Cinnstar Tollers PRA Article

More and more often I hear breeders talking about the intention breeding of OptiGen pattern B (carrier) to B. While I do not know how many litters have been bred, as a long time Toller breeder with intimate first hand knowledge of the effects of PRA in Tollers, I would like to share my thoughts on the subject.

The comment I have heard justifying the B to B breeding and the resultant ¼ (statistically, this could be more or less in an individual litter) of the litter coming up as affected C's is that 1: "Toller PRA at it's worse is only minimum night blindness, it's not like hip dysplasia", 2: "I have a male and a female and they are B's, and breeding them would help me establish a line faster" 3: "This is the BEST breeding for my dog.", or 4: "The Toller gene pool is so small, I have to breed B to B."

Cinnstar was part of the James A Baker (JAB) Study Group. We were the breeders (along with other breeders) who worked hard to develop the OptiGen PRCD test. All of my PRA Tollers were born long before the OptiGen test became available. I currently have lived with three C Tollers, and I have known a few others. PRA like hip displasia comes in levels of severity. To say PRA is only or always minor night blindness is false and a lie. Some dogs with HD have conditions which are so mild that if they were never x-rayed, one would never suspect that they have HD. If ones only personal experience with HD was this mild form, one would be rightly apt to question why there is a taboo against breeding displastic Tollers. The fact is that some cases of HD are severe, crippling the dog at a young age. As in HD, the mildly affected PRA Toller can produce blind Tollers. Toller breeders who do not care if their dogs have HD simply have chosen not to check. I therefore submit that if you feel that Toller PRA is so mild, and irrelevant, why are you even testing?

My three PRA Tollers result from the fact that my first PRA Toller; Fox was non clinical. Fox passed her eye tests every year. The last one I did was when she was 7 ½ years old. However her two PRA sons; Remi and Flash were not so lucky. Remi, the oldest was diagnosed with PRA after Fox had her last litter. So we knew that she and Ian (the sire) were at least carriers until the OptiGen test came about. Fox is not alone in the fact that her PRA was so mild that even a certified Veterinary Ophthalmologist could not observe it. Remi, who was several years older then Flash was profoundly blind. Certainly his quality of life was less and his agility career was cut short because of his PRA. Flash who is 15 is totally blind. He has been like this for at least 7 years. By 9 he was running into things, both day and night. I could not shoot him a flyer standing right by him. Only at a very close range could he seem to see with any clarity, and even at best, he had trouble making out a bumper lying on bare ground unless he looked right at it. During the day only a year and a half before that, he was his normal crazed active self. But he could not see a pigeon fall at 100 yards. This from a Toller that lives to work and retrieve. This is why Flash has no AKC Hunt Test titles, or his Open Agility titles.

It appears that Toller PRA is like tunnel vision, or starts out like it. They lose their peripheral vision. When the sun goes down, it gets far worse. Let me relate a story. In December 2003 I went to Los Angles to partake at the AKC/EUK National. I stayed at my mother's as I have done several times with Flash before. My mother lives up a small dead end street with very little traffic; so late at night we often let the dogs out for a nightly run. I let Flash out, and he made it down the stairs pretty good as they are well lit. I waited for a few minutes and when he did not return, I called him. No Flash. Again I called for him. A few minutes later a neighbor three doors up came carrying Flash up the stairs, all 49 pounds of him! Evidently Flash could not find his way back, and ended up at this neighbor's front door. He lay on their front porch and refused to get up, so they carried him. The following night I took Flash out myself. When he got to a place on the street where the light was dim, he froze in complete panic, and flattened himself on the ground. I did finally get him to stand and lead him around so he could relieve himself. Now if you know Flash, there is not a Toller bolder and tougher in the field, and here he was trembling and shaking. It broke my heart. 6 months latter his vision slowly got worse. He became very cautious at night, and not his usual nutzoid self durning the day either. For over a year he was depressed, howling at the water heater door that he thought was the back door. Because of the weather here in South Texas, this door was open and sun pouring in, but Flash could not tell the difference. He has turned into an old dog. Flash will have lived about a quarter of his life completely blind. At least now he is not depressed when I leave him behind. My third C Toller Surfer is 10, and is just now showing slight signs of blindness. She did not pass her 06 CERF due to PRA. When and how bad the PRA progresses only time will tell.

