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Cardiomyopathy in the Doberman Breed
by Judy Doniere, Toledobes, USA When Peggy wrote of the 7 sires all dying of Cardio, she wrote of the popular dogs on the East coast that were being used and were in many many pedigrees. However, many people were importing dogs from Germany. Some went to the West coast and a great many went to the Midwest. If we only had 7 sires to use, they would be so inbred that if they all had or died of Cardio, no Dobes would have been around several generations later. One of the bigger Kennels was Ponchartrain in Detroit. They did use a couple of the 7 sires but they imported many dogs. In Chicago there were many kennels that imported dogs. Few used any of the 7 sires. We only hear of the males that were imported but a great many bitches were also imported and few of them went back to the 7 sires. We do have lots of dogs and bitches who live to 12 and some to 15. The larger the dog (breed) the shorter the life span. Toys live into the late teens many times. A Dobe of 12 is an old dog but for instance I have a 12 yr. old that now acts like a puppy but I almost lost her a few weeks ago because of a liver infection. Sera lived to be 12 but her 2 litter brothers died at 8 from DCM. One of her aunts lived to be 17. I’ve had a few live to 15. I think now that we have methods of freezing semen, we should do it on any of our 2 yr. old dogs. By then you know how good they are. If they live beyond 10 use them, but you can still have Cardio on a 10 yr old, but the chances are good you might get lucky. There are no more LINES of dogs in this country. In the early years everyone line or inbred. That’s why no dogs look alike as their genes are spread wide so you have no idea what you’re going to get. A few kennels have had a couple of good dogs and then they line and inbred them until they started going backwards since there were no more genes bringing in good qualities and they had to go completely out so now their dogs look like everyone else’s. The dog that I know that died of Cardio and produced it because he was so line bred was Prince Kuhio. Many of his get DID live a long time but many died early. Then people in Ohio started breeding everything to him and then kept doubling up on him, so eventually their dogs started dying early of DCM. I’m sure if you trace your pedigrees back far enough, you will find him back there. Not in ALL pedigrees but enough of them to be able to pinpoint where a lot of DCM came from and yet, he does trace back to a couple of the 7 sires at least through Uranus. |
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