DM Is Not In Up North Pyrenees!

DM great pyrenees

DM Is Not In Up North Pyrenees!

Many breeders have no idea what is in their genetics. But I can unequivocally tell you the DM is not in Up North Pyrenees. Even though dogs don’t play baseball they can get a genetic disease similar to Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).  In canine’s this disease is called Degenerative Myelopathy or DM.  Many different breeds can get this disease, though DM primarily affects large breed dogs.  3% of German Shepherds actually demonstrate the disease.1 One study found one in eight Great Pyrenees were carriers for this disease.2 Two carriers must be bread together for the gene to be expressed. Understanding what this disease will mean to your puppy and family is important and a picture is worth a thousand words. Click on this link to see the video of a dog with DM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I10YGGSSZg.

Treatments for DM are not currently available. But, prevention is easy. A simple genetic test can be done before breeding dogs to ensure that two carriers of the mutated gene are not bred.

Up North Pyrenees’ lines are clear of DM. Take a look at our sire and dams. We have no dogs with this genetic mutation. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We hope our work and expense is worth your business. Either way, we sleep better at night knowing that none of our puppies will ever suffer from this issue. Hopefully, more breeders will work together to eliminate the DM gene from this wonderful breed.

Lou Gehrig’s Disease in Great Pyrenees? Not with Up North Pyrenees!

Click here to see our puppies and please share us with a friend.

1. Degenerative Myelopathy in German Shepherds. (2019). Retrieved 29 July 2019, from https://www.degenerative-myelopathy.com/degenerative-myelopathy-in-german-shepherds/
2. Paw Print Genetics – Degenerative Myelopathy in the Great Pyrenees. (2019). Retrieved 29 July 2019, from https://www.pawprintgenetics.com/products/tests/details/87/?breed=134

3. Images are in the public domain on the internet and selected on 7-29-19.

We Deliver Your Puppy To You!

We Deliver Your Puppy To You!

Have you ever taken a trip to the middle of nowhere? That’s what most visitors say about Warroad, MN unless you are coming to fish trophy walleye or musky. We are very rural here on the edge of the Canadian border on the sportsman paradise of Lake of the Woods.

Travelling to get a puppy can be difficult for a variety of factors. That’s part of the reason why Up North Pyrenees started delivering to our customers years ago. Our customers love getting in town service. We don’t outsource our delivery. It is hard to spend so much time with these little fur babies and think about paying someone else to deliver puppies across the country. At this point in life we like to build it into a family adventure. Hopefully, our children would say that is what it is. Have you ever had 10 puppies barking in a Suburban along with 6 children? This past spring we went zip lining near our end point at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky the day after driving for 27 hours. This was a much needed sanity refresher.

We are now incorporating that service into our puppy price to make things simpler for you. This applies to our Minnesota customers only as that is where a majority of our sales are located. If you live outside MN, then meet us at the border of MN or add 55 cents/mile to where you would like us to meet you. We don’t stop once we start driving until we’re done. That’s better for your puppy as it decrease their stress. We know that you are eagerly awaiting your puppy and hope to serve you soon when we deliver to you!