I was looking at Annie’s page today and realized that I can actually report that I have produced 5 generations of good (or excellent) hips. It is a milestone! Annie is OFA excellent, her dam- Ready was born here and is OFA good (one of ten - 8 have been x-rayed, one fair the rest good and elbows cleared). Ready’s dam, my Jewel was born here and Jewel was OFA good-one of at least six that were clear in her breeding, her dam Poppy was OFA good- and her dam Chessa also OFA good. It does mean something when you know the dogs, so these five generations of healthy girls are not just OFA numbers as they all have siblings, cousins and offspring. I have not heard of one case of hip dysplasia even produced from any of these five dogs. Chessa was bred five times, Poppy had three litters, Jewel had three litters, Ready has had two litters and now Annie is due to whelp. Hips (and elbows too) are an issue I just don’t worry about (knocking on wood as we speak). And I don’t say that with out much thought. You can get a combination that just does not work but at least now I have some data and if I can breed to hip strength and really breed to overall good joints rather then ever away from it then I know I will be able to keep breeding healthy dogs. I have had no “disaster” litters ever from this line and I know what that is about. I also don’t breed any dog that is a “fair” there is no reason to when you have so many good and excellents to choose from.

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It has been almost 15 years since my first disaster litter of ten puppies, three that were OFA severe, one bad elbow and one bad hock. Five of the ten puppies were affected with dysplasia. They were sweet wonderful puppies, and I can’t do that to another dog or family, not knowingly. I spayed Sam, gave her away, she got a great home with the perfect family (that is the only way I could place her) and she slept on a child’s bed for the next 10 years! After placing Sunnybrook Campbellcroft Caper who herself was OFA Excellent with normal elbows, I started over. Sam was also a dog that ran out the front door- she just took off whenever the kids opened the door and she ate birds- just crunched them. As sweet as she was, she did not have a mean bone in her body- she was NOT at all like the Labradors I had raised as Guide dogs! I wanted something more like what I was used to and I knew I had to find something that produced better joint health.

So I started over, and the Lab I fell in love with was named Chessa- when the front door was open she went out and came in the back door, when walking to the car she automatically had constant eye contact. She would not stop retrieving and never put a mark on anything. She was a dog with a “can do” attitute, in the horse world of Pueruvian Paso’s they call it “Brio” or heart. She lived to work and yet was also a very sensible girl. I loved this dog. Poppy was Chessa’s daughter. Chessa’s sire was a dog named Ch. Receiver of Cranspire, an English import who was bred over 400 times in this country. That Rever attitude still comes through as well as the good joints he has stamped on the breed. He had some not so good traits but I would much rather have an upright upper arm then bad joints! I can work on front stucture if the dog can walk!–

I have tried to breed to dogs with joint strength, like outcrossing to the French import, Ole’ last year who was OFA excellent at age six when he came here-as well as looking up all related dogs on the OFA website and researching records of the siblings. It is better to know then not to know what is in the closet! There are no perfect dogs or breedings but genetics and diet with a large dose of common sense and I at the least am doing no harm and at best breeding some really neat dogs that are also starting to be competitive. A very reputable dog breeder once told me it would take 20 years to make progress with Labradors, ugh- we’re almost there!

I do also credit the raw diet, lots of raw bone while the pups are growing seems to be key. It helps to have puppy owners that understand how important the data is to me and to the breed. THANK YOU for x-raying your puppies!

Now, since we breed dogs and not x-rays here is a list I just found in the book I took with me to Crufts. I have not written about that adventure, I have had time to digest the experience and when I have the time to sit down and write that will be a long and interesting blog entry- 5 Texans and me in a car for 5 days, it was quite a trip.
Here are some traits that I wrote “keep” in the book I was writing comments in.

KEEP:

Tight Feet

Nice rears

Solid toplines

Good attitutes

good shoulders

cute heads

tail right off the back

and one more I did not write down but always like to have (and do)

dark eyes

All important attibutes of any good Labrador. I like this list- it will help me focus when I keep that next baby Lab.