The primary responsibility of any breeder is to breed healthy dogs. In order to produce healthy puppies, you have to start with healthy parents.
Even though you may be searching for “just” the perfect pet or companion — and have no interest in the show ring or breeding — the puppy you choose deserves every opportunity its breeder can provide for a long, healthy and pain-free life.
It’s a daunting experience to take your dog into the veterinarian for the screening procedures because if it should fail any of the examinations, it would be necessary to remove him or her from your breeding program. If you only have one or two dogs, failure to pass any of the recommended genetic screenings could abruptly end your breeding program completely. There will always be breeders in every breed of dog who are reluctant to take that risk and simply tell their prospective puppy buyers that they “never have any problems”. If you don’t check by screening for at least the most common problems, you don’t know whether you have problems or not. You can’t tell by looking (or the testing procedures wouldn’t exist to begin with), and no breed of dog is immune to genetic disease.
Although it cannot guarantee against genetic disease in every offspring ever produced, genetic screening of each dog in a breeding program is essential to protect the health of future generations. Genetic screening is not inexpensive for the breeder who chooses to use it, but the cost of a puppy will generally be about the same.
When purchasing a puppy of any breed, feel free to ask the breeder to provide you with the O.F.A. and C.E.R.F. registry numbers on the parent dogs (or contact O.F.A. and C.E.R.F. and they will provide the numbers to you from their data base). If a breeder feels these tests are unnecessary in their breed, you might want to check with one or two other breeders and, of course, your own veterinarian.
A brief description of both O.F.A. and C.E.R.F. is given below.
The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals maintains the world’s largest data base on hip conformation. The two heritable genetic diseases we screen our American Lamalese for with O.F.A. are as follows:
The O.F.A. Patellar Luxation Registry requires a veterinarian evaluation
involving palpation of the knee joint. It is a painless procedure, no
X-ray is required, and it can be done during a routine office visit.
Slipping kneecaps cause discomfort and an affected dog may hop as it
walks or runs along. This extra hopping step helps to compensate for
the displaced kneecap. Severely affected dogs require surgery to tighten
the ligaments in the knee joint.
Because slipping kneecaps are even more prevalent in toy breeds, O.F.A. Patellar Luxation Registry should be considered part of any reputable breeding program.
Screening for hip dysplasia requires an X-ray of the dog’s hips which is submitted to O.F.A. for evaluation by three independent radiologists. The dog’s hips are rated Excellent, Good, Fair, Borderline, Mild, Moderately Dysplastic or Severely Dysplastic. Hip dysplasia can cause severe pain to a dog afflicted with it and while a mildly dysplastic dog may be treated with exercise restriction and pain medication, severely affected dogs should be treated surgically.
The Canine Eye Registration Foundation was founded with a goal of eliminating heritable eye diseases.
Testing of the dog’s eyes is done by a veterinarian who is a board certified diplomate with the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists. It is a painless test which must be repeated annually and can determine the following heritable eye diseases: