Have a ? about roachback and dna testing
 

I bought my hubby a yorkie for his birthday and we all have fallen in love with her. i would like to buy myself a male yorkie possibly to breed with her. I have her AKC papers for the three generations & all have been dna tested and I have seen both of her parents. Her mom was about 5 pounds and long and her dad was 3 pounds and about as big as a minute. Whiskey looks like her mom in the face and has a lean torso. Her front legs are shorter than her back legs and I am concerned that she might be developing roachback-sometimes she has a hump and other times she doesn't. She does have alot of fluffy hair though. If her entire family was dna tested wouldn't roachback show up as it is a genetic defect? Like i said before i am interested in breeding her but am being cautious first. she is only five months old so breeding will be something in the far future. My mom has falling in love with her as have my grandparents and all of my aunts and they would love to have a little whiskey-baby of their very own. I would really lke some opinions but fair warning i am very-tender-hearted and my feeling get hurt easily-i can handle constructive criticism but don't blast me out of the water:;) :p :D :D

Having shorter legs in front is a fault. A roach back is a fault and many have arthritis later in life so it does come with some health issues. In my opinion, a dog with obvious defaults should not be bred to perpetuate the conditions in future generations.

No, a DNA test does not show roach back or other conditions like livershunt, luxating patella, etc. It proves parentage, not genetic defects.

Of course, no dog is 100% perfect, but they should be as close to the standard as possible for consideration in a breeding program. Five months is early to evaluate a dog, maybe these problems with disappear as she matures.

lacy's mom
 

i hope they do...maybe since she is so young she still has to stretch out.:p her mom and dad both had a straight top-line? and my friend bought whiskey's sister from the same litter and she has a straight back also. i've been watching her walk and sit closely these past few days and shen she is sitting it is straight and when she is running it is straight but when she's just standing sometimes it looks all humped.she's a huge fluff ball-maybe i when i give her a bath i can see her structure better when she is wet.thank you for your advice.:D

The hair can make it look that way. You will want to be sure. You do have time to see how she turns out, she is still just a baby.:)

Does anyone have a pic of "roachback" I have never seen this before..would appreciate it....

Thanks in advance!

Someone on here does. This came up once before. Maybe you could find the picture by doing a search. It is a very noticeable thing. Makes you pitty the pup right away.

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sho...ight=roachback

Here's one link that shows a pic. Also do a search by clicking Search and then entering roachback and you will get other thread discussion.

Thank you

There's a cute little 5 pound Yorkie in my neighborhood with a roach back.
It is considered a serious fault and a dog with this problem should never be bred.....never - never - never. Sorry.

And - I'm not sure that being a roachback is something that would show up genetically. It would take a little research to find out more about this.


Carol Jean

I wasn't planning on ever breeding...I know for a fact that neither the Mom or Dad had this...I have seen both of them. It had to come from somewhere in the line.

thank you for the response

thank god it was just a cowlick!!! i took her to the groomer's for the first time ( i am excluding the first time i took her and the lady shaved everything but her head-can we say bobble-head dog here??:rolleyes: )anyway the groomer had her all dolled up-she looked like a totally different puppy when i picked her up. i don't know how she did it but her hair was flat and divided down the back which was STRAIGHT!!!! no roachback-whew talk about a load off!!!:p :D