I tested 7 Tallivahdin breeding dogs for Degenerative Myelopathie via  Foundation Orthopedie for Animals INC. www.offa,org  You can order testing sample kit from their homepage with 65 dollars. Test was very easy to make at home and it´s results are concidered reliable.  My ame is to ensure that there will not be any DM sick Tallivahdin hovis in the future.

DM is rather common genetic disease that makes dog´s back legs uncoordinated and finally paralyzed. Usually dog must be euthanized before old age. This disease is known in Finnish hovawart population for some years now and according to the normal symptoms one dog of Tallivahdin A-litter died just before he filled 9 years.  In website offa.org you can see the statistics of tens of different breeds. Hovawart database is yet very small only N=37 but it´s distribution clear 49%-carrier 30%-at risk 22% looks much like German Shephard distribution that has already database N=1556. The benefits of DM-test is brilliant because you can use all dog´s for breeding  and still not get any risk/ sick dogs. You just have to mate carriers and risk dogs with clear dogs.    

7 Tallivahdin dogs and their DM test results are Cremefarben and her daughters Forscherin and Fährtenhündin they are all carriers but her son Freiberufler was clear, Emanze the becoming mother of our H-litter and her sister´s puppies from G-litter Genie and Gewinnerin were all also clear. Breeding with these DM clear dogs is very easy because they cannot  get sick puppies at all. For the carrier dogs I must choose mating partners that are tested to be clear. In that way all Tallivahdin puppies in the future shall be healthy and live a happy hovi life at least what conciders DM  :-D

It is very expected that tallivahdin E, F and G-litter shall not have at risk/ sick dogs but in A,B and C litter situation cannot be predicted just with these test results. Because one dog in our A-litter died because of DM it means that his parents must both have been at least carriers.  They both lived rather long life 12,5-13 year old. But there are some DM risk dogs that have lived for very long without any symptoms.

Anyhow with this information I am happy to make future breeding plans!!! :-D