Why Test So Much?
by Anna Pierson, Sloughis du Soleil
One thing I talk about quite proudly is the health testing I do on my breeding dogs, but I realized I’ve never really explained why I’ve decided to test for as much as I do. For reference, at Sloughis du Soleil we currently test our breeding-eligible dogs for PennHIP, OFA hips, elbows, shoulders, patella, dentition, advanced cardiac, eyes, thyroid, PRA, and Optimal Selection or Embark. This is a lot more testing than the norm in the breed. And I know that many of these tests may seem like overkill (for instance, doing so much orthopedic testing in a sighthound breed when sighthounds rarely have orthopedic issues). But I’ve made the conscious decision to test so widely because I believe more information is always better. Sometimes the only thing this information tells you is that there are no problems. When that happens testing may not seem very useful. But even just that peace of mind is worth it to me. And if doing these tests means there’s even a remote chance of catching something earlier than it might be detected otherwise, then it’s especially worth it.
This journey started for me back in 2021 when I started to consider what testing I wanted to do before my next litter. With our B litter, my eyes were just starting to be opened to OFA and just how much health testing is available and the norm in other breeds. Since then and in researching what other breeds do for testing, I started to realize just how little testing is done in Sloughis in general. At some point along the way, I decided I wanted to test my next generation much more extensively. This was at least partly because Zina’s lineage health history is pretty much unknown (since she's a desert bred import). And I am pinning the future of my breeding program on her offspring. I want to make sure I am doing my due diligence testing what I can. And I want to do what I can to make sure I’m not introducing a health concern into the US gene pool.
But where to start? What tests should I do? With lack of much public health testing data in the breed, I eventually decided I would feel best if I tested for almost anything I could in order to get a baseline idea of what I am working with. So, that’s what I’ve been doing. Going one dog and one test at a time and slowly building a mini database of my own dogs’ test results. I started with the orthopedic tests because my local and preferred vet option for those was retiring and moving out of state. So I prioritized doing those tests before others.
In addition, we have chosen to release ALL results publicly. We do this testing not for our own ego, but for the betterment of the breed, so it only makes sense to share results publicly. You never know what information might end up being useful to others in the breed. Even though we’ve had pretty much universal passing/normal results so far, if something were to pop up that was wrong with one of our dogs, we would want that information publicly available. It doesn’t help the breed as a whole if abnormal or failing results are kept secret or only shared with a select few.
I expect to continue to test for much of this. And when looking for studs, I will be asking for as much testing as the stud’s owner is willing to do. Because I really wish we had more publicly available generational health data in the breed, even if it’s just generations upon generations of normal results.
Note: This is written by Anna as she is the one responsible for the next Sloughis du Soleil litters,
but all involved with Sloughis du Soleil are in agreement and share these health testing values.
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