WCSS - Breeding active healthy dogs

The objectives of the Working Clumber Spaniel Society include a central aim to ‘restore to the breed physical soundness and the essential qualities needed by a working spaniel: game sense, stamina, agility, willingness to please, ease of being trained, modest size and weight, freedom from hereditary defects, and freedom from exaggerated features encouraged by breeding for appearance only’

In pursuit of this the Society does not endorse any particular breeding strategy but encourages the sharing of views and health information towards informed and responsible development of line by its members.

Useful tools are now available to help prospective owners and breeders and general information is freely available on various internet sites. For example, look at the Kennel Club’s Mate Select which provides hip scores, PDP1 checks, and the latest eye test results where these have been done and recorded, and COI ratings for all dogs who have been registered. It is important however to understand some terms as they affect the Working Clumber Spaniel.

COI (Coefficient of In Breeding)

Dr Jerold S. Bell, DVM, Clinical Associate Professor in Genetics at Tufts Cummings school of Veterinary Medicine says:

“I applaud your continuing development of the working Clumber Spaniels. I am not a proponent of the Kennel Club’s ‘Mate Select’ system. The coefficient of inbreeding is a tool; not a goal. Attempting to homogenize breeds by only outbreeding does not improve their genetic health, and is actually a self-limiting exercise. Once you have eliminated all unique lines through outbreeding, you will no longer find matings with lower than average COI. Then, only occasional unrelated dogs (imports, etc.) will allow lower COI, and they will become popular sires due to their not being as related to the general population. This has nothing to do with their health, or improving the health of breeds. The only way to improve genetic health is through health testing and selecting for healthy breeding stock. It is the selection of breeding stock, and not the linebred or outbred) matings that they are involved in that affect genetic diversity”.

COI provides an indication of the probability of shared genes in breeding lines. Its use is enhanced by an outline understanding of major breeding strategies summarised very briefly below

In breeding

– this is the breeding of very close relatives such as parent to child, brother to sister. Whilst repulsive in human terms some very experienced breeders will briefly deploy this strategy for rare and carefully justified reasons where an important objective cannot be met by other means. Under most everyday circumstances in breeding activity should be viewed with extreme caution.

Line breeding

- Whilst line breeding may involve use of relatives such as cousin to cousin, line breeding is used responsibly to establish desirable traits from known genes. It is likely to be a feature of low volume breeds such as Clumber Spaniels and where previous health problems etc are being eradicated by selective breeding.

This indicates why COI should be viewed in the context of the breed strain – so the COI for Working Clumber Spaniels may well be higher than the Clumber Spaniel breed as a whole- however this needs to be seen in the light of fact that working dogs might well be healthier and more agile than average for the breed. More detail is in an article by Dr Jerold Bell a canine geneticist

Out crossing

– here a breeder purposefully breeds a dog from a different line to their bitch. This creates greater genetic diversity, lower COI ratings and can introduce a desired trait into a line. It is an effective antidote to in-breeding, and tight line-breeding, but bears the balancing risk of bringing in often unknown genes which could introduce, or re-introduce, less desirable traits or bad genes. Again, in a breed such as the Clumber Spaniel which has some potential problem genes, the responsible working dog breeder will carefully check the line they are bringing in.

Whatever method is being deployed, WCSS breeders are united in pursuing responsible routes to the objective of a healthy Working Clumber Spaniel true to its original type.

Health Checks recommended for Clumber Spaniels

Check for Hip Dysplasia (HD)

WCSS recommends that all dogs are hip scored, and that breeders only use dogs with low hip scores (25 or less).

PDP1 Checks - PDP1 (Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Phosphate 1) Deficiency Test

The result of the test can be either CLEAR (no copies of the mutant gene), CARRIER (one copy of the mutant gene) orAFFECTED (two copies of the mutant gene). Note that the progeny of a clear sire and a clear dam will too be clear (hereditary clear), and the progeny of two hereditary clear, or one hereditary clear and one tested clear dog will also be hereditary clear.  Further information on this scheme can be obtained from the Kennel Club or from The Animal Health Trust

Eye Tests

The Society encourages members to eye test their dogs before breeding and also encourages members to only breed from dogs free from entropian. Eye tests should be repeated annually and in any case within 18 months of the date of registration of a litter.