Below are the images of "Panache's Bad Mouth Booker" Fun pics, cute pics, grooming pics, but most of all pics of his awful hereditary/genetic defect known as Class II Malocclusion with Base Narrow.

To the right is a lengthy story of how this all came to pass.  It is a very long read, but I promise that it is worth it and I would appreciate anyone who will take the time to read and learn and pass on the information!!!

You can double click on any pic to get a larger view

Also here is where I will keep a running total on what I believe to be the most expensive Standard Poodle pet I have ever known (hehe)

Purchase price of Booker:  $1,700.00 

This includes pup, extra $ for breeding rights, and airfare for pup AND breeder to fly to the city were I picked him up.

1st vet visit required by breeder-   $75.00

Vet visit to pull baby canines- $250.00

Veterinary oral surgoen- $1,758.00

Vet visit for Neutering- 215.00

This total does not include routine well puppy checks and vaccinations.

So far the grand total is- $3,998.00 rounded up to the nearest dollar amount for easy calculating.

About the Images

Shortly after the above pictures were taken of baby Booker's teeth he was taken to the vet to be put under anesthesia at such a young age to have his bottom 2 baby canine teeth pulled so that they would quit growing into the soft palate of his mouth.  Many breeders will tell you that this condition will correct itself if you "clip" the baby canines in the hope that the bottom jaw will grow to meet the top if the teeth are no longer hanging up in the soft tissue.  This is not at all true!!!  Although the bones of a puppy will continue to get larger as the dog gets larger an over bite or and underbite is still an over bite or an underbite and will not correct itself but only gets more pronounced as the dog grows.  As for "clipping" the teeth, this is not at all advised!  It involves cutting the teeth at the gum line usually with nippers or other sharp metal cutting tools and leaves the pulp exposed and leaves room for infection directly into the root of the tooth and death to the tooth in whole.  It can be very painful if these problems arise and might affect the growth of the adult teeth.

Booker's teeth at 6 months

Well, as feared his adult teeth are growing in much like his baby teeth, wrong!!  We will wait a bit longer to see what transpires as for so far only one canine tooth has erupted.  Keep checking back for update's.

UPDATE ON BOOKER'S TEETH

At the end of April 2009 when Booker was 7 months old we were in Albquerque, NM, a 3 hour drive from our home, for my oldest daughter's dog school weekend.  During this time I had made an appointment with A Veterinary Oral Surgeon to have Booker's mouth checked and to see how to go about fixing it.  He was kept at the hospital from 2 o'clock in the afternoon until 10 o'clock at night ( it was a 24 hour clinic) he had X-ray's done that showed that his missing canine tooth was impacted in his jaw and it was determined that he needed to have a 4 hour surgery to remove the impacted tooth, the adult canine that was once again jabbing into his palate, as well as all 6 of his lower inscisors which had enamel defects and because of his severe overbite were also starting to cut into his palate.  I returned to the hospital late at night to take my groggy baby back to a hotel room to sleep off the after effects of the anesthesia and make sure that he had all of his antibiotics and pain meds.  Now 3 months later Booker is fully recovered, back on regulary hard kibble and a happy though sometimes onery 10 month old boy.  He will no longer have any trouble with his teeth, mostly do to that fact that he hardly has any.  I have great pictures of the pre and post surgery pics as well as pics of the x-rays and teeth that were removed.  I will be posting them very soon.

Bookers Neuter

Booker went in for the "deed" at 12 months of age and all went well.  He recovered well

This page is dedicated to our beloved black Standard Poodle "Booker T" Originally bought to be the foundation stud to our line of poodles, sadly this was never to be.  Everyone  has heard of the common problems that can affect the Standard Poodle breed such as Hip dysplaysia, Addisons, eye and elbow problems, so on and so forth.  Nobody every tells you about the problems that can and very often do happen with a Standard's mouth.  Apparently more common than I would have ever thought in a large breed dog, poodles can develop malocclusions.  This is a genetic/hereditary defect that causes the teeth and or jaw of a dog to not "fit together" properly.  Most commonly seen malformations are the under bite or over bite forms of malocclusion.  Overbite is where the top jaw is longer than the bottom jaw (or if you want, the bottom jaw shorter than the top jaw) and causes the teeth to grow into the wrong spaces and sometimes even into the soft palate of the dog causing severe tissue damage. An underbite, though not as severe of a malformation is still a problem for dogs that are supposed to have a scissor bite or flush bite, and yes in some breeds it is even required in the breed standard to have a slight underbite such as Old English Bulldog's. 

Booker's specific diagnoses is called Class II Malocclusion with Base Narrow Mandible.  In short he has a severe overbite and his bottom jaw is narrower than his top thus making his lower inscisors and lower canine teeth penetrate into the soft tissue of his upper palate.

