dijon

What are French Mastiffs known for?

Their formal name is Dogue De Bordeaux - they did a lot of farm work, so guarding the farm and pulling carts. They can actually herd, I’ve had a few of my dogs get herding instinct tests done on them. They had a great deal of trouble resurrecting the breed after the second world war because they’re from France. Those folks had a tough time feeding themselves never mind feeding big dogs, so it wasn’t a priority. There were a couple of dedicated enthusiasts that brought them back. But because there were so few to regenerate the breed, they have a lot of health problems - they’re quite inbred. There was a small group in France and a few small groups in other countries but still, they have a lot of heart and cancer problems because there was such a small initial gene pool.

What goes into preparing for a show like the Westminster Dog Show?

Prepping really happens all year. You want to enter some well attended shows and see how your dogue does against the top contenders. You want to keep your dog in good shape both physically and mentally - ensuring they have downtime to relax off the road. And make sure that you keep the bond with your dog as strong as possible ... they are your pet first and a competitor second - so lots of fun activities.

The actual ring time at the show is mainly based on the fact that every purebred dog has a standard that describes physically, and in some cases mentally and psychologically, what that dog is supposed to look like. Height, width, head shape, eye position, eye colour, the way the ears sit, everything about them. If they should have a nice broad tail, all kinds of stuff. So you read through that and it tells you what the ideal Bordeaux should look like. When they’re being evaluated in the ring - in theory - they aren’t being evaluated against each other, they’re being evaluated against the standard. And whoever exemplifies the standard to the furthest degree wins. The whole idea of pure breed dog shows is to evaluate breeding stock. Back in the day when people used these dogs for actual work, a dog show was the opportunity to pick a best of breed, then pick the best of breed of the opposite sex. So, in the judge’s opinion, the two best dogs to procreate. It was all about procreating to get the job done, look the same, behave the same...the whole idea of purebred dogs is that there is predictability.

Knowing now that there’s a standard to place at a show, were you surprised when Obi won best breed?

Not really - he is a lovely example of the breed. He won Westminster in 2020 and in 2018, 2019 and 2020 he was #1 in Canada - Dogue De Bordeaux in Canada. There aren’t as many shows in Canada so I wanted to go to the states because there’s more competition. There are all these high powered handlers (and me and a handful of other owner handlers) and he still won, which is really awesome. The way dog shows work is they evaluate a breed within a group. French Mastiffs or Dog De Bordeaux belong to the ‘Working Group’ which includes Mastiffs, Bull Mastiffs, Cane Corsos, Doberman Pinschers, Great Danes, all the big working dogs are all in a group. So whichever dog wins the breed, then they get all 30 of those breed winners in the Working Group, and then they pick the top four. So over those two+ years of showing him, I showed Obi to about 45 group placements. The judges were able to see past my handling lack of prowess, and see the dog. 45 placements is considered very good for a rare dog breed.

Aren’t they dolls? I also have his mom and his sister at home.

No way! You have the whole family? 

Oh yeah. Obi is my co-own with his breeder Kris Munday, so Cyd and Cosmo are the offspring and I have Juice, Juice is the mom. It’s funny right? These two were best pals on Turner and Hooch. One of the things that the trainer did was give them rewards in different ways, food, attention, toys, whatever. So they awoke in them a desire to play tug with toys. Which creates a bit of jealousy so I think they’re going to be fine together but I’ll wait for them to decompress before we reintroduce them since their mom and sister are in season right now ... and the boys don’t distinguish family members.

When did you realize they could be stars in Turner & Hooch?

It was interesting, I was contacted by a woman named Flo Crisco who works out of Calgary who’s an animal trainer/coordinator. When they decided they wanted to do a series based on the movie, producers started looking across Canada for Bordeaux owners. It’s not like putting out a call for German Shepherds or Golden Retrievers. The producers figured they’d have to start from scratch, so they Googled Dogue De Bordeaux and whoever came up, they called. They must have seen that Obi won at Westminster because that was very attractive to them. I have yet to see any promo material where they’ve made use of that except for when they first introduce the five dogs. They contacted me and I was like ‘okay, my dogs do confirmation, and Obi’s been all across the country both the US and Canada so he’s got lots of life experience. It took them quite a while to get their ducks in a row that his son Cyd then became old enough to go too. They were asking “how old is his son now?” And I said about 11 months old, which was perfect for them to train. They already knew they wanted him back for Season 2, so they had his life planned out. They wanted to make sure the dogs were healthy so they did echocardiograms on their hearts and panels just to make sure. They passed with flying colours and so we went into negotiation. They purchased the other three dogs so mine were the only two that were leased. For a little while there they were just talking about purchasing because it’s less expensive than leasing. They finally decided they liked dealing with me, apparently, I’m pretty easy to get along with (sometimes) and they wanted the boys to come out. I signed the contract before they even met them.

Did the cast get along well on Turner & Hooch?

Yes. All I know that is ‘scandalous’ and it’s not even, is just that the main actor isn’t a dog person. So when Tom Hanks did the original movie in 1989 he was rolling around on the ground with dogs, he was visiting them off set, giving them treats … 

Of course he was.

Right? He’s a good guy and established a good bond with them. Josh Peck, the new star isn’t a dog person so it took him a little while to realize ‘I’m going to get back out of them what I put into them.’ He figured it out but initially, he just thought they were actors that would come up to do their job. If you’ve created a bond and you’re shooting a scene, they’re going to be like “yaaaaay!” It’s not like he did anything wrong, he just didn’t understand how important the chemistry was, so once he figured out that if he gave them pats and cookies they would come around to him.

