This might sound stupid, but....

[Maxxs_Mummy]

...with all of the illnesses and conditions that our darling
Cavaliers seem to be destined to suffer from my brain has been in
overdrive. Now, at the best of times I have a rather overactive
imagination (according to my nearest and dearest) but I'd like to
know what anyone thinks of my thoughts.....

IF (just for instance) you had a dog who had been neutered and then
at age 6 or 7 or whatever was MRI'd and heart checked and found to
be clear on both, it would be a great shame. BUT what if, you could
use some of the genetic methods involved like in cloning.

Would YOU let your dog's DNA be used (blood or whatever) together
with an MRI and heart clear bitch to reproduce and clone puppies?

They did it with Dolly the sheep and whilst I know she suffered from
some illnesses like arthritis in her later years I believe she was
OK.

I am sure that there are veterinary scientists who could do this ...

Am I totally bonkers or do you think it might just eradicate both SM
and MVD from our beloved breed?


I posted this on another forum but no body replied, I'd be really interested in anyones replies as my dog is almost 6 and has a very, very slight murmur (apparently it is hardly anything) and has just been MRI'd and we are awaiting the results - if he tested clear then I'd be more than willing to donate his DNA to be cloned and also have one or more of the pups. Am I mad? Cruel? What????????

[Nicki]

Previously I was always against cloning, thinking it to be against nature and that people were doing it for selfish reasons - I wouldn't want a clone of one of mine, however much I love them, as it wouldn't be them...Does that make sense?

However you have a point here, and I can see what you're getting at. No don't think you're mad...maybe science will catch up and it could even be the only way to save the breed eventually. DOG forbid that it gets to that point.

[Harry & Heidi's mom]

[quote="Maxxs_Mummy"].........They did it with Dolly the sheep and whilst I know she suffered from
some illnesses like arthritis in her later years I believe she was
OK....quote]


Actually, they cloned Dolly the sheep from a sheep that already had arthritis, so it was obvious that dolly would get it too.

I think most people seem to misunderstand what the cloning of this sheep did for us, it was a major breakthrough in medicine and yes i would definatly allow my dog to be cloned if found to be perfectly healthy.... i've even said i'd have my daughter cloned as she's a lovely kid, but a clone of my son?? no thanks 1 is enough

[rory]

Couple clarifications:

With cloning, you wouldn't be using his DNA or whatever together with a bitch's to make offspring. They take the DNA out of a cell from another animal, insert all of Maxx's DNA (just for ease, we'll use Maxx's name), and then insert this cell into the uterus of about 150 - 500 females, hoping that it will take and that at least one will be born.

The resulting offspring would be genetically identical to Maxx (except for mitochondrial DNA from the host cell), but there's no accounting for environmental influences. At this point, we don't know how much of MVD or syringomyelia is environmental.

All that said - they don't have the technology to clone dogs yet. Apparently it's a lot more difficult than cats. But you can always "bank" your dog's DNA with Genetic Savings and Clone in Sausalito, CA in hopes that they will one day be able to do it. Barring government bans, which are currently in the works.

I think that a better idea is to outcross to another breed to bring in new genes.

[Maxxs_Mummy]

Heaven forbid if I had my eldest cloned - I think I'd run away to some unheard of island LOL

Thanks for clearing it all up Rory, but if they did outcross to another breed then we wouldn't have all the traits our beloved Cavaliers have and they probably wouldn't look the same either

Glad you can all see what I'm getting at though. I don't want a clone of my Maxx, I was just thinking of ways of saving the breed from all the horrible illnesses that seem determined to get them

[rory]

If you outcrossed to another breed -- something similar to Cavs but w/ different genes - then backcrossed to Cavaliers, you could have dogs that look just like our Cavs today but maybe w/o as many problems??

That's what someone did with Dalmations to fix the high uric acid in their urine. Now, 10 generations down the road - you could not tell the difference unless you tested their urine! The dogs are 99% Dalmation, as only 1 dog (a Pointer) was used to introduce the normal gene for this disease over 30 years ago. Unfortunately, the Dalmation Club of America will not allow these dogs to be registered, thereby retaining this potentially deadly disease condition in Dalmations...

But that is a single gene problem, so it's not probably as simple w/ Cavaliers.

That said - i'm working with several geneticists and it's true that the first
cross of two distinctly different breeds that have very different copies of genes will be extremely healthy because they are very unlikely to have two copies of any recessive trait - if the parents are distinct enough.

My boss's Weimeraner just came into heat and we're trying to imagine what a Cav x Weim cross would look like!

[Maxxs_Mummy]

Oh my word, can you imagine a Cav x Weimaraner????? It would be as mental as can be LOL

What do you do then? Obviously some sort of genetics work?

Bet it's very interesting

I can't understand the KC - they are supposed to love dogs etc - yet they still let 'brokers' register puppies from puppy farms