I have two young working strain cockers who have both passed their eye tests.
I was advised before hand that "..we don't have a problem in the working strain...."
Unfortunately if we don't test will we find out too late that we do!
I am just chuffed anyway!
Eavie

>> we don't have a problem in the working strain <<

Take that with a pinch of salt, as there is a fair amount of cross breeding I would not think it can be true, and as you say if you believe it and don't test, how the hell would you know?

It's hardly expensive to test, nor is it much effort on the owners part.  I know lots of people don't have eye tests done but it is better to be safe than sorry.

This is what annoys me with so many other breeds, they say that they don't have a problem but they don't test for anything so how can they say this?

I guess it is because they don't see a problem!  I don't know anyone who has a problem with eyes in a working cocker whereas I do know several people who have had severe problems with HD in working labs.

Eyes are a lot more open or shut than hips. The possibilities that a particular hip problem is hereditary is possibly less than 50%, it could so easily be damage whereas it is easy to say whether a cataract is damage or hereditary. As such it is so much easier to control eyes than hips.

If people don't eye test then I have to agree that they may well have problems which are being sealed into the breed which could come back to haunt them later. I am a firm believer that ALL breeds should be tested.

Regards, John 

Hi John

Whilst I strongly agree that all breeds should be tested, not all breed's eye problems are open or shut :D .  With some conditions the exact mode of inheritance is not known

The exact mode of inheritance may not be known in some conditions Christine but what I was getting at was that it is possible to state for certain that a particular condition IS hereditary but of course, with hips that is not the case because a bad hip COULD have so many other causes.

Best wishes, John