What was day-to-day like on set?

They would get the script and then pinpoint what different behaviours were required and practice them, they called that prepping. They got the dogs ready and good at what they needed to do. Once they were all ready to do that particular scene, it was probably a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’. All five dogs would be present on set and they would use whoever seemed to have the right energy level or which dog had the talent to do which actions - Cyd was good at the controlled stuff. If he was feeling a little bit like “meh I’m a little tired I don’t really feel like doing it today,” then maybe they’d get Hammer to do it, or Obi to do it. The dogs were Arnie, Hammer, Mimi, Obi and Cyd. They had a robot dog - I saw your eyes light up, it’s not that fantastic. It was a fake dog that looked like them, so if they were doing car chases or crashes they wouldn’t endanger the dog. They actually used Cyd to create a CGI dog. He had to go in a booth and it was the freakiest thing ever - no other dog wanted to go in, with only a foot around him, floor to ceiling lights and cameras. They’d rotate cameras around taking pictures, for the same purposes that they used the robot dog. If people are shooting or yelling and screaming on set, you don’t want to have a dog present because they don’t know it’s acting, they think people are yelling at them. 

Well they’re superstars!

It’s been two weeks since they came back. It’s a big change, I think he remembers me but they were 24/7 with their trainers so now it’s different for them, they need time to decompress. I met the coordinator and three trainers and saw where they’d be living and I felt very comfortable. I had been chatting with the coordinator for months - she’s very well respected. I got to go back out to Vancouver to pick them up. I’m not sure why but one of the props they made was a 7 or 8 foot tall Cyd with a sombrero. One of the scenes was at an ‘avocado festival’ so they actually had them in avocado costumes. I guess they made a huge cut out Cyd from that day and I was like, “I want that. I don’t care how we get it, I’ll steal it - I want it.” So they were kind enough to have one made for me - it had to fit in the car so it’s only 6 feet tall and it doesn’t have a sombrero. We’ll have to see what the scenes will be like when it comes out.

Is there any prep that needs to happen in terms of food for a big show like Turner and Hooch or any other acting gigs?

100%, my dogs are raw fed. They took them off the raw when they were filming, but I’m in the process of transitioning them back. I make sure they are on a premium kibble and I supplement with vegetables, coconut oil, all that other good stuff, apple cider vinegar. It keeps them in amazing shape. For my raw food I do chicken, beef, pork and Arctic Char which is a bit fatty sometimes and yeah - they look like this!

The raw food and how much fat you have in a diet plays a large part in keeping their coats nice and shiny. Apple cider vinegar is good to keep them balanced. They can be a bit on the basic side (like acidic vs. basic) and have little fungal flair ups and stuff like that. Any time dogs have these types of ears they can really quickly and easily get ear infections. You can even use the apple cider to clean out the ears. It knocks back the environment that would be conducive to growing nasty bugs. 

They don’t get too much human food and not so much cooked - I’ll give them steamed veggies. These cheap dog cookies at Pet Value are like 4lbs for $7 and they go crazy for them. I have turkey jerky that they love, they like apples. They do not like oranges, they can’t get past the way it smells so they do the sour baby face. 

What do you mean by raw?

So literally raw - like ground chicken. Crazy dog people will feed their dogs people food. There are a couple of Hutterite colonies that use pork and beef and make the excess available. My soon to be ex-husband, saw me chopping up the pork and portioning it up for the dogs and he’s like, “oh! Are we having tenderloin for supper?” It was the dog’s food though, it’s beautiful. There’s another colony that has on-ground pools where they farm Arctic char. They hand fillet them, and then everything that’s left - the bones, the skin, goes into a grinder, it’s fantastic for them. It can be a little fatty so you need to balance it but it makes for beautiful coats and I think it helps them keep up a healthy lifestyle. If you look at a bag of dog food the ingredients in there start off with rice, potatoes, or chicken meal, which actually isn’t that bad. It means the chicken meat without the moisture.

My understanding is that kibble was created in the 1960s out of wheats and starches and corn, with the ease of pouring out of a bag. When grain free kibble was introduced, it started a whole other issue. They started using peas as the starch binder because you can’t have a food that’s just solid meat or it’s going to be super expensive - you have to add something else. What they didn’t know at the time is if you use uncooked peas it actually stops the body from absorbing taurine, and that’s why all the dogs started getting heart issues, DCM. Taurine is what it takes to keep a healthy heart. People started feeding their dogs food that was grain-free, and that’s why grain-free got such a bad rap. It’s not that it’s grain-free, it’s that it has a lot of peas in it. They block the receptors of your cells to be able to absorb the taurine. It’s crazy. A dietician told me that; I was at a dog show and she told me to be careful of this. There can still be heart issues but this one is preventable without making grain-free the criminal.

How is Obi doing balancing fatherhood and his acting career?

I think that he’s actually quite proud of the fact they had a successful season, and I think he’s very proud of his son. And he’s even prouder that they’ve been invited back, which shows the cast and crew thought they did a good job.

What is a perfect day for Cyd and Obi?

Hanging out at the house, a friend of mine keeps her sheep at my place so I’d let them bark at the sheep. Maybe make them something a little big special with their din din. I would give them sardines, that’s a special treat. So some sardinage, maybe the tinned or the frozen ones. And just let them hang around.

That sounds like a great day!