I ask you, how can I or any breeder who cares about the individual dogs they breed, intentionally breed a dog that will go blind? More assuredly than HD, because we know there are going to be affected Tollers in the litter. Many readers wear glasses. Ever lose them? Drives you crazy, no? Well how do you think our canine companions feel when in the prime of their life they start going blind? And they do not understand it like we do when we lose our glasses. I can tell by watching Flash that the emotional and mental pain is great. There is physical pain as well. Flash carries a cut on his eyelid from jumping into the dog box and missing because he appeared to see and react normally. He has hit the trees in the yard, running full speed. He now misses them, due to not running any more and memorizing the back yard, but often bumps into walls in the house. His eyes are constantly red. He often gets confused and lost. He gets "trapped" under a table or where two walls join. He will spin circles in his confusion. You should note that Tollers are such a stoic bunch; things have to be really bad for them to react in this dramatic way.

I feel part of the first justification "Toller PRA is not that bad" is wishful thinking, and it makes justifying breeding defective Tollers more palatable. The Toller Health Foundation found that the age of onset varies widely, even as young as a year or two of age, my experience is that the dogs are older, perhaps 7 or 8 before they really start to show signs of blindness. Have you noticed that breeders who are advocating breeding defective Tollers are breeders whose dogs are not in many cases old enough to show the effects of PRA? They do not have to live with the blind dogs they produce. A 7 year old Toller has almost half its life to live. The old time breeders that have an established line who have the most invested in the breed are not breeding B to B. What does this tell you? One newbie breeder even equated Toller PRA, a pure genetic degenerative disease, to male human circumcision, an elective surgery performed at a very young age. Where is the comparison? You might compare circumcision to dew claw removal. Certainly both have positive and negative health aspects. Both are elective surgery done at a young age. But PRA? Tollers go blind from PRA. The only way you can "elect" not to have affected puppies is not to breed them. One astute breeder noted, "what if the best puppy in the litter is a C?" Where are you then? I would go further to ask now where are you going to go? Better have a plan.

I know that those breeders that have chosen this path are not likely going to change. Apologizing to a puppy person with a defective blind Toller that a breeder intentionally produced will be pretty difficult. Please do not say that a breeder that intentionally bred a B to B litter did not intentionally produce a PRA Toller puppy. When a breeder breeds a B to B or a C to B, they are intentionally breeding defective Toller puppies as a proportion of the litter WILL be defective. It might not be what they like to admit as a breeding decision, but it was a decision a person who breeds B to B or B to C is making.

PRA IS heart-breaking for the owners. Owners accept the fact that their dog might go blind, and that their Toller's life might not be the same as a normal dog. But looking at a puppy, making a decision not knowing exactly what the actual life will be and living with an active bounding BLIND Toller is something that unless you have lived with it, you do not understand. We love our Tollers, blind, deaf or otherwise, but until you cry in remorse and sadness with your puppy owners that has had one of your blind puppies, or cried to the breeder of the loss of a promising puppy (for example with immune issues), you have no idea how devastating this can be. It is of little comfort for a breeder to say that they will take a blind Toller back.

I know there are a few breeders out there that have made the decision to breed PRA B to B or other health concern, not knowing or fully understanding the consequences. There is no shame in admitting your mistake, and asking forgiveness from your puppy people and breeder. We all make mistakes in decisions in our lives. It takes a strong person to admit them.

It is my feeling that the only, and I say only possible reason for a breeder to breed B to B is the following: There are a few long time breeders who have an ESTABLISHED line and type that have very few breedable A's in their line. Out crossing on a continuous basis will eliminate the type of Toller they have worked so hard to establish. Then and only then I can at least understand the breeding of one or two very tight line breedings of B to B. They will intensify your type, and you would have to outcross this breeding anyhow. But I would not hold my breath and luck out on an A puppy as the chance that the pup will be a C is just as great. I would make sure you had an A to breed to this litter. I feel this is only justifiable as a last resort. Currently I do not have plans to ever breed B to B.

