Maks is one of a small number of Dalmatians worldwide that carries two copies of the desirable SLC2A9 gene therefore every puppy he produces will have one copy of the gene and therefore Low Uric Acid (LUA)! Emily has one copy of the LUA gene so we expect some of these puppies to have two copies! This beautiful litter is the result of breeding an outcrossed female back to her sire. I believe that homozygous puppies from this litter will be very useful in incorporating the LUA gene in other bloodlines. They are very healthy and consistent.



Friday, December 7, 2012

Day Fifteen

Now it is time to start the sound/food conditioning because I noticed the first puppy displaying a hearing response! What I do is make a sound like I am trying to get their attention. (PSSST) As I am making the psst sound and put a tiny bit of raw ground beef under their nose. When they smell it they start to suck on my finger to get the beef. I do that with each of them. I will do this everyday once or twice.  Of course they really have no idea what I am doing but in a week they will know that some great treat is coming when they hear psst and in two weeks they will jump out of a sound sleep when they hear psst. I will be able to evaluate the hearing of each puppy by this method. I will know long before the BAER hearing testing is done what to expect.

Here are some pictures I took today. They are starting to stand and walk one or two steps before they fall over!



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