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| Cheer up - it's good news! |
Some excellent news from the Dogue de Bordeaux Club of Great Britain... It is not up on their website yet, but yesterday the Club announced on its Facebook page that it was initiating both a health survey and a new health-testing scheme for the breed.
The Dogue de Bordeaux club of Great Britain are constantly looking at ways to improve the health of the Dogue de Bordeaux for the betterment of the breed for future generations.
We feel that health testing is the way forward and will endeavour to do everything within our power to ensure members are well informed about health issues and the progress made.
With this in mind, we are pleased to announce a new scheme which we will be launching at the Limit Show in May 2012.
The scheme we hope will promote responsible ownership and provide an information portal for the all to use.
The Dogue de Bordeaux Club of GB will be holding regular seminars to help inform all of the current health issues within the breed and possible ways to eradicate them.
The Health Testing Scheme
The scheme will be made up of 3 tiers (a further tier will be added after a health survey is carried out) and a certificate of recognition will be awarded according to the health tests that the owner wishes to carry out.
We will have all dogs that have participated listed on the clubs website in their respective group.
BRONZE AWARD 6+ months
The dog must be micro chipped
Have a full vet/health check (forms will be provided by the club)
SILVER AWARD 12 + months
The dog must be micro chipped and DNA profiled
Have a full vet check (forms will be provided by the club)
BVA Hip Score and BVA Elbow Score
GOLD AWARD 12+ monthsThis is a great start. Excellent!
The dog must be micro chipped and DNA profiled
Have a full vet check (forms will be provided by the club)
BVA Hip Score below 25
BVA Elbow Score 2 and below
Clear BVA Eye Test
BVA Heart Test
Great--kudos to the DDBC. Nice start. I'd also like to see points earned for long-lived parents and grandparents, and for sports accomplishments (agility, protection, obedience, etc.)
ReplyDeleteVery good idea and something that will hopefully be incorporated
DeleteWhat will the vets be checking? How good the health scheme is will depend a lot on what the vets are looking for
ReplyDeleteGreat news and idea.
ReplyDeleteI believe the French Bulldog Club run the same bronze/silver/gold award scheme.
Do they give awards for free-whelping? Maybe that would get them thinking....
Deletewhat I fail to understand is why this made public yet Jemima didn't make the exact same thing public for the GSD people - did it not suit the arguement to mention that the GSDs have been health, welfare and temprement testing for years and years???? or taht in their country of origin litters whom fail the Korung are not allowed to be bred from under their registration procedure??? none of this has ever been made public for the GSDs - why not?? suited you more to attck them for their looks rather than explain what actually happens maybe: a useful link for those interested goes some way to explaining the procedure:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.videxgsd.com/Korung_Rules_English.htm
and was it not the GSD folks whom had a meeting with the UK KC last year who asked for mandatory health testing and registration only on 'healthy' specimins following the SV system???????? and they were told ......... NOPE and whats more we'll take your higher awards off you....... funny how you haven't sought to make any of that public JH - why not ? You have had the knowledge of it for several years now........
Curiously, when you go to Germany (or anywere else) and look at GDSs that are used for police and army work, none of them have that idiotic rear conformation we see in show GSDs.
DeleteOf course, when you look at pictures of show GSDs from 50 years ago, they did not have that either.
It's sad to see a working breed being ruined by idiots breeding for blue ribbons.
(same anon as above)
DeleteI should have added that the Germans now have two more GSD clubs (RSV and SV2000) that are dedicated to breeding a more funcional GSD than the old SV, which has clinged and is still clinging to those defective rear ends with a vengeance. What sort of cognitive dissonance makes people think that rears like this are actually functiontal?
The GSD is the classic example of breeders doing good things (testing) for bad reasons (wanting to preserve exaggeration).
DeleteAs has been pointed out there are voices in Germany who look to conformation change as the way forwad.
We are here because things got worse too slowly for breeders to realise. Likewise they will not get better overnight, but one small step at a time. Great to see DDBC making a start.
ReplyDeleteI once worked for a vehicle maker who decided we should learn about quality assurance (alas too late). QA began with inspectors rejecting defective items - like those two vets at Crufts. Real progress only began when they inspected the practices that caused the defects, and advised workers accordingly. Like this club, getting info to those on the "production line".
Human nature reacts badly to people getting 'on our back', much better to someone 'on our side', showing how we can do a better, more satisfying job - hope others will emulate DDBC.
So what you are saying Bob is that there should be a quality Assurance Scheme for dogs, where breeders had to produce good quality puppies by health testing, socialising, and rearing their puppies well? Thats a great idea! Maybe the Kennel Club could do it? I have an idea for a name "The Assured Breeders Scheme" !.....oh wait....they already have one........!
DeleteCarol
What a great start, its better than nothing at all and I hope more clubs follow suit. Well done, keep it up ;)
ReplyDeleteI hope ALL clubs follow suit whether they have health problems or not.
DeleteThe Pointer Clubs are currently undertaking a health survey of dogs born in the last 20 years. This should show if there are any trends to start worrying about in what is currently a pretty healthy breed. Thankfully, in the UK at least, the breed does'nt appeal to the BYB/puppy farmer brigade.
ReplyDeleteThe Irish Wolfhound Club in the US does something similar, where dogs that can be shown to have lived to be 6 years old get a "bronze" award, those over 8 a "silver" award and those over 10 a "gold" award. One would hope it's somewhat of an incentive for the breeders, but it has not been in place long enough to see whether it will do something.
ReplyDeleteUnacceptable. I dont like it. Yes it looks fabulous, but the Dogue is, once again, a breed where its painfully obvious that there is a huge gulf between health testing and health. A dog can have excellent hips, elbows, heart, patellas, thyroid, and be cleared for everything under the sun, and still be crippled and die by age 5 because of how his body is shaped.
ReplyDeleteWell said. It's not a difficult concept to understand but it's amazing how many people think they have a healthy dog just because it's passed all it's tests.
Deletesee what I mean.. it will never be "enough" for anyone.. it it the AR mantra
DeleteNot to mention that there are a lot of people who do health tests on their dogs and litters and then don't do what the test results would tell them to do.
DeleteAn example would be when a simple recessive shows up and they then don't stop breeding the parents (who must both be carriers) or the healthy siblings (who have a two thirds risk of being carriers)
Testing will indeed never be "enough".
DeleteTesting and then taking the consequences into account when breeding will be, though.
As I asked before, what will the vets be checking for? Could somebody please find out from the Dogue Club?
ReplyDeleteIn Irish Red and White Setters the breed club have had for several years a certificate obtainable from the club which can handed to new puppy owners which lists the health clearances that the parents of the puppy have (CLAD and VWD clear, hip score, eye cert), but as has been pointed out , a dog with certificates for test results is not necessarily a healthy dog....... there can be many other conditions , serious or less serious, for which there are no tests
I agree its a brilliant initiative, lets hope breeders get behind it and there are plenty of Gold Standards out there.!
ReplyDeleteHope more breeds do something similar, plus its a great way to monitor longevity etc