An end to Canine HD in our time?
Hot on the heels of the new DNA test for Juvenile Cataracts comes this breakthrough from Cornell – a possible DNA test for Canine Hip Dysplasia! The possible ramifications for dogs and for dog breeders are staggering. No more waiting until 18 months to find out that your (already pointed, or in some cases already finished) show dog has hip dysplasia. No more excuses for not eliminating affected dogs (arguments I’ve heard – “We have too much invested in him”, “She’s already finished, and HD isn’t that big of a deal”). We now possibly have a chance to screen our dogs young, and remove affected dogs from our breeding programs.
It’s a mistake to think that HD only affects large breeds, or working dogs. I’ve personally owned a dog with HD and luxating patellas, and it took lengthy and expensive surgery to give her back movement and a semblence of comfort. I know other breeders who’ve suffered alongside their affected dogs, as well. It’s true, perhaps, that it needs to be a severe case to affect a French Bulldog, but the simple fact is that since HD is unquestionably a genetic disease, any affected dog has the potential to produce offspring who can go on to become seriously afflicted.
If these advances in genetic screening contine, we will have progressively more tools at our disposal to enable us to make breeding choices that will truly impact our breeds and our bloodlines, in ways more important than any show ring win. Let’s hope that breeders are willing to take advantage of them, and to follow through on their results.
Oh Frabulous Day!
Well, Sean and I finally got the news we’d been waiting for – we’ve been approved to adopt an orphan baby from Tukrmenistan! This is so thrilling. Sean is over the moon and I’m right there with him!
Of course, we’ll probably have to give up the dogs, or at least most of them – let’s face it, they’ve really just been child substitutes anyways, so what do we need them for? Plus, well, you know – dogs and kids. I don’t want to get arrested for leaving them alone in the same bedroom, even if it is accidental.
Better safe than sorry, that’s my watch word.
No one fell for that in the slightest, did they? Drat.
It would probably be funnier if it didn’t really happen so damn often…
Journey, Snow, Cops & 'Hypocrite of the Year' Awards
"Who are you people, and why am I here?"
Journey has spent the last two weeks ‘trying out’ her new retirement family, Matt and Kat of Toronto. She returned to us yesterday so she could be spayed by our veterinarian, and will go back to her new forever family tomorrow or later this week.
Rather than the joyful, “oh I missed you” homecoming we might have been hoping for, Journey moped into the house with a look that clearly said “Why the hell am I back HERE again?”. She was almost as unthrilled to see us as she was her four legged family, who gave her an olfactory once over that clearly said “Where have you been, and what have you been eating/doing/meeting?”. Journey hunched her back, looked miserable and curled up on the dog bed, occasionally shooting us murderous looks that we interpreted to mean “Take me back to my REAL mommy and daddy now, please”.
While it’s nice to see she’s fitting in well with her new parents, it was rather disappointing to learn that not only weren’t we at all missed, we weren’t even remember overly fondly. Today, she’s at the vet clinic, which I’m certain has only solidified her opinion of me as a dog tormenting jerk, and will serve to make her even more grateful to escape our clutches.
French Bulldogs are ingrates, I tell you. They’ve made trading up into a breed characteristic. No other dog breed I know is as happy to leave their lifelong home behind for a new set of people, without even a backwards glance.