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Location: Carlisle, Cumbria
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 61
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Pretending to know what you are talking about with regard to hip and eye testing for a start.
Well I held my hands up to not knowing about Springers carrying PRA, and I should have known it, you're right, but I think I was reasonably correct about the rest of this. Was it you Labradork who kept telling me that you cannot over exercise or over feed puppies into developing HD, was it??? I'll check... because that's clearly not what the research says. Pretty sure what I've said is that HD can be controlled and even completely avoided, despite a genetic predisposition, with careful managment, is that not correct?
I also said puppies (at 16 weeks) should be tested, that was met with scorn. Have any of you read the research I posted?
I also said the only way you can tell whether a dog is suffering with HD (as in is causing pain) is to check mobility, an x ray will not help with this, in fact a dog with poor hip ratings can be in much less pain than a dog with a good hip rating. That again was met with scorn.
I have been called irresponsible for breeding a crossbreed, but no one has offered an explanation as to why breeding pedigrees is morally right and breeding cross breeds is morraly wrong.
I was told that cross breeds are no more healthy than pedigrees, again, the research clearly show that statisically this is not teh case, cross-breed are more likely to be healthier.
I am called ignorant, I am told I have not done any research, I am told I have bred irresponsibly, and I am the troll.
Well let me tell you, I have bred in the tradition that working dogs have been bred for centuries, the tradition that not only produced the most intelligent and the most athletic, but teh tradition that roots out health problems as a matter of course. A working dog is no good to you if you spend 2 years training it and at 6 years old it cannot run about, or it dies at 10, or it cannot sucessfully mate, or it cannot see.
My (rather large) family has had dogs bred like this all their lives, and none of them have suffered from blindness, HD, major arthritus, personality problems or and other major illness. Most have lived well past 15 without a single days illness, and certainly not with a disabling disease.
Yet here I am faced with the problems that breeders who bred animals for looks, for money, for show created and thrown back at me. It was show breeders who created the large scale problems in some pedigree breeds because they didn't breed for longevity, vitality, intelligence, heath, they bred to best fit a standard, stud that dog, and make lots and lots of money off it, and my methods are immoral.
And yet these people still look down on a cross breed, or breding from dogs in the fashion they have been bred for centruies without major health problems.
Clearly I am arrogant, my dogs are happier and healthier and have a better breeding heritage, yes I am ignorant, to why people would breed such unhealthy lines in the first place, but no, I am not taking responsibility for the issues these breeders have created and I will not be condemned for following the tried and tested practices that have been well established in the hill farms and sheep herding communities for years.