Take the blinkers off – It’s in your dogs interest
Friends of ours went through the same terrible tragedy that we experienced for the first time earlier this year that is, having to put your dog to sleep
The dog in question had some form of cancer, but before this resulted in his untimely death, he had undergone major surgery due to a disc problem that was causing problems on his spine. He was one of two pups born, both dogs, which was a very small litter for the breed in question.
Nearly two weeks ago, the other sibling underwent the very same surgery, and thankfully is well into the recovery stage. The Vets in University College Dublin couldn’t believe that it was the same disc, causing the same problem, in two dogs, the only pups born from this litter, even though the owner was 100 % positive based on the same symptoms being presented.
Now, it wouldn’t take the smartest amongst us here to say that this disc problem was a genetic fault, and was passed onto these two dogs by either one of the parents.
This as you can imagine is happening all the time with the amount of dogs being bred in Ireland, the majority of which are not screened or health tested before being bred from.
The above is obviously a major problem, but a bigger problem faces us when owners of stud dogs or people breeding from certain bitches refuse to listen to feedback from somebody that has used their dog at stud, or bought a pup from a breeder that went on to develop genetic faults.
Surely it’s in everybody’s interest to be up front when it comes to things concerning breed specific health conditions and issues
As another dog lover from Cork, Roy Keane would say, “At the end of the day” it should be all about the dogs and any resulting pups welfare, and not about what some people see as a negative mark against them within the breed, or even worse still, tarnish our perfect reputations.
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