Our Dogs - breed notes last week
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I take it no-one has read the Our Dogs breed notes that were in last weeks paper - stating that there are no known health problems in Basenjis? I would have thought it would have at least prompted some debate - especially from our more experienced breeders.
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Those are just Les's opinions. If you try to mention anything about Health testing/problems to him he will never print them in his breed notes. There are a few people like that in the breed over here I'm afraid. I think a lot of people over here feel maybe testing has become too much of an obsession and breeders should be more concerned about structural problems. Too much emphasis on Fanconi can lead to other problems such as patellas etc going unnoticed.
(These are just views I have heard from other people and not necessarily my own opinions!)
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Except that patellas are a health problem too and so instead of arguing for less emphasis on health testing, shouldn't there be more emphasis? I realize this is not your argument, just ones that you have heard but it is one of those things that just makes me mad.
I would agree that we should not focus solely on Fanconi but that is because I feel strongly that we need to look at all the health issues in our breed. We do have more health issues in our breed than just Fanconi and many seem to be ignoring those in their breeding decision. I have seen breedings that people wouldn't have considered prior to the Fanconi test because of the high risk that now are being done with little regard to the fact that these pedigrees are loaded for PRA. I am concerned about the amount of Hip Dysplasia I am hearing about and the attitude that since it is only a 3% incidence we don't have to worry. It makes me wonder if these people understand how if we don't worry now when it is 3%, it will increase and then everyone's options are going to be a lot more limited.
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Unfortunately, without actually re-typing the breed notes I can't post them on the forum. You need to either get the paper or subscribe to that part of the website.
Health testing is a big talking point in the UK and the breed is very divided over these issues. The KC doesn't recognise any health problems in the breed, therefor there are no tests that can be forced upon breeders here.
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There are NO forced health health tests in the US either. It is the responsibility of the breeder to ensure the health of our breed by testing… and not just for Fanconi. I agree that many people are getting hung up on only Fanconi Testing and pushing aside the other health concerns that we have... Eyes (PRA, Coloboma, excessive PPM, cataracts, etc), hips, elbows, patellas, thyroid... just to name a few...
And remember, many structural faults can certainly be traced back to poor elbows, patellas and/or hips....
And just like you have in the UK, we too have breeders with many of the same opinions... all we can do as responsible breeders is do the testing, educate the public...
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Here in the US all health testing is by choice. BCOA has published what they consider the tests that all breeders should be doing in the form of the CHIC tests, hips, eyes, thyroid, and fanconi but it is a breeder's choice to do them. At this time there are 88 basenjis with a CHIC designation. There are 2800 dogs in the OFA database for Fanconi.
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I don't have Our Dogs but Jules read it out to me, I think it is wrong that the kennel club were advised that we didn't have health problems. I would like to see compulsory testing for animals in breeding programmes.
When the testing first came out there was much debate in that particular paper.
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I'm not sure if anyone has watched this BBC dogumentary that was aired on the CBC here in Canada. I found the film very informative and something that all humans should watch when it comes to health concerns regarding breeds in general and the toll we had as humans wanting a better looking dog.
I found this link on youtube, but the dogumentary has been split into different parts. I think if you click on the link, it should play the whole doc. consecutively:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O0l0f50AAk&feature=PlayList&p=D68FCA74FDD7A6DC&index=0&playnext=1
We can see this as a controversial issue, nor do we want to cause a stir, but there are great points and bad points that owners and breeders alike displayed. We don't think one person or group should be blamed.
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Unfortunately, without actually re-typing the breed notes I can't post them on the forum. You need to either get the paper or subscribe to that part of the website.
Health testing is a big talking point in the UK and the breed is very divided over these issues. The KC doesn't recognise any health problems in the breed, therefor there are no tests that can be forced upon breeders here.
Is there a way you could possibly take a digital pic of the notes and post them on the forum?
