It might not be such a big loss if the BBC drops the Crufts coverage we might get someone better However I see in Dog World that they are contracted to it for the next two years.

Even if they do drop the coverage Crufts will still go on . It did so for years before the BBC a showed it and it will continue to do so in my opinion.

Not all affected dogs have symptoms & so it has nothing to do with the phenotype of the dog.

Loukar has all the clinical attritudes of a dog that should be in constant pain, but he has no symptoms whatsoever. His MRI showed a big Chiari malformation, the herniation of the brain, the enlarged ventricles caused by the retained cerebral fluid & the srynix in the spinal cord-which would in another dog cause the acute symptoms shown on the program, but don't in Loukar's case for some unknown reason. He doesn't have a small head & isn't a small dog.

It was made out in the program that all cavaliers with the physical attributes of SM have symptoms, but as Margaret Carter(the only sane lay voice in the program)said just because there are no symptoms doesn't mean there is no SM, whcih is why the DNA research is so important-it will be a polygenetic condition & until the marker genes are found no one will know why some dogs have acute episodes & others do not despite both dogs having exactly the same MRI results !!

I was surprised at the amount of spraying of dobes too, ive only been to a few shows and as far as I was aware the only thing you can 'legally' spray them with is water?

Tun gets a quick flick with a brush the night before and then a rub over with the velvet cover off my riding hat on the day