Hi All, I've been following this thread with interest and just want to put in my own two cents.
1) Breeding heart clear dogs over the age of 5 to heart clear dogs over the age of five increases the odds that their puppies will be heart clear over the age of 5. This is why the Swedes are going to the lengths they are to check hearts. We can do it too. I believe in breeding to dogs with clear hearts over 5 whenever possible. I fail to see why people can't wait until bitches are over 2 years old before being bred the first time, although when this was all new to me, I was in a terrible rush to get started! I guess I ve learned something over the years. 2) If you keep testing your dogs, you will eventually be able to develop a line of stronger hearts, but not necessarily perfect ones. It takes a lot of courage and money to do this, because you have to be willing to start over and over again until you get what you want. You have to be willing to have a lot of idiots tell you that you don't know what you are doing because your dogs aren't winning. And when yours win, you have to keep your mouth shut or everyone will hate you for having been right in the first place. 3) A lot of people look through the lists of OFA and CERF clearances expecting to see famous 'kennel' names. Some of us, myself included, have imported quite a bit and when those dogs are listed as tested or clear, they don't show up under my kennel name, they show up under someone else's even though I own the dog and have done the testing. The people who like to point fingers seem to forget that and make accusations that I don't test, when indeed I have. The same goes for the registry. 4) Some people do the CERFs and get clearances on the forms but don't want to spend the extra money to send them in for a formal number. They'd rather show the form to people who want to see a copy ...I am not defending this, just pointing out that quite a few CERFs never appear in the stats when they could. I generally send them in. Sometimes they are a little late. 5) Some people are so vitriolic on the question of testing, that no one will admit to doing anything for fear of getting screamed at. Example: I attended the BAER clinic (for deafness) with two young bitches a couple of years ago. A very vocal 'tester' made a point of asking me if I was having my dogs tested - in her loudest voice-in a crowded area. When I agreed, equally loudly, that I was testing the bitches because their fathers showed signs of deafness at a clinic the previous fall. The person in question shut up. I have no idea what she was trying to prove, but I have been told that she doesn't believe that I test. I fail to see how this kind of behavior encourages more people to test. Frankly after this last experience I considered never taking my dogs to a health clinic again. This behavior may have been due to a former employee of mine who was terrible about clarifying anything with me. I had a dog (not a Cavalier) who had glaucoma and had an eye removed. The ophthalmologist assured me that the bitch might not have had 'hereditary' glaucoma, so I spent $400 of additional testing to be sure that this was indeed the case. She did not have 'hereditary' glaucoma. I ended up breeding her on my opthalmologists recommendation. I was then informed that the employee was running around telling everyone that I was a totally unethical breeder because I was breeding dogs with hereditary eye diseases, so I corrected her and told her that I was upset because she hadn t clarified this with me in the first place. Of course, the damage was already done. 6) I test hearts, knees and eyes in Cavaliers and English Toys on a regular basis. I probably test more in English Toys than anyone I know, given the numbers of them that I have. I am beginning to test hips in the breed, which no one else seems to be doing, but I am preceding slowly. I get more grief from people in that breed who don't want me to test at all. I also have English Cockers, an American Cocker, an Irish Wolfhound and a rescue greyhound - who is quite old. I pretty much test them all. I don't feel as if I will ever get any credit for this. Someone is always ready to pounce. So I really don't trust anyone but myself, anymore, to make decisions or value judgements about testing. People are going to see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. I'm tired of trying to prove things to people. I just want to breed better dogs and live my life in peace! Vanessa Weber Kenjockety Spaniels ========================================================"Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 1999 by its original author.
