anniemac
Well-known member
Absolutely agree with basic points, Anne but Margaret offers the correct context: NO ONE should rely on the fact that a breeder is scanning or even sending in the consequent information to researchers as a badge of good health focused breeding practice.
Lots and lots of breeders in the UK and increasing numbers in the US, Holland, Australia, Finland etc now go to low cost scanning clinics. Far fewer make responsible breeding decisions on that basis. And FAR too many breeders are scanning UNDERAGE dogs, getting a good result and then using that as the basis for their 'clear' claims for a dog. These are people who do not then rescan at breeding age so their so-called 'grades' and 'clears' are *meaningless*.
Buyers need to be able to talk to breeders directly, and actually see the certs -- ideally the ORIGINALS while visiting the breeder, given that we have had an example already here of one puppy buyer going to a breeder who claimed to scan and cardiac test and could clearly see the breeder had used a cert for some other dog, whited-out the name of the scanned/tested dog, and written in a new dog's name.
It is fantastic to find a truly health focused breeder that actually uses responsibly the information they get from scanning their dogs at *appropriate ages*. And especially those who scan or rescan older dogs to get the most meaningful and useful information about their dogs and their lines.
I agree and thought that was a given to ask for the certificates and age etc. I think it's important, personally, to get involved and research as much as possible. Someone has said this to me and I say it all the time, "It's not the breeder, but the breeding". You have to look at all of that.
I have said before that even if Rod Russell was a breeder, I would not just assume that based on what all he goes on about health (sorry Rod), I would still do dilligence and want to see certificates, parents, meet him etc.
The point of symptomatic CM cavaliers have been brought up that based on Charlie's scan alone he could be considered an "A". This topic has been talked about before and I don't want to go into all that, but at some point we have to trust the researchers, breeders, etc. amd go further and meet the parents etc.
So yes I agree with Margaret that you need to see the certificate but I would go further like you said Karlin and meet the breeder and parents face to face.
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