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Piper’s breeder, Glenfraser Kennels, produces beautiful and
expensive Scotties, and a number of champions. Piper's breeding
line was not repeated or continued; however, Glenfraser did wish
to extend the genetic components in their breeding program, and
bred both of their foundation bitches to a quality English import.
The offspring of the English import line are now behind Glenfraser’s
current stock, and so far their general health and longevity seems
to be good.
http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/glenfras.html
In addition, Glenfraser will be providing the 10 Steps to all of
their new prospective owners. Glenfraser advised us not to embark
on chemotherapy for Piper when he became ill. Glenfraser have had
no other instances of cancer in young dogs.
Some breeders, particularly of the backyard variety are a) unaware
of the statistically higher risk of cancers in Scotties identified
by the American Kennel Club and the Scottish Terrier Club of America
or b) previously unaware of the solution or c) taking no steps to
prevent the problem by more careful breeding specifically directed
at expanding the gene pool safely, d) they think if they ignore
it, it will go away, or e) they are puppy mills wanting only to
make money and caring little about this great breed of dogs.
Here are nine replies from reputable breeders:
Breeder
# 1
In the past eight months, I have been contacted by many Scottie
lovers from all over the US looking for a new Scottie puppy. A high
percentage of these had recently lost a Scottie, many of the dogs
dying at an early age (5-8 years) from a great variety of cancers.
They all asked about the incidence of cancer in my line. My line,
as is true of most of the breeders in this country, is an amalgamation
of the breeding efforts of numerous devoted Scottie people over
many years. My personal experience with the Scotties I have kept
here at my home over the past 35 years has been a very low incidence
of cancer. Last year, I lost a 14 and a half year old male to throat
cancer. A number of years ago, I lost a 12 year old bitch to mammary
gland cancer. In 1982, I lost a five year old male to a cancer in
his mouth. He had been bred and raised elsewhere and came to me
when he was a little over two.
All of my Scotties, when they are outside, run and play in large,
shaded concrete runs. Every single one of the callers who had lost
a Scottie to cancer had the identical answer to my question "When
your Scottie goes outside is he running on lawns that have been
treated with any type of herbicide, insecticide, or fertilizers?"
The answer in every single case was "YES, he is now or had
been at one time or another." Only a fool could miss the obvious
connection. I am not saying that this rules out a genetic prediposition,
only that there is a glaring environmental problem that must be
considered a huge factor in this.
We are constantly assaulting our pets immune systems with everything
from monthly heartworm medications, flea preventatives,- all poisons
- yearly booster shots, hormones fed to the cattle and chickens
used in their kibble, and then we wonder why these little guys are
falling prey to various immune disorders (and I suspect cancer has
an immunological component). Every serious breeder that I know wants
to breed a healthy, long-lived Scottie, but there are things out
there beyond our immediate control.
I now refuse to sell anyone a puppy if they are unwilling or unable
to guarantee me that their Scottie will not be running around on
poisoned ground. They must either agree to forgo treating their
lawn where the Scottie will exercise or construct a safe fenced
area where he will not be exposed to the various toxins currently
in use. They are then, obviously on the honor system to do this.
I have given the best warning that I can. Most of these owners have
gone through hell with their pets fighting cancer, and I am sure
will do whatever they can to avoid a reoccurrence in a new well-loved
companion.
Breeder
# 2
First, I want to compliment you for what you are trying to do. Any
education for owners and breeders of Scotties which will improve
efforts to reduce cancer in our breed is wonderful! Also, it is
valuable for owners to see exactly what the treatment for lymphosarcoma
cost one Scottie owner, with disappointing results.
I totally disagree with your recommendation that there be a major
effort to bring in "suitable offshore breeding stock"
to expand the gene pool of the breed. Breeders #6 and #7 have excellent
comments to make on this subject, and I agree with them. Importing
stock from overseas is getting a "pig in a poke."
North American Scottie breeders who are in Scottie clubs and the
STCA have been far more involved in disease control and awareness
than any group of foreign breeders or any foreign clubs. Bring in
foreign Scotties and all that will happen is that we concentrate
whatever genes those dogs have when they are subsequently bred by
show breeders. Show breeders' purpose is to concentrate good genes,
but in reality they also concentrate undesirable recessive genes.
It has been proven by researchers that dogs with a lower coefficiency
of inbreeding live longer than dogs that have more concentrated
genes. Dogs less "inbred" are documented to live years
longer than the more "inbred" dogs! We need specific research
on this phenomenon in Scotties, and how it affects the incidence
of cancers and disease in general. It would be easy enough for researchers
to compare a group of "backyard" pedigree Scotties with
low coefficients of inbreeding with a group of show-bred Scotties
which almost always have more concentrated genes. Which group lives
longer?
When individual breeders, or even the AKC, start calculating coefficiency
of inbreeding on each pedigree, breeders could, if interested, try
to reduce their "inbreeding" by adding that information
to their "breeding equation."
