Are Today’s Breeding Practices Causing Our Pets To Die Early In Life?

Are Today’s Breeding Practices Causing Our Pets To Die Early In Life?

Many pet owners today remember the days when their family pet lived to be 18 to 20 years of age and sometimes even longer. Many of today’s pets that came from the same breeds are living half as long and are suffering and dying from many more catastrophic diseases like allergies, autoimmunity and cancer than ever before.

Is there a reason why this is occurring?

Most modern day canine breeds, except for those breeds that are bred for function, are bred only for structure, which has led to a genetic epidemic causing many life-threatening diseases.

People have decided what their breed should look like, based upon organizations that have set the structural breed standards in order for a canine to compete successfully in a dog show. In order for people to win points, ribbons and cups and still be accepted by the world of canine show events, these structural breed standards must be accomplished. This can only happen by line breeding and inbreeding, which is designed to create a certain color, head shape, size etc. without considering the health and function of the breed. The points, cups and ribbons flow in for the winners and their breeders and owners, but so do the catastrophic diseases that will end these breeding practices!

Once the gene pool becomes too close, a number of endocrine immune (hormone antibody) imbalances will be created, which is the basis for the development of catastrophic diseases and premature deaths in these poor animals.

Many breeders believe that by breeding to a canine parent from a foreign country, it will guarantee this outcrossing will create hybrid vigor. But unfortunately what has gone on with the breeding practices in those countries is they may also have followed the same breeding pathways our breeders have followed, and “hybrid rigor” and not “hybrid vigor” may be the end result.

Other foreign countries have passé laws that closely regulate breeding practices, including the number of canine puppies that are allowed to be produced by one owner. They also require that a canine that is going to be shown in a “structure contest” must accumulate a certain number of function points before being allowed to enter a “structure contest”.

Hopefully, this should indicate to you that other countries are also concerned about the harm that structure breeding is causing.

There is a simple blood test and protocol that can be performed that is necessary to help undo these genetic tragedies, without going through function testing.

Roz Wheelock, with her past Revimar Kennels, is a prime example of a breeder that cared about her breed and wanted her breed to be a breed of the future and not perish from structure, inbreeding practices. Her success story can be read on this website. It is the last story on the Testimonials page.

What is this blood test and protocol?

The blood test is a simple blood serum test, which is listed under Get Help and under the Animal Protocol on this website. Included just below the Animal Protocol is all the necessary laboratory information for your veterinarian on how to handle the blood serum sample and where to send it. The blood serum test must include Cortisol, Total Estrogen, T3, T4 and the three immunoglobulins referred to as IgA, IgM and IgG.

NOTE: At this point in time, there is only one veterinary laboratory in the United States that has the ability to do total estrogen.

The blood serum test results will indicate if both parents have a similar hormone imbalance.  If they are bred to each other, their imbalances will be concentrated in their offspring.  If both parents have different hormonal imbalances and are bred to each other, their imbalances are usually diluted out in their offspring. This blood serum test is easy to have done and it will help you decide if you are breeding out many genetic problems as well as breeding them in.

This is in no way to indicate that a dog should not be bred, but rather it should help you to decide which parent to breed based upon the endocrine immune blood test results. Using this protocol will help you create a puppy or puppies for the future.

Once you have identified the proper parents to breed and after the female has given birth, within the puppy’s first 8 weeks of life, you would choose what you think will be your best representative puppy or puppies. You would consider which one or ones had the best color, structure and personality, etc. When the puppy or puppies reach 8 weeks of age, a partial blood test can be performed on them measuring only Cortisol, Total Estrogen and T3 and T4.

NOTE: At this time, due to maternal antibodies that still may be present in the puppy’s blood serum and due to any possible vaccine procedures, measuring the antibody levels (IgA, IgM and IgG) will be of no value.

The puppy or puppies with the best hormone levels should be kept for your breeding stock for the future.

I have done several thousand blood serum tests for those breeders that understand the importance of this testing. The successes has been very gratifying, not only for the breeder, the veterinarian, the pet owner and their family, but also for the puppy that was bred.

Can you imagine the satisfaction of creating a puppy that you are proud of and can also lead a normal healthy life and be a part of the family for many years?

Hopefully the day will come when human prospective parents can be tested for hormone antibody imbalances that might be present that they could pass on to their newborn. Once their child is born, the infant can be tested for any hormone antibody imbalances they may have inherited.

Once these imbalances are identified and corrected, many infantile diseases might be avoided. There is a Human Protocol available for your consideration under Get Help.

Finally, if this is something you and your veterinarian would like to do, I would be more than happy to volunteer my time in helping you succeed in creating a healthy, happy breed for the future.