Monday, March 28, 2011

J Bar S Dobermans Step up

We are very proud of two of or babies who are now certified medical alert dogs for their owners.  Both puppies are still under two yet they are already super stars.

The first is Tove a Tux sister - Her owner had a trauma a few years back which left her with moments when she has a period where everything just goes blank.  It has been a great concern when in public in case she walk out into a busy street etc.  She and Tove were out and about a few months back and when she came back to reality Tove was bumping her with her nose and would not stop.  As she struggled to focus on Tove it helped her come out of the episode.  At the time she just thought it was one of those special happenings.  But two weeks later it happened again and Tove did the same thing til she was back to normal. 

She spoke with her Doctor about it and the doctor said definitely the dog was alerting her to the problem and gave her a letter stating that she needed the dog for this service.   She then contacted Delta Therapy Dogs to see what training Tove would need to get certified and was told you could not train a dog for this kind of thing it was just something the dog either did or did not do but that a strong bond between owner and dog was what triggered it. 

Tove now wears a medical alert dog tag - stating she is serving her owner and she is certified to wear a service dog vest and go with her owner anywhere.

Our second boy is a Bella brother and his owner has diabetes.  One night he woke her up at 4 AM pawing her.  She tried to get him to lay back down but he would not.  She went to get up and immediately realized something was very wrong.  She checked her blood sugar and had Baron not alerted her she could have slipped into a diabetic coma.  She is in the process of getting him certified as a medical alert dog also.

So to all our SARS, Pilot dog and now medical alert dogs we salute you for your service and for being such outstanding ambassadors to the Doberman breed.

We are proud to have stayed true to the working heritage of the one and only dog - The Doberman Pinscher

Saturday, March 12, 2011

DNA PDK4 - What did it tell us

This is still the big question regarding the new PDK4 DNA test for Dobermans.  What I really find hard to understand is that this gene was discovered for the boxer people almost 2 years ago and why were we not given any info as to what they had learned about how this gene ties in to the total cardio picture???

I would have thought this would be one of the first things Dr. Meurs would have shared with us.  What have they learned since its discovery??    I know it will still be years before we know all about the role this gene actually plays and how critical it is. 

I have tested my dogs for the gene and will continue to watch and see what new discoveries Dr. Meurs makes regarding it.  In the mean time we are still on a watch and wait to see what happens.  Hopefully they will discover another gene that will give us more definite findings soon.