Seasons, Hips and Elbows

 It looks like I was right and Siska's season is brewing, interest in her has increased and she's had a dirty brown discharge. I've known that go on for about a week and then they come in, or sometimes it clears for a few days and they come in. Whatever, some changes are a foot and her behaviour this last week will be hormonal. I'm dreading it to be honest .. maybe I should get all the males apart from Orin neutered! Haha  The timing is difficult for using the kennels, the weather just won't be suitable, but the timing is ideal for shows as we have nothing now until Manchester in January. I have entered an open show on 19th of Dec - but it's indoors - we'll see how covid is behaving then! 

Whilst I discussed the elbows of the bicoloured bitch with a friend last night she asked if I was getting Zeus' health tests done. Hmmm, the problem is, even having paid £200 on the vet bill this month the balance is still greater than £300. My vets are great letting me pay it off a bit at a time, but I don't want to take advantage either. I need more meds for Loki and that is a must, and I'll need to get Siska's tests done in February, so it looks like Zeus' health tests will have to go on the back burner. As I said to her if anyone wants the bloodlines then Orin is the better dog anyway. I understand some people want long coats, but I would imagine from the coat that O carries that he does carry the L/C gene anyway. She went on to say that her bitch has elbows of 1/1 - well you know mated to 0/0 that is acceptable to me. 0/2 would not be, but I would consider 1/1 without doubt. 

Elbows are scored very differently to hips. Hips to start off with have a much wider range for scoring 0/0 is clear - 53/53 is a total disaster. Also Orin's hips are 2+2 = 4, Kaiah's are 4+7 = 11 ... and so on. But elbows are only scored from 0 -3 and the score is based on the maximum score on one elbow, so 3+1 = 3, 2+2 = 2 .... this bitch having an elbow score of 1+1 still only comes to 1, as would a bitch who's scored 0+1. I consider myself to be an ethical breeder, but we must always remember there is more to dogs than hips and elbows - of course they must be a huge consideration but there should always be room to be a little flexible - don't throw the baby out with the bath water - so to speak!