The Role of Orthopedic Registries in Fighting Canine Hip Dysplasia; Registries, although essential in documenting CHD, have not been used to their full potential This article is the fourth in an eight-part series on canine hip dysplasia (CHD). What follows is written from the perspective that the readers are serious and conscientious breeders who are …
I once had a dog, an expensive dog, she was. An import, yes siree. Superb specimen she was, with an immaculate family tree, starting with a famous father and a mother who in turn was a daughter of another famous one. How could one go wrong? SchH2 KKL1 for life, fertile, beautiful, good hips. I …
“Inbreeding was once a valuable tool in shaping today’s breeds. As these have now reached a high degree of homogeneity, it has lost its importance and turned into a fatal and disastrous habit.” Hellmuth Wachtel, PhD Inbreeding (which, for the purposes of this article, includes “linebreeding”) has been the rule in dog breeding for the …
Index General Appearance Angulation & Movement Temperament, Character & Abilities Head Dentition Ears Eyes Neck Body Tail Forequarters Hindquarters Feet Color Coat Faults General Appearance The German Shepherd Dog is medium sized. With the hair pressed down, the height at the withers is measured by stick along the vertical as it …
Will DNA marker research stop the flood? The tide of concern about genetic health continues to swell within the purebred dog fancy, driven on by scrutiny from without. The threat of punitive legislation, already a reality in Europe, is widespread in the USA and the contagion seems certain to reach Canada as well. Conventional screening …
Throughout the dog’s twelve thousand-year relationship with man, its behavior has been carefully molded to distinguish the dog from its wild ancestor, the wolf. In the first installment of this series, we saw how aggression, a trait seldom seen in the defensive behavior of the wild predator, has been developed in the modern dog to …
The purpose of this article is to provide a mini-course in genetics that will serve the reader well during upcoming articles on open registries and the Canine Genome Project, and why they are so important to the future of the breeds we love. Both the American Kennel Club and United Kennel Club are moving in …
Consider the hypothetical case of Old Blue, Malthound extraordinaire. Blue was perfect: Sound, healthy and smart. On week days he retrieved malt balls from dawn to dusk. On weekends he sparkled in malt field and obedience trials as well as conformation shows, where he baited to–you guessed it–malt balls. …
PennHIP: Misconceptions and Misinformation Breeders have a very interesting tool these days in the Internet and/or e-mail. Information gets out much faster than print media can disseminate it. Among the accepted characteristics of such transmission are slightly higher “I.Q.” (inaccuracy quotients) and emotion levels. It seems that these minor failings are forgiven in the informal …
Revised December 2011. Copyright May, 1998, 2010 Some questions have been raised about how long results are good for, in the PennHIP reading, the OFA description of two-year-olds, or the SV ‘a’ stamp, OVC (Ontario Vet College), or other evaluations done at one-year of age. The terms “precision” and “accuracy” may be used by your …