Davecav, I'd agree that a first priority for a buyer really should be health tested parents and ideally, grandparents as well. COI would be a consideration -- I do know breeders who have long focused on having them as low as possible, always within single figures, so it has been a consideration for some.
Sins, I think this is what so many find really discouraging and, frankly, shocking -- that it should be so very difficult to find puppies from fully health tested parents, even after years and years of discussion. None of the tests except MRIs are terribly expensive (and most UK breeders have access to MRI scans costing as little as £100); some tests only ever need to be done once. If breeders had been doing basic health testing all along, they'd certainly have results on all grandparents and great grandparents and further back for everything except MRis -- the MVD protocol has been around going on two decades, which is many generations of cavaliers.
I can think of breeders who have all this info plus MRIs on current breeding stock and also have DNA Ids on their registrations... and the puppies do not cost any more than the average show breeder puppies. There's also a very strong argument that scanning the dogs older the 5 is going to give a breeder the most helpful picture of a line rather than scanning a one year old with plans to repeat at 2.5, or only ever having the one dog scanned at breeding age. There are plenty of funds now availble to UK breeders to scan their dogs older than 5!
The fact that more breeders (the vast majority, I would say) don't have this basic information by now as a norm, really makes one wonder what people have been doing for the past two decades... and also maybe explains why the current UK club committee is refusing to publicly commit to the club's own basic health testing recommendations...icon_nwunsure and underlines how important and symbolic for all breeders such a commitment to the breed's health and future would be.
Sins, I think this is what so many find really discouraging and, frankly, shocking -- that it should be so very difficult to find puppies from fully health tested parents, even after years and years of discussion. None of the tests except MRIs are terribly expensive (and most UK breeders have access to MRI scans costing as little as £100); some tests only ever need to be done once. If breeders had been doing basic health testing all along, they'd certainly have results on all grandparents and great grandparents and further back for everything except MRis -- the MVD protocol has been around going on two decades, which is many generations of cavaliers.
I can think of breeders who have all this info plus MRIs on current breeding stock and also have DNA Ids on their registrations... and the puppies do not cost any more than the average show breeder puppies. There's also a very strong argument that scanning the dogs older the 5 is going to give a breeder the most helpful picture of a line rather than scanning a one year old with plans to repeat at 2.5, or only ever having the one dog scanned at breeding age. There are plenty of funds now availble to UK breeders to scan their dogs older than 5!
The fact that more breeders (the vast majority, I would say) don't have this basic information by now as a norm, really makes one wonder what people have been doing for the past two decades
... and also maybe explains why the current UK club committee is refusing to publicly commit to the club's own basic health testing recommendations...icon_nwunsure and underlines how important and symbolic for all breeders such a commitment to the breed's health and future would be.
