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Health

Introduction

As with other breeds, are also in the breed Spanish Waterdog some health problems. Some of these problems are hereditary, transmitted from parents to children.
Known genetic diseases or disorders are hip dysplasia (HD), elbow dysplasia (ED) and eye problems such as retinal degeneration (PRA), retinal dysplasia (RD), cataract, entropion and ectropion. Fortunately, not every dog suffer from these diseases. And not every condition has the same adverse effects. For instance, heavier breeds deal with more problems with HD than medium or small breeds. And sometimes, certain hereditary diseases do not occur within a breed at all.

Research
Research on inherited diseases can provide insight whether and to what extent a disease occurs within a breed. It is therefore in the interest of a breed that as many dogs as possible are examined or tested. Many people don't  let their dogs test because they believe it's not important, it costs money (the investigations are unfortunately not completely free) or because they do not want to know if their dog has a genetic disorder.
A breeder lets the parent dogs often tested for certain genetic diseases or conditions when he makies a choice which parent dogs he will use. Also,sometimes the newly born puppies are tested for hereditary eye diseases eg. But sadly, most genetic diseases or disorders will reflect later in life. Breeders can not test all diseases or conditions. Just like humans, nobody is 100% healthy. Breeders are therefore often take into account a number of common and familiar disorders or diseases. But to make a choice from the many hundreds of known genetic diseases or conditions (a large part is not even known yet), research is very important. Knowing which diseases or conditions occur in a race, give a helping hand to the breeder what these tests can be done. This allows future generations to certain genetic disorders or diseases in any case be avoided.

Underneath some hereditary diseases and disorders that are known to occur at the Spanish Waterdog are explained. Also, inbreeding is discussed, which is often a cause of the occurrence of hereditary diseases within a breed. The degree of inbreeding can be expressed in the inbreeding coefficient. With the help of an example is explained how to determine the degree of inbreeding of a dog.

Hip dysplasia

Elbow dysplasie (ED)

As with HD, Elbow dysplasia or ED can be caused by both genetic and non-genetic factors. ED is a developmental disorder of the cartilage in the elbow joints. Also as with HD, x-rays can be made by vets and the GGW of the Dutch kennelclub judges the photos and  register these in a database.
For more information about ED check the website of the Dutch Kennelclub (only in Dutch).

Eye disorders
In dogbreeds, various eye diseases occur. The best known are:
Retinal Degeneration and Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) is a disease of the retina where it is afgerboken. It is usually a congenital defect that occurs in many breeds and leads to blindness. The most common form is prcd-PRA. The prcd prefix stands for progressive rod-cone degeneration.

• Retinal Dysplasia (RD). This is a congenital retinal abnormality that is present before birth, with two layers of the retina not stuck together.
• Cataract (congenital) or congenital cataracts.
• Cataract (not congenital) or cataracts, which are in the lens opacities, is identified by a blue haze on the retina in older dogs (very common in older animals).
• Entropion is a disorder in which an eyelid (usually lower eyelid) inwards.
• Ectropion is a defect in which an eyelid (usually lower eyelid) turning out toe dog for many eye diseases can be tested.

The European College of Veterinary ophthalmologist (ECVO) has developed a standardized clinical examination developed by members / vets in the Netherlands is carried out. The list of member veterinarians can be found at the site of the Board of Directors.

It is also possible to use a DNA test to determine whether a dog free, carrier or sufferer of a particular genetic disorder. By a sample of the buccal mucosa (with a cotton swab from the mouth out) to steer clear can be given for such prcd-PRA. More information at Laboklin.

Inbreeding

 For breeding, inbred can give important benefits. When an animal is homozygote in a large amount of genes, all these genes were given to the offspring of the animal. This means that there will be a high predictability what the genes of the offspring of this animal will have. This predictability will grow when this offspring is breed with animals with also the same predictable genetic material. By breeding this way, in time a large amount of breeding purity, and with purity a high level of uniformity is acquired. Inbred is the base of directed breeding to uniformity and a high predictability for physical marks. Not only the breeding method mentioned above could be a cause inbred. Also the composition of dog breeds can cause inbred. In particular national and regional breeds consist of a small amount of animals used for breeding. As long as breeding purity is a goal for these breeds, it is practically not possible to prevent related animals to breed with each other. Inbred can cause inbred depressions in time. 

An inbred depression is marked by two groups of symptoms: symptoms of homozygote for not wanted characteristics and symptoms of loss of vitality and fertility. In the pedigree do breeds, it is very common to breed with related animals. If with these related animals is bred, a defect gene that lies with the common ancestor, can be given to the offspring by fathers genes or by mothers genes. When both genes are given to the offspring, the offspring will be homozygote for this defect gene and so for the not wanted characteristic. An important part of these defect genes, also named hereditary failures, within the dogbreeding, is caused by this homozygote for defect genes. Loss of vitality and fertility is noticed by slow growing, short life expectancy, lower resistance against decease, lower sexual instinct for male dogs, irregular and delayed heat for bitches, smaller litters and decreasing mother care and a general loss of frankness and animal spirit in behaviour.     

Symptoms of inbreeding depression can be neutralised by breeding with completely non-related animals, heterozygote will return in this case. Heterozygote means that an animal has two different genes for a singular mark or characteristic." 

If a defect gene is wide spread within a population, this means that a stronger selection would be very drastic because a great percentage of the dogs in the population will drop out for breeding with. It is better to use carriers of defect genes for breeding carefully, in this way a larger amount of genes of other characteristics will be saved for the population (Willis, 2002).

Inbreedingcoefficient

The Dutch Kennelclub has the limits of breeding and inbreeding set on the following parameters concerning the use of parental combinations that are not allowed in the Netherlands:

• Parent / child combination (P generation x F1 generation);
• Brother / sister combination (F generation x F generation);
• Grandparent / grandchild combination (P generation x F2 generation).

In this pedigree, the founder ancestors of the Perro de Agua Español population are easy to find. Some of the ancestor fathers are Manolo, Marquez, Monolo-Moro, Moro and Rizos de Ubrique. Some of the ancestress are Chica Rubia, Manchi, Diana de Ubrique, Turca and Ronda de Ubrique. 

The ancestors are the dogs, that has been used by breeders about 30 years ago to start with breeding the PDAE (look at history) and the dogs that, for their special characteristics and qualities, have been used for breeding in Spain. One advantage of using a small amount of ancestors is that it is very fast and easy to create a uniformity within the breed. In other words, the animals will look like each other. Disadvantage is: when less attention is given to the selection of breeding pairs, the inbreeding coefficient can rise quickly.

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Figure: graphic of the inbreeding coefficients of 101 Spanish Waterdogs, listed in the Dutch pedigree studbook