Tag archives: Accurate genetic testing

Paw Print Genetics is celebrating the Australian Cattle Dog this week. Although generally considered a relatively healthy breed, like other purebred dogs, the Australian Cattle Dog is known to inherit several genetic diseases. Testing your dog prior to breeding prevents the disease through avoidance of producing puppies at-risk. This brief article describes a few of the diseases that can currently be tested for in Australian Cattle Dogs.  You can find a complete list and more information at  https://www.pawprintgenetics.com/products/breeds/91/.  All of these tests performed by Paw Print Genetics are accepted by the Orthopedic Foundation For Animals. 

Cystinuria is an inherited disease that is known to affect amino acid absorption by the kidneys. This abnormality leads to cysteine crystals and/or stones in the bladder that can block the ureters or urethra and stop the normal flow of urine. If not treated, urinary stones can cause urinary tract infections, kidney failure and even death.

Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) is a late-onset neurological disease found in over 100 breeds of dog.  Known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in humans, affected dogs typically begin to show signs of neurological weakness in ...

Paw Print Genetics understands that our customers know what’s best for their breeding programs and what they need from a laboratory. Our customers are the experts and that’s why we listen closely and ask questions. Doing so has resulted in Paw Print Pedigrees, a free website that Paw Print Genetics customers can use to promote their kennels and show off their health tested dogs. Another feature recently added is our Clear by Parentage program, which allows the breeder to get Clear by Parentage certificates on any pup resulting from health tested, parentage-proven parents. Because our customers asked for it, Paw Print Genetics now offers an optional, Veterinary Verification for samples collected by a veterinarian and submitted to us for testing.

Veterinary Verification is an optional and voluntary program offered by Paw Print Genetics that allows breeders to confirm the identity of their dog by having a veterinarian collect the sample and verify a permanent identifier for that dog (microchip number or tattoo). There is a simple form that must be completed by the veterinarian and this form must accompany the sample to the laboratory.

Having a verified sample may provide puppy buyers extra assurance that the test results they receive ...

Paw Print Genetics customers can now receive Clear by Parentage certificates for their puppies. Responsible breeders work hard to ensure that their dogs are clear of inherited diseases found in their breed. Breeders also want the ability to show potential buyers that the puppy they are about to purchase is also clear of disease, but testing an entire litter can be expensive.

Our new Clear by Parentage certificate program provides breeders with an alternative to testing their entire litter. Breeders can now clear their puppies for the diseases already found clear in the dam and sire. This program is for those breeders that used Paw Print Genetics for their disease testing. 

Follow these easy steps to get your certificates.

1. Order and complete disease testing on prospective parents through Paw Print Genetics.
2. Once pups are born, do parentage testing through Paw Print Genetics using the parents and any pup for which you want a certificate.
3. When the parentage has been completed proving the parents, order Clear by Parentage certificates for those tests that are clear in both parents.

In some cases, one or both of the parents are carriers of a genetic mutation.  Breeders can order testing on one or more pups ...

Brief personal history as credentials . . .

In the world of dog breeding, I started long before any genetic testing was readily available, with Chesapeakes, more than 25 years ago now. We performed OFA Hips and that was about it. Then I went back to my herding dog roots with Australian Shepherds, Miniature Australian Shepherds and now Miniature American Shepherds. What I have to say about genetic testing however, applies regardless of breed.

Some of you that have been in this for a while, may remember a company that offered a slew of testing, all in one package, for $25. It was the hottest item on the market. I remember feeling very virtuous about being able to test all my dogs, for a reasonable price, for a whole bunch of things that I didn't understand at the time. But as breeders we educated ourselves, found out that testing really DOES matter and learned how to breed away from some of the unfortunate genetics that our dogs carried. It really was an exciting time in breeding because it gave us such powerful, valuable information that increased the overall health of the dogs we produced. The problem was that this company was not all ...

Paw Print Genetics is a proud sponsor of the US Border Collie Handlers Association. With their Sheepdog Finals next month, it is a good time to think about genetic issues and whether to breed your dog.

Although generally considered a relatively healthy breed, like other purebred dogs, the border collie is at risk to inherit several genetic diseases. Testing your dog prior to breeding prevents the disease through avoidance of producing puppies at-risk. This brief article describes a few of the diseases that can currently be tested for in border collies.  Click here to find a complete list of tests for border collies.

Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA) can vary from mild to severe; mild cases have normal vision, while severely affected dogs can have retinal detachments, malformation of the eye, and blindness. Unfortunately it is not possible to predict the severity of clinical signs based upon the severity of an affected parent. About 2% of border collies tested at Paw Print Genetics are affected with this disorder.

