Show Dog by Josh Dean

Author:Josh Dean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Generally speaking, the Australian shepherd is considered to be a healthy breed. While dozens of diseases can afflict it, only a couple are pervasive. The most serious is epilepsy, and there is great hope of discovering a gene for this that could be identified using a DNA test. But we’re not there yet.

Few people have better perspective than Jeanne Joy Hartnagle, who, as the breed’s de facto historian, has watched Aussies change over the past half century. “There is a pretty limited gene pool,” she told me. And epilepsy was a new concern, one that hadn’t been an issue in the past. “Unfortunately, it’s a huge problem now.” What happens when a few dogs that happen to be carrying hidden genetic flaws do really well in the show ring is that those flaws can be spread, because a successful dog’s sperm is in demand. In some cases this is due to a lack of scruples (“People did not give good disclosure,” is how Hartnagle puts it), but often it’s just that the breedings happened when there wasn’t “as much information as genetics.” Either way, “That unfortunately got into the breed.”

All responsible breeders test for a number of heritable problems. To help prevent hip dysplasia—a growing plague in many breeds, especially German shepherds, Labrador retrievers, and most large, working dogs—hips are X-rayed and evaluated by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA), which assigns a particular dog a rating. Only dogs with “good” or “excellent” ratings should be chosen for breeding. Puppies have their eyes examined at eight weeks for eye defects, and those that are cleared are registered with the Canine Eye Registration Foundation (CERF).

Jack is CERF-“clear” and OFA-“excellent”; the only slight tick on his file is in the area of drug resistance. Another common issue among Aussies—as well as other herding dogs, like collies, Shelties, and German shepherds*—is that there exists in the breed a resistance to certain drugs, especially those containing ivermectin and loperamide (which is the key ingredient in Imodium). Dogs carrying this Multi-Drug Resistance gene (known as MDR1) are unable to flush certain toxins out of their brains and can suffer neurologic damage. Generally it’s not a serious problem and is easily uncovered using an over-the-counter genetic test. Three results are possible: “mutant-mutant” (meaning highly drug-resistant), “normal-normal” (A-OK), and “mutant-normal” (mildly resistant). Jack is mutant-normal, meaning that he probably shouldn’t be given dewormers containing ivermectin (Heartgard, for one), or antidiarrheals like Imodium, but they’re not going to kill him either.

Being a responsible breeder, Kerry is always up front about such things, but this problem is one that doesn’t really concern her. “I don’t consider it a big deal at all.”

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