However, for newer breeders with no established line I see absolutely no reason for breeding B to B. You can't do a close line breeding because you don't even have a line. There are certainly enough nice A males out there to breed with your B bitch. Maybe you end up looking to something you might not have considered before. But is that a bad thing? One of my goals before the OptiGen test was to breed Flash to Surfer, certainly something that will never happen now. So I have had to look elsewhere. I went all the way to Belgium and then up to Canada to breed Surfer. I have had to consider dogs from lines that I might not have. And do you know what? I feel in the end, my line has improved from these choices, and I have made more new Toller friends. In retrospect at Flash and Surfer, they are not the best dogs for each other, regardless of OptiGen type. However, sometimes in our own blindness we do not see what is truly the best mate for our Toller.

Maybe you feel that the BEST male for your B bitch is a B male. Is this the only litter you ever intend to breed your B bitch to? Or do you simply have your heart set on some breeding regardless of the consequences which is blind Tollers? Well let me tell you something about breeding Tollers. You can do all kinds of pedigree research; you can even see some of the related relatives. Then take out your dice and throw them, as with all the best intentions and research it is still a crapshoot. And if for some reason you think you only get "Show Quality" puppies in every litter you breed, your estimation of what is "Show Quality" is pretty low.

I have been in this breed longer then almost ALL breeders in this breed and I am telling you that the gene pool is NOT that small where one HAS to breed B to B. That is just another excuse to justify what a breeder wants to do. I more then ANY breeder have an issue with PRA, and I am NOT breeding B to B and do not intend to. There are several breedings that I know would produce tremendous Tollers, Breed Type, Structure and Ability but I do not because I will not breed DEFECTIVE Tollers intentionally. Further, had I known that the litters I bred that were B to B (3) and a B to C, I would have NEVER done them. I would have chosen other mates for my dogs. I did check my dogs eyes every year, and have done so before CERF was even around. I feel horrible that I produced a number of PRA puppies. As currently with immune issues, Addisions and other issues, we did not have genetic tests for back then and we had to do the best we could with the tests we had.

I believe the same way with ANY preventable condition. When and if we find the gene for the immune issues, or Addisons, etc, I will feel just as passionately that each INDIVIDUAL Toller never should have to go through this suffering either. Because of people unethically breeding B to B I have made a change in my contract "14. Under NO circumstances will puppies identified with ANY genetic tests as a "carrier" "B" be bred intentionally or unintentionally to another carrier without the express written consent of the Seller. The Seller reserves the right to confiscate any Cinnstar Toller bred in this fashion."

On breeding C to A I also have some important thoughts. My feeling is that if the C dog is an excellent representative of the breed, then occasional breeding of these dogs to A's is called for. Now certainly everyone loves his or her dog, but if your bitch or dog is a C and you are new to the breed, I feel starting with a C is a difficult road to follow. You will always be behind the eight ball. That is why I qualify the breeding of C's. I certainly do not plan to breed either Flash or Surfer very much.

On breeding "known A's" I feel there is no need to OptiGen these dogs. Because of what the test looks for, the dogs will be an A. Even if there is another kind of PRA, they will be A's for the kind we are testing for. That is why yearly CERF checks are so important. There is always a chance that Tollers have more then one gene for PRA. Because of the Lab fiasco, JAB still believes that the known A's need to be tested for a time. Puppies produced from C to A breedings should be OptiGen tested, even though they are "known B's". This checks the validity of the OptiGen test, to make sure there are no "false positives". Because of the extensive testing we do on our breeding Tollers, and that the Toller PRA test is a gene test, I feel this is optional. I also recommend the checking of A to B breedings before puppy placement. This helps selecting puppies for puppy people or yourself. While it should not be the sole criteria, it certainly is one. Plus there is a large discount for litters tested at a young age with OptiGen.

To those of you who are trying to do your best to produce healthy Tollers, making the right decisions, I salute you. I know of breeders that have made tough decisions not to breed their Toller for various health reasons, and I have so much respect for you all.

Certainly the OptiGen test and the PRA status is not everything in breeding. Breeding A to A just because they are with no other concerns is certainly not the answer. We need to breed for the complete Toller: Conformation, Field Ability, Health and Temperament.

As breeders we have a RESPONSIBILITY to the breed we supposedly love to not produce pain and suffering. This is for every single Toller pup we bring into this earth.

In the end, if the Toller cannot be a healthy, sound companion, with the kind of temperament that we all love, what are we breeding for? A bunch of ribbons and titles?

I know these thoughts might have alienated some readers, but sometimes the truth hurts.