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!).

Update - better late than never

Well, just as it was getting interesting I got sidetracked and didn't make any entries. Sorry about that. Nina was confirmed pregnant at about 4.5 weeks, but it wasn't clear how many - looked small. At 7 weeks she was rescanned and ... just one pup. What a bugger. Rather worrying as you really can't afford to lose one when it's a singleton. However, all went well and she whelped at 6.15 on Weds 6 July.

Little Grafmax Solitaire (Pippi) weighed a healthy 460g. Here she is as a newborn. More like a little rodent than a dog! All has gone fantastically well. She's been given very active interaction and exposure to lots of things to compensate for not having sibling pups and she's extraordinarily confident at 5 weeks. She now weighs 3.5kg.

Satchmo adores her and plays with her very gently. Max hates her and doesn't want her near him. They are all jealous and seeking lots of attention. I started her on solid food at 3.5 weeks and will start weaning her away from Nina today. She's already sold and her new owners have been to see her twice and are coming again this weekend. Have alook at www.grafmax.org for more photos and video.

More puppies?

I took Nina back to see her erstwhile boyfriend, Bracco, on 5 May. They got on pretty well! Fingers crossed that she's pregnant. If so, pups will be full brothers/sisters to the Grafmax Jazz litter and will be due on 7 July and ready for new homes at end of August. I've told Nina I'd like 8 please. I can't have her scanned until 5 weeks after mating. She's started stealing Satch's and Max's food. Does that mean anything?

I can't wait to see what Satchmo thinks about some new brothers and sisters. I should think his nose will be quite out of joint when he sees his mum fussing round new babies.

Secret diary of Maximilian Thorn, aged 13 3/4

Woke up at 6am and thought, 'My Mum loves me, she won't want to miss a minute with me', so I barked and barked until she realised I was awake and came down to love me a bit more. I went out into the garden for a pee and a sniff and ran back in quickly to see her some more. She didn't seem pleased that I'd come in without waiting for her to do that strange thing where she wipes all my feet with a towel. Still, I probably imagined that - I'm a bit sensitive, you know.

She sat down at that damn thing she calls a computer and appeared to be ignoring me, so I tap-danced and whinged till she turned and laughed and stroked my neck. I love my Mum. She couldn't have been laughing at me of course, cos she loves me too much. She was probably just laughing from sheer pleasure at my stopping her having to look at that weird screen thing. Then she was forced somehow to look back at it again, so I put my front paws on her lap and gave her a big kiss.

She said, 'Off', but I know she didn't really mean it. Then she said, 'I said off, deaf bugger'. Then I knew she really loved me more than the other two, cos 'deaf bugger' is a new term of endearment that she only uses with me. That's cos I'm special. I'm her first dog and today I'm 13 and 3/4. She loves me much more than that scintillating bitch, Nina, who's only a girl after all, and MUCH more than the brat.

Have I mentioned the brat? He and 3 others, indistinguishable from him, came to live with us a couple of years ago. Mum and Nina brought them back from the vet's. They were really small then and I didn't think they'd be an issue, but, boy did they grow quick. They got everywhere. I treated them with the disdain they deserved, of course; ignored them completely, in fact, but that didn't stop them running round after me and doing their poor excuse for barking. (Not proper big boy barking like mine. Hang on a sec while I do a bit more.) Anyway, after 8 weeks, my Mum realised they were pathetic compared to me and paid people to take 3 of them away. (Yes, she did, I saw money change hands.) Seems the brat (they call him Satchmo, but I call him the brat) was so appalling they couldn't afford to get anyone to take him away. And boy did he grow. I've heard people say he's bigger than me, but of course that can't possibly be true.

Anyway, today's my 13 3/4 birthday, so Mum is going to take me for a really good walk and then Emma and Brian are coming for the weekend, specially to see me cos it's my 13 3/4 birthday. Yes, I know it's Mum's and Nina's birthdays tomorrow, but that's definitely not why they're coming; otherwise, why are they coming today?

Got to go - sausages for breakfast. That PROVES my Mum loves me best. The other 2 will get tinned food - heh, heh.