Dot joins WPI scientist Jaime for her new life in central Massachusetts

Saying good-bye to littermates, Jet and Rhys

At 9 weeks, the three remaining keystone cops of the Sue x Max litter are showing their individuality. All four are 4’s on the 5 point power-intensity scale. Ideal for working dogs.

…and two pushy males.

An 8 week-old pup from a line breeding around Jenkins’ Jock is showing signs of strong eye.

This little fellow is recovering from a case of bacterial pneumonia that killed a littermate and almost killed him. Puppies with developing immune systems are vulnerable creatures, and it can be hard to spot these things early (enough). The lucky (and almost unlucky) pup in the photo is on 3 antibiotics, fluids and 24-hour monitoring. In 2 days time, he has moved from critical to stable to improving.

The veterinarian wrote:

“The way these infections almost always work is that a virus comes through and damages the protections in the nasopharynx, allowing bacteria to enter the lung and prosper, leading to your very sick puppy.  In good conditions that have low stress and plenty of air, many animals fight off the viral infection, maintain their defenses and do not get bacterial pneumonia.

Viruses to the many, bacteria to the unlucky few.”

The sadness at losing a beautiful pup is tempered by the joy of one who will recover and lead a rich, full life.

This bit of NAZI propaganda art is eerily, shockingly, appallingly, disgustingly familiar. The SA (Sturmabteilung) were Hitler’s the shock troops, a (white, nationalist) paramilitary organization that supported / enforced his consolidation of power –through fear, brutality and all forms of intimidation.

For Lenin, it was the Cheka. For Mao, it was the Red Guards. Same playbook, the common man ‘stabbed in the back’. Cults of personality rising in a weakened state and society. The difference with the NAZI’s and Trump is the ethnic component: foreigners ‘poisoning’ American blood.

Teun van den Dool has done more for those of us in the sheep dog world who breed than any one person. He developed the searchable relational pedigree database of ISDS dogs that we rely upon to generate pedigrees of existing dogs and prospective litters.

Teun has been my “go-to guy” for breeding assessments for years.

I was shocked and saddened to get this note today when making a routine request to Teun.

Some people leave the world better than they found it. Teun is one of those.

I know that Teun was at one time a practicing physicist in the Netherlands, who developed an interest in the dog world and breeding, and who then put his interest and skills as a statistician to work developing a database using the ISDS stud books and other records, a database that all of us in the sheep dog world rely upon for our pedigree information. The pedigree reports you see on dogs and litters are all the products of Teun’s work. He charged very little for pedigrees and data which is invaluable to us and not available in the same way elsewhere. He did this because he was committed to supporting the sheep dog world.

It is perhaps trite to say, but ‘Teun is a fixture in the international sheep dog world’. I don’t like to think of how it will be not to have his cheerful, prompt and knowledgeable responses at the other end of the internet exchange with his trademark signature, “enjoy reading”. His database is priceless.

I hope Teun’s work will be picked up by someone else. It needs to be. His database is the product of many, many years of Teun’s work and dedication to the sheep dog community. Teun’s life has counted for tens of thousands of us in the sheep dog world and beyond.

I am going to miss Teun personally and he has my enduring gratitude for making the sheep dog world better, every day, every dog.

THANK YOU TEUN !!

26-Aug-2025

Cool, dry air and long shadows: fall is in the air. A pair of recently turned one-year-olds.