eye test for CEA:Having bred Shelties before starting in Border Collies, it was only natural for me to start testing my litters for CEA since the very first litter of Border Collies I have bred. As it became obvious, that there are cases of CEA in the breed, I have continued the puppy tests with every single litter I have bred. So far we have been lucky, and we try to keep it that way by testing our litters also in the future. All dogs, both bitches and dogs, that are used for breeding, are naturally tested prior mating to make sure no other hereditary eye defects can be found either.
Being controlled by a resessive gene no-one can ever be sure whether their dog is a carrier for CEA or not without gene test, which did not came available before beginning of 2005. Until then it was important to keep testing even though no case of CEA had been found for 14 years. After DNA test became available, we have been so far been able to use dogs that has been either DNA tested or genetically clear of CEA by parentage, so that none of them have been able to get the gene from their parents. With the help of DNA test, we now will be able to breed so that we never will get CEA affected dogs.number of tested : 183 puppies - 100 % of puppies with Pikkupaimenen prefix
since the first Border Collie litter in -90
number of affected 0
HIP SCORES:
With a common agreement with the owners of my puppies we have tried to hip score every possible Pikkupaimenen Border Collie both now and in the future. By x-raying and scoring as many of our dogs as possible, we have been able to reduce the number dysplastic dogs from 30% in the first 3 years down to lot less in the past 5 years. Average for the soon 15 years in my breeding is 18% of dysplastic dogs. Of those 152 officially scored dogs 20 (13 %) have been mildly affected or fair (FCI C), and just 7 (5 %) have had moderate dysplasia (FCI D).
Being multifactorial trait (caused both by environmental things like feeding and excercise as well as genes) and polygenic (controlled by several genes) hip dysplasia is very difficult to control by breeding. Still we do our best to choose breeding stock so that we can reduce number of affected dogs as much as possible. And I believe that by testing as many dogs as possible and choosing the healthiest dogs for breeding, number of dysplastic dogs can be affected.
Results of each dog you can find from their individual pages. All scores are listed, as well non-dysplastic (A & B), fair ones (C) and moderately dysplastic (D) dogs. Fortunately we haven´t had severe cases, and hopefully our breeding program will help us to reduce the number of any affected dogs.
number of scored: 152 dogs - 87% of adult Border Collies with my prefix
A-B 125 dogs - 82 % of scored dogs
C 20 dogs - 13 %
D 7 dogs - 5 %
E 0 dogs
The result is not so much better these days only because of us using second and third generation of scored dogs. There is also one dog responsible for this betterment in hip results. Since I got Cola - Borderfame Sheer Delight - in my breeding program, the results have got better not only in my own breeding but also in the breed average, as not only her own 15 puppies are free of hip dysplasia (all 15 with either A or B) but also they seem to produce lot better results in their hip scores. But I believe that by using dogs with good hips and controlling the situation in whole litter, we can make a big difference. And I believe we owe it to our breed.
Hip scores and eye tests dog by dog.
character tests
Not related to health, but an important part of the entire dog is his/her mental status. As there are as many tastes to what is a good temperament for a Border Collie, we have decided to take a character test as one objective way to evaluate the working ability for our dogs.
My dogs are not sold as herding sheepdogs (we tell those puppy buyers to contact the sheep dog club for a suitable working dog for them), but we look for homes that are interested in different sorts of performance activities. Character test does not tell everything about the character of the dog, but it gives an indication of what each dog is capable of being trained for. That´s why we try to character test as many dogs as possible. Character test can also give some hints for future training when describing certain mental qualities. Character test results in details are all public and available for anyone interested in our dogs.
Individual test results can be found at my character test page. Sorry, only in Finnish.
number of tested: 87 dogs (68% of adult dogs carrying my prefix)
number of passed: 85 dogs (98% of all of the tested Pikkupaimenen dogs)
