Woofing Magic

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New sessions of classes starting 26th October 2009 in Paisley, maximum of 8 dogs per class.

As the new owners of my previous litter all give glowing reports of the pups I am considering having a litter from Daina with the pups being born around Apr 2010 , more details to follow, contact me if you are interested in reserving a puppy.  

Zara, one of Daina's pups, has passed her Kennel Club Good Citizen Scheme Silver Award.  Well done to Aly her owner for all the hard work she has put in with Zara.  Aly has a career in Agility planned with Zara when she is old enough.

New classes planned in Newton Mearns and Bearsden in 2009, more info to follow.

Daina took part in the national Dilated Cardiomyopathy study on tuesday the 18th of Nov 08 by having a full heart check by echocardiograph and electrocardiograph.  She was found to have a completely normal and healthy heart.  This study is extremely important to find better, more effective drugs to treat DCM in dobermanns and as blood is taken for DNA extraction, hopefully one day a genetic marker can be found for the disease so that dogs can be screened for susceptibility.  I am of course very happy that Daina has a healthy heart but for this reason she cannot participate in the trial except as a negative control.  It is vitally important that more dobes are taken to be screened so that any that exhibit occult DCM can be included in the trial - if you have a dobe aged between 5 and 9 please take part in the trial, it is completely free.   

I intend to have my dogs hearts tested annually as dogs can be tested normal one year then show symptoms of DCM the next.  Only if the dog is tested normal as a very old dog and dies of something else can they be said to be free of it.  Until there is a genetic marker annual testing is the only way of checking if a dog has the disease.  DCM is an autosomal dominant disease which means a dog with just one copy of the gene will pass it on to 50 % of their offspring and a dog with two copies will pass it on to 100 % of their offspring.  Autosomal means it is not sex linked and both males and females are affected and carry the gene.  As it is late onset, ie the dogs don't show symptoms til they have probably already had a litter it is very difficult to eradicate.   It also presents itself differently in that in some dogs it causes sudden death while in others they decline over weeks or months.  It can also happen at a very young age in some and much older in others.  It is thought this is due to the action of modifying genes, so it is a very complicated gene for scientists to work on.  DCM is not just a dobermann disease, other breeds are also affected and so are humans, although the genes responsible are not necessarily the same.