VDD Head Breedwarden Sigurd Croneiß presented a mini-version of the 2-day seminar which was held in Germany on 10 June 2010. Part I of the seminar dealt with recent and proposed changes to the VDD Breeding Regulations, as well as discussions on various issues that could be combined under the umbrella of genetics.
Herr Croneiß started out with the explanation of VDD’s relationship with the VDH {Verband für das Deutsche Hundewesen} and FCI {Fédération Cynologique Internationale}. VDH is loosely equivalent to AKC, and FCI is the international canine standards organization to which most countries’ kennel clubs belong. (AKC is an exception; they have long gone their own way with breed standards.) VDD’s membership in the FCI is by virtue of being a member breed club of the VDH. VDH promulgates the rules for breed shows, breed judges, and breeding kennels, while the breed clubs are left to themselves to determine their own field performance standards. In the case of VDD, we have adopted the JGHV tests as our performance tests.
Herr Croneiß advised us that AKC and FCI now have a cooperative agreement. This concerns VDD, since AKC has changed the standard, and essentially the breed, for their GWP. VDD intends to keep a close eye on developments along this front.
Next he went over changes to the VDD Breeding Regulations. All except the last had already been put into place, or just took effect on 1 July. Some are required by FCI, some by VDH.
1. VDH requires Breeder Seminars. These have not yet been implemented in a standardized fashion in Germany, but this seminar as given in June 2010 is the one with which they are starting.
2. VDH requires breeders to keep a log book. VDD is doing away with the puppy buyer list, which was prohibited by privacy laws in many German and US states. It is being replaced with a litter inspection report, much as GNA already does, except that copies of these will now be kept on file in the VDD Stud Book Office {Zucthbuchamt}.
3. In the future, registered kennel names will no longer expire after 10 years of inactivity. They will remain reserved indefinitely in order to facilitate research and lessen confusion about any dog’s pedigree.
4. Certification for breeding may only be done at a breed show. (In extraordinary circumstances, Herr Croneiß can make exceptions.)
5. Largely because of rule #4 above, the minimum age at which a dog can be admitted to the Breed Registry {Zuchtregister} (receive a ZR number, as we would say) has been reduced to 15 months.
6. Retroactive re-registrations / re-inclusions in the VDD Breed Book {Zuchtbuch} of the offspring of VDD dogs that were bred in foreign countries according to the foreign rules rather than VDD rules will no longer be permitted. Herr Croneiß gave as an example a VDD dog purchased by a breeder in Italy, bred despite the fact that it was not HD-frei, and the offspring previously would have been eligible for re-inclusion in the VDD Breed Book.
7. FCI requires that breeding dogs are not subject to any disorders such as the bleeding disorders, epilepsy, HD, OCD, or ED. VDD will now expressly prohibit the breeding of such animals. This is why breeders and stud dog owners now have to attest to this fact by means of the signed statement on the new litter registrations and stud certificates.
8. The breeding of first-degree relatives is now defined as incest, and is prohibited. Any puppies produced from such matings, accidental or otherwise, will automatically be forbidden from use as breeding animals {Zuchtverbot}.
9. Brood bitches are forbidden from further breedings once they have had 2 C-sections. Breeders now have to acknowledge on the litter registration that they may not breed their dog again if the litter was whelped via the bitch’s second C-section.
This next point was just voted on in June 2010. It still has to go before the VDD Meeting in March 2011. However, it will probably take effect on 1 July 2011. It will not be retroactive. All dogs already certified for breeding will remain so.
10. Dogs will also have to be certified as free of OCD. A shoulder X-ray will be mandatory at or after one year of age. It is recommended that shoulders and hips be done at the same time. As of now, the procedure for evaluating shoulders is still being decided, even down to what radiograph views the German evaluators will want. OCD-frei dogs will be published in the DD-Blätter just like HD-frei dogs.
As a corollary to this discussion, it was also mentioned it is being considered to add “ vWD clear” as a breeding prerequisite. The mechanism by which dogs would be certified as vWD clear has still to be discussed and decided, but it would more than likely be a DNA test done by a certified lab. Hannover and Laboklin were mentioned, as was VetGen here in the US.
Herr Croneiß said that they have been conducting a voluntary study of OCD in DD’s over the last two years in Germany. The first year, 100 dog owners submitted radiographs, and 10 dogs were found to have OCD. So far this year, 200 owners have submitted x-rays, but only 6 dogs have been found to have OCD. He suspects that now that word has gotten out, the bad films aren’t being submitted to Dr. Schunk.
As you can imagine, this last point generated a lot of discussion. The younger German orthopedic experts are saying that even though OCD is considered a polygenic trait (inherited through multiple genes which may have their expression influenced by environment or nutrition) it is undoubtedly inherited and must be selected against. There is plenty of disagreement on both sides of the pond about the actual heritability of OCD, and whether trauma alone can cause radiographic evidence that is indistinguishable from true OCD. Some say it will look different, some say it will look the same. Some say OCD only shows up if there is an underlying predisposition even if it is positively demonstrated that the lameness was the direct result of trauma. Some use the example of a pro athlete with a blown knee – did he inherit a weakness or was it the hard hit he took? Herr Croneiß recommended that if a dog is injured in an accident, that he be seen and immediately x-rayed by his veterinarian and have the vet certify in writing that the dog was treated due to an injury. There is general agreement that OCD is most common in males, at a rate of 3 -1 over females, and that it usually shows up between 5 and 12 months of age. Some recommend excluding from breeding only those dogs which require surgery, and never their littermates.
In other discussion topics, Herr Croneiß mentioned the trend toward molecular genetics in Germany, a direction that came originally from the US. Our German counterparts are now also talking about inbreeding coefficients, although they seem to calculate the inverse compared to how Americans are accustomed to doing it.
It is generally agreed among the Germans that most conformation traits, as well as temperament, are polygenic, with different degrees of heritability. The results for any one trait that is expressed phenotypically in an identical manner in both parents will generally plot out on a bell curve. The Germans feel that litter size is a non-inherited or low-heritability trait, while they’ve found that shoulder height, muzzle length, and general temperament have a high heritability. They feel that the tendency toward gun sensitivity of any degree is very highly inherited.
Part II of the seminar dealt with evaluating dogs at a breed show. Herr Croneiß says he has no complaints with how our breed judges fill out the breed show form. We’re doing it correctly, so he adjourned right to the demonstration evaluation. He also mentioned that the standard female drawing in the breed standard is wrong – they’re going to get a new one for the next printing.
Some things did crop up that should be pointed out to our breeders and owners. The current standard of evaluation for a “just barely distinct” beard is 20 meters (about 60 paces) away. The well-defined beards are obvious, but if you go 20 meters and can just barely see that the dog has a beard, it goes into the “just distinct” category. If you can’t see it at all from that distance, then the rating will drop to an evaluation of “too little” or “missing” which means your dog won’t get a ZR number. Eyelids which are even slightly “open” (loose) will also keep a dog from getting a ZR number. The disqualifying white patches (we’re talking pure white pigment) that were accidentally left out of the standard a while back are defined as 5 cm in diameter, or about the size of a tennis ball. These were always a breeding disqualification, but some of our newer breeders may not remember the old standard, and the tennis ball analogy is a good one. And finally, Herr Croneiß doesn’t like how most breed shows here and in Germany judge the gallop by calling the dog to the handler from a sit- or down-stay. He feels that many dogs will shorten up their gaits in this situation, so he prefers to have the dogs run as freely as possible. Consider coming to a breed show with a ball or bumper, or having your dog be capable of taking a “back” or an “over” and being stopped or turned if necessary.
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