Whether breeders do that or not, buyers could use coefficiency of
inbreeding in the decision-making process. Perhaps wise buyers would
choose dogs with lower coeffiencts of inbreeding in hopes of getting
longer-lived Scotties. They would also need to understand that they
probably would be buying Scotties that are poorer specimens of the
breed when compared to the Scottish Terrier Standard since fewer
"good" genes have been concentrated.
What I suspect would happen if research were done on a group of
backyard bred Scotties versus a group of show-bred Scotties is that
the backyard dogs would be longer lived. They would have the same
diseases as the show-bred dogs, but at a lower rate because their
"bad" genes would have been less concentrated, and undesirable
recessive genes would have had less of a chance to come together.
Certainly, health registries for the various cancers are an option
that should be used to decrease the incidence of cancer.
A phenomenon which few Scottie breeders know about yet, but which
affects immunity and the disease process, including the incidence
of cancers, is the major histocompatibility complex. When there
is more diversity in this "major histocompatibility complex,"
dogs are able to mount a better immune response. When breeders concentrate
the "good" genes, almost by definition they reduce the
diversity in this major histocompatibility complex, even if they
are being meticulous in avoiding recessive genes like vonWillebrand's
disease, craniomandibular osteopathy, cerebellar abiotrophy, etc.
My opinion is that Scottie buyers (and breeders, too) deserve to
know the coefficient of inbreeding of Scotties that they are buying,
or Scotties on which they are making breeding decisions. Until that
happens, it appears that buying Scotties which have few common close-up
ancestors in their pedigrees could be one way to insure that a particular
Scottie might enjoy a longer life...and perhaps even avoid some
of the common Scottie cancers.
I am a member of STCA and believe with all my heart that STCA breeders
are the most knowledgeable breeders where Scottie disease are concerned,
and that they also want to avoid cancer and diseases.
It just could be, though that backyard breeders who know nothing
about Scottie disease, but who simply breed unrelated dogs together,
may in the end breed dogs with a lower incidence of various diseases,
including cancer.
Breeder
# 3
Hi,
I read your site yesterday. I think your ten steps are good ideas.
I sympathize with what you went through with your dog and the chemotherapy.
I too had a dog with lymphosarcoma (at 14) and we started chemo
and felt it was just too hard on her, kept her on steroids for a
month as long as she felt good and then one morning she looked very
bad and we put her to sleep. Probably she had a bleed of some sort.
I don't think vets give really good advice about chemo. I think
most of them have very little experience with it.
I was told with my girl that Scotties have about the rate of lymph
cancer as other breeds and that it is about the same rate as people.
I would also distinguish between cancers in old dogs, like my girl,
and in young dogs, like yours. To me, a 14 year old Scottie is near
(or past) the average lifetime of the breed, which hasn't changed
much over the years. Like old people, things go wrong and something
will cause their death before long. Cancer in a younger dog, particularly
a cancer like lymph that is so tied to environment, is something
to look at carefully.
Someone on the Health Trust Fund of the Scottish Terrier Club of
America has stated that bladder cancer in Scotties is 18 times more
prevalent than in mixed breeds. That figure is slanted by the fact
that (according to the former dean of Michigan State University)
there is quite a lot of data showing that purebred dogs are taken
to the vet and to specialists at a significantly higher rate than
mixed breeds. That causes the statistics to look like purebred dogs
have more illness.
So, my personal opinion is that I think your site is very caring
and gives good advice on management of pets so as to avoid cancer
and other problems the best we can with the information we have
today. I think it is worded compassionately and is lovely. Where
I am leery is with the cancer rate. I don't want to paint a rosy
picture of Scotties (or any dog nowadays) that is inaccurate but,
conversely, I don't want to paint a picture that is inaccurate to
the negative either.
Breeder
# 4
I'm one of hundreds of STCA members who loves my dogs and wants
the best for them. Many breeders have been improving the breed for
the past 50 years. Members of Scottish Terrier Clubs, be it in America,
Canada, the British Isles, Japan, Russia, are few in number compared
to the number of people who breed Scotties world wide. The backyard
breeders and puppy millers don't give a darn about the health of
these dogs!
Puppy mills will not invest in bringing in a dog from overseas when
they have one sitting in their back yard which can produce sperm
in abundance to get the job done. Go to a puppy mill some time and
see the conditions that these dogs live in. When a puppy bitch has
her first season, she's bred, and then bred every cycle thereafter
until she dies. I imagine that what you view as important to the
health of the breed is determined by a sense of love and sincere
caring. The bottom line for puppy millers and some backyard breeders
has nothing to do with emotion or concern for the health of these
dogs and everything to do with the income.
Breeder
# 5
There have been many dogs imported through the years from Scotland,
England, Chile, and Germany just to name a few. Likewise, dogs have
been sent to Japan, Russia, GB and many more countries. Ours is
not a large gene pool - we are quite aware of that, and know that
"bringing in new blood" is vital to the health and well-being
of the breed. I believe I can safely say that the majority of the
breeders who are members of the STCA stay well informed and strive
to be caretakers of the breed and leave it better than when each
of us began. There are, however, many people who are backyard breeders
and commercial breeders. As a whole the backyard breeders are not
well informed about health issues and the commercial breeders only
look at the bottom line - the income.