Trapped Neutrophil Syndrome (TNS) is a disease of the immune system that prevents affected dogs from producing an adequate amount of neutrophils (a type of white blood cell).  Affected dogs commonly present at ...

We train our dogs to do certain things, like sit, stay, lay down, retrieve or even run through an agility course. Training a dog takes patience and persistence. It means providing consistent clues that your dog will eventually come to understand if done in the same manner. But I’ve recently come to wonder, have I trained my dog, or has she trained me?

Every time we sit down to eat dinner, our dog Daisy runs to the front door, whips around and stares at us. Invariably, one of us says, “Daisy needs to go out” and my daughter groans, gets up and lets her out.   Most of the time, Daisy does her business, but sometimes, she runs out to the middle of the yard, expecting my daughter to follow her and hopefully play.  This has led us to believe that Daisy’s behavior of running to the door and then staring us down, has trained us to respond in a particular way, and has us wondering if she brags to the other dogs that she has trained her human to stand up and open the door on command.

Likewise, Trixie the Wiener Dog has my husband trained to take ...

When we look at the vast majority of genetic tests currently available for canine inherited diseases, we find a large number of diseases that can be predictably diagnosed with our current technology. For most of the available canine genetic tests, dog breeders understand that there are three commonly used designations applied to a dog for any given inherited disease; normal, carrier or affected. By knowing the way a disease is inherited (recessive vs dominant vs X-linked) and the number of copies of a mutation present in an individual, genetic testing laboratories like Paw Print Genetics can give predictable information about these diseases because they have a clear, 100% correlation between the cause and the illness. 

Unfortunately for dog breeders, inheritance is not always as clear cut as a simple recessive or dominant pattern. In fact, the diseases with a clear-cut inheritance pattern likely only make up a small percentage of the diseases with inherited components. Some of the most frustrating diseases for dog breeders and geneticists are those which pose an increased risk by the combined effects of multiple genetic mutations and/or environmental conditions. In these multifactorial diseases, rather than a 100% correlation between a singular genetic mutation ...

Bringing a new puppy into the family is a financial and emotional investment.  Once the kids fall in love with that new puppy, there is no turning back, no matter what might happen.  Whether you are a professional dog breeder or simply a careful buyer, genetic testing can help you understand the potential genetic threats to your dog’s health. It will also inform you of potential inherited diseases that may get passed on if you decide to breed. By testing both the dam and sire, this information will help you select the proper mate to produce the healthiest puppies thereby increasing the value of your breeding program.  If both the dam and sire are clear, all of the puppies will be clear by parentage. Thus, those that are diligent about testing will save money over time. However, every time a new dog is brought into a breeding program, that dog should be screened for all known disease mutations to make sure you are not introducing new mutations into your lines.

Paw Print Genetics was founded by geneticists and veterinarians committed to quality genetic testing and outstanding customer service. Paw Print Genetics offers the largest selection of tests ...

Degenerative myelopathy (DM) can be a devastating disease. Some breeds with this disease will lose the ability to walk in their later years – certainly after the age most dogs are bred. The mutation has been found in more than 120 breeds (1), which indicates that the original mutation might have occurred hundreds or thousands of years before many of the modern dog breeds emerged.

However, the frequency of the mutation varies between breeds and certainly the risk of developing the clinical disease seems quite distinct and breed-specific. For example, the frequency of carriers and homozygous mutation (affected) dogs in the Kerry blue terrier is about 52%(1), while carriers and affected dogs make up 91% of Pembroke Welsh corgis in Japan(2). Although wire fox terriers have a similar combined carrier and at-risk frequency of 90%, none have ever developed the clinical signs of DM(3).

In a 2001 study by Moore et al., German shepherd dogs had nearly twice the risk for death associated with spinal cord diseases, compared with Belgian shepherd dogs among military dogs(4).  Although we don’t know for sure if the spinal cord disease was DM, certainly DM is one of the more common causes of this ...

I recently took a trip to Colorado Springs to visit colleges with my son. I enjoyed spending time with him and visiting Colorado College. We were very impressed with the student-led information session and campus tour. The students were knowledgeable, poised, enthusiastic and inviting. If these undergraduates are a reflection of the school and its caliber of students and faculty, then I know that my son will do well there. We left with an overwhelmingly positive impression of the school, the campus and the region. I would give our student ambassadors an A-plus for customer service during our visit. However, during our trip we were customers of several other companies and many of them fell short of superior, or even acceptable, customer service.

Our flight to Colorado Springs was uneventful and the staff of United Airlines did an exceptional job in making us feel special and that they appreciated our business. However, when we landed in Colorado Springs, things started to fall apart.

We arrived promptly at the Hertz counter to find that the car we had reserved and paid for weeks in advance had been given to someone else. Hertz claimed to have no cars to rent to us ...