Breeders Who Suck

There are lots of reasons why breeders can suck. I'm going to skip a bunch of them, because one in particular has me steaming mad right now, and why have a blog if you can't scorch your bandwidth now and then?

There is a very rare genetic condition in dogs known as canine cystinuria, that can cause dogs to form urinary stones and blockages. It comes in a couple of forms; one of them affects Newfoundland dogs and Labrador Retrievers, and there is a simple genetic screening test for the condition in those breeds. The other form affects the rest of us, including mixed breed dogs, and there is no genetic screening test and we don't know the mode of inheritance.

Just to muddy the waters further, many, perhaps most, of the dogs who have the condition don't have any symptoms, or don't get them until the very end of their lives. And females don't get the condition at all, but carry it.

So you can see that even for the most careful and ethical of breeders, this is a minefield. For those of us in breeds with very small numbers, it's also difficult to prioritize health problems, because if we demanded that every dog we breed be genetically perfect, our breed would cease to exist in the next generation. We call it "throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

But there's a world of difference between making rational decisions with incomplete information in an imperfect world, and shoving your head so deep in the sand you come out the other side of the earth. And that is what a lot of breeders are doing these days.

This particular incident did not occur in my breed, and I won't name the breed involved. But a breeder whose stud dog tested positive for cystinuria at a younger age but has now tested negative is advertising this dog as "cystinuria-free" and, according to a friend of mine in that breed, bitches are flocking to him.

The problem with this little bit of delirium is that a negative test for cystinuria is meaningless. Dogs with this condition don't have cystine in their urine all the time, and normal dogs NEVER have cystine in their urine. So if this dog had cystine in his urine ever, he has cystinuria. He may never form cystine stones, but he has the condition and he can pass it on to his offspring (even though we may not know exactly in what manner that happens).

It's not like this is some big secret. This condition has been known for many years and this breed, like mine, is participating in an ongoing test at the University of Pennsylvania in the hopes of coming up with a genetic test or at least figuring out the mode of inheritance. Any breeder who claims that a dog is cystinuria-free after one negative screening test, even if that dog never tested positive in the past, is making a statement that cannot be substantiated.

And any breeder who who claims a dog is cystinuria-free after a negative test but who had a past positive test is simply lying, either to him or herself, or to the world.

And worst of all, any bitch owner who uses that stud dog is doing harm to his or her breed that might ultimately be incalculable.

I know the harm that cystinuria does, because I have produced three dogs with the condition, two of whom were stone formers, and I own a fourth who I bought from another breeder. This is a painful, life-threatening condition that requires bloody and expensive surgery to correct. I own the caninecystinuria email list, and the caninecystinuria website too. Although cystinuria is rare in dogs, it's frighteningly common in Scottish Deerhounds. And with our small numbers, the last thing we need is a widespread genetic problem.

But no matter how few or great in numbers a breed might be, none of us needs breeders who lie, deny, believe what they want to believe, and allow harm to come to the genetic legacy of their breed in the name of greed and ego. It is real dogs who pay the price of this deception, and real human hearts that suffer when our dogs do.

Comments

[Kim]

AMEN CHRISTIE! Being involved a very popular breed myself, the amount of breeders out there, who call themselves "ethical" is sickening. The "almighty" dollar gets ahold of them....

[Kristen]

I have a lab that has had 3 surgeries for cystine stones and is on 14 pills a day to help...only help with this disease. I wish there was a way to hold unreputable breeders accountable for the pain and suffering they cause our animals. It's horrible to watch my dog go through all of this and worry about his health everyday.