9/4/89

Dear Andrea:

I want to give you my comments about breeding Maite, first hand, so they come to you in the same way that I want to say them:

I felt you did your homework properly and made a good choice of a mate for your dog, based on the status of his normal hips and elbows, his good temperament and his sound conformation, though he has not 'competed in the ring'.

With awareness of the current BMD cancer study and understanding that we may learn that we have a breed related cancer problem, I was pleased that both parties to the anticipated breeding looked over 7 generation pedigrees to see how much inbreeding you were inheriting and to observe where cancer cases appeared, in my personal records of the results of the breedings which I supervised, of Mia Root/Lord Rover and then their daughter Nali Stallworth/ Prince Peter. Maite's grandmother Mia and aunt Tasha Menzies were affected at that date.

Today, 6 months later, we have two more known cases in her father Prince and her littermate brother Bello Brauen. With this additional information of now having 4 affected relatives in the immediate 3 generations, I would re-assess her breeding potential. The case of her maternal grandfather's hemolytic anemia (Lord Rover) may also take on more significance now, as well as the number of orthopedic problems in 4 of her 5 littermates.

Again, at this time, I feel the decision to breed, or not, has to be made after asking the very difficult question of whether this dog will improve the breed by contributing a better than average number of good genes. This helps answer the question of whether a certain dog that is a good pet is also good breeding stock.

I wish I could have seen Maite now that I assume she is down to normal weight. Other Bay Berners have asked about the finale of that story, so let us know!

With Berner love and concern, Barbara Packard.