The $5000 price tag could be better spent on something else on the farm.
I went to a few dog trials and won a few but I never had them polished enough to worry about competing at championships.
You can’t help getting attached to your dogs when they have given their best doing the work they have been bred for.
Like coming in with the shearing muster hobbling home foot sore but never giving up.
Sheep one day, cattle the next. They ask for no reward other than some tucker at night and a bed to sleep in.
So it’s heartbreaking when going to the kennels in the morning only to find a young dog lying dead.
I have had this happen more than once. In the case of a young huntaway, it was a twisted bowel with no warning signs.
It is a big disappointment after the time put into training and the dogs are just reaching their full potential.
Another disappointment was when a four-year-old dog started going blind with glaucoma, another genetic trait. But help may be on the way.
Massey University, with backing from the Ministry of Primary Industries and Pamu (Landcorp Farming Ltd), is developing a DNA database for huntaway and heading dogs. They have isolated 27 genetic mutations that are present in farm dogs — five of which could lead to significant inherited health issues.
The long-term aim is to find breeders and dog owners a way to avoid these genetic diseases.
A dog carrying an affected gene won’t develop the disease, but two dogs bred with the same gene give the pups a 25% increased chance of developing it.
It is going to take three years before the programme is up and running, which I presume is voluntary. It will be interesting to see how effective it will be when there are so many other traits like temperament when selecting a pup which will not be recorded.
According to statistics there are 830,000 dogs in New Zealand and growing by 3.5 % each year. 200,000 are farm dogs.
No wonder there are 120 companies manufacturing pet food — it is a growth industry.
There is a big export market to China and at the same time we import dog biscuits from the United States and Australia. Tux is the biggest manufacturer in New Zealand, based in Marton, it is owned by Nestle.
It is estimated it costs $1700 to keep a dog for a year, but what is a good dog’s labour worth on the farm?
