Genetics–What does it mean?

“Genetics — The study of heredity and variation of inherited characteristics;  the genetic makeup and phenomena of an organism.”

Great Genetics = Great Dogs!!

Genetics is a very powerful tool that is used carefully, but skillfully at Spirit Hill Springers everyday.  Before a pup is even conceived, research into the sire and dam’s pedigree and background is thoroughly scrutinized and evaluated to eliminate undesirable traits and health problems.  Our goal is to produce the best, healthiest pup we can for our customer.  We never want to pass along anything that we knowingly think could cause problems and further financial obligations to our customers down the road.  We strongly encourage all of our clients to make us aware of any condition or problem, no matter how big or small, that they encounter, so that we can improve our genetic base. We get very few phone calls. 

Over the years, we have built bloodlines based on the components of excellent genetics and we think that our dogs are some of the prettiest, healthiest and sweetest companion dogs available!  

But let’s define some of these genetics:

Color:

At Spirit Hill Springers we only recognize four colors in our program; (l to r) Black/white, Liver/white; Black/tri, and Liver/tri.  There are a lot of new, costly colors out there, like blondes, reds, sables, etc, but we like the traditional colors and will stay with them.  

The “tri” color adds a third color to the dog by giving them red eyebrows, red freckles, and red under their ears and tail.  It is a recessive gene that both parents must genetically have to get a “tri” colored pup.  If one parent doesn’t possess it, then none of the pups will have it.  Sometimes the trait, being recessive and liking to “hide” in the genetic makeup of a dog will not express itself phenotypically (physical looks), but may habor genotypically (in the genetic makeup) from the parent that carries it.  At Spirit Hill Springers, we try to get Sires and Dams with the potential of tri in their genetic background.  When a dog phenotypically (physically) expresses the gene by being a black/tri or liver/tri, then we have no worries. We know that pup is carrying the tri gene. But with the entry of a new bloodline, and with a dog that is phenotypically not showing the trait, we don’t know if s/he carries the gene until the pups start arriving.   

Liver is a recessive trait, while black is always dominant.  If a dog is a liver dog, s/he carries the liver color only in its genetic makeup.  They will only pass a liver gene to its offspring.  Black, on the other hand, is dominant and will always express itself if it is present.  But phenotypically, a dog can be black, but genotypically, that same dog could harbor a liver gene.  Almost all of our dogs when bred to a certain sire will ultimately have a variety of colors in their pups.  

Freckles:

At Spirit Hill Springers, we love freckles!  The added spice of freckles to a dog’s coat makes them unique and more attractive (in our opinion).  Whether they have a few spots or plenty, again comes from the genetics of the parents.  Because we have lots of freckles in our dogs, you are guaranteed a puppy with freckles.  How many of them they will have is hard to guarantee, but the fun thing about freckles is that they have a habit of continuing to show up as a dog gets older!

PRA (Progressive Retinal Atrophy):  

“Atrophy means the partial or complete wasting of a body part.  Progressive Retinal Atrophy, shortened to PRA, is a group of degenerative diseases that affect these photoreceptor cells.  With this disease, the cells deteriorate over time, eventually leading to blindness in the affected dog.” 

Since 2012, when we first heard about this genetic problem in the ESS breed, we decided to become very proactive in eliminating it from our program.   All of our dogs are genetically tested for the PRA gene and we only use sires that are considered “Normal/Clear” and females that are “Normal/Clear” or “Carrier”.

But let’s explain how this gene works:

*PRA is a RECESSIVE gene (meaning that it takes two of them..one gene from the mother and one gene from the father…to express itself phenotypically (physically).  If either parent doesn’t have this gene to offer to its offspring, then the pup will never express it physically.  A “Normal” dog will only sire/dam pups without this problem because it doesn’t possess the PRA gene to give.  A “Carrier” dog will never express the disease physically, but can still provide a gene to its offspring, so to avoid this possibility, we only use “Normal” sires.  Eventually, we would like to have all of our dogs test “Normal”, but as long as we continue to use only “Normal” sires, we know that none of our pups will have this disease later in life.  We guarantee that 100% of our pups will never exhibit this disease. 

