There are many ways to help. The single most important is: be careful of where you buy your puppy! DEMAND to see cardiologist (not vet!) certs on the parents and grandparents. Personally, I will also demand that parents be MRId and that breeders be able to tell me the status of their breeding dogs. Make sure parent dogs are at least 2.5 years old and heart clear (and ideally, MRI'd). Make sure breeders are following the MVD protocol if they MRI. Do not buy from breeders who cannot explain what they are doing to help resolve these problems.
Second: you can donate directly to the international SM genome project, spearheaded by Dr Rusbridge and Penny Knowler.
Clicking
here at the PayPal site and entering (copy and paste) the following email address:
[email protected]
will bring up the 'SM DNA Fund' account. Donations can be made in several currencies using a credit card or PayPal funds.