work Master title in AKC. Bali has her Elite 1 title in NACSW and is working at the excellent and master level in AKC Scent Work. She is looking forward to sharing her love and knowledge of scentwork with our club. She will demonstrate, explain and answer any questions.
November 7th, 2025 7:30 PM
WillowGrove Church
1961 Raritan Rd, Scotch Plains, NJ

10/31/2025

Happy Halloween!

10/27/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BMPfPd17c/

*Preventing unwanted litters is a goal we all share—but it's time to rethink the surgical approach. Hysterectomies and vasectomies, which preserve hormonal balance, can safely be performed as early as 8 weeks of age, making dogs sterile without disrupting their natural hormones.

New peer-reviewed study published in Nature:

How a dog’s lifetime exposure to his own hormones (before being neutered) affects how well he handles aging and frailty later in life.

Study Background

• Frailty = when older dogs (and people) become weaker, less resilient, and more prone to illness and death.
• Most research looks at how to prevent frailty — this study looked at what makes some dogs bounce back better after frailty sets in.
• The focus was on the HPG axis — the hormonal system that produces testosterone and controls reproduction.

Key Findings

• Dogs neutered very young (before 2 years old) had:

o A much higher risk of death once they became frail.
o About 16% higher mortality for every small increase in frailty.

• Dogs kept intact longer (more than ~10 years) showed:
o No increase in mortality linked to frailty.
o Their hormones seemed to “buffer” the negative effects of aging.

• Each extra year of natural hormone exposure reduced frailty-related death risk by ~1%.

What It Means

• Hormones from the te**es may protect against the worst effects of aging later in life.
• Removing them too early could make dogs less resilient to age-related decline.
• Frailty isn’t just about getting old — it’s also shaped by early-life events like the timing of neutering.
• This supports a “life course” view: what happens early in life affects health decades later.

Why It Matters

• The study suggests timing of neutering might influence how well dogs age.

10/22/2025

COMING SOON!
Nosework Presentation
November Meeting

Gale Meadow,a UKC Nose Work Judge, and an AKC Scent Work Judge will be presenting at our next meeting. She is also a Certified Nose Work Instructor (CNWI) and has been teaching nosework since 2010 at St. Huberts Dog Training School. She competes in both AKC Scent Work and NACSW Nosework with her two Portuguese Water Dogs, Fiji & Bali. Fiji has her Elite Championship in NACSW and her overall Scent Work Master title in AKC. Bali has her Elite 1 title in NACSW and is working at the excellent and master level in AKC Scent Work. She is looking forward to sharing her love and knowledge of scentwork with our club. She will demonstrate, explain and answer any questions.

November 7th, 2025 7:30 PM
WillowGrove Church
1961 Raritan Rd, Scotch Plains, NJ

10/01/2025

If you can please attend in person. If not the ZOOM meeting link is below if you cannot be there in person. Please sign in by 7:45 PM Friday Oct 3.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81161809686?pwd=aE2FNkqdWdWLpaepx6M98tybx5nVju.1

Meeting ID: 811 6180 9686
Passcode: 502110

10/01/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Ni6dooMPH/?mibextid=wwXIfr

09/21/2025

Don’t forget to sign up for this coming weekend!

All dogs, not just shelties, are welcome to take advantage of the photo event. Link to pre-register: (pre-registration ends on 9/26)
https://ginkgo-lens-photography.studio.cloudspot.io/booking/v/be_3tndsAnvCLvPnPw2DFaYacPQ4ej4?fbclid=IwY2xjawMUCMNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBESmtlZ1dLSTFab0tLNkVBAR51qo8kZLI9yr3UTeM4k72COCnjnsu_QSjZqijAg679i30YNFrFiXaVtp_SGg_aem__WQiCBHHHvO6QyJwzVedNA

09/17/2025

Health Clinic

Dear Friends,
My name is Alison Brackman and I'm the Secretary of the Delaware Valley Havanese Club. I'm contacting you because we are hosting an all-breed health clinic in Macungie, PA on Sunday, October 26th and we will be offering BAER testing, Cardiology doppler echocardiogram, heart auscultation, and CERF eye exams.

Many of these tests are for CHIC as well as common tests for performance breeds. I know there aren't many vets/clinics that offer these tests; as such, I thought I'd share the details of our upcoming clinic with to share with your member clubs in the event their members might want to take advantage of our low-cost screening. Attached to this note is our flyer. Registration is online at https://delawarevalleyhavaneseclub.com/page-1health-clinic. That page contains registration/contact information and pricing. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the clinic chairs at [email protected] and they'd be happy to help.

With many thanks and kind regards,
Alison Brackman
Secretary
Delaware Valley Havanese Club

09/16/2025

09/16/2025

Blessing of the Animals

Join us for the Blessing of the Animals at our October 3rd meeting. All pets are welcome. Dogs must be under control at all times and leashed. Other pets should be in proper carrying cases. Blessing will be at 8 PM. Those who cannot make it, gather your animals around the computer and we will do a ZOOM blessing. Please email [email protected] for a zoom link.
Feel free to invite anyone who is interested. All are welcome!

09/02/2025

https://youtu.be/7TtKknPPtk0?si=-K0F3CcWemGrD5gw

In the premier episode of the Better Breeder Chronicles, master breeder Guy Mauldin (Kismet Shelties) reveals insights behind the creation and development of...