Message Board

Toy withdrawal

Izord — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:41:51 GMT

I've been travelling the past few weeks. So I haven't seen my dogs in 3 weeks and my wife in 5.

I really miss my Russian Toys!

Blue/Lilac genetic test

diademchis — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:07:07 GMT

Hi,
I would like to pass this new information on to all of you.
Liz Moore

Blue coat colour & DNA- test again ;-)
    Posted by: "Rebecca Hassler" rebeccahassler@web.de
    Date: Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:48 am ((PDT))

Dear Members & Breeders!

As some of you may remember, we had a very interesting discussion about a Gene-test for the Blue-colour-disease called CDA:

Professor Dr. Tosso Leeb in Berne (Suisse), offered to develop
DNA-Test for Russkiy Toys.

He is currently doing a research of CDA in various breeds. For
some bigger breeds, he already has great results that has helped alot of breeders!!

Although we had a lot of positive feedback in our last
discussion, only few samples has been sent to Dr.Leeb yet. So, I want to take the chance to make a short summary of the pofits of these test:

1.)   What does Professor Dr. Tosso Leeb offer?

- He offers to develop a CDA- Gene Test especially for Russkiy
Toys. This test is normally VERY expensive, and has to be payed by one or few private breeders. Professor Dr. Tosso Leeb offers to make this Gene-Test for FREE!!

-   There will be no extra- costs for you in developing the test.

-   The test will be 100% anonym!!

-   Only you will get the result of your dog(s)!!

- YOU can decide if you want to share the results of your dogs to public or not. It is up to you alone, and if you do
not want to share the results- nobody will ever know..

2.) What are my profits? Why should I do this?

-   Again: This test is 100% anonym. You have nothing to loose- and everything to win!!

-   As soon as the DNA-test is developed, you will have much more power in breeding blue or lilac dogs: Wich this test,
you can improove the quality of your blue& lilac dogs in just a
few generations, instead of still stepping in the dark..

-   You can use much more blue and lilac dogs in your breeding programm: If you have a litter, you can make the DNA-test for all the blue or lilac puppies and decide right after birth which one is going to stay in your stock :-).
-   There would be no risk anymore to destroy your breeding work of the past generations , just because you kept the sick dog in your breeding programm and sold the healthy ones..

-   You can use the positive results to make them public (if you want). This will you to make your stud dogs & offspring more popular :-) !

3.)   What does Professor Dr. Tosso Leeb need?

He needs:

-   Blood samples (or skin Biopsies) of minimum 20 Blue or Lilac Dogs that are at least 2 Years old and having no bald patches on the body, throat and ears.

- Blood samples (or skin Biopsies) of minimum 20 Blue or Lilac Dogs that are at least 2 Years old and showing bald patches on the body, throat   and ears.

Please note: Developing the gene-test can only be done if the
Professor gets enough samples of affected dogs too! Professor Leeb needs to compare the DNA of these 2 types (healthy & affected), to develop the Gene-Test and find out the sick gene. So, we need the "bald ones" as much as the "coated ones"! Also, the test can only be done when the professor gets blood of adult animals (2 years or more). Younger dogs can not be used to create a safe gene-test.

If we Breeders want to get a Gene- test that is 100% sure, we need to sent the Professor samples from adult dogs
only!! With younger dogs, we will only get a wrong result, and
can not use the Gene-Test in future for our breeding programm..

4.) What do I have to do?

If you are the owner of a blue or lilac dog that is at least 2
years old, please :

-   Print the 2 sheets in the annex out, take your dog(s) and
visit your vet.

- Let your vet take the blood samples (or skin biopsies)

- Ship the samples to Professor Leeb (or ask your vet to do it)

Adress is:

Prof. Dr. Tosso Leeb

Institute of Genetics

Bremgartenstr. 109a

3012 Berne

Switzerland

I want to thank every single one of you who will support this
important work!!

Its the only chance to safe the beautiful colours Blue &
Lilac for Breeding in the future. Ohterwise sooner or later, breeding with these colours will be Prohibited by the
FCI.

It already is in some breeds, because breeders failed to react
soon enough.. I hope we will not make the same mistake..

/Rebecca

Beautiful weather, the dogs want outside.

Izord — Thur, 25 Feb 2010 17:46:41 GMT

Now that it's starting to get nice again, my dog loves to run outside but I'm afraid of it getting picked up by owls or other big birds.

And also her eating something out there that she is not supposed to. Anyone have any experience in trying to make an outside dog run for their Russian Toy?

