http://www.dalmatianheritage.com/

http://www.thedca.org/studygp.html

They are trying to correct the stone forming issue. Dals need a special diet low in protein/purines. Some dals can be pretty aggressive stone formers even on a low purine vegetarian diet. Can be a major problem for males.

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/.....fm?id=1959

Flatcoated retrievers are.

The fact that this can’t be fixed by changing the breed standard to adjust a physical appearance issue that’s causing a health problem is EXACTLY why flatcoats, like Dalmatians, need a different approach to breaking open the genetic logjam that is the reason why half of these retrievers die of cancer, often at early ages.

Yes, reputable breeders consider longevity and health as part of the equation. Unfortunately, dogs are bred before their lifespans are known and before cancer appears.

As the Pointer-Dalmatian outcross project shows, you can eliminate a problem gene and in a couple of generations have healthy dogs that can in no way be distinguished from “pure” ones.

Want to see another example of this? Look at this experiment to get boxers with naturally short tails — with a corgi outcross!

Open the mind to the possibilities, which in the new century include abandoning the eugenics movement for good and developing for each breed a controlled, known and honest outcross program to deal with these health issues.

We don’t have to just shrug and say, “Well, that’s the price of loving a [insert breed]” when we lose another to cancer at 4 or 7.

However, whether the breed clubs and the AKC, UK Kennel Club et al will allow changes in the current system of closed registries (only a registered Labrador bred to a registered Labrador is a Labrador) is another issue entirely. As long as they cling to the old ideas of “pure” dogs as superior and desirable over all other options, nothing can be fixed.

Is change easy? Nope. Is change necessary? Yes, and every day I read on the e-mail lists of another flatcoated retriever dying of cancer at 7 or 8 — or years younger — I know we need to change the way we are doing things.

That’s not going to happen willy-nilly. There needs to be a building of consensus, a call for change and a plan of action for outcrosses to preserve what is good about these breeds while breaking open the genetic logjam that’s the source of what’s bad.

I have one 12-year-old flatcoat in good health, lucky, lucky me. She has had littermates die at 3-4 years of age (one), 7-8 years of age (one) and 10-11 years of age (four). She has one brother left, also in good health. Cancer got ‘em all. Now, you can’t kick about losing dogs at 10 and 11, really, but 4 and 7? That just sucks.

I have two 3-year-old flatcoats in good health, lucky, lucky me. I look at them and wonder: Will they be like Heather and be healthy at 12, or like her 4- or 7-year-old siblings and die of heart-breakingly cancer young?

Life offers no money-back guarantees, but you can work intelligently to minimize the risks. I can’t do this on my own in terms of genetics and the registration system. (Although I can and DO take actions in terms of preventive-care strategies, primarily diet and exercise).

To change this, we all need to be demanding an end to business as usual, and going forward together with controlled outcross programs so we can stop burying these wonderful dogs before their time.

Two of the bloggers here have Poster Dogs for genetic malfeasance — my Flatcoated Retrievers and Kim’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. Christie’s Scottish Deerhounds have their problems — as do any and all breeds in closed registry breeding systems — but Cavs and Flatcoats really stand out in the health disaster depaments. (Cavs = heart disease; Flatcoats = cancer.)

We need to look at these issues for all breeds and start working to fix these problems — to get the AKC and the UK’s Kennel Club to exert pressure on the breed clubs — and vice versa — to develop genetically sound programs to do so.

So, is reform possible? Yes? In my lifetime? I hope so.

This is one reason I like the world of breeding and showing rabbits better than the world of breeding and showing dogs- there’s no such thing as a closed-registry breeding system for rabbits. You don’t have to have a pedigree on your rabbit to show or breed it. Of course the majority of rabbits at a show are purebred, but if you feel a need to outcross to another breed to improve some characteristic in your lines, there’s nothing that prevents you from doing so and still showing the offspring as a particular breed.