The finding of CDRM in several littermate pairs, combined with the acknowledged high incidence of the disease in the German shepherd breed in general suggested that a genetic factor may well be involved in the aetiology of the disease, as previously suggested  (Clemmons, 1989). Due to this unusually high incidence of CDRM in one breed of dog and the discovery of at least two pairs of affected littermates, the investigation of a possible genetic factor was indicated. Following a literature search for diseases in other species with clinical and pathological similarities to CDRM, a working hypothesis was...

It truly was a great pleasure for me to lecture in Estonia in mid-spring of 2007, and to judge part of their Sieger Show. Exhibitors came from all over the Baltic region: Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, and I believe a few from Russia (handled by Russians, if not). As one of two SV judges, I found the quality to be of a rather high level, on average. (Erich Bösl of Piste Trophe kennel, who felt the same way, did the adult classes, and I did the puppy and veteran classes).

Instructions on the proper methods to tape a German Shepherd puppies ears to assist them in standing correctly.

Before we get into the meat of the matter, let’s review the OFA-type definitions of canine hip dysplasia, referred to here as HD.

  It has been said that there are only two colors in dogs, at least in their coats. This is as true as saying there are only three primary colors in pigments for inks, paints, etc., and that most others are blends of those three. Even truer, for eumelanin (dark or black pigment) and phaeomelanin (yellow pigment) are the only chemically differentiated forms of melanin, the coat’s color substance. The various shades of brown, tan, red, and cream depend on the concentration of phaeomelanin in the hair shafts, the shape of the crystals, and other factors. Certain genes called modifiers can act on the major ones to cause the black to look blue or chocolate. White is not technically a color, but the absence of pigment...

As a kid during the war (the big one) I used to read comic books and later watch movies with Charlie Chan (no relation to Jackie) that had mistaken ideas of the way Chinese talked and acted, no doubt holdovers from the fabricated fancies of the late 19th-Century novels about building the railroads in the wild west. One of those terms used in both media was the saying, “Chop-chop!” which supposedly meant “Hurry!” After I judged a dog show in northeastern China this Spring (2005), I learned a more primitive, new meaning for the words. Unfortunately, the trip did not work out as well as other China trips have...

“Into the jaws of the dragon and into the valley of Death flew the sexagenarian,” to take liberties with Tennyson. And like the great winged darkness that soared in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” the menace of SARS was to threaten me in April of 2003. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the latest viral killer to come out of eastern Asia, was closing or quarantining more and more schools, apartment buildings, hospitals, and businesses in Hong Kong. By the time I left China, the same thing was happening in Beijing much farther north. I may have got out just in time to avoid being locked in somewhere. On my way to the Orient, I heard of an American plane being held...

  The modern dog is to a great extent a manufactured product. That is, most breeds had been developed originally for specific purposes, but more recently have been changed via selective breeding to suit personal ideas of aesthetics (beauty). Utility has largely taken a back seat, but even in those circles where certain job functions are the breeders’ primary concerns, physical characteristics are often a result of breeders wanting the extreme rather than overall balance. This has led, over the last couple of centuries, to more differences between breeds than Nature might have developed on its own...

Years ago, in the age of print media, there was a situation in the German Shepherd Dog Club of America in which people were striving in vain to speak out about the GSD Breed Standard. In many cases, members were not allowed to express their opposing opinions on the breed Standard in the GSD Review, the official journal of the GSD Club of America. Those who ran the club also ran the magazine, and their editor was on a tighht leash, although how much she actively sympathized with the power structure’s proclamations was anyone’s guess. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (and I actually was one for a while) to see the obvious slant the officers of the GSDCA had on the subject. I maintained that the members had the right to...

The elbow is called a synovial (lubricated) hinge joint, although it has some minor similarity to a ball-and-socket joint. There is not that sort of rotation that we find in the hip; the twisting of the lower arm is possible because of the design of the radius. Mainly, flexion and extension are the movements in the elbow itself. The ulna acts to add stability and restrict motion, and the radius bears most, perhaps up to 80%, of the weight of the forequarters.