And Satchmo follows up Darlington...

with another BOB at Stafford open, plus Working Group 2. My boy! Thanks to judges Colin Gillanders and Alan Brown.

Satch gets BOB at Darlington

Satchmo (Grafmax Louis Armstrong) has just won his first Championship show Best of Breed at Darlington Show. V proud! Thanks to judge Nigel Morgan. Have been meaning for several years to make the 600 mile round trip to see friends near Newcastle and take in Darlington and NECDS. Finally did it. Great but emotional to see Gerry's best friends after so many years - very conscious of the empty seat at the dining table, but good to see them nonetheless.

Came back via Peterlee for NECDS dobe champ show. As expected, Amazon Russian Ice won limit and a Supeta was 2nd, but Satch came 3rd, so fairly content with that, what with so many professionals there. Lovely atmosphere, lovely people and so many came up to compliment me on Satchmo and tell me they were rooting for us. Long 4.5 hours back from there in heavy traffic and rain.

As these are Satch's first two shows in Limit Dog, I was pretty pleased.

New heart tests for Dobermanns

The Dobermann Breed Council (1) has announced new tests for early detection of heart disease in dobermanns. Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) can occur at any age, but is more common in older dogs. One of the challenges, therefore, is to identify young dogs that are at risk of developing the disease before they are used as breeding stock.

Troponin I is a protein that is present in cardiac muscle tissue. Increased levels of Troponin I can indicate heart muscle cell injury, as researched by Gerhard Wess and colleagues (2). This could be caused by a number of problems, not just by DCM, but a raised level of Troponin I indicates that echo and Holter testing are needed to test more specifically for the presence of DCM. As the tests only identify whether there is any heart damage at that time, it is important to retest regularly throughout the dog’s life. The Troponin I test is a simple blood test, so it is clearly more feasible to start young and repeat regularly than with echo and Holter testing.

Another possible marker, but with less clear evidence at present, is lactate levels. Lactate is a form of lactic acid, which is produced naturally by animals and increases during exercise or severe illness. If lactate is produced at a faster rate than it is being cleared from the dog’s body, even when it is not being exercised, there is some evidence from Bitten Jönsson’s work in Denmark that this may be a very early marker indeed of the dog’s potential to develop DCM later in life. At present, this assay is for research more than for diagnosis.

The Dobermann Breed Council (DBC) is working with Dr Jo Dukes-McEwan at Liverpool University to carry out Troponin I and lactate assays and the DBC will pay up to £50 towards costs for breeders who are member of a breed club affiliated to the DBC.

© Sue Thorn 2011

(with thanks to Dr Jo Dukes-McEwan and Rebecca Barber)

References

1. Dobermann Breed Council announcement, http://dobermannbreedcouncil.co.uk/troponin.html

2. Wess, Gerhard et al, 20I0, Cardiac Troponin I in Doberman Pinschers with Cardiomyopathy, Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, vol 24, pp 843-849 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/204I2436

Pippi gone

Pippi went to her new home with Natasha and Julian and their 2 children last Saturday. Last thing I saw she was sitting on Natasha's lap licking her chin. My dogs don't appear to have noticed, but I like to assume there's been a bit of doggy grief in there somewhere. I took Nina to see her other daughter, Ella, yesterday, which she was very excited about.

Shame Pippi fell in the pond just before she left! I was indoors and heard Nina barking - that's nothing unusual as she barks at every passer-by, but this sounded panicky. I then heard a little squeak from Pippi (don't call her Pipsqueak for nothing) and knew exactly what had happened. Dashed out to find her doggy-paddling madly in the deep end - a few feet from the shallow end and beach but at 7.5 weeks that's clearly not obvious. Yoiked the poor girl out, wrapped her in towels and cuddled her till she warmed up and the adrenalin rush died down (in both of us!).