07.07.2014 Tallivahdin fourth generation, a stallion foal and some observations of the estimated age of death and the amount of DM in Hovawarts in Finland

As you have seen we really have had a great puppy year! At first we got 11 H-puppies on February and now this summer I am enjoying the company of our 10 I-puppies that can be also seen here in photos. BABYBOOM continued some nights ago when we got a beautiful FWB stallion foal and he was luckily born on the pasture during night and everything went very well. I-puppies have all found good hovi homes but the foal is not for sale. Me and my sister shall keep him and try to manage to have him as a stallion that means a lot of new thinking and also making some practical changes in our stable. He is the fifth foal of my sister´s and mine and represents the 3rd generation of our own breeding. We bought his grandmother´s mother in 1983. His grandmother died last December as 24,5 years old and if he lives as long I will be an old lady when he dies. So this companionship is hopefully a lifelong one. I-litter is the first litter that represents the fourth generation of Tallivahdin hovawarts and now we have had totally 8 litters and 75 hovis. Our A-puppies are now 12 years 9 months this July and 6/11 of them are still alive. That is really something to be happy with. I plan to breed with two bitches Fährtenhündin and Genie next year too and then there will be a pause of couple years to wait for the fifth generation of Tallivahdin. I just love breeding and planning for the new litters. It is so exciting to wait for the result and see how the dreams of each litter become true. The feedback from the owners of the puppies is the most important and for the communication Facebook has shown to be a very handy tool. I am very glad that several people made me join to FB. I-litter will make a history of Tallivahdin because there are two puppies that are moving abroad. I have not wanted to sell puppies abroad before even there have been several interested people but now I see the time has come for that and these puppy buyers are also more convincing than the former ones in past. And my hopes of getting puppies to owners that appreciate working dog breeding is also becoming more true in this litter than ever before. Hopefully we can see dreams according to these puppies come to real results someday – very good luck and a lot of enthusiasm for the new owners! Estimated age of death and the amount of DM in Finnish hovawarts Finnish Kennel Club has a very nice breeding database of all registrated dogs in Finland and it is in English and in Swedish too. There in Health statistics of every breed you can find cause of death statistics that dog owners have themselves informed to Finnish Kennel Club. Cause of Death statistics in hovawarts looks at the moment like this: Cause of death     Average life span, Total N Accident 4 years 9 months, 19 Age (natural or euthanasia) 12 years 5 months,129 Congenital defect or malformation of a puppy 1 years 7 months, 4 Damage done by large carnivores 10 years 4 months, 1 Dead without diagnosis of illness 8 years 8 months, 10 Endocrine disease 8 years 4 months, 4 Euthanasia due to behavioral problems 4 years 2 months, 15 Euthanasia, non-diagnosed 10 years 5 months, 27 Eye disease 9 years 8 months, 1 Heart disease 7 years 1 months, 12 Immunological disease 5 years 10 months, 6 Jecur or digestive disease 8 years 0 months, 23 Neurological disorder 8 years 2 months, 6 Other unspecified disease 7 years 8 months, 30 Respiratory disease 11 years 7 months, 8 Skeletal or articular disease 7 years 11 months, 28 Skin or ear disease 4 years 1 months, 2 Spinal disease 9 years 11 months, 37 Tumor, cancer 8 years 8 months, 74 Urinary disorder 8 years 7 months, 5 Cause of death not specified 8 years 7 months, 102 Altogether 9 years 3 months, N=543 As you see at the end of the list there are all counted together and the estimated time of death in Finnish Hovawarts is 9 years and 3 months. And N=543 is already so representative that this statistic is very much the truth at the moment. But of course many Hovawarts live much longer than this but it would be very important to rise the average lifespan as high as possible. But Hovis seem to have it better than many other breeds. Compared to other German breeds Hovawart situation is better. For example estimated lifespan of Giant Schnauzers is 8 years 10 months (N=407), Boxers is 8,0 years (N=652), German Shepherd 7 years 9 months (N=3838), Rottweiler 7 years 8 months (N=1297), and for Dobermans the situation is the worse 7,0 years (N=903). Also more and more popular working dog Belgian Malinois live shorter life than Hovawarts their Average lifespan is 8 years 4 months (N=230). Many smaller and popular working dog breeds also have it worse than Hovis for example Border Collie 9 years 2 months (N=357) and Australian Kelpie 8 years 8 months (it is not so common here so N is relative small 69). It is often said that smaller breeds live longer but Hovawart seem to brake the rule if you compare it to rather popular minidogs like Miniature Schnauzer 9 years 6 months (N=778) and Miniature Pincsher 7 years 3 months (N=390). Yet the rather good state of Hovis in Finland I would like to see Average lifespan even much longer because a 9 year old Hovawart is not an old dog because it usually is still workable and can run as long distances as the younger ones. One solution to make the lives of Hovawarts longer is to take seriously DM = Degenerative Myelopatia. Several of the new owners of Tallivahdin H and I litters have had hovawarts before that had died in DM. The knowledge of this disease is not very long maybe from 2005 there has been some information of it. But today its awareness is so good that veterinarians make rather easily diagnoses and gene tests are easily and cheaply available for everyone. And DM is known to inherit genetically via one gene also the most simply way we all can learn in biological studies already in lower grades. In the list DM as a death reason can be found in several classes it is often scored at least in neurological disorders, in skeletal and articular diseases and in spinal diseases that is the major class of DM. And as you can see the names of the dead dogs you can easily look their families and find who are at least carrier father and mother in their pedigrees. And many of very popular breeding males can be found to be at least carriers for example following males Anjak vom Steppenwolf that had 7 litters and he is grandfather to 283 puppies and this amount is still rising, Sazidun Extra Special had 10 litters and he is grandfather to 194 puppies, Crezidahof Don Juan had 5 litters and 63 puppies in 2nd generation. Don Juan was for sure a DM sick dog because in one of his litter all puppies were euthanized because of DM around year 2005. Many of these males can be seen in the pedigrees of Finnish Hovawarts. And there is no limit of using their outcomes. Anjak is in the pedigree of about 50% of 18 litters that are or will be born this year in Finland.  And no one seems to be worried about the situation because I have not noticed that any of these dogs have been gene tested for DM Degenerative Myelopatia. So we will see how many DM dogs we get more in ten years here in Finland. In order to see the whole state of the breed I wish everyone would take care and put the death reasons of their dogs into this Breeding database. Now our puppies are growing so fast that at the end of this week we can take them out to the garden. Hopefully this very hot weather almost + 30 C becomes soon normal Nordic summer + 20 C! Have fun with your dogs! BW Minna and 13 Hovawarts :-D

Takaisin