Here's another thought.......... Breeders didn't know MVD existed until cavaliers started dying at young ages. The problem got very bad until people started testing and now I'd say, it has improved alot.
These same breeders have not tested hips for as long as cavaliers have been bred......and the incidence of disabling HD is very low. so why would we think there is a problem in cavaliers? It doesn't seem to be excelerating. I'll tell you what I think is excelerating.......hearing loss in younger cavaliers.........no one talks about testing for that. It's a matter of perception I think. pam ----- Original Message ----- From: Terrie & Disney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2002 11:54 AM Subject: Re: [CKCS-L] HD > >>I met no one or heard of no one in the UK, on my recent trip, that hip > scores cavaliers.......and I asked this > >>question of several at the shows I was at. I don't understand why people > think there is such a huge concern about >>HD in cavaliers in this country > when abroad... hardly any dogs are ever hip scored.......untested dogs are > bred to one >>another constantly.........and HD problems do not abound! > > I met no one at Pet Smart that knew what a Cavalier was and I was approached > by many with dogs, doesn't mean they don't exist ;-) VBG > > > Good, play devil's advocate.........there will always be extreme cases > > somewhere to be told. :-) > > pam > > Well then at your request I shall continue :-) While I do not believe in > "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" and I agree that heart testing in > this breed should be the number one priority. Allow me to toss out a few > thoughts. Here in the US Cavaliers are not exactly the most popular breed > which may be why we don't hear of those extreme cases as often as we do in > Goldens for example. Goldens rank number 2 in popularity and have for the last > 4 years while Cavaliers ranked 44th last year having risen from previous years > in popularity. I believe Goldens are at 20% for HD and Cavaliers at 11%. When > I take into consideration the percentage of CKCS being irresponsibly bred as > opposed to Goldens being irresponsibly bred the numbers for HD Cavaliers scare > me much more than Goldens. You can walk into any pet store in America or open > up any newspaper in the country on any given day an find Goldens for sale. > Therefore, I would expect to hear more cases about severe HD and other > problems in the second most popular breed in the country. Thankfully you can > not say that about Cavaliers...yet. > > Naturally, of course this is a double edged sword VBG This breed has a > widespread much more debilitating problem than HD and the gene pool here in > the states is small enough overall without even taking into account the old > club further reducing the gene pool by not allowing breeding to AKC only dogs. > I can only imagine that through shear lack of numbers in the breed that it is > only a matter of time before severe HD is not just an extreme case anymore if > breeders don't even so much as test to see what they've got. I am not saying > toss out the typey Cavalier who has an excellent lineage of late onset MVD but > is an asymptomatic borderline or mildly dysplastic dog. What I am saying is > one should know that it is there and breed accordingly say to a good or > excellent dog with a good hip production record. If not, what do you think is > going to happen if we breed these mild and borderline asymptomatic dogs to > others of the same because we simply didn't know it was there :-o If your dog > has a bad topline and a straight front would you breed it to another with the > same faults, of course not LOL Just my thoughts. Pam for the record I am > enjoying this exchange of thoughts I know tone is difficult to interpret in > e-mail please do not read any of this as an attack of any sort =8-) Your post > was one I found thought provoking and thought would make a wonderful > discussion. > > Terrie:) ========================================================= "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 2002 by its original author.
