A Clear Health Test Is Information — Not a Guarantee.

Responsible breeders should use appropriate health testing. But a folder of clear results does not automatically make a dog a good breeding prospect.

What a health test can tell us

Each test answers a specific question. A DNA result may tell us about one known variant. Hip, eye or heart screening gives us information about those areas. None of them tells us everything about the dog.

The World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s hereditary disease guidance encourages health-conscious breeding and informed use of genetic testing.

Looking beyond the certificate

I also want to know about family history, longevity, fertility, temperament, structure and function. A dog may pass every available test and still have traits I would not want to reproduce.

Understanding how closely related the proposed parents are matters too, although COI cannot choose a mating for us.

Protecting health without losing useful genetics

For small populations, there is another danger: removing every carrier of a known recessive condition can shrink the gene pool unnecessarily.

For many simple autosomal-recessive conditions, a carrier can be paired with a dog confirmed clear for the same variant without expecting puppies affected by that particular condition. That does not apply to every inheritance pattern, so the condition, test and mating need careful assessment.

Health testing is an important tool. Breeding for health is the larger job of balancing those results with the whole dog and the future of the population.

Read the full article in the Newflands Vulnerable Dog Breeds series: Health Testing Is Not the Same as Breeding for Health.