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Re: elbows and breeding

yes I would breed from her again, one bad elbow does not make a problem, any number of things could have contributed to the problem. About 14 years ago I purchased a puppy from a breeder , the puppy was by a well known international CH, ( ended up in the USA) to finish his stud duties and was widely used there I think. The puppy I had, had there worst elbows ( yes both) that I had ever seen on x ray. Now what to do, well this is what I did, and you can shoot me if you like as I am sure some of the holier than thou set will do. I bred him to 2 different bitches ( both mine) one girl had 3 pups the other 10. None of those pups have ever had problems and yes I have kept in touch with as many owners as possible and where possible we have had the elbows xrayed and scored. One of the puppies ( now 10) I see most days in my work and while being very deaf he is still as sound as I would expect for a 10 year old, I kept one of the pups, this pup came back with a score of 0/0 elbow's and 0/0 hips in OFA terms that would be excellents all round, as did his daughter, I have never had a problem from that line since, of course I may have just been very lucky and I guess in the fullness of time I will see how lucky or not I have been. Would I breed from him again if given the opportunity ( he is long since died) no probably not, in this world of today where people get sued for much less I could not be bothered with the drama. The one thing I must say though, is that it never ceases to amaze me when long time breeders say they would not do this or that and don't breed from this bitch or that dog, yet these same breeders sell to silver breeders ( yes I know some that do) or the breeders who knowingly sell to puppy farmers. I think there are so many issues out there facing the Labrador breed, elbows is just one of these.