Possible breeding requirements for improving the health of the Leonberger by taking into account the genetic situation of the breed

As for the explanation of the genetic situation in the Leonberger breed plus COI / AVK, unique ancestors etc.
I refer to my article "The genetic situation in the Leonberger"

This article has also pointed out that we need much more health tests and genetic testing to be able to prevent that two carriers of the same defect "unconsciously and unintentionally" are mated.
This was explained in detail at the example of the LPN (inherit. Leonberger Polyneuropathy). 
And what holds true for the LPN, also applies to any other genetic disease.

However, it was just as clearly pointed out that we need more individual dogs in the breeding pool to increase the genetic diversity (and the individual dog should less contribute to breeding).
The genetic situation in the Leonberger does not allow to continue to breed with only "almost perfect" dogs – related to the standard (ie, exterior), but also related to health.
 
In other words, "just as we cannot dismiss the LPN1 carriers from breeding pool, because it would reduce the effective population size even more, so of course we cannot use only 100% “perfect” (external) and healthy dogs for breeding.

Nobody shall please come to the conclusion that I’m “pleading to breed with sick dogs” – no-no, far from it - but with the given low effective population size one has to think about “health problems” which are minor and one can “live with” and which ones we can absolutely never tolerate in breeding pool.

The list of "what is absolutely unacceptable” will be long, because we do not want to breed "sick" dogs, the list of “what we could learn to live with” will, therefore, be quite short - but to get an overview about the general health status of all Leos belonging to the breeding pool would need to be the first step to do. So first of all we should  perform much more health tests on our Leos.


 

1) Thyroid - many breeds are prone to hypothyroidism
"Basically, all dogs develop an underactive thyroid. Large and giant breeds are more often affected. "
Hypothyroidism is a treatable disease (medication with substitution of L-thyroxine tablets)

2) heart - except the so-called. "Innocent murmur"
"Harmless" noises or innocent (flow) murmur So-called "harmless" noise, functional heart murmur, except from that one (12.5.3 - Department of dog diseases), there is no other "harmless" findings.

3) Eye - except Persistent pupillary membrane (MPP / PPM) - embryonic vascular networks, which usually regress to the opening of the eyes and prepare normally (mild forms) no problems
Distichiasis: hair, grow from the ducts of the glands (abnormal localization) - mild forms pose no problems
Mild forms of entropion or ectropion cause no problems (in some countries, therefore, approved for breeding) - should be ruled out all forms that require surgical correction.
All other eye diseases are of serious and harmful nature, associated with pain and even loss of vision with it (glaucoma, cataract, lens luxation, PRA, etc.)

To get more dogs for breeding, but would have to make "compromises" on the 100% perfect ideal image of the Leonberger.

Investigations with other similar breeds, namely Newfoundland and Landseer *** ** revealed that people there are more generous with the teeth respectively the lack of it.

I do not plead for breeding "toothless" leos - no, certainly not - but we ought to consider whether the absence of the premolars 1 and 2 is tolerated and set up a limit of missing teeth (eg 3 or 4) .

Furthermore, it should be the rule as it has been with lacking Molar 3 - that a dog with missing P1 can be mated with a full-toothed partner dog.
 
Even the famous white-spot on chest and the palm-sized limit of this white spot on chest, should be considered and one should think about that seriously – as I question: Whose palm? My rather small hands - Arnold Schwarzenegger's " not so small-sized hands, whose hand size?

Why not just tolerated white on the chest - be it now palm-sized or slightly more (the same holds true for white on the toes) and then just make sure in breeding recommendations that a dog with a little more white is mated with a partner with less or only very little or even no white.

For other things / traits like position of the limbs, hair length, mask, etc., this are already the recommendations of breeding committee.

These measurements alone would certainly already increase the amount of breedable Leonbergers.
And since there is still primarily (at least for me) the goal  to improve the genetic diversity, we must of course take as well into consideration that the individual Leonberger, especially dogs, should be used less often.

Studs use should be limited (6 - 10 matings - not per year, but rather for the overall breeding performance time) simultaneously semen storage (with DNA profile) recommended in cases,where that dog gives mainly more than average good puppies with different females.  Dogs shall stay in breeding pool with no age-limits, as long as they are healthy and fit. Health screening (geriatric profile) recommendend, starting at the age of 6 or 7 y.
 
Brood bitches should not have more than 3 litters in total; there of course the age limit has to remain at 8 y. Bitches with severe problems in whelping and or need of cesarian section should be retired.

One litter per kennel per year - would be adequate in my opinion.

With the above mentioned methods we would get a higher no. of breedable Leonbergers so that we would have a balance if on the other hand the single individual contributes less (Stud restrictions etc.) – we would that way also have more breeders but less “activity” of only one or a few breeders.

Conclusion - we need not less but more individual Leonbergers in the breeding pool to achieve more genetic variance.

We need at the same time more health checks for these Leonbergers.

** Newfoundland - Standard http://www.neufundlaender-dnk.de/fci-standard-1996.pdf
Bite: Scissors or level bite
http://www.neufundlaender-dnk.de/zuchtordnung.pdf
Ideal is a bit of 42 large, strong teeth. Tolerable is the absence of P1, P2 and M3. A maximum of 4 teeth missing is tolerated.

*** Http://www.landseer-deutschland.de/Unser_Landseer/Standard/standard.html
Scissors bite. DLC http://www.landseer.de/
The fight against ancestor loss and inbreeding is the focus of all efforts.
http://www.vld-landseer.de/
http://www.neufundlaender-landseer-club.de/
http://w "missing or duplicate P1 and missing M3 tolerated", but may only miss a maximum of 2 teeth www.neufundlaender-landseer-club.de/pdf/10Zuchtordnung.pdf