Excellent comments.
All my dogs are from health tested stock and ive done my best to avoid lines that I know have heriditary Epilepsy behind them. Sone of the dogs Ive breed have gone on to work in the field and others have gone into the show ring.
I'd buy a well bred health tested pedigree anyday over a cross breed who's lines you cant research.

LOL - thermalpants!

I cannot for the life of me see how that dog was a superb example. Can anyone at all please explain to me how that dog is a superb example? I am not looking for any argument - but I really am at a loss to see how he can be held up as the type of German Shepherd all breeders should be striving to produce

Whatever the actual cause of DS, there is no doubt that the ridge increases its incidence. So breeding for the ridge increases the chances of breeding puppies with Dermoid Sinus. There is research to back this up -

Results: The ridge is inherited in an autosomal dominant mode and predisposes for dermoid sinus. The frequency of ridgeless offspring in the Swedish Rhodesian ridgeback population is estimated to be 5·6 per cent.

Clinical Significance: Rhodesian ridgeback dogs that carry the ridge trait are predisposed to dermoid sinus.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/j...TRY=1&SRETRY=0

The link is not working, I have tried to track down the study and will be very interested to read it

The research I had been reading (sorry can't do a link thingy yet but can point you in the right direction) was undertaken in Australia and what they are taking out of it is - there is no 'bad' gene or genes resposible for DS but the RR's total genetic make-up have inherited the inability to absorb and utilise folate which is integral in the process of cellular synthesis in fast growing neuroectodermal tissues. ( A similar study is currently being looked at with Cleft Palates in humans - I know as I am taking part in it )
I remain undecided

i agree with some of the opinions you have posted but after watching that it just shows how crufts only want the best dog because take the rhodesian ridgeback that they showed the breeder pts some of the healtheir puppie because they didnt have the ridge and she stated if they havent got the ridge they aint a ridgeback but they come from the same champion lines it isnt the puppies fault the puppies lives are ruined beofre they had begun it is sickingin about the extent that people will go to, to get the perfect show dog, any person would of taken thoughs dogs on she also stated that she would rather them pts than go to a person who will fight them, but she could of sold them half the price she was selling though puppies with the ridge but no she would rather put them to sleep.
many thanks for reading
kindest regards
jessica and Luna
p.s i am not just picking on rhodesian ridge back breeders it is accuring in all breeds not happy until the perfect dog is born
i am not suggesting all breeders are like this.

First would like to point out me n the judge at crufts dont see eye to eye on a lot of points and we have had dissagreements, but feel some of the criticism on here is a bit unfair, secondly the GSD who won at crufts does have a high working qualification, one I doubt most dogs on here incapable of achieving, he has also been hip/elbow xrayed under the SV and achieved his KKL (breed survey) this is not just about conformation but also temperement. I didnt see him go around at crufts but have seen him in a football stadium and on a natural surface there is nothing wrong with his movement, remember this was the first show that he had ever competed in an inside enviroment. Again the video footage of the shows had been edited just to show the bad parts.
To achieve what Zamp did first the dog as to compete in the AD a 12mile endurance test, ask yourselves how many of your dogs are capable of gaiting that far? Then he would do the BH, then SchH levels 1,2 & 3, be guntested, breed surveyed etc How many GSDs on here could compete in work at these levels? how many would freak out at the sound of a gun? how many can a complete stranger walk over to without the dog either being aggressive or shying away? A lot of inherited defects have come from the dogs you all admire from many years ago, the original shepherd was smaller and only weighed 26kg for an adult male, not the dogs you all remember from the 70's/80's crippled with HD and epilepsy amongst many others. If you care to look back and see the dogs from yesterday even as early as 1960 the English lines were way over size and had dippy backs, and these are CH both obedience and conformation I am talking about, so before any critising the good breeders of today remember they are trying to breed out the defects and genetics conditions that the breeders of yesterday bred into the breed. There are many bad breeders in all breeds including crossbreeds and mongrels, I have been to the vets tonight for a vacination on my dog, he was the only pedigree in there so and this quite often happens, so doesnt say much for the health of mongrels and crossbreeds either.

is this disease fairly new to CKCS?

why i ask is because i had a ruby male who wasnt show quality as he had a white blaze, he lived til he was 10yrs old when all his organs started packing up. his siblings only lived til they were 6yrs old, they had heart problems which i know is still prevelent in the breed.

this is a total travesty in this breed as they are such a beautiful dog.

What a shockingly horrid programme, that poor Boxer made me cry.

I just can't believe some breeders are happy to bury their heads in the sand and pretend these problems are not out there. Culling puppies who don't have a ridge, breeding Bassetts with excessive folds on it's legs, to quote the judge "Just because that's the way the dog is!" and allowing sick dogs to breed is just absolutely unacceptable!!! It's about time breeders like that are outed, I hope they're holding their heads in shame!

I would be happy to see a law brought in that prevented excessive qualities being bred into dogs, but whilst winning comes first and the dogs health comes second nothing is ever going to change.

PS. And what about that idiot who was shown an old picture of the original Bassett and stated he would be ashamed to have bred such an animal!!!!! That's your breeds foundations staring you in the face you pompous idiot!!!!

Maybe the mongrels and crossbreeds were in for their vaccinations too . They were not necessarily ill

no its been around awhile but sadly has got worse