It’s clear to me that the subject of DCM hits a raw nerve for
many fine folks on this list. From the more detached perspective
of an unbiased observer, I think what we are seeing is basically
a mix of two colliding interests: Owners of dogs who die of DCM
are overcome with pain and grief, the foreseeable result of
witnessing the sudden and devastating loss of a cherished life
partner. Breeders of these DCM dogs are - in large part -
defensive because they fear being held accountable for something
that was unknown or unexpected (at least at the time of
breeding); they did not intentionally breed a DCM dog, nor did
they intentionally cause this owner's pain. So one group is
acting out of pain and the other is acting out of fear. Pain
and fear do not bring out the best in humans.
I wonder if we love our Dobermans so much that losing them
detaches us from some fundamental realities. Dogs (like people)
die. Some die in their prime, some linger on into old age …
but, bottom-line, all living things will die.
Just how long do we want our dogs to live? And what do we want
them to die of? Is it our goal to have a 14 year-old Doberman?
What kind of quality of life does a 14 year-old Doberman enjoy?
Dogs are predators; predators in the wild have rather short life
spans. Nature intended that they die early… 6-7 years would be
considered a rich long life. I am a bit torn about the health
testing we do. It’s as though people want some sort of guarantee
that this living animal is defect free and will live on past
what nature intended.
I don’t mean to sound callous, but is a sudden death at 6- 10
from cardio really such a bad way to go? We see people in
hospitals hooked up to machines who linger for months and even
years… with (forgive me) no quality of life what-so-ever. I have
seen elderly, feeble, incontinent, tumor-ridden, near blind
Dobermans that, while loved to pieces by their owners, are
arguably living well past god’s original plan. It’s hard for
me to relate to their quality of life (which I will concede is a
very subjective thing).
I am not suggesting that we breed for Cardio, but at this point
we aren’t clear as to how to avoid it? Today, in August of
2006, given our limited state of knowledge, the limitations of
medical research and/or diagnostic techniques etc., what price
are we willing to pay to try to avoid DCM? In our desperate
efforts to avoid cardio we are ostracizing some important
breeding animals and breeding lines. In the future, will we look
back at our knee-jerk reactions of today as a sign of misguided,
well-intentioned panic and fear?
I think DCM is in the breed. If you truly want to avoid DCM, get
a Poodle, or a Dachshund. If you want something guaranteed to be
free of health problems, get a stuffed teddy-bear. For reasons
that in hindsight were good, bad and indifferent, for
generations - Doberman breeders focused on very specific
bloodlines. One consequence of this focus is that there are
health issues now common to the breed itself.
I can certainly understand the annoyance some may have with a
DCM List Policy that says essentially, “Without a necropsy, a
dog can not be added to the DCM list, and, Oh by the way, since
I (breeder X) categorically do NOT do necropsies, as a matter
of List Policy none of my dogs will ever be on the list and I
can claim my line is DCM free.”
I am not pointing fingers at anyone here … over the years we
have heard many breeders from all over the country claim that
their dogs are “DCM free” … free of health problems … uncommonly
long-lived … etc. My thoughts when I hear these claims is
something like, “Wonderful. That is great! But the truth is (or
seems to be) that DCM is in the breed. So you really can’t make
any valid sweeping claims about being free of DCM. The best you
can say it that you haven't seen it yet. If you are breeding
Dobermans, it is their lurking and at present you can not
accurately predict when it will pop up.”
If a breeder necropsied on every single dog they ever bred …
100% ... all dogs they ever bred, without a single exception,
they could then make a claim about DCM in their breeding
program, but even then, any claim could only be in the context
of how many dogs they bred related to numbers in breed itself.
And, if breeders actually necropsied every single dog they bred,
they might actually see evidence of DCM, even though the dog
died of something else.” So claims that lines are DCM free
really mean, “I haven’t seen evidence of DCM in a necropsy yet,
in part because I haven’t checked every single animal and in
part because dogs have died first for other reasons before DCM
became an issue.” I am not sure how valuable any claims about
DCM are.
All the foregoing aside, here is something I don’t understand.
Carmen was very honest and disclosed Dagger’s DCM status. My
understanding is that breeders then dropped him like a hot rock
… yet they still covet his sire and many breeders rush to breed
to Dagger’s sons and grandsons. So why not continue to breed to
Dagger (or continue to use his semen)? For that matter, why
bother to have a list of DCM dogs? If Eddie and Kafka can
randomly produce DCM (Cavalleria, Dagger, possibly Orion’s
Raspberry Beret, etc.), and if Dagger and Cavalleria can produce
DCM free puppies (of arguably superb quality, just look at the
top Dobermans in the Country), then what is the point of knowing
a breeding animal’s DCM status?
Irrespective of the dog’s DCM status, we really need to clearly
understand the mode of transmission… otherwise, I think we are
engaging in a bit of a witch hunt, which could very possibly
dramatically alter the breed… and I am not convinced that is a
“good thing.”
-written by Elaine Greenwood/published on this site with
permission of the author
http://logresfarm.com/