4 thoughts on “Blackpool closes today”

  1. Continuation of post from Friday 8th May ……

    “On averaging 9 per litter that’s what we have averaged I said “we” We Alison is me and Jan! …… and where have I got that from??? Are breeding records I suggest you read what I say I said WE! I think i can speak for both of us on this one.”

    Apologies, Stephen … as my “we” referred to “the breed” I assumed that your “we” did as well! 🙂

    The Kennel Club’s REGISTRATION numbers will be the most accurate we can get, regarding puppy numbers. According to KC registration records, your boys have (so far) averaged 6 puppies per litter and your girls have (so far) averaged 5 puppies per litter.

    Any difference in a breeders’ record of puppies born and the number of puppies registered by that breeder with the KC will be due to perinatal death or the breeder choosing not to register all the puppies. Maybe that explains the difference between the KC figures and your records …

    I am aware of the larger litters … the KC occasionally registers litters of 10 (and your litter of 11 a few years ago) … but they are not happening so frequently as to significantly increase the breed average litter size. There have been just 2 litters of 10 puppies … from a total of 43 litters registered … over the period of 4 years from 2011 – 2014.

    Coming back to the “discussion” about “matador breeding” or “popular sire syndrome” … the reasons for limiting the use of a single dog is to help reduce the further erosion of genetic diversity within a breed and thus reduce the possibility of deleterious genes rearing their ugly heads and becoming widely disseminated … with the increased probability of 2 deleterious genes coming together (e.g. in the case of autosomal recessive inheritance) and causing disease …

    A breeding strategy that is in the best interests of the future well-being (and even existence) of a breed may not always be popular … but I do think that we should be considering long-term breeding strategies … and it would be even better for the breed if we could do this with international agreement and cooperation.

  2. For information:

    You can find out on the Kennel Club website how many litters and how many puppies have been registered with the KC for any individual dog:

    Go to ‘Mate Select’ and ‘Health test Results Finder’

    http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/services/public/mateselect/test/Default.aspx

    Type in the dog’s KC registered name … (MUST be spelled correctly!) … and you’ll arrive at the ‘Health Test Results’ page, e.g.

    http://services.thekennelclub.org.uk/62bcb3f7625c40da94f7fe54d0374d46.healthtest#sthash.mZc0GWvJ.dpuf

    Then click on ‘Progeny’ (in the Menu bar) and you can see the number of puppies and litters and health information about the progeny.

  3. Alison i agree that the use of a handful of sires isnt always good but what can we do you cannot force people to use dogs they dont want? Here is a scenario lets say the whoever is in charge said to you could not use the dog of your choice you would have to use say my dog Ben or say my old dog Fred would you use them or simply not use them and not breed from your bitch ?
    The same could happoen to me i could be told to use a dog i did not want what are my options its not an easy choice for anyone is it? to support the FCI view a Charloias bull Siruis was used in the 1970s about 18% of his calves died or had problems he was culled and his semen destroyed.
    I agree it needs to be looked at but it needs to be properly devised with proper stockpeople not just genetisists and scientists who work completely out of books and vdu screens.
    Again what if you dont want the dogs selected that could even further reduce bloodlines with people not want certain bloodlines in their dogs ? what do do then x them with a wheaten or a bull?
    Im in the freedom association and dislike any central inference in my private life do you really want a centre controlling breeding ?

  4. Stephen

    I am not saying that we should have either a “whoever is in charge” or a “breeding control centre” ……

    Regarding matador breeding – popular sire syndrome …

    Take the example of a dog in the 1990s who sired 19 litters in the UK (almost 100 puppies) … this animal was eventually discovered to be a carrier for crd3 … meaning that about 50 of his progeny would have been (at least) carriers. Admittedly, this is an extreme example, and we haven’t had any one stud dog in recent years siring quite that many litters.

    Looking at crd3 … the, for so many years, “hidden” gene (prior to the development of a DNA test in 2010) … we can see how, over a period of years, the number of animals carrying the deleterious gene gradually increases … the mutation frequency cited by the researchers was nealry 50%, meaning that nearly 50% of the Glen population carried at least one copy of the crd3 gene (ADAM 9 mutation).

    Using a single sire multiple times … in the UK, we have ranged from 1 – 13 litters sired over the past few years … increases the probablility of deleterious genes building up in the breed population …

    I feel that we should be discussing breeding strategy … not as a “dictat”, but as a democratically agreed strategy … to provide guidelines for “best practice”. If breeders choose not to follow these guidelines, then that is their choice ……

    A breeding strategy should be in the best interests of the future well-being of the breed.

Comments are closed.