You've Never Bred It ... Till You Have!

Well I may not have bred her, but of course she's half my breeding. Listen, cow hocks at this age are not a huge deal for me, but keeping records of how she was and when may help me or others in future. One of Beti's brother also has the same problem, but as he is also over angulated and his owners took the unwise decision not to let him have free running exercise for fear that he had hip problems, then his issues due to lack of normal muscle development are greater. 

An animal is cow-hocked when its hock is set inward, resulting in a splayed look in the back legs. A slight amount of cow hocking is common in herding breeds, and while it isn't preferred in the show ring, it doesn't have any obvious detrimental effects on hip health, nor does it necessarily indicate unsound hip. As Gillian explained yesterday it is a muscle imbalance between the internal and external hip rotators, the muscles on the inside of her legs/thighs now need to catch up with the muscles on the outside. I bet if you've seen Beti you haven't even noticed, and she has improved since this photo was taken 5 weeks ago.

Chatting to a friend last night she said that any breeder who denied having any abnormalities in their litters was lying to himself, and to others. I told her that I wasn't aware of breeding anything with an over angulation problem, ever, but the combination of Orin and Zoe seems to have produced over angulation in the male mentioned and cow hocks. Ian reminded me that Gibson, Yarna's son to Orin was cow hocked too as a youngster, but he isn't now. Katrina thinks in Orin's line that it's coming through from Nico's grandfather, of course Nico himself was a touch over angulated too. With all the best will in the world breeding is not a science and sadly shit can happen with any combination. We do all the health tests required, and more and spend hours trolling through prospective partners to best suit the line as well as the construction of the female. 

Orin has just the best hindquarters, strong, straight and un-exaggerated. Siska has just a little more length of second thigh, making her look just a little different when viewed from behind. She's not unsound, but maybe not as firm and true as he is. Correct construction is about soundness, the physical ability to do a days work, exaggeration deviates from this ability. Apart from the Merlot line Siska is the same breeding as Orin, therefore with more knowledge than I had a year ago I have more things to consider when choosing a partner for her. So have I changed my mind? Well probably, yes! 

Really I have been lucky, mostly we seem to have a healthy female line here, I don't include Kaiah as the circumstances of her death are different, but we've only lost Krizzie in single figures, all the other girls have been between 11 and 13, with Tali over 13. But I'm not blinkered, to my knowledge I may never have bred a DM affected, an elbow score or even a dog with HD, but until the H litter I'd never bred an animal with AF, and until the K litter I hadn't bred a puppy without the correct intestinal tract either (little Winnie) ... you've never bred it, until you have, and once you have, it's what you do with the knowledge that matters. Let's face it, overdone is exaggeration, and I firmly believe that is detrimental to the dog. Therefore, when choosing breeding partners thrive for moderation in all aspects, look further than the dog that stands in front of you, look at the generations that came before them and what they have produce. We'll never get it 100% right, but for the sake of the puppies that we are privileged to bring into this world, let's do the bloody best we can.