I want to reiderate the fact that this is often hard to tell until it is to late.  I have been a Vet Tech for 7yrs and have recently in the last 2yrs opened up my own grooming salon.  I am very aware of the problems that can occur in dogs that may jeopordize thier health.  I was very careful when choosing Booker to be mine and to breed with our female.  I thought that with all of my knowledge that nothing as huge as Booker's problem would get passed me..........  it did!  It also exscaped the breeder, her vet, and my vet as well.  All until Booker was about 9 wks old.  One day while playing with this happy puppy and his toys on the living room floor I noticed two tiny holes in the roof of his mouth.  Upon further inspection I realized that his lower baby canines were punching holes in his head!  This led to me taking a closer look at his bite and found that he was extreamley overshot and that his teeth were not in the correct position but to close to the inside of his mouth (base narrow).  I made an appointment with my vet to confirm my findings, he was astounded that a puppy that he had done a thourough examination on not but a week earlier (required by the breeder) had developed such a pronounced defect that had not until just then been discovered.  Needless to say I was devastated!!  He could not be bred for fear of passing on this detrement to his puppies. Most of all he would have to endure extensive surgeries and loss of teeth to avoid living a life filled of starvation and pain.  After the Vet visit and a phone conversation with a veterinary oral surgeon to whom I e-mailed pictures of Booker's mouth, it was decided that we would not keep the puppy and we would send him back to the breeder, get a refund and start the search again for the perfect poodle.  The first conversation with the breeder was promising.  She was horrified at what had transpired and agreed to take the puppy back and refund the money.  She then said before any final arrangements were made that she wanted to speak with her vet and some of her friends that were also breeders.  A few hours later I recieved a call back from her and the niceities were over.  She said that she didn't believe that the puppy had this problem due to the fact that her vet and mine didn't detect it right away and that she had never noticed it and that since both of the puppy's parent's teeth were fine.  She wanted me to fly with the pup to Indiana and have him checked by her vet, then and only then would she refund me, but not the whole amount only the extra amount that  I had paid for breeding rights.  And on top of it all she wanted a DNA test  preformed to make sure the pup was bred by her, so on and so forth.  To transcribe all of the many conversations and back and forths, most of which were not very pleasent or G rated,  would take more typing than I have already done.  So plain and simple she was uncooperative in making right a situation that happened due to her breeding.  I was basically stuck with a defective Standard Poodle.  At this time Booker was only 9 wks old and had only been with me for about a week, and as horrible as it is to say this I was not yet that attached to him.  Many things were considered as to what would happen to him, rehome him, send him back and eat the expenses that were already incured, or have him put down to end the pain he was in and stop the pain that he would have been in and save me the extreame expense of surgery, ???????.  In the end I couldn't rehome him, who would want that burden?  I wasn't about to send him back and be out the money I had paid to get him and then watch the breeder turn around and sell him again, No Way!! Putting him down, though never my favorite option, quickly became out of the question every time that sweet little puppy looked at me or did something cute or slept next to my bed every night.  After all it wasn't Booker's fault that he had this problem so the decision was made to keep him and give him all of the love and care that was needed.  The more I thought about it the more I realized that even if at first I was livid and didn't want to take on  the responsibility,  I was handed this little guy for a bigger reason.  Who better to take care of him than me?  My background made it to where I knew exactly what was wrong, how it could be fixed, and where to take him to fix it.  He had found exactly the home and mommy he needed to live a happy and pain free life.  He also found the perfect person to share this story with everyone possible to prevent it from happening to someone else so that maybe in the future this defect can be greatly reduced (I don't think it will every go away completly).  And also to make breeders accountable for what they produce!!!  The good and the bad!!!  What happened to Booker wasn't anyone's "fault".  It was all in the gene's, but that doesn't mean that breeders should act like it doesn't happen or not compensate buyers if problems arise with any of thier puppies.  To often you see how worried breeders are about you sending pictures and e-mails and making phone calls to let them know how thier pups are doing.  To often you see that they would rather take the pup back from the buyers if they are no longer able to keep or care for the pup instead of see it end up in rescue's or shelter's.  Such pride in what they breed and sell when the pup is healthy, where is that same loyalty and pride for the pups they produce that aren't 100%?

Booker's baby canine's were pulled to help repair the holes, and it is a wait and see game for his adult teeth.  At around 6 months of age when they start to grow in we will be able to tell better what the situation will be and what has to be done from there.

In conclusion,  I hope to bring awareness to future puppy buyer's of any breed (this condition is not limited to poodles but can happen to any dog) and I want to bring responsibility down on the breeder's.  Like I said before it isn't the breeder's fault if two healthy dogs are bred and because of that certian cross pups are produced with defects!!  Don't let that worry breeder's it doesn't make them bad people!  What does, is the refusal to make it right with the people keeping thier passion alive by buying thier pups!  All it takes is a simple "I'm so sorry, this has never happened to me before, what can I do to make it better" attitude and I'm sure the buyers would think more of them as human beings than what I feel for my "chosen breeder".

Thank you for taking out the considerable amount of time I know it must have took to read this story.  If there are any questions or if you find yourself in the same situatuion please feel free to e-mail at any time.

Booker is now a happy, energetic, 10 month old Standard Poodle boy!!  He has had all of the surgeries that will allow him to have a long and happy life.  He will be neutered at the age of 12 months and is already in training for Rally, Obedience, and Agility.

More pics of him as he grows updated all of the time