From the Animal Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Univ of Missouri-College of Veterinary Medicine:

“NORMAL: dogs will not develop this form of PRA, and can safely be bred to a dog with ANY test result.

CARRIER: Highly UNLIKELY to develop this form of PRA.  They should be used carefully in breeding programs, to keep their good qualities while reducing risk of PRA in future generations.

AFFECTED: These dogs are AT RISK for developing PRA at some point in their lifetime.  At this time we do not have a way to predict when clinical symptoms may appear, or how severe the visual impairment may be.  Additional research is underway to help determine these details.” 

(As a side note: Many breeders perform OFA eye exams called CERF/ECR that check the eyes of the dog by a registered veterinary ophthalmologist.  This test is used to look for physical imperfections in the dog’s eyes at the time of the examination.  It does NOT tell a breeder what the genotype is of the dog, nor is the exam useful after 12 months.  If you see this acronym for a pup or dog, please be sure to ask that breeder when was the last time they had the exam actually done, since it’s good for only a year.  For instance, checking a dog at one year of age does not necessarily mean that those findings will be the same as a dog tested at 9 years of age.  That is why we only do genetic tests, because then we know for sure what our dogs have.) 

Rage Syndrome:

We get a lot of people asking about this problem.  We understand their concern and we work hard at Spirit Hill Springers to raise pups that will never exhibit this condition.  Because we are a small breeder and we keep a lot of our breeding animals from our own stock, if a dog ever exhibits aggression or any type of behavior that we do not want, we immediately remove that animal, usually before it even gets a chance to reproduce.  In over 15 years of breeding ESS, we have never had a dog have this condition. It is not a condition linked to a particular gene, so we cannot genetically test for it.  

But let’s back up for a moment, Rage Syndrome (RS) is a condition similar in its physical appearance to a disease like epilepsy; it comes on suddenly and afterwards the dog doesn’t even know what happened.  A dog that bites or growls is NOT necessarily a dog with Rage Syndrome.  More than likely, it is a dog that hasn’t been trained well.  Our experience is that a dog that gets aggressive, and shows this aggression frequently, is not a dog with Rage Syndrome, but has other issues.  Like stated before, RS comes on suddenly, without provocation, the animal gets aggressive, then s/he comes “out of it” and doesn’t even know what just happened.  A dog that is aggressive on a regular basis is not expressing RS, but is a dog that is just mean.  Meanness can develop from a number of reasons, but it is NOT RS. 

**Early socialization of your pup and maintaining the hierarchy of your “pack” within your family should eliminate the potential for nasty/mean traits to develop**

Hip Dysplasia:

Hip or Elbow Dysplasia can occur in any dog breed.  Some breeds are more prone to this condition (German Shepherds, Golden Retreivers, Labradors, etc), but mostly it affects larger breed dogs.  English Springers are considered a medium sized breed.  Testing can be done on a dog to offer some protection to buyers which entails x-rays, OFA certification and registry.  But a dog with “excellent” OFA-tested hips could still sire/dam a pup that will get this condition.  The testing is costly, can change over time, and is not fail proof for the buyer.  Instead, we look for other traits in a pup to let us know that this condition is unlikely to occur.  One thing is the quirky way they like to lay.  If a pup/dog can lay down and have their back legs spread out behind them (it definitely looks odd), then they have an “excellent” set of hip/joint connections. Our pups usually show this quirkiness.  In addition, we watch their gait and movements throughout their lives and none of our dogs have ever shown any problems with dysplasia.  In our older dogs we might get arthritis, but not dysplasia.  

Finally, although we do our very best to ensure that our pups are healthy and free of potential problems, we cannot control how they are raised, their environment, unique idiopathic anomalies, etc.  so that is why we offer a 1-year Health Guarantee to aid in helping our customers feel protected when they chose one of our pups.  We want you to come back, so it only makes sense that we would provide you with the best pet ever!  

Great Genetics = Great Dogs!!