Back in the Ring: A Breeder, Her Newfoundlands, and a Second Birthday Hard-Won

(YAPHANK, N.Y.) — Hours before her dog’s first event at 9:30 AM, Joan Locker-Thuring is parked in the first slot behind the Brookhaven Kennel Club’s white show tent. Her Chevy Express 15-passenger van is rigged to support up to five metal crates. A blue tailgate-style canopy tent extends to the left. While her husband, Tom Thuring, rests in the driver’s seat, Joan stands in the shade next to a grooming table trimming her Newfoundland, Bulldozer. Tomorrow is his second birthday. He was one of three puppies born that day. Only two lived to reach this milestone.

Originally bred for hauling fishing nets and rescuing sailors from the frigid waters of Canada’s Labrador Sea, Newfoundlands are considered a “giant breed.” At 118 pounds, Bulldozer,  named after the love of digging he displayed at only five weeks old, is still filling out. His size means that on show days, Joan spends nearly two hours brushing and pruning his long black coat before he competes. The days before include about five hours of bathing and blow drying.

This is Bulldozer and Joan’s first show since her major back surgery eight months ago. They’re both excited.

“It’s trying to get the points, it’s the competition, it’s the social aspect,” Joan, a self-described “newf lover,” says when asked why she keeps returning to shows. “Sometimes it’s fun to go and just watch.”

Joan’s van, rigged to hold up to five metal crates, and her blue tailgate-style tent offer needed shade as Joan trims Bulldozer hours before his first lap around the ring [Credit: Abbey O’Brien]

“It was just this big, fluffy, and friendly kind of dog,” Joan said. “And so when I got into a place of my own, I decided I wanted one.”

They named him Jake.

Taken about 20 years ago, Joan, then in her mid-forties, stands with Cole, Savannah, and Jake at the Newfoundland Club of America National Specialty in Ellicottville, New York. [Credit: Joan Locker-Thuring]

“They’re a very lovable dog,” she says. “The house is never clean,” she admits before sharing a popular quote used in the Newfie community: “‘They’re like potato chips. You can’t have just one.’”

With Joan’s level of experience, she’s what’s known in the dog show world as a breeder-owner-handler. She bred Bulldozer, owns and cares for him, and handles him in the show ring as he’s judged. It’s a rare trifecta, especially when it comes to the breeding.

“Joan has a huge amount of knowledge about breeding,” says Mike Kaplow, one of three friends in the Long Island dog show community supporting Joan and Bulldozer at the show today. “And all the things that go right, and wrong.”

In Joan’s time breeding Newfoundlands, she’s had at least 10 litters. She’s spent countless hours tending to blind newborn puppies in their whelping box, watching so their mother doesn’t unintentionally smother them, setting up rounds of vaccinations and health tests with her veterinarian, and keeping conditions clean enough for the humans, too. She also watches the adults, and crates her dogs to prevent accidental breedings when she can’t keep an eye out.

“Well, thank you,” Joan says when complimented on her efforts. “But that’s what a responsible breeder does.”

Sometimes, despite her vigilance, there’s only so much she can do. Joan calls those her “war stories.”

Born July 12, 2024, Bulldozer originally had two sisters. One was Arizona, and the other was named Jalapeño. While alarmingly smaller than her two litter counterparts, Joan says she was stunning. Her thick fur was glossy black, except for one all-white front paw and a dash of white at the end of her tail.

“Like she dipped her tail in a can of paint,” Joan remembered.

Bulldozer’s sister Jalapeño. [Credit: Joan Locker-Thuring]

“They were talking thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars and all sorts of surgeries. And no life for a puppy,” Joan said.

By four months old, Jalapeno could barely walk. It was then that Joan and Tom decided it was best to put her down. 

“If I tell you that was one of the worst decisions I ever had to make in my life for one of my dogs, that was it,” Joan said, pausing to collect herself as she recounted the memory. 

“Breeding is not for the faint of heart,” she warned. “You have to have a strong constitution for it.”

Bulldozer rests underneath the event tent, staying clean thanks to his blue dog bib. [Credit: Abbey O’Brien]

He didn’t advance past the Best of Group stage today, but Bulldozer’s work is far from over. Soon, he will leave for four weeks of service dog training to support Joan in her recovery. Today, he gets to return home to his brothers and sisters as the seventh member of Joan’s Bluwater Newfoundlands.