Breeders NEED to have these Tools in their Breeders Toolboxes to help them make appropriate decisions on WHO can safely be crossed with WHO....Is it Fail Proof???? Heck, No. When dealing with Living things, there is ALWAYS a chance of something cropping up no matter how careful or how much testing has been done. Genetics & Mother Nature will ALWAYS have the final word, BUT by using these TOOLS, we as breeders, are placing the odds of creating healthy puppies much higher than just sticking 2 dogs together & hoping for a good outcome. This also goes for crossbred dogs~ just because they are not purebred does NOT mean that they are not carriers or positive for diseases!!!! IF you Breed, then you NEED to Health Test Your Dogs....

Having ONE LITTER means that YOU ARE A BREEDER!

WHY do we NEED to DNA Health Test our Dogs BEFORE we Breed them? Some of the diseases that they can carry will NOT affect the dog itself, they will have NO symptoms & will be healthy for their entire lives BUT if you were to cross that same dog with another dog that happens to carry for the same disease, THAT is when you will run into problems.

Let's take PRCD for example: A carrier will NOT be affected by it, but when bred to another carrier, 25% of the litter can end up being positive for this disease. At 8 weeks of age, those pups will LOOK completely healthy, but by 2 years of age, they will be going blind.

Another one is NAD, again a carrier is NOT affected, but if you breed 2 carriers together~ 25% of the litter have a chance of being positive for the disease. At 8 weeks of age, those pups will LOOK completely healthy, but by 2-3 yrs of age, their hind ends will start to deteriorate & will most likely have to be humanely laid to rest prematurely~some as young as 6 yrs of age.

Some tests only take a carrier to be affected, like HC & other tests I have to question if there is more than just the gene that they are currently testing for that is actually causing problems, like with MDR1. That is Mulitiple Drug Resistance~ caused by not being able to process drugs through their brains like they need to, which in turn can cause seizures. Out of ALL of the Aussies that we have owned, I have had 3 dogs that have had reactions to drugs & ALL 3 tested up as negative/clear for MDR1.... so now I treat ALL of our Aussies as if they are positive for MDR1 & make sure that my dogs are only given appropriate drugs for treatment. ALL of our pups/dogs have a comprehensive list of the Drugs to avoid included in their take home pkgs as well as a Spay/Neuter protocol to give your Vet.....

KNOWING WHAT the tests are & how they actually will affect your dogs is VITAL to knowing WHO is safe to breed to WHO..... MAKE sure that YOUR Breeder is doing their Health Testing~ don't be afraid to ask for the parent's test results as proof~ I include ALL of the parents DNA & OFA health testing Results in our Puppy take home booklets so that you can present ALL of the scientific information to your Vet.

Currently we are testing for the Full Essential Aussie Panel, S Locus, M Locus, CDDY w/IVDD via DNA samples thru Paw Print Genetics & NAD thru Purdue University. We also have all of our dog's Hips & Elbows x-rayed & Patellas examined for OFA rating & have also had some of our younger males' dentition done for OFA as well. These are all TOOLS needed for a breeder. Some results will end up in a hard pass for using a dog for breeding, BUT this is where it can get tricky, some non-passing results CAN be used within your program & some that pass with flying colors do NOT guarantee that they will make good breeding dogs. You have to evaluate the dog as a whole & educate Yourself, as a Breeder, as to what the DNA results actually mean! Some carriers are good to go to breed, but others should be a no, no & you NEED to KNOW what each dog's DNA results are BEFORE you Breed!

Sometimes it can take a couple of litters before you decide that a certain dog just is NOT passing on what you are needing to go forward with, other times they can blow you out of the water with what they produce & those great traits just keep showing up in the following generations. NOT everything can be tested for, so it is up to the Breeder to decide if those traits are good enough to go forward with or should be out right eliminated from their program. There is NO PERFECT DOG!

OFA's are a great Tool, but I see so many breeders that purchase their core group of breeding dogs, those dogs pass their OFA's with flying colors, BUT the breeder never keeps any of the offspring~ just breeds for pups & resells and when they retire those dogs, they just replace with outside dogs. For those Breeders, the OFA's are pretty much useless as the TRUE story of the OFA lies in what the offspring that they are producing are grading at & then the 3rd generation from those dogs & so on & so on.....
UNLESS you actually have an OFA Genetic Pattern laid out, you do NOT know the full story of how those dogs are producing....and yes, you can breed 2 dogs that have tested up as Excellent for hips and have offspring that can have failing results~ Maybe just the cross?, as genetics can & will have the last say, or maybe it is something further back in one of the lines cropping up? or it could have been environmental?, but I tend to look REALLY hard at the genetic pattern for our OFA's vs the environmental as all of our dogs are raised in the same conditions, etc. Unless you have done the testing & can weigh all of the results, you do NOT know what you are producing.....

Science is developing more DNA Health Testing as new things arise in the breed, or should I say more things are getting pinpointed/narrowed down as things arise. Take the NEW test for NAD that Purdue University just released last fall, 2023, for the Mini Aussie/MAS~Miniature American Shepherd. That test was created just in the nick of time for my own program as you CANNOT breed a carrier to a carrier & it was just pure luck that I had decided to cross 2 females that have come back as carriers to 2 negative sires....IF the test hadn't come out when it did, I would have definitely crossed at least one of them on a carrier later this year & the results would have been disastrous for my program. When new tests or problems within your breed come to light, we as breeders, cannot just stand back & say that I have never had that problem in my program so I don't need to test for it. So many of our dogs can be carriers-carry a disease, yet have NO symptoms~yet when bred to another carrier, WHAM~ you have a set of pups that DO have the disease & symptoms....Testing is a necessary Tool for the Breeders ToolBox & as a breeder I am darn glad that we have scientists/labs willing to test & create tests for the various health issues that pop up for our breed!

When you bring in a new prospect or breeding dog into your program, ALWAYS make sure to run the Aussie DNA panels on them. DO NOT just go on their parents' test results! I cannot tell you how many dogs that I have brought in that I have been told should be clear/negative for certain items only to run the tests on them & find out that they are actually carriers..... DO THE TESTING! And if the testing results end up being different than what you or their Breeder are expecting, PLEASE share the test results with your Breeder as most are being honest with you with their testing, but are human & mistakes CAN & Will happen as well as not all of the DNA companies are created equal & mistakes have been made due to inaccurate test results. We are ALL in this together to help our Breed thrive & Grow......