had my dog to vet as not walking properly vet advised bones in front legs not growing at same time so one bone bigger than the other this is causing her front legs to bow which she said would need to be corrected by an operation i would like to know if this is common in newfoundlands as this is the first pup i have had of this breed 
  tina

A form of Osteocrondrosis. It can occure in most large breeds, possibly more often seen in St Bernards. Surgery is normally as soon as possible to minimise the long term effects by allowing future growth to be as normal as possible. If not operated on before growth is finished a wedge of bone is removed and the leg reset to allow it to rejoin straight.

In either case, it is not a nice operation.

Sorry to have to say this.
Regards, John

I once had a pup returned that had been diagnosed with this - her front legs looked very bowed.  On questioning I discovered that the only thing she would eat was cheese so this was all her owners had fed her!  On changing her diet her legs looked normal within two weeks,  she died two years ago at the age of nearly eleven with normal front legs and experienced no problems with them during her lifetime

I sincerely hope your pups problems are similar to mine rather than that described by John.

My 6 month old pup (ACD) underwent the operation described by John, a couple of weeks ago.  The Specialist advised that early intervention was vital.  Unfortunately for Obi, his was quite advanced as he had a bad case of elbow dysplasia.  We are hoping for a reasonable recovery, although he already has a degree of osteoarthritis in both elbows already so will not be a working dog as we had hoped, but will be very loved none the less
Good Luck with your Newfie, make sure you see a good orthapaedic specialist, cannot recommend ours highly enough, he is in Guildford, if you join you will have access to my email address, feel free to contact me if you want any details
Hayley