Topaz is A-OK for breeding

I have now completed all of Topaz’s preliminary health screening and am pleased to announce that she has passed everything and is cleared to be a great breeding mama!

The hips & elbow tests were done at the end of August. She came back “Good” for hips and “Normal” for elbows – no sign of dysplasia or any condition that would predispose her to developing it later. This is just a preliminary report, as she is so young (barely 4 months at the time the tests were done) and still growing, but a good indication for things to come. I will have her hips and elbows certified once she turns two.

The CERF eye exam was done just this past Monday and everything checked out normal in both eyes. This test needs to be repeated every 12-18 months, so we will redo it in early 2014, probably shortly before we breed her for the first time. But we now have a baseline for comparison.

Genetic screening for Progressive Retinal Atophy (PRA), Improper Coat (IC), and von Willebrand’s disease (vWD – a bleeding disorder) were also done in late August. She is Normal for both Improper Coat and vWD, so she can be bred to any dog and not produce puppies affected by these conditions. She is, however, a Carrier for PRA. This does not affect her health, as she will never develop the disease herself, but it means I will need to take care not to breed her with another Carrier to avoid producing puppies that are affected.

We will wait to test thyroid until Topaz is over a year old. Pups’ thyroid levels can fluctuate so waiting until essentially full maturity should result in more definitive results. This is also a test that needs to be repeated every 12-18 months.

As far as coat colour genetics is concerned, Topaz is Bbee K^BK^B a^ta Ss^p which, for those of you interested in and/or knowledgeable about this arcane field, means she is cream (apricot-red) in colour (ee) with a black nose (not brown or liver) but does carry for chocolate (Bb), carries for parti (spotted) (Ss^p) and, while she carries the gene for phantom (tan points) (a^t), she has two copies of the “blocker” gene (K^B) meaning that none of her puppies will express phantom even if bred to a phantom male, since they will all inherit one copy of this blocker gene from Topaz. So our main strategy for breeding her will be to produce some lovely reds and parti pups, with our Zip being the primary stud of choice. Since we mated Mo to Moto for just that purpose – to obtain a female capable of producing nice reds and parti pups that we would use with Zip – she will be fulfilling our desired role for her to a tee.

I must also say that I think she has a super temperament for a breeding mama. She is calm, patient, attentive, smart… A few examples:

• About a month ago, after romping in the nearby fields, all the dogs came back covered in burrs. We put Topaz on the table and proceeded to pick the burrs out one by one. She just lay there patiently, not wriggling or struggling much at all, not even when I was working on burrs close to her eyes or muzzle. And she was only 4 months old at the time – pretty amazing! Even Mo wasn’t quite that patient! In contrast, we had to cut the burrs out of Sid’s coat as he just wasn’t willing to put up with the long laborious process of picking them out.
• We took her to two training sessions before she went to her new home, and she was a model pup each time. She sits on command, was attentive to my daughter and sat quietly when called for, and generally able to ignore most of the distractions around her. Phoenix, attending the same class, was not nearly as focused despite being six weeks older.
• When out in the fields, she comes when called quite readily. She also goes to almost any very readily and loves to be petted and stroked. Tummy rubs are a must! This type of sociability is ideal in breeding stock.

All in all we are very pleased with how Topaz has turned out. She is still young and developing, but things augur well for a stellar career as a Mama!