Broke the news tonight to a puppy owner that their puppy may be affected for prcd-PRA, bitch has been bred on from, affected status to unknown status stud dog.  And a kennel that shows their dogs on the part of the stud dog, and an ABS member!

Is it a requirement to do the test under the scheme?

It's a recommendation only

Thats then the issue.. many things on recommendations should be mandatory. And many things not on the list should be

Tell me about it, another ABS member I came across recently when someone asked me to explain health tests, bitch had hips of 21/22, it was her fourth litter and three were repeat matings.  Her son in law owned the stud dog, who had bare minimum health tests done from memory, if any.  The breeder then refused to give the deposit back to this lady, saying it was non-refundable, although it was the first time that had been mentioned.  The EBVs for the pups were poor for both hips and elbows as well, but the breeder's excuse was that the KC accepted registration so they must be alright.

> bitch has been bred on from, affected status to unknown status stud dog.

And I guess this is exactly the scenario that I was worried about in the thread about knowingly breeding from affected/carrier dogs, you just can't control what people do with their offspring, or the grandkids etc so best for reputable breeders to avoid carriers if at all possible.

Its why a lot of breeders have the same feeling especially if the condition is life threatening

I've seen carriers be bred on from to produce clear progeny within a couple of generations, no problems, people knew pups could be carriers but that none would be affected.  This isn't a carrier being bred on from, it's an affected status bitch to an unknown status dog, which is just completely irresponsible in my view.  It's not a life threatening condition, but it can cause blindness, although this is even thought to be late onset for the vast majority of affected status dogs, if they do ever go on to develop it.  It's just lazy, and looks like someone was trying to cash in on the demand for pups right now.

I'm really disappointed actually, looking through some of the 'recommendations', some breeds the breed clubs seem to have made more of an effort to push recommendations and also the 'mandatory' tests for ABS members, but even breeds like pugs some of the things I would imagine would have been mandatory, are only recommendations.  There's no recommendation for EIC, HNPK or SD2 for Labradors either, and there's no recommendation for ages of bitches/dogs for breeding as there are with some other breeds.  It's all a bit wishy washy.

I can imagine if certain health tests were made mandatory in order to have ABS memebership there would be a whole crowd of people moaning and whining that it’s not fair (rolling eyes icon)

> there's no recommendation for ages of bitches/dogs for breeding as there are with some other breeds.  It's all a bit wishy washy.

The breed club can ask for it if they have it as a recommendation in their own rules, as apparently the kc like to mirror breed club recommendations when possible/asked. I'd have thought that could also include the other health tested you mentioned too of the breed club also recommends it?

And the breeder has just got another pup, sired by the same dog, to a bitch of unknown status for PRA, that they will most likely breed on from.  I wonder if they will test this time?!