ABOUT

Thomas O. Taylor - owner

Owner of "BELLWEATHER" KENNELS and is a member of the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC).

I obtained my first labrador retriever in 1973. I imported my first British Lab in 1977. My first litter was born 16July1980. Since that time, owned, trained, imported and bred a number of British Labs. TransCervical Insemination is now the method of choice for breeding. Unfortunately not all veterinarians are proficient in the proceedure and are a bit dodgy. During a complaint about such a veterinarian. I discovered that their professional association is sympathetic to members and employ a flawed complaints procedure which severely undermines the profession's trustworthiness.

Other interests include photography, and storm spotting. I was the first person to spot and report the 1987 Edmonton Tornado to the Environment Canada weather office in Edmonton, Alberta. I was a founding member of theweathernetwork Extreme Weather Team.

GENETICS AND DOG DISEASES | DNA

Optigen Tested Genetic Inheritance PRA, EIC, CNM, RD/OSD

Optigen testing is used to determine if the recessive gene for:

prcdPRA (progressive retinal cone degeneration of Progressive Retinal Atrophy) which eventually produces blindness in dogs which are affected.

EIC (Exercise Induced Collapse)

CNM(CentroNuclear Myopathy )

RD/OSD(Retinal folds; Partial or full retinal detachment; Blindness; Cataract; Dwarfism)

Tested dogs are rated:

CLEAR - which means the recessive gene is not present and therefore cannot be passed to offspring.

CARRIER - which means the recessive gene is present but the dog will not develop the disease. This animal can pass the gene on, so must be mated with a dog testing Clear to prevent offspring from becoming affected.

AFFECTED - which means the dog will develop the disease because the animal has inherited one copy of the recessive gene from the sire, and one copy from the dam. Two copies of the gene are required.

RECESSIVE GENE - for yellow coat color in labrador retrievers is passed on in the same manner. A yellow dog must have two recessive genes for yellow coat cover. A black labrador retriever has at least one dominant gene for black coat cover. The other gene a black labrador retriever has may be for either a dominant black coat cover, or a recessive yellow coat cover. If the dog has the recessive gene for yellow coat color plus the dominant black coat color gene, the dog is a Carrier for the coat color yellow.