Check this out! Important
 

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The Mars wisdom panel - DNA analysis. As an importand adjunct to COI

co-efficient of in breeding. Unfortunately not available as at this point for BRT;s but available for the Yorkshire Terrier.

Any Yorkie breeders use this successfully in their breeding decisions?

Gail I saw this yesterday and checked it out. In theory it sounds great and I would do it for all my breeding dogs. But how would you go about asking for this to be done on dogs you don't own.

Very cool! Takes a lot of the guesswork out of choosing which dogs to breed, and gives the breeder so much more information to base their decisions on. I love new technology!:D

I suppose like other things; we would have to negotiate with the stud/bitch owner to get this done. Another idea is maybe investigate althoug blood is better, maybe sperm analysis can suffice. If you go the AI route you could ..cough er um, maybe get the analysis done?

Hopefully like other testing we do, and that is reported on the reputable health databases; if enough breeders do this, then the pool will grow. I think the parent clubs need to get on board, and "edumacate":) their members, if this is an important useful tool. I am only taking baby steps myself on trying to understand canine genetics, and how to make the best informed decision(s) I can. It is hard enough to do the COI, there are so many missing pieces of information in our Rare Breed.

I know with the hyperuricosuria genetic test, after one year of seminars and education, the database grew by about 300% for the Blackies. You can breed a carrier to a clear, with great discrimination; because as you know you can get some pups that will be affected. There is a simple dominant gene inheritability.

That is the double edged sword with the remarkable advances of science. The more we know, the more we get to tear out our hair when making breeding decisions:(

I will be disseminating this information to the two National clubs I belong to. I pray that someday soon we get a university trained geneticist whose hobby is breeding Blackies, and becomes a member of our club:D:D

I would think that anyone interested in breeding 'for the betterment of the breed' would jump at the chance to have their dogs tested.... How about 'I need more data on your dog before I make a choice... would you consider having this test done..' IDK... :D

Ok Kathy you want to pull out your hair for me, so I don't have to!! LOL LOL

I think maybe some guesswork is eliminated, but how do you weigh all the various pieces of information?

If I understood correctly maintaining halotype diversity is very important, but how does that weigh against, good hips/elbows, heart, thyroid, hyperuricosuria gene test, temperament, color carriers, and that ineffable so very desirable "type".

AS a former "numbers" person, I assigned an weighted analysis on individual criteria and an overall evaluative number to the dog as a whole. I then made my breeding decisions based on COI, health tests et al.

Dogs are so much more than the sum of their individual parts!.

I recently took the very sad decision to destroy Magic's frozen sperm, due to his recent Xray results and now evidence suggestive of DLSS. I just did not want to be tempted to use it in the future. Maybe I made the wrong decision? His lineage is very impressive for our breed, and he is an outstanding example of the breed especially in temperament department.

As I understood it, one would go through all the methods normally used in choosing a breeder... so one is still making the same selection for specific traits, etc. When the choice is narrowed to a few similar suitable matches, then the DNA can be brought in for consideration. It's like being able to 'look inside' and see things not available before. So,(simplistically) unknown carriers of bad recessive genes can be found out and not matched, and if the line needs the added diversity, one can knowingly make that choice, or not. But at least one would 'know' more when making the final selection.

The snake breeder I worked for was lucky enough to have a famed human genetic researcher get involved with his breeding program as a consultant. Maybe contacting a few would find someone sympathetic to working with your breed....

This sounds impressive, if coupled with everything else we do...this would be a great thing to bring up with Dr.Greer in her next breeders webinar!