We do want to be totally honest about the health issues that we have within The Tamaskan Dog, even if it is one dog out of over 300.

So the TDR have created a new subsite. The Tamaskan Health Database. On this website we will list the problems we have seen so far and also the amount of dogs that suffer from this problem within the breed.

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

We list signs, causes, prevention and treatment for the diseases mentioned and will try to go into greater details with regards to monorchidism, the most common problem within the Tamaskan that effects 8 dogs so far.

Suggestions and comments are welcomed.

Definitely a step in the right direction - thanks!

Great job Jennie.

Thank you Jennie...for both listening to our concerns and taking action towards them.

I took a glance at the website and I found it a bit bright. Could you use a background color that complements the picture of Susi? Also, as another feedback of the site so far, I find the text color red to be a bit too much as well...perhaps tone down the colors a bit?

Besides those two points I have mentioned, I found what content that is already up to be very informative.

Will kennel names that have affected dogs (of any health issue) be listed or is that still being considered? Thanks!

I didn't want to make any decisions about letting peoples dog information be made public without first consulting the committee and as Lynn is in Germany and Debby on her way to meet her there I can't ask them.
So we shall just have to wait and see.
As for the colours, just thought people may have been getting bored of my trademark black and white....lol
Tried to spice it up a bit
Have swapped the black and red around on the wording, tell me how you think that looks?

Oh and its Heidi, not Susi... lol

This is great Jennie, very informative

Just to let you know that Macademia nuts are also poisonous to dogs, I know as Bru has tried this out!

Luckily not too serious thanks!

Great job Jennie! Its great to have a site to see all the health issues and most of all the information and treatment of these issues.

Love the color changes. All the red was a bit difficult to read. Much better now.

This looks great, thank you for your time in putting this together!

Thanks for everyones emails for things to add to what was the page for toxic plants and what now is the page 'Toxic to Dogs'.
I think I have updated all the ones I have been sent, but keep them coming.

Yep I forgot worms, silly me.......
Thats an important one, thanks Trish

What about Snails and Slugs? I understand they can carry parasites.

Although all diesel LIkes to do is rub his head over a slug and scent it. NASTY!

Good thinking Nick, it has been added
Going to have to start listing them down the other side of the page at this rate.....lol

Good grief you know your stuff alright, no wonder that took all day!! Very useful info thanks

Quite a bit of the information I had already researched and written as I used to do a health column for the old TDSGB newsletters a few years back. So I just stole it from them, other stuff I have just copied from wikipedia
I will research and write my own pieces for all of the pages eventually, but at least something is up there now.

Can I just mention here to people who do not have the new registration papers brought into effect late 2008, you can request for a new one to be sent to you.
These new papers also list the health tests that have been carried out on both parents of your dog.
They will list the type of test done and the scores, this way you always know you are getting accurate information when the breeder tells you about the health tests performed on their dogs and their results, even if they don't show you confirmation by producing a certificate.

Also because of the DNA profiling and microchipping rules it is impossible to fake hip test results by using another dog or another dogs paperwork.

All hip scores are accurate and although hip scores are not available to the general public, they are as I have said above, available on the registration documents of pups produced by them. The mean score, which I have updated today is also accurate and includes all 35 Tamaskan who have been hip scored. This score is updated every year.

The hip score for 2008 was 8.1, the hip score for 2009 is 9.0, the highest it has ever been.
This is very disappointing, but is sadly due to two dogs failing this year (one with a particularily high score) out of the 7 that were tested, bringing our mean average up drastically.
We hope by next year to have improved on this, should the score continue to increase then the only course of action is to reduce the maximum score for breeding from 18 to 10 (USA Good, OFA A-2) this of course will reduce the number of breeding dogs we have on offer, but will hopefully reduce our average score.

However bear in mind that an average hip score of 9.0 is really quite good considering 0 is the best and 106 is the worst.

Here are a list of similar breeds mean scores for comparison

Alaskan Malamute 13
Eskimo Dog (Greenland Dog) 20
Siberian Husky 7
German Shepherd 13
Utonagan 20
Northern Inuit 27

So we are actually better than all but the Siberian Husky, but only by keeping a constant watch and trying to improve will we stay here.

That is why the TDR encourage those with dogs on the higher end of the spectrum (11-18 or USA Fair) to breed them only to those dogs who have a score of good or excellent (UK BVA 0-10).

the health page is very informative, good to see.

the hip scores for the Tamaskan are excellent, good to see a large breed dog with such a low mean score

Although the score for Inuit is now 16, down from 17 possibly due to scores for 'British Inuit' (czech and Saarloos crosses) being included in the Inuit mean score

Oh, sorry. Perhaps these are old scores, I got them off the internet somewhere.

Well not all breeders are good.
I imagine there are so very many people breeding GSD's that quite a few of them are breeding for looks or profit and bringing the reputation of the breed down as a whole. Its very sad but true.

Even so it is worse for the Tamaskan Dog. We are a very small breed and so we have not had so many dogs tested, if we even had one dog with a score of over 20 it would bring the average right up and that one dog would make the whole breed look as though it had a hip problem, even though the majority of the breed has a score of under 10 and we have a few with a score of 0.