Due to a trait of the breed, a high tolerance for pain and their muscular build which can serve to "hold them together" even dysplastic dogs can work until they are 8-9 years old and not show symptoms of their condition.  This is one of the primary reasons so many Caucasian Shepherds have not been and still are not checked for hip, elbow and patellas. They can live their entire lives with poor hips, elbows and patellas but never show discomfort, pain or instability and their owners believe them to be sound.  This is NO EXCUSE to not check!  We cannot move forward if we don't know what we are working with!

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A Quick Note About Teeth

 

TEETH! It is very common to see Caucasian Shepherd with small, thin, weak, and/or oddly angled canines. These small, weak, and/or angled teeth are prone to breaking. Fixing broken canine teeth is very expensive and bad breaks can mean that the dog must be retired from working. Hips, Elbows, and general health are not the only considerations for a working dog. Teeth are very important! 

 

Breaks happen for various reasons, even when a dog has big, strong, healthy teeth. If a dog is allowed to chew on fencing, wire kennels, rocks, metal bowls etc. even big strong teeth will wear unnaturally and eventually break. Please be aware of your dog's habits and try to prevent unhealthy behaviors such as fence fighting, and chewing on objects that will damage and break your dogs teeth. The weaker the teeth are from the start, the less stress it will take from outside forces (either work that utilizes the dogs teeth, or inappropriate chewing as listed above) to cause a break that will not only cost you thousands of dollars but could potentially lead to early retirement for your dog. 

 

In protection sports, a lot of stress can be put on the teeth from hard impacts. The more you stack the odds in your favor with dogs that have strong, healthy teeth, the fewer breaks you will have to deal with. 

 

 

 

Estimating the breeding value of a dog

 

"After efforts to reduce hip dysplasia using selection against phenotype failed to produce consistent improvement, severe breeding restrictions were instituted in 1984 that banned all affected dogs from breeding. This actually made things worse by reducing the number of unaffected dogs and increasing the number of dogs classed as borderline."

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We believe Penn Hip by far exceeds OFA for the future of a breeding program when it comes to determining the out come of a future breed dog's hips.

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We believe breeding dogs should be health tested for-

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- Hips, http://info.antechimagingservices.com/pennhip/index.html

- Elbows, http://ofa.org/

- Shoulders,http://ofa.org/ 

- Dentition, http://ofa.org/

- Patella, http://ofa.org/

- Heart, http://ofa.org/

- Eyes, https://www.optimal-selection.com/

- Degenerative Myelopathy, https://www.optimal-selection.com/

- Macrothrombocytopenia, https://www.optimal-selection.com/

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- Temperament Testing, Schutzhund USA- IPO BH Test

- Livestock Guardian, A Caucasian Shepherd should never show animal aggression

- Protection Test, Dean Calderon, Ohio

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