Dachshund IVDD fundraising at Caldicot Castle 10/9/17

More than 200 Dachshunds and 300 of their owners descended on Caldicot Castle near Chepstow on September 10th for a day of fundraising and fun. The day was organised by Charlotte Baldwin who runs the “Dedicated to Dachshunds with IVDD” support group. Charlotte is one the the Dachshund Breed Council’s Pet Advisors and has already raised over £14000 to provide strollers, wheels and rehabilitation support for Dachshunds affected by back disease.

Despite it being a grey day with occasional downpours, everyone and their dogs participated enthusiastically in the Fun Show Classes and the walk round the castle. With raffles, competitions, cakes and doggie treats, there was plenty to keep people and dogs amused.

The event was being filmed by the BBC for the One Show and their presenter Angellica Bell co-judged the “Waggiest Tail” class with Breed Council Chairman Ian Seath. Angellica said, on her Instagram page, “Met some kind, friendly people as well as lots of adorable dogs“.

Breed Council Health Committee reps Gill Key and Aimée Thomas were also on hand to answer questions about the breed. The team answered questions about how to start showing, diet and body condition, exercise and separation anxiety as well as giving advice on breeding. Ian Seath said “Back Disease is the priority health issue we need to address in the breed and, last November, we introduced a screening programme to help with prevention. In the meantime, support like Charlotte provides is both welcome and necessary given the growing popularity of the breed. Today was a great opportunity for the Breed Council to provide practical advice to Dachshund owners.”

The Breed Council has a new Health website at www.dachshundhealth.org.uk where there is lots of advice on caring for a Dachshund.

A BIG THANK YOU to Charlotte and her team for all their hard work.

 

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Brand new UK Dachshund Health website launched today

Today, we have launched our new health website. We’ve refreshed the design to make it easier for you to find important Dachshund health information more quickly.

To start with, many of the pages will link back to our legacy health website but we will gradually update the information and incorporate it into this new site. There is a wealth of information on the old site which we will keep as reference resources and for those people interested in more detail. We want to keep this site user-friendly, clean and simple.

In order to avoid duplicating existing content, particularly our advice on buying and owning a Dachshund, we are also including links to material on our main Breed Council website.

We also have our dedicated IVDD (Back Disease) website which remains the “go to” place for information on IVDD. This new site links to the IVDD one to avoid duplicating information.

Dachshund IVDD Screening Special Offer – August 2017 – Just £100 for 9 dogs only

Thanks to the generosity of the Little Legs Fundraising campaign we are able to offer further subsidies for dogs screened in August and September.

Lisa Roylance and Carley Denton have raised £900 and we can therefore offer 9 dogs the chance to be screened for just £100. The normal price is £300 at a CVS referral practice, reduced to £200 with a subsidy from the Breed Council.

Now, on a first come, first served basis, we can offer a further £100 subsidy. You will have to pay the CVS vet £300 and then reclaim £200 from the Breed Council’s IVDD Fund.

If you plan to breed from your Dachshund and he/she is aged 24-48 months, you can screen your dog. Contact Ian Seath to apply for the special £200 subsidy.

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who is supporting Little Legs Fundraising.

DBRG Health Symposium 22nd October 2017 – Surrey

Two of our favourite veterinary specialists are speaking at the DBRG Symposium to be held in Surrey on 22nd October 2017.

Dr Clare Rusbridge has worked closely with us on Lafora Disease and Professor Sheila Crispin has supported our research into Distichiasis in Mini Long Dachshunds.

Date of Event 22nd October 2017 Description When bad becomes normal – Welfare problems related to conformation With an emphasis on neurological problems such as Chiari-like malformation, brachycephaly, syringomyelia, vertebral malformations in screw tailed breeds, and Wobbler’s syndrome, Clare discusses how selection for certain conformation may increase risk of disease and opens discussion on how they could be addressed.   Ocular problems related to poor head conformation: the wrong kind o f skin and excessive amounts of skin With the exception of known inherited diseases such as hereditary cutaneous hyaluronosis (HCH), the reasons for poor head conformation are complex and do not follow patterns of Mendelian inheritance.  Sheila will argue that breed-specific standards are fine, provided that those standards are not causing, or perpetuating, conformational abnormalities that have health and welfare implications.   Ocular problems related to poor head conformation: skull shape, does it matter? What happens when we select for characteristics that change the shape of the dog’s skull? There are more than 400 documented breeds worldwide and their craniofacial morphological diversity is astounding, but not necessarily synonymous with good health. Sheila discusses the adverse impact that skull shape can have on a dog’s quality of life, with particular emphasis on the ocular problems associated with brachycephaly.   When bad becomes normal:  Inherited disease With an emphasis on neurological problems such as Lafora’s disease, degenerative myelopathy, epilepsy, and inherited susceptibility to immune-mediated disease and cancer, Clare Rusbridge discusses how challenging it can be to avoid genetic disease or disease susceptibility and opens discussion on how to tackle inherited disorders in a breed.

