[Teresa]

OK, a smidge off-topic (tangent, perhaps). The Doberman folks have a database and much more information in their pedgrees for date and cause of death. While I've researched that for dogs I was looking at, I'm hesitant to update my whole pedigree with the info...it's the old test-n-tell dillemma.

Even for health certs, folks will have a more negative perception when they see disclosed failings on OFA, than they will looking at blank spaces, or just finding out that the only dog posted is #10 and the other nine are invisible. Doesn't mean we shouldn't disclose, but just stating the psychology of the situation.

For people I have considered bringing into the "family" - we share ALL of this stuff, including littermates, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc. If it makes people decide to breed to something else with less information (i.e., only the good stuff), then maybe that's OK. I find it really helpful, but sadly people that don't test or disclose, breed to the top dog every year...well, they have a much easier time finding good homes...both for working and show. Pet homes are easy enough, but it's hard to defend the quality of your breeding program when only one or two of each litter ever see any kind of competition.

This isn't a despair statement, but just an observation. What do these pedigrees look like if filled in with age and cause of death (and include siblings?). I wouldn't say cancer is primarily inherited, but there are risk factors - just like in humans. I know human families where almost every woman had breast cancer...and yet I lost my sister at 38, but there is not a relative in 4 generations we can find that ever had it. So, sometimes it can be environmental, or random mutation, or a sum of many risk factors. What you need is to see if there is a pattern in the family. Are dogs that live to 10 or 12 just lucky, or is some of that good fortune pre-loaded in their genetic makup?