Bench Show Judge 101 - by Kathy Lorentzen Are Coonhounds Genetically Healthy? You might think that this is an odd subject for a column on judging, but bear with me. I have recently returned from the United States Canine Registries 2007 Conference in Las Vegas, which I attended with UKC President Wayne Cavanaugh, Executive VP Mark Threlfall, and VP of Media Tanya Raab. This fairly new organization was the brainchild of Mr. Cavanaugh, and its motto is working together for the benefit of dogs. During the two day conference, one of the speakers was Eddie Dziuk, who is Chief Operating Officer of the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA). Eddie, who is a well know breeder and exhibitor of Beagles, gave an overview of the OFA, the CHIC Program and the DNA Repository Program. This was a very informative presentation and I learned a number of new things. Although I have been submitting my dogs hip x-rays to OFA for evaluation since 1972, and more recently their elbow films as well, I had not really stayed up on the new and innovative work this organization is doing. If you are not familiar with the OFA, the first thing that you should know is that they are not affiliated with any specific registry. Their objectives are: To collate and disseminate information concerning orthopedic and genetic diseases of animals. To advise, encourage and establish control programs to lower the incidence of orthopedic and genetic diseases. To encourage and finance research in orthopedic and genetic disease in animals. To receive funds and make grants to carry out these objectives. Dogs from any registry can be evaluated by OFA and have their test results registered in the OFA database. In fact, OFA doesn’t require registration at all, or even require that a dog be purebred. Recently, the OFA has instituted a new program called CHIC, which stands for Canine Health Information Center. CHIC is a database of consolidated health screening results from multiple sources. CHIC works with parent clubs to identify health screening protocols appropriate for individual breeds.  Dogs tested in accordance with the parent club established requirements, that have their results registered and made available in the public domain, are issued CHIC numbers. It is not about normalcy, it is about having tested a dog of a particular breed for all the genetic diseases that appear in that breed in significant numbers, and releasing the test results into the database that is then made available to the public. A dog that has one, or several, diseases, such as hip dysplasia or an inherited eye defect, can have a CHIC number. The CHIC number means that the dog has had all the recommended tests, not that it passed all those tests. The point is to encourage health testing and share the results so that breeders can make more informed breeding decisions. One of the breeds currently eligible to participate in the CHIC program is the Black and Tan Coonhound. (Yes, I know it is the AKC Black and Tan Coonhound, but again, please bear with me; I have a point coming eventually). In order to receive a CHIC number, a Black and Tan Coonhound must have a hip evaluation (by either OFA or PENHIP), an eye exam by a Board Certified Canine Ophthalmologist, and an evaluation for Congenital Cardiac Disease. Optionally recommended are screenings for elbow dysplasia and autoimmune thyroiditis, but they are not required. I ran a search on the OFA website and there are 504 Black and Tan Coonhounds with published OFA hip results. Here are the numbers for the other five Coonhound breeds: English Coonhounds, 1, with a FAIR hip rating. Treeing Walkers, 9, with ratings ranging from FAIR to EXCELLENT. Blueticks, 14, with one of them listed as dysplastic. Redbones, 9, with two of them listed as dysplastic. Plott Hounds, . Okay, to my point, finally. We all know that, with the exception of the Plott Hounds, the coonhound breeds all descended from basically the same group of dogs. So they are obviously very closely related genetically, particularly because they are not terribly old breeds, having been separated in recent times, not in ancient history like some of the sighthounds. Even though the AKC Black and Tan is for the most part separate from the American Black & Tan that we work with at UKC, they are not very far apart genetically at all. So does it stand to reason that if it has been proven that hip dysplasia, eye disease, elbow dysplasia, congenital cardiac disorders and autoimmune thyroiditis exist in the modern AKC Black and Tan, they most likely exist in the modern UKC American Black & Tan as well? Between the years 1974 and 2006, 591 Black and Tan Coonhounds have had hip evaluations by the OFA. 15.7% of those 591 dogs (93) had hip dysplasia. That is a pretty significant number of abnormal dogs and ranks the breed 51st out of 148 breeds in incidence of the disease. For comparison purposes, look at two breeds which are thought of as having serious hip problems: Golden Retrievers and German Shepherd Dogs. Goldens (with 113,858 evaluations) were 20.1% dysplastic, and GSD (with 89,919) were 19% dysplastic. Conversely, the Siberian Husky, a medium sized endurance dog (which is basically what the coonhounds are as well), had only 2% dysplasia out of 15,273 evaluations! Whenever we do a breeding, we base our decisions on a wide variety of things-natural ability and instinct, work ethic, acceptance of training, conformation, general temperament and more. The advances that have been made in medical science, research and testing are enormous. But how many of you are testing your dogs for genetic disease? From the statistics available on the OFA website, apparently not very many of you are. Based upon the information that I have supplied you here on the Black and Tan Coonhound, is it time for coonhound breeders to start x-raying hips and checking eyes and hearts prior to breeding? Or do you feel that the old adage ‘they can run and they can see so they must be fine€™ is applicable? Can you really say that your dogs are free of inherited defects if you don't test for them? Have you ever had a dog go lame (could it have been hip dysplasia?), go blind (could it have been cataracts, or Progressive Retinal Atrophy?), or drop over dead for an unexplained reason (could it have been inherited heart disease?) I decided to write this column because I think it is important that the coonhound community pursue a discussion about genetic disease. not making any judgments or recommendations,  just presenting information that I found interesting and enlightening. It is up to you, the breeders, to discuss the issue and make decisions for the future of the breeds. I would love to hear your thoughts. We would like to give credit to the UKC for Publishing this very revealing and important article.