Saint Bernards Steal the Show at Middle School

It wasn’t quite afternoon, but it was still a dog day for eighth grade students at on Thursday morning. The students welcomed two St. Bernards and their owners to the school as a culminating activity to their study of the book “Call of the Wild.”

Bill Hinchman and Sandi Paz, owners of NightSky Saints, brought two of their pets to visit the students. Polaris, a long-haired female, is four years old and A-Jay, a short-haired male, is three. The two “ambassadors” paraded around the room with Paz, while she and Hinchman spoke to the students about the history and current state of Saint Bernards.

After their presentation, students asked Paz and Hinchman questions while the two stars of the show preened for the crowd.

The limelight comes easily to Polaris and A-Jay. Polaris once did a spot on the cable show “Animal Planet,” and both dogs appeared in a reality show, “I Wanna Work for Diddy.”

Hinchman and Paz described NightSky Saints  as a “hobby kennel,” dedicated to Saint Bernards. They now own six of the breed.

“We were looking for a family pet, and we both knew we wanted a large dog,” Paz said. “We got our first Saint Bernard, Major, and fell in love with him.”

Paz and Hinchman did one round of breeding, and at one point in September 2009, had 15 dogs at one time.

“We kept them until they were about 12 weeks old, then sent them off to their forever homes,” she said.

The future holds more breeding, but the type of dog may change to the Otterhound.

“There are only about 350 of them left in the country, and it’s important to try and breed them to increase the numbers,” Paz said.