Would a person have concern about TVD in a bitch that can trot/run 8km in 40 minutes with no stopping, coughing, anything.....

Not normally, but the only way to tell for sure is echo.

Is there some other reason for concern? Close relatives with TVD? If so, she should not be bred. Here is one study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12061526

Worry no, be concerned if she has never had clearances and if TVD is in family at all. Don't breed.

And so using that theory , are we not breeding dogs with relatives that did not pass OFA either ? Are we lumping OFA Fairs in with affecteds , as they are lumping equivicols in with affecteds in this heart study ? This is just ONE study with this result, right ?

You are comparing apples to oranges. TVD has a higher heritability than hip dysplasia. Hip dysplasia has a large environmental factor, TVD does not. There have been other studies, and you can find breeders who have seen TVD inheritance first hand.

Responsible breeders educate themselves on how the science of genetics and understand how things are inherited, both the good and the bad. They know that until a gene or genes are identified, there is no other effective way to prevent breeding TVD affected puppies without eliminating affected family groups from their breeding program. We used to do the same thing with PRA. Tragic, but there is no other option at this time.

Speak with your veterinarian and your cardiologist about your girl- no one on the list has any business giving you advice without knowing the full pedigree or the full circumstances regarding your question.

I would say that you never know. We had a dog with TVD that lived a normal life and died at almost 14. He did have a murmur, but if we hadn't done the echo, we would not have known what it was from.

If you have a concern - then have it checked.

Also, I would want more numbers on the inheritance of TVD vs hip dyslasia - it just doesn't sound right to me

Here is a study funded by the CHF that is working on TVD. It has previously been suggested to be an autosomal dominant on canine chromosome 9, but the inheritance of this gene is not simple. The scary thing is that some affected dogs are so mildly affected that the problem is not detected until they are bred and produce it.

http://www.akcchf.org/research/funded-research/1151.html

Assuming your bitch has close relatives that have TVD, that means that your bitch could be a carrier of TVD and not show any symptoms and tragically produce it in her puppies, even if the sire does not have or carry TVD. At the very least she should have an echo, but I still think it would be best not to breed her. Even if she does clear her cardiac clearance and you do decide to breed her, you need to be 100% up front with the stud owners about her family history. That will be your biggest hurdle in getting her bred.

I like what you said at the end about the stud owners. It would all be the stud dogs fault no matter. Not fair to do that to another breeder. If you know it is close, sibling ? Father or mother have produce TVD I would not take the chance, very unfair to other who would take the pups.

I echo everyone. The problem with your answers is that unless you were around when the "dogs with TVD and producing it" no one knows who they are or what pedigrees they would be in. There is no information given to people today. It is all hush hush you know!

Well... that was sort of hijacked and topic changed...

No I have no concerns, not a history of TVD in her pedigree, was just wondering if a dog with a mild case would even be able to do that much physical activity without concerns? More just as a general knowledge question I guess.

Whatever.

Not sure what you are really asking, I wouldn't decide that a dog must have a normal heart just because it can exercise that much without evident difficulty. I have a severely affected dog that has gone out hiking with me for an hour or two at a time without any coughing or collapsing, so I have no reason to think a mildly affected dog couldn't do even more. It is only when their heart eventually decompensates or they have an atrial fibrillation attack that you are SOL. Whether that much exercise would hasten the march toward heart failure I don't know.

You are comparing apples to oranges. TVD has a higher heritability than hip dysplasia

Nancy Boyle, I sure would love to see where you got this information?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/570968
Hip dysplasia .4 - .5

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12061526
TVD .71

The problem with ANY study utilizing hip dysplasia statistics is that most of us do NOT send in our x-rays for evaluation if they are bad- why would we waste the money? Questionable by our practioner, yes, but obvious hips that will not pass- forget it- I will keep my money. The OFA database is skewed - there is probably a higher rate of dysplasia than their stats show, as these results may not take into account all of those that are never submitted. Perhaps if they offered a free submission only for inclusion in the stats the real percentages might be more realistic.

The hip dysplasia study referenced above had nothing to do with OFA.

I would love for this to happen with the OFA. There would be a lot less guesswork and heartache if people were honest and submitted the bad with the good.