06/28/2024
While Tesla *should* live a long and happy life with me, running agility and being the class clown, I want to add some personal thoughts here-
Tesla exibited NO symptoms. Her issue was purely caught in pre breeding screenings. This is WHY, we as ethical breeders, spend thousands of dollars on physical testing prior to breeding. Her cardio was caught on her very first echo, I wanted to monitor it and wait to breed her, since at the time, it didn’t seem to be progressive, just more of how she was built. I decided to wait to breed her for various reasons, to continue heart testing remaining number one.
As ethical breeders, we not only test (OFA hips/elbows, genetic, etc) we test yearly (Echos) and TWICE yearly (holters) after the age of two. AT THE MINIMUM.
I likely have $3-5k wrapped up in health testing (genetic, OFA Hip/elbows, eyes, thyroid, 3 echos, 4 holters) just for Tesla alone. Not including travel and training. I have to exclude her. Do I know if this is condition genetic? No. Am I willing to take that chance? No.
This is very personal. I’m not even mad. It’s the right decision. While I am disappointed, as she is so exceptional in many ways, I’m not kennel blind. This is why it is so important to support ETHICAL breeders. We follow the standard of what’s acceptable for health testing for our breed. Most of us develop our own protocol above and beyond the norm for our programs.
This is also why I encourage all doberman owners (pets included) to heath test their dogs after the age of two, for at the minimum, a baseline on their hearts. I encourage all owners to be responsible and educate themselves on the breed they choose to purchase.
No matter how you slice it, there is blood, sweat, tears, heart break, joy, pride, thousands of hours educating ourselves and training, and tens of thousands of dollars invested. Next time you bash an ethical breeder remember the hard calls and sacrifices we make. For Me it’s for the LOVE of the breeed, and that’s the bottom line.
