DogWellNet Digest: Issue #60 - 27 September 2024

FREE WEBINAR

Breeding Healthy, Quality Dogs: The Veterinarian, Breeder, and Public Roles
Wednesday, October 23, 2024  |  12:00 p.m. EST (UTC/GMT -4hrs)

Presented by IPFD in cooperation with the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)

Speaker:
Jerold S Bell, DVM
Adjunct Professor of Genetics, Department of Clinical Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, USA
Chairman, Hereditary Disease Committee, World Small Animal Veterinary Association

Session Overview:
The purposeful breeding of dogs occurs globally in pedigreed and mixed-breed settings.

What are reasonable and responsible guidelines to produce healthy dogs and healthy breeds? How should our knowledge of dog populations and gene dynamics influence how breeding dogs are selected and the selection of their mates? What are the roles of various stakeholders, including breeders, kennel clubs & breeding societies, veterinarians, legislative & governing bodies, and the public?

This free, interactive webinar will highlight useful tools and outline logical steps and corresponding roles regarding breeding quality, healthy dogs.

All participants will have the opportunity to take part in live polls and a Question & Answer session with Dr. Bell during this 90-minute event.

More Information   |    Register Now

News & Highlights

IPFD News

• IPFD CEO Marc Ralsky was recently interviewed on how better information-sharing by organizations like the International Partnership for Dogs can help us keep dogs in happy homes and tackle the issue of pet homelessness - as part of Mars Petcare's State of Pet Homelessness Project ‘Fur-Ever Home’ expert advisor series.

• Our very own Aimée Llewellyn-Zaidi, Project Director of IPFD's Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs (HGTD) project, is joining Laura Reeves for three episodes of her highly-acclaimed Pure Dog Talk Podcast! The first two episodes have been published - listen to them here.

• We proudly present our 2023 Annual Report: A Decade of Collaboration. As we celebrate our 10th year in operation, we take a look back at IPFD's origins and development, and showcase our ongoing efforts to improve dog health, well-being, and welfare.

Blog Posts

• In his first blog post, Reflections on the 5th International Dog Health Workshop, IPFD CEO Marc Ralsky shares his experiences & impressions from the 5th IDHW in Helsinki. See the Spotlight feature below for a complete recap of the workshop.

• IPFD's Business and Project Coordinator, Katariina Mäki, has published several entries in her Breeding and Genetics Blog:
  
  In How to breed healthy dogs - Projects and infographics from the Netherlands, Katariina provides an overview of an interesting project, ‘Breeding for health in pedigreed dogs', recently completed at Wageningen University in the Netherlands
  
  In another post on breed work in The Netherlands, New breed-specific breeding norms in the Netherlands, Katariina summarizes the first five ‘foknormen’ (breeding norms) for breeding published by IPFD Partner Raad van Beheer (RvB). These breeds include the Borzoi, Beagle, Manchester Terrier, and Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
  
  In High heritabilities for BOAS grades in Finland, Katariina summarizes a Finnish study that evaluated the results gained from the Finnish Kennel Club's BOAS test and estimated the heritability for clinically graded BOAS signs. Katariina is one of the authors of the study, as part of the work she does to improve canine health outside of her IPFD role.

Breeds Resources

★ This month, we feature the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel  ★

Quick Links to IPFD/DogWellNet Resources for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel:

• Information on the breed: Pedigree Breeds Database - Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
• Genetic testing database: Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs (HGTD)
• Health strategies: Health Strategies Database for Dogs (please send us info on your country: info@ipfdogs.com)
• Agria Breed Profiles: 2006-2011, 2011-2016, 2016-2021 (Access is free, but sign-in to DogWellNet is required)
• Get a GRIHP! on King Charles Cavalier Spaniels

IPFD Partners in Action

ASHGI, the Australian Shepherd Health & Genetics Institute, has been an IPFD Collaborating Partner since our early days. Sadly, ASHGI is in the final stages of closing down operations. However, they have generously set up an open health database to share their data. From ASHGI:

• 
  "Since 2002 ASHGI has been collecting data on breed health issues. That data was used to guide our choices of what research grants to support, it enabled us to offer our pedigree analysis service, and – to the extent dog owners were willing – to make health data on specific dogs available to the public. Some of this data was submitted with request for confidentiality, but dog owners willingly gave us information that we could make public. In addition, we are able to collect further data from various open access sources, like that available through the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, and various European sources where public posting of screening results is standard.
  
  The pdf files below were compiled from our open data. We are making them available for download by any who are interested."
  
  ASHGI Open Health Database Download
  
  
  We wish to thank C.A. Sharp and ASHGI for their important contributions to the Australian Shepherd breed, IPFD, and the broader dog community over the years!

Global Dog Community Leaders Gather in Helsinki
for 5^th International Dog Health Workshop

So Many Thank Yous for Our Partners in Dog Health:

• Thank you to our Workshop Sponsors (click a logo to learn more):

• Thank you to our exhibiting Genetic Test Providers (click a logo to learn more):

• Thank you to all of our wonderful attendees from around the world for joining us in Helsinki.
   

• Thank you to our outstanding Speakers and Theme Leaders and Poster Presenters for generously sharing their time and expertise.
   
• And last, but not least, thank you to our wonderful co-hosts, the Finnish Kennel Club, for managing registration, venue logistics, and on-site event support. Special thanks to Maija Lehtonen for her tireless efforts to make sure everything came together in Finland!

• Theme Outcomes - Summaries of discussions
• Speaker Presentations - Download our speakers' slide presentations
• Post-Workshop Articles - A collection of articles on the 5th International Dog Health Workshop from our partners and other contributors, including Centrale Canine, ENCI, and Ian J. Seath. If you know of any other articles about the workshop, please send us a link!

Next Steps:

The workshop is just the first step in turning information into action. The input gathered during the workshop will serve as the foundation on which we'll build a blueprint for international collaborative actions over the coming months and years. The IPFD team has been working on an initial action plan, and we've reconnectied with our Theme Leaders and other key contributors now that the summer holidays are behind us.

Watch for updates in the coming weeks!

Stay tuned for announcements on the 6th IDHW!

Make a Donation

IPFD is truly a "people driven" service organization. We allocate the bulk of our financial resources to maintain a small but dedicated team of consultants to manage our modest resources and facilitate the activities of our stakeholders, with the aim of achieving our collective goals.

You can specify how your donation is used (support IPFD and its programs and activities OR support the Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs). All donations are handled securely via PayPal.

Select one of the options below to make a donation now.

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