My dog rolls a Pebble in her mouth.

Izord — Thur, 11 Feb 2010 15:51:16 GMT

My almost 2 year old RT likes to play with a pebble in her mouth. She's not chewing it and she doesn't eat it. She just rolls it around like she's gargling.

I noticed it a few months ago when I saw her sprawled out on the carpet moving her head around funny. At first I was worried that there was an insect bothering her. But then I noticed it a few more times and found out that she gets a pebble out of our cactus plant pot and rolls it around in her mouth.

She can do this for 10 or fifteen minutes sometimes. Sometimes she'll let it fall out for a minute then pick it up again and play some more.

Anyone else ever see anything like this? I did a quick search and couldn't really find this behavior written about by anyone else.

Some people talk about pica and eating rocks and dirt, but that's definitely not what she's doing. It's a game to her.

Doesn't want to hold ears up. What to do?

AngelsToy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:15:04 GMT

Please, post here all your successful stories about dealing with such problem.

I can share my experience with you. I never was feeding my dogs some special vitamins or glued their ears. All I did was only a 5 min. daily massage, all the way from the bottom of ear to the tip. Usually in about a week even an elephant will hold his ears all the way up . It works great! Try it if your puppy has a problem with lazy ears

Dewclaws

AngelsToy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:21:43 GMT

There's a difference between front and rear dew claws. Rear ones are basically useless and most consider them ugly.

On hunting and field breeds front dew claws are often removed. Because they can snag them on things and tear them. On Russian toys I think the front dew claws are actually quite useful. Since our dogs have a LOT of 'manual' dexterity.

Physically it doesn't do anything bad to Russian toys. Chihuahuas hurt them easily. That is why their dewclaws better to be removed. Russian toys never have a problem hurting them, so there is no need to do it.

Russian toys are often born without the rear dewclaws. The rear ones are more often to be dangle. The front ones are even useful to the dog. They can use them to manipulate bones, sticks, and other things they want to 'hold'. I would really recommend to leave the front ones unless they really bother you. They use them to remove stuff stuck in their teeth or specs that get in the eye!

The front ones have muscles, bones, and nerves. The back ones don't. When they are really loose you can tie a piece of dental floss or nylon filament around the thinnest part, tight, and it will fall off in a few days. Many people even think that this slow gradual way of removing a rear dewclaw is more gentle than having the vet snip it off.

But still I would recommend to discuss with the vet about the back ones if you don't have much experience in taking care of them yourself or don't feel confident about doing it by your own.

Personally I let our vet remove any existing rear dew-claws at the first visit. There aren't too many in our dogs.

To dock or not to dock

diademchis — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:55:30 GMT

Hi,
I've been looking at a lot of RT photos. I would like to ask all of you, would you prefer the dogs with a docked tail or a long tail, and why?

Do you have a different preference for longcoat or smoothcoat?

I'm trying to understand why people would prefer to dock or not to dock (this is not for countries that do not allow docking, I understand that issue).

Thank you for helping me learn!!
Liz
http://www.diademchihuahuas.50megs.com
http://complete.younglivingworld.com/
http://www.secretsofmothernature.com/complete

Different Congratulations

aboltuska — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:38:24 GMT

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

Let this new year be full of joy and good people around!

Bad breath.

lovingmom — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:13:42 GMT

My friend's dog has bad breath. Does anyone know what causes that and what to do about it? Her dog is about 1 year old.

Color Dilution Alopecia

MiniChamp — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:20:33 GMT

This mail is written by Rebecca Hassle in Germany

Dear Breeders!

As some of you maybe know, I am studying veterinary medicine. I followed the discussion about the blue colour with great interest, and like Helena and so many others here, I am interested in the best for this breed. So, I have started some research about bl...ue and lilac colour problems.
Today, I called Professor Dr. Tosso Leeb from the University in Bern (Switzerland). He is one of the leading experts in Europe for the blue & lilac colour disease named CDA ( = Color Dilution Alopecia ). I got his permission to post our conversation here.

The bad news:

There is currently no gene-test available which says that a dog is free from CDA or not. Right now, it is even unknown how the inheritance of CDA really works. This means, that even the selection on phenotype that some breeders already do (= selection on best coat) is not a 100% safe way to reduce CDA syndrome in blue or lilac dogs.
But: In the studies about blue and lilac, scientists found out that there are indeed lilac & blue dogs which show no signs of CDA: In some dog breeds there are dogs with almost or totally NO Problems with dilution colours (for example Weimaraner and Beagle). In other breeds, most or at least many of the blues seems to be affected (for example Great Munsterlander and Dobermann).
This shows that the problem with CDA is NOT only based on the diluted colour alone, but also requires some other additional factors.

