WoofnHoof

I wish I'd had pet insurance when I got my husky, he has cost about $8k in vet bills and meds. I dare say the insurance companies will probably wise up and refuse to insure pet shop pups before too long too I think. I looked into it afterwards and thought it was dear but it still would have been cheaper than the credit cards

Again I have to agree with TT, if we had a similar set up to SHOR in Australia, that would be fantastic, as I said before as a newcomer it is so hard to weed out the truth from the rumours, I think a set up like this would resolve a lot of the issues IF people participated and submitted all their results, the good the bad and the ugly.

Whether people like to admit they have 'skeletons' or not, the fact of the matter is there are many registered breeders that aren't being upfront about the issues in their kennels, I wonder when they are withholding that information do they realise its the breed as a whole that is suffering.

Steve, I do have to admit, I guess you could say I have been extremely narrow minded about testing and the results, if a dog fails or is above average, that's it, too bad, rule it out and start again. I guess my line of thought is that we have SO much variety with this breed and the population certainly isn't lacking, so I haven't thought that there was a need to worry about the breed lacking due to pulling unhealthy dogs from a breeding program?

I do apologise as I have brought up several issues that are WAY off topic and i'm about to do it again I haven't seen Wildchild in here though, and I do think there has been heaps discussed in regards to eye staining so hopefully she still found what she was looking for

But...

In regards to the blue eyes...

In Sibes, there is an ongoing debate about breeding red to red due to it being a recessive and from a scientific stand point, generally it has been found it has not been good to continually breed recessives to one another. Could this be a similar case in regards to what is happening with blue eyes, being linked to other issues? Should breeders be aware of trying not to breed a dog with blue or parti eyes to another dog with blue or parti eyes?

Very interesting discussion I think anyway

From a genetic standpoint I don't know whether the recessive genes are the issue, it is more whether these genes can be linked to other genes which may result in negative outcomes. The only way the recessive trait itself would be the issue is if there was a direct negative from the trait - such as paler skin = higher susceptibility to skin cancer or whatever. Unless the trait itself is detrimental, there is only a need to worry about detrimental effects from genes linked to this trait. Hope that makes sense