Killing two birds with one stone !

Got a wiggle on today publishing a blog this morning after coming home from milking and receiving an email about the Swedish Kennel Club and Cavalier Matters/Rupert's fund research into Cavalier head shape and syringomyelia. All my Cavaliers eligible or just on the cusp of five years old, their heads have been photographed as asked for and emailed off to see if they can help in this research. Here's the link again to the research  [email protected]

This has killed two birds with one stone, as these photos I can use when I get around to finishing the blog I'm doing about head shape and to include the heads and measurements of our dogs heads.
I had a quick look around the internet to see if the UK Kennel Club have put any thing on their website about this research and nothing on there, which is understandable, because with the about of money they have been raking in off this breed over the years, they should be doing more than they are. Mind the Scandinavian countries when it comes to dogs and evolution in breeding from them, they are already up off all fours, the UK Kennel Club are still swinging from the trees and I'm afraid the good old USA are still trying to figure out how to get on to dry land. There are some very enlightened people in the USA and lets hope they can flourish and be heard over the thrashing of others (Primarily AKC), as they try to drag them back from dry land and stop them trying to evolve.

Then I took a look at the Cavalier King Charles Club UK at http://www.thecavalierclub.co.uk/start.html and they had a bit on it, but ruin it slightly for me when they say, " If you wish to remain anonymous and your email address identifies your kennel you can either ask a friend to submit for you or you can email to the [email protected] who will forward without your email address." So much for being open. I wonder why some would want to be anonymous ? When it clearly states, "The identity of participating dogs will not be published." 


Let me take a stab at this one. Say you have a stud dog , many championships under his belt and at six years old he is still doing the business and you put him up for this letting them know who you are and it comes back that he has pretty bad CM/SM, it's going to be harder to keep using him, than if no one knows who the dog is or who he is owned by and there's always a risk of them old whistler blowers fronting you out, if names and to many details are recorded and that just is simple not cricket, old chaps. Probably best just not to submit any dogs and carry on as before. 


Until the Cavalier Club can be more open and force members to be so, the breed will struggle to move forward. We all make mistakes and people are pretty forgiving if they think you have learnt from them and are then trying to put them right. Cavalier Club, it's time to take them on board and do what's best for the dogs, not members reputations. Would be interesting to know how many members of the Cavalier Club submit dogs to this research. Seeing as Sheena Maclaine the Chairman of the Cavalier Club recently said in a Daily Mail article about Cavaliers that "she does not believe that head shape is the issue." I pretty much suspect that not many dogs from the Cavalier Club membership will be submitting dogs to this research, as in breed clubs they tend to pretty much all read from the same hymn sheet.

This is the link to the article that Sheena Maclaine denies the head shape is the issue :  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2908952/Born-life-pain-look-adorable-spaniels-loved-owners-including-Strictly-s-Craig-Revel-Horwood-cynically-bred-horrifying-defects.html#ixzz3RqowXWiw 


I thought it interesting to let you see the photos now and hopefully encourage others to get on with sending photos of their Cavaliers to help in the research.

The first photo is Dolly she will be eight years old in August. She was last MRI scanned at 5 years and 7 months old. Her grade is Chiari-Like Malformation (CM) 2, Syringomyelia 1a. She was heart examined over five as free from a heart murmur. At seven she still has no sound of a heart murmur.

Millie has never been MRI scanned, as started to scan our dogs when she had stopped breeding. She is seven years old and just before she was five a murmur was heard on her heart by a cardiologist vet. Two years later the heart murmur has yet to progress and she shows no symptoms of heart failure yet.  

Smudge is Millie's daughter. She is five in May and December 2014 was examined by a cardiologist vet and no murmur could be heard. She has been MRI scanned at 3 years and 5 months. Her grades are CM 2, SM 1b.

Ysobel is eight this May. She at just over five years old was diagnosed with a heart murmur by a cardiologist vet. At seven years old now, her murmur has not progressed and she shows no symptoms of heart failure yet. Ysobel was last MRI scanned at the age of  5 years and 10 months old. Her grades are CM 2, SM 0a. 

Primrose is Ysobel's daughter. She will be five in August. She was examined by a cardiologist vet in December 2014 and no heart murmur could be heard. She was last MRI scanned at the age 3 years and 2 months old. Her grades are CM 2, SM 0b.

To understand more about CM/SM and the grading for CM/SM on the British Veterinary Association (BVA)/Kennel Club (KC) CM/SM Scheme go to the BVA website page http://www.bva.co.uk/Canine-Health-Schemes/CM-SM-scheme/ and click on the links.

Now not to make anyone feel guilty, but I did all those photos, sent them off and still got time to peel and dice carrots for dinner, so what you waiting for ?

Me looking really enthused about being a bridesmaid

Lets have a laugh at my expense before finishing on another ask. This photo turned up today from nowhere seemingly. I thought this photo did not exist any more (or I hoped it did not), but seems my mum has been hiding it away and my children found it very amusing.

Yep, that's me at fourteen in a dress and not only a dress but a bridesmaid dress (Remember this was the early eighties) looking really happy about being a bridesmaid for my oldest sister at her first wedding. Some how she managed to wrangle two Church weddings, you think she might of learnt from the first one, that time, energy and finance could be spent doing a lot better things in life, but such is the desire for humans to display, each to their own I suppose. Lol

Being a bridesmaid put me totally off the idea of ever having a wedding (also the three other weddings my sisters had between them after this one, watching the stress it can cause, only confirmed my feelings even stronger), which I suppose could be seen as a plus, to the torture I endured that day, but I cut a good deal though with my mother to be dressed up like a dog's dinner and that deal was to have all my hair cut off. 

Up until then my hair was cut by my mum and was a third way down my back. It was the time of the New Romantics, short hair with big fringes. Although after just one day with the big fringe I was sat back in the hairdresser's chair to have that cut off as well. Don't like needless, needy (in the sense of attention beyond the norm) or fussy. Could of been worse though, the dress could of been pretty pink. "Now where's those matches." "You daft moo, you have just published it on the internet." "Duh !"

 Please keep signing the petition  https://www.change.org/p/the-kennel-club-stop-registerin-g-cavalier-king-charles-spaniel-puppies-unless-their-parents-are-mri-scanned-and-heart-tested
I think we are going to learn something from this about the UK Kennel Club. We are going to learn exactly how many horror stories in a breed it takes for the KC to do nothing. Thanks to all that have taken the time out to read and sign the petition and to share their own personal experiences of living with a Cavalier with  CM/SM or MVD and in many cases both. Please share the link and keep up the pressure.

---