Health information

It is natural to get questions about diseases and we want to be clear that the Australian Cobberdog (ACD) can get diseases like any other two- and four-legged dog.

There are approximately 400 disorders/diseases that are known and that embrace all races.

The most common disorders in dogs of many breeds are hip problems, eye diseases and elbow disorders.

All ACDs used in breeding are x-rayed and undergo an eye examination.

HD occurs, but in a relatively low percentage, and most with a milder degree that has little impact on quality of life.

Eye disease, here ACD has done very well, with consistently breeding to dogs with no known eye problems, eye disease is very rare on ACD.

Some cases of hair growing into the eye (ectopic cilia) have occurred, some cases of inverted eyelids have occurred in the past (Entropion)

- Elbow problems, there have been some cases, but it is very rare.

Illnesses/disorders that have been reported in recent years which cannot be detected by regular health examinations and where the cause of the disorders are more complicated can of course occur.

Here there are elements such as genes, upbringing, feeding and activity which
plays in.

We carry out genetic tests on the breeding dogs, this to try and eliminate as many factors as possible that the genes play in this complicated puzzle.

Disorders that have come in some cases in recent years are:

allergy, kidney problem, ocd, epilepsy,
Short Ulna, deafness/impaired hearing.

Short ulna, a serious disorder where the bones in the front legs do not grow as they should. Serious for those who get it, but can be operated on in some cases if discovered in time, but is expensive.

A puppy can also injure the ulna by jumping from a sofa or the like.

Allergies are more complex in terms of cause, and there are countless types of allergies and very difficult to find out how to get rid of them other than constantly doing our best to try to weed out breeding dogs that give a lot of allergies.

There have been reported around 50 cases of allergy in the last 10 years, We assume that it is perhaps twice as many and which makes up 1-2% of the population in Norway.

Some are allergies to certain types of protypes, some are allergies to flea saliva?, some are allergies to house dust mites, some have other diffuse causes.

By removing the triggering factor for the allergy, or reducing it, the allergy will often also be reduced.

There are also good medicines for allergies. We have focused carefully on allergies, and seem to notice a downward trend in the number of new cases.

It is very boring when diseases/disorders appear, for the puppy, for the puppy buyer, for the breeder, and all breeders do their best to prevent this from happening, but they are living beings and things can happen even with careful selection of breeding animals.

It is not certain that diseases could have been avoided as some may think, as there may be causes that cannot be predicted. It is unfortunate and sad that such things happen, and the important thing is that we learn from it and that we constantly try to do what we can to avoid diseases.

We have a total of 40 years of experience with large-scale breeding of both dogs and horses both privately and as a job. We try to the best of our ability to keep up to date with all developments in breeding, tests, diseases and what can be done to avoid these.

We believe we have managed to bring out some wonderful dogs that are healthy, social, easy to learn, spreaders of joy with a good disposition.

PS. As a curiosity, we had the same requirements for human breeding as we have for dog breeding,
had there hardly been a human being left on this planet.