This article is a consolidation and slightly updated version of two or three that have appeared in the canine press over the past decade or so, because a couple of things have changed during that time. It concerns the more well-known hip registries operating principally in the U.S. and Canada. Revising and combining this way should give you a better “meal” at one sitting. I hope to not only bring you up to date on methods and organization, but also stress again the importance that an open registry would be to progress in reducing incidence of HD in the better strains or breeding lines.

I have written in a few publications before, on the topic of genetic diversity, linebreeding, and health, and am now living up to my promise to the club leadership to supply another article on the related topic of phenotype variability as it relates to genotype. That is, “What you see is a clue to what you got.” (“Got” here means “obtained,” not just the teeny-bopper’s or Valley girl’s misuse of the word when they mean “have.”) For it is what you got from the breeders of your dog and its ancestors that you have to work with. If you are a non-breeding owner, you will want to read this to understand more about your dog’s appearance and health...

Every so often, old arguments resurface and writers try to change public perception about some particular topic. They may be based on well-thought-out scientific studies, or on poorly designed experiments, or on hot air. For years, Vitamin C (also known as ascorbate or ascorbic acid) has caused great controversy, mostly because of extreme and unfounded claims but also on fairly accurate studies with different conclusions because of the design of those experiments. Are most or any of the conclusions valid? There are many things we know or think we know about vitamin C, especially...

This is an excerpt from a Rottweiler website interview with Fred Lanting done in mid-2004, by Karim (“RevCamara”) of  von Lowenfels and The Rottweiler Chronicle.

These comments are enlarged upon in my book on HD and other orthopedic disorders, available from the publisher or the author. Get the whole book for the whole picture. This magazine/website format is in response to requests by dog clubs where I lecture, and from individuals for a synopsis-comparison between diagnostic methods...

People take actions based not so much on logic and reasoning as on emotional bases. This is something I learned in some 33 years in the business of chemicals marketing. I saw the same thing in my experience as a breeder since the '40s, a handler since the '60s, and a judge since the '70s. And it's been a hard lesson for me to assimilate, because I am the penultimate logic-based person. So much so that I've been accused by some as not only being from Mars (women are from Venus) but from the dark side of a moon of Mars! Trained in the scientific method, which is based on careful observation and collection of facts, cause-and-effect, testing and proving all things (including following the Scriptural admonition in I Thessalonians 5:21 to do that very thing), I never quite learned...

During or following the semi-annual major hair loss, you can bathe the dog, if he still needs washing, with a good pH-balanced shampoo especially formulated for dogs. Baby shampoo will do as well, and as long as you don’t wash him too frequently, plain old hand soap is good enough. Bathing will help loosen and remove much of the rest of the dead hair. This is especially helpful if you don’t take time for daily prolonged combing during these shedding periods...

Our dog Donar was a German Shepherd Dog, a first-class, purebred dog with a first-class pedigree. Still, he was once declared not worthy according to the Breed Standard of the German people.

Our dog belonged first to a master chimneysweep. The chimneysweep had a passion for hunting and wanted a hound. Donar was not of use, however, as a hound. He was “gun-shy;” i.e., he feared slams and bangs. He trembled, tucked his tail between the hind legs, and hid his snout in the folds of his master’s coat. His master beat him to expel the fear from him. But the more he beat him, all the more...

The white dog has been in the population since before the beginning of the German Shepherd Dog; that is, the color variety has existed since before recognition as a distinct breed. When the GSD began to be recorded (registered, identified by name and number) and an association formed for that purpose a decade before 1900, there were various “styles” or types used by sheep herders and other owners. There were heavy-bodied dogs with hanging ears similar to those of the Pyrenean flock guardian...

Although it is a characteristic of the German Shepherd Dog (which I have bred and judged almost since they walked off the Ark), the double coat is not unique to this breed, and the grooming techniques I have found to be best (and which I describe here) are applicable to many breeds. For readers who have terriers, sighthounds, poodles, and some others, you’ll have to modify these tips just a little. The soft, fluffy undercoat of many scores of breeds is very light and somewhat flyaway, while the topcoat is coarse, heavier, usually straight, and imbeds itself like a whipworm into the woven fabric in your wardrobe and living-room furniture, snaking in and out of the warp to defy your best efforts in brushing...