The good news:

Professor Dr. Leeb is currently investigating CDA in various dog breeds. His wish & goal is to develop a gene test for CDA in the next years for several dog breeds. In our phone call, he was speculating that there might be a way to develop a gene test for CDA for the Russkiy Toy.
In order to achieve this goal, he would need a minimum of 40 different blood samples from us Russkiy Toy breeders.
What he exacly needs to develop this test for the Russkiy Toy is:
- Blood samples of Minimum 20 different Blue or Lilac Russkiy Toys that show coat problems. Owners of affected dogs can also send him skin biopsies, to clear if it is really CDA or just another coat problem that has nothing to do with CDA
(Info: Most often, CDA will start at the back side of the ears: Thin hair & bald spots appear).
- Blood samples of minimum 20 different Blue or Lilac Russkiy Toys that show no signs of coat problems, and that are at least 2 years old.
You will find infos about how to correctly make the blood sample here:
http://www.genetics.unibe.ch/unibe/vetmed/genetic/content/e2353/e2694/e2699/files2700/2007May02_Instructions_e_eng.pdf
(or go to http://www.genetics.unibe.ch/content/index_eng.html => Research => dog => Color dilution alopecia (CDA) in various breeds => Instructions for sending samples pdf, 50KB)

As soon as Dr. Leeb has the 40 samples, he can begin to work and hopefully find a gene test for CDA. If we are lucky, the test could be archived within a year or two..
The Profits for you Breeders:
- You would get the tests from Professor Dr. Leeb for FREE ! You only have to pay your vet for taking the blood sample, and the shipping cost to Prof. Dr. Leeb in Switzerland (I think it does not cost very much, and some breeders maybe can sent their samples together and split the shipping costs). Normally, the development of such kinds of blood tests in dogs is NOT sponsored like in this case, which means that this is a unique chance for us breeders!!!
- Professor Dr. Leeb guarantees that the results of the research will be kept confidential. This means: If you send the samples, only you as owner will get the result of the test. NO identity of any dog or owner will be published by the researchers!!
- You as the Owner can for example publish the good results of your dogs, if you want. This will maybe give you even better chances in finding buyers for your puppies, and more interests in your blue or lilac stud dogs.
- In a year or two, there could be a gene test available, so you can test all your dogs, and with the results you might be able to tell with almost 100% certainty that your dog is free from CDA! This will give you great chances make your bloodlines more popular, and to sell your puppies in more countries. I know many people in western Europe are a bit afraid of the blue colour right now. This could change with this gene test, as we would have a fair chance to breed healthy blue & lilac colours.
What you can do:
- get blood samples from all your blue & lilac dogs. Write to Prof. Dr. Leeb the name of each dog , write if he shows signs or not, and the age.
-Tell other breeders from Professor Leebs research. Talk to them on dog shows, or write them an email. Try to convince them to send blood samples too. The more samples he gets, the faster and more reliable he can work!!
- Write a post in each big russkiy Toy forum with these infos. Translate this post into russian language, so more Russian breeders can read it.

Hope this infomations are useful..

Can breed smoothhaired with longhaired?

Agnes — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:46:19 GMT

I read on one of websites that it is not allowed to breed smooth-haired with long-haired Russian toys. Is it true? Is it something about genetics or what?

What do you feed your Russian Toy?

John — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:04:27 GMT

I was told that 'Pedigree' food is trashy and not good for toy dogs. I don't know why though, does anyone know?

How to upload an avatar on the forum.

AngelsToy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:12:02 GMT

Here is what you can use.

http://commons.wikimedia.org

1) login first

2) On the left side of the page click 'Upload File'

3) Click '*It is entirely my own work.'

4) For License chose 'Public domain'

5) Add Description

6) Upload

7) Copy Shortcut (Right click by mouse on the uploaded picture)

Long-coat vs smooth-coat.

lovingmom — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:31:54 GMT

Hello everyone, I just found this forum. I am very interested in Russian toys. But I can't decide which one is better, a smooth-coat or a long-coat puppy? What do you think about it?

Baby teeth.

Kitty — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:14:37 GMT

My russian toy Lord had 7 canines. Unfortunately I noticed it too late. The woman who sold him to me said it has nothing to do with his genetic. What do you think about it?