Re: [pyrnet] Dwarfism or Congenital Chondrodysplasia

["Linda Weisser" <lmweisser@olywa.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: <JGentzel@aol.com>

http://www.minnesotamalamuteclub.com/chdhist.htm

To see a sample of the deformities.  Just short cute dogs?>>

First.  Thanks Joe for this link.  I didn't know that it exsisted and it is
very valuable.  Linda Dowdy is the person who flew her own plane to the
National in Milwaukee in 1991 to talk to the GPCA health committee about
dwarfism in Mals.  An intelligent, well informed, dedicated person.  She
brought a set of carpal x-rays for us to see.  Once seen, never forgotten.
However, at *no* time in the hours I spent with her in the meeting and
privately did she raise any panic flags about severe deformities.  Further,
there only a  single photo of a seriously deformed Mal on that website.
This is the pic that is on the cover of the AMCA brochure.  A member of the
AMCA chrondroplasia committee said to me that they regretted putting that
particular dog on the front since he is so extremely untypical of Mal
dwarfs.  Before we totally "freak out" over that pic, keep going through
the pages to see a less affected dwarf who is hardly identifiable.  Also
the photo of the dwarf pup.  I have seen normal pups with fronts that
didn't look much different from that.

There are many, many reasons for not breeding dwarfs and for working
diligently to eliminate them from the breed.  Their health, longevity and
character are probably not among those reasons.  We have to get somewhat
more "sophsticated" and talk about abstractions like type, function,
history etc.

Linda Weisser