VON WILLEBRANDS DISEASE ~

In our opinion the most important health issue in the dobermann today as it is the only one we have a DNA test for that proves without doubt if a dog is Clear, Carrier or Affected. The assessment of all other health issues is purely a vets or somones personal opinion and is not truely scientific. Some breeders still choose to ignore this problem in our breed and don't bother having the DNA test done our advise is not to buy off of these people as they could be potentially charging you for an Affected puppy.

AN AFFECTED DOG ~ there are degrees of being affected, at its best you may never know that they are affected in that if your dog cuts its self it may take a little longer to stop bleeding than you would expect. At its worst your dog may die suddenly, become gradually aggressive towards members of your family which may lead to terrible consequences( due to blood leaking into its brain) or you may take the dog into the vet for a routine operation and it could die on the operating table because your vet can't stop it from bleeding .
The trouble is when you buy an affected puppy you don't know how badly it is affected by this disease ~ you are playing Russian roulette.

To avoid this anguish all you need to know is have the parents been tested for Von Willebrands and provided that at least one parent has tested CLEAR or is CLEAR BY PARENTAGE ( which means that it has picked up the clear genes from its parents) you cannot buy an affected puppy.



HIP SCORING ~ this is an x ray done of the dogs hips to assess the degree of displacia a dog has. This is a helpful guide to breeders as it will show over generations the trends in the breeding lines. There are very little hip problems in dobermanns compared to other breeds and the average hip score is also low compared to other breeds. What people need to appreciate is that a low hip scored dog can produce high hip scored offspring and until we have isolated the gene if indeed there is one for HD then no one can guarantee that their stock is clear of the problem. Studies have shown that there can be many environmental causes of HD such as dogs slipping over when young and damaging the hip. Studies in America have stated recently that a dog with an uneven hip score of say 3:23 is more likely to have had some environmental damage as HD does not occur only in one hip it affects both.When purchasing a puppy look for one from a breeder that knows the hip scores of their lines over the generations not just the hip score of the parents.

DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY ~ this is a heart problem where the heart can become enlarged and not function properly. Again until the gene for this disease is isolated and we can test our stock before breeding from them breeders are unable to irradicate this disease.There is a study being undertaken at the moment into this disease but it is only avaliable to dobermanns over 5 years old which means it is not avaliable to breeding age stock. It is only concerned with the treatment of the disease rather than its cure. There is a test avaliable for DCM but the unfortunate thing about this is that it can only state that the dog is clear of DCM at that moment in time when it is assessed. The dog can develop DCM the following day!!! so don't be fooled into thinking that just because you have bought from tested "clear stock" that your dobie will be free of the disease as the tested parents may develop DCM later in life. So until the gene is isolated it is unfortunately a risk we all take.