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“Little Legs” fundraising to support IVDD Screening

A message from Carley Denton and Lisa Roylance:

Little Legs Fundraising has been born from a passion for the health and welfare of our beloved breed.

Why?
There are some amazing initiatives ongoing for dogs who are suffering from IVDD and because this can be as many as 1 in 4, we are trying to tackle the root cause.

Objective:
The hope is that we can raise £15,000 so breeders can undertake screening at a reduced cost and make informed decisions about their breeding programmes to reduce the number of IVDD cases causing devastation on a daily basis. Prevention is always better than cure and we would wholeheartedly appreciate any support.

How can you help?
Donate, even a small amount at: https://www.gofundme.com/little-legs-fundraising-for-ivdd
Like our Facebook page to keep updated with our progress. We also have many products and raffles with all proceeds to our target. https://www.facebook.com/LittleLegsFundraising/
Message us through our Facebook page if you would like to do some fundraising. We have people doing a range of activities to help us achieve our target so anyone who wishes to support is welcome to arrange something of their choosing and will be gratefully welcomed.
We are also hosting a Dachshund Day in August where there will be a range of stalls, a dog show, children’s entertainment and a pet photographer to name a few! Announcements will be made on our Facebook page in June so pop over and give us a like.
Thanks.
Carley & Lisa

Editor’s note: Thank you, Carley and Lisa, for the £300 you raised in your first week.

More support announced for the UK Dachshund IVDD Screening Programme

Last year, when we launched our IVDD Screening programme, we applied to the Kennel Club Charitable Trust for a grant to support the programme over the next 3 years. We have been notified that our application has been successful and we are incredibly grateful to the KCCT for their generosity and support for our work.

At the Breed Council meeting held today (14/5/17) it was agreed that, in light of the KCCT grant and other fundraising, the Council would now be able to increase its subsidy of the Screening Programme.

The Council will now be able to offer a £100 subsidy on X-ray screening as well as paying for the scoring of the x-rays.

Depending on the level of uptake of the screening programme, we hope to be able to offer this support for at least 3 years, which should give us a strong base for reducing the risk of IVDD in the breed.

Breeders who have participated in the Screening Programme since its launch will also be able to reclaim £100 from our Health Fund. They are the true pioneers of this programme in the UK and we want to ensure their support is also recognised.

The cost of participating in the Screening Programme, if breeders use our CVS partner vets, will now be just £200. Breeders will still need to pay £300 to the CVS practice carrying out the screening but can reclaim the £100 subsidy from the Breed Council once their screening results have been confirmed.

A condition of participating in the Breed Council’s scheme is that the owner agrees that their dog’s X-ray results may be published in an online registry of screening results and they participate in a regular survey of their dog’s health.

For more information on how to have your dog screened, please visit our IVDD website.

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Dachshund Breed Council AGM 2017

The Dachshund Breed Council held its AGM and a Council meeting today (Sunday 14th May 2017).

Ian Seath was re-elected as Chairman to serve for a term of 3 years. He presented his report for 2016 which will be published separately. Anne Moore was re-elected as Vice -chair to serve a further 1-year term.

The Treasurer presented the Council’s accounts and it was agreed, at the Council meeting, that the Midland Dachshund Club would present a proposal for investing in new educational materials to be used at the Discover Dogs and other Pet Show events for Dachshund buyer education.

In light of the continuing importance of investment into breed health improvement projects, it was agreed at the AGM that the Breed Council should set up a charity for the management of future fundraising and expenditure. This will ensure we have effective governance in place and enable us to reclaim Gift Aid on donations. The Health Fund has a current balance of £27,000 with funds ring-fenced for “Give a dog a genome”, IVDD and Lafora projects.

Further investment in the IVDD Screening Programme was also approved by the Council and this will enable us to provide additional subsidies to breeders.

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