The Health Trust Fund (HTF) is very well supported by Scottie lovers
and breeders world wide and has funded research for years in areas
of vWD, Scottie cramp, CMO, Cerebellar Abiotrophy, Lymphoma, Liver
Shunts, TCC, and more. There are Scottie Information Exchange presentations
that go on around the country as well as seminar's given by the
researchers who have been diligently working to help improve the
health of our most loved breed, the Scottie.
We all hope that eventually there will be more major breakthroughs
in research and that we will see fewer and fewer genetic and environmentally
induced problems in our dogs. Until that time we are doing the very
best that we can; we share information about our dogs with other
breeders as well as provide information in surveys when requested
and finally we provide financial support for research.
Breeder
# 6
The gene pool is indeed vanishing. This, again, in my opinion, is
a direct result of the breeding policies of the last 15 years. Feelings
ran high against breeders for using their stud dogs on somebody's
pet bitch despite the fact she may have been a quality bitch, but
was simply not in a situation where she could or would be shown.
Puppies who were sold as pets and companions all began to be sold
on spay/neuter contracts or limited (non-breeding registrations)
again despite the fact that these were healthy, quality puppies
with no real reason why they should not be bred. The gene pool for
the breed as a result has plummeted.
I don't pretend to know the answer except I do know that it is much
more complex than importing some more Scotties, which will come
in with their own array of genetic problems to disseminate throughout
the breed. I will not argue against the numbers that the breed has
a genetic predisposition to a variety of cancers.
I
have downloaded your information, all of it excellent advice, as
I strongly believe that many of these cancers have a major environmental
component due to compromised immune systems from the systemic poisons
our Scotties are exposed to.
The
genetic component comes into play when you ask yourself why Scotties
seem to be more susceptible to damage from these toxins than other
breeds. My purpose in answering your email was simply to let you
know that there are many long time breeders who are agonizing over
this and have given it much thought. We are in a position to talk
to many Scottie owners, both pet and show from around the country,
and we do know and care about what a horrendous problem this is
for all of us.
Breeder
# 7
Ho,
nice work. I have no problem with the content although I do not
agree with the hypothesis that importing off shore dogs (there would
never be enough of them imported) is any kind of solution. Imported
dogs would simply bring in new or reinforce bad genes already present
in the breed. Putting it in the best light, if enough of them were
imported to actually reduce the cancer predisposition, as breeders
we would then be grappling with a myriad of other serious genetic
problems.
Do you know for a fact that there is actually less cancer occurring
in offshore Scotties? Overseas breeders are notorious for hiding
genetic health problems and saying they never saw it - BAD for the
lucrative export market. Von Willebrand's Disease is a prime example.
We heard nothing but constant denials from overseas breeders that
they had ever run into this problem although imported dogs were
known carriers of this gene. Thanks to breakthroughs in genetic
testing and the American breeders’ willingness to have their
dogs tested and publicized, most of our show breeders have eliminated
this gene in their Scotties. In my opinion, the hope for the future
health of our breed is supporting genetic testing and research.
I
am also not certain about the puppy mills’ contribution to
the incidence of cancer in the breed. We are talking about two distinct
breeding populations here where very little interbreeding has been
done for at least the last 15 years, and it was not done on a large
scale prior to that. It would be interesting to know if there is
a statistical difference in cancer incidence in these two American
breeding populations. The next step would be to compare these figures
with the same statistics from Scottie populations in other countries.
Looks like it might be time for the STCA to do another health survey
with an emphasis on cancer and making a major outreach effort to
owners of Scotties from the puppy mill population.
Breeder
# 8
One of the problems in any breeding program is that the results
will not be known for many years, and there is little research on
which to base decisions, other than anecdotal evidence provided
by breeders (such as with Scottie cramp, whereas vWD has a genetic
marker).
Breeder
# 9
We commend you on your research and effort in the compilation of
all your information. This will be a great article to print and
give to future buyers of our puppies.
One of our requirements of a new pup owner is love and care (as
in pampered) along with proper nutrition and regular veterinary
visits. It is most helpful for a new owner to get the best information
they can for the care and well being of their pet(s).
I hope that breeders’ associations will investigate the possibility
of reallocating some funding from research to a careful and painstaking
large-scale program to increase the size of the gene pool. The fact
that mixed breed dogs are known to have a significantly lower risk
of cancer, while being exposed to the same environmental hazards
as Scotties, is a very strong indicator that a larger gene pool
provides more protection. This phenomenon cannot be explained by
purebreds getting better veterinary care and thus appearing more
often at in the database than mixed breeds. Among purebred breeds,
Scotties are significantly higher risk for cancer.
Every Scottie owner and every breeder can take some steps toward
a solution. Any Scottie owner or breeder who is not taking steps
to create awareness and provide ALL of the environmental protections
is putting at risk the future of the entire breed. Simply hoping
someone else will look after the problem is not good enough.
Piper at Home
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