Puppy Breeding Information

Confusion seems to abound when talking to some breeders about mating a clear dog to a carrier bitch or visa versa

Information and advice is available from the Animal Health Trust as explained here.

The new puppies from a carrier and a clear would have to follow procedure, as in a litter of four or five, some puppies would be clear and some would be carriers, so there has to be a DNA test for each individual puppy, cost of this is £40 per puppy, a small price to pay to take the breed forward into a better era without lessening the gene pool, which we can hardly afford to do, but some breeders seem only to want to breed clears to clear breeding out some very good lines I'm afraid.  Anyway the next is how it is supposed to work.

Questions

"Would it be feasible to take blood from the puppies and if so how old should they be?"  "The idea is to get an earlier result avoiding the possibility of cross contamination from the mothers milk."

Answer

For the mouth swabs the minimum age is 4 weeks old, you need to keep the pups separate from mum for 2 hours before the samples are taken – but you can give them water to drink during this time.  For blood samples you need to check with your vet at what age blood can be taken as it will depend on various things, such as size, breed , the vet being is happy to do this, etc

The suggested procedure is a photo of each puppy with a colour coded neck band and swab envelope with number in one photo, separate photo for each puppy  (the photo at the top of the page shows puppies with their colour coded neck bands. (Also above is a photo of the swab no/photo procedure)

The test usually takes 2 to 3 weeks but they try for just over a week with puppies

As soon as the puppies are micro-chipped you should send the DNA test certificates back to the Animal Health Trust with the  micro-chip number which relates to the coloured neck band and the DNA test certificates will be re-issued and the data sent to the Kennel Club who will include it in their Health database and publish it in the breed record supplement, also the information will be added to the KC registration documents of each puppy.

The link below takes you straight to the KC database where you fill in any dogs kennel name to see their health results.

http://www.the-kennel-club.org.uk/services/public/health/search/Default.aspx