PART I) 14 PRECIOUS YEARS WITH MUTZLI & NALI

Eleven (11) puppies were born to Pat and Terry Root's dog "Alphorn's Louise", a third generation USA dog, sired by a Swiss import, Lord v Buhlikofen. Both parents shared many relatives in common from Switzerland.

5 females and 4 males survived. Two of these female puppies have reached 14 years of age. (11/01--Note: both of these girls died during the subsequent year, before their 15th birthday.)

"ANGIE V MONACO IS MUTZLI" grew up In the office of the Travel Agency which was the business of Mario and Anne Marty, Swiss immigrants to California. Her daily resting place was under a desk. In her early years, "she worked" in the business by attracting visitors even though they had no travel plans. She demonstrated her skills to deliver messages from one office to another in this old building which had been designated as a "Historic Site" and which had only stairs from one floor to another. She went home "to care for" the son and daughter.

She is fully bi-lingual and showed this to advantage at such times as when her owner wanted to have Mutzli come with her but wanted the visiting Newfoundland friend to remain. Instructions in Schweizer Deutsch brought Mutzli with wagging tail and left the other dog wondering what had been said! Until recently, she continued to go to the office daily, even though the stairs were difficult. Now she is having trouble adjusting to staying behind at home and depends on daily medication to remain mobile. (11/01 Note: The Martys found that it made her most relaxed

"ANNALISE V MONACO" was chosen from this litter by Migs and Bruce Stallworth because she was much smaller than her littermates. Their first Berner was a large dog, with HD, and they had decided to get a smaller one this time. They did have some worry because a few months earlier they had picked the small one of a litter which did not live long because of a congenital heart problem. Nali matured to be a very pretty small dog and was shown easily to her championship.
She "oversaw" the raising of 2 girls, the youngest starts university this year. She is one of the SFBB Square Dance performers who are immortalized on a SF TV program which is popular enough to be re-played off and on. She was the model for the head study done by artist Monique Akar who created it for the '86 Specialty and stocks it as the Berner head on her 'Dogonit' souvenirs. Nali depends on daily medication for a heart problem.

As far as we know, this "Root" litter is the first litter of 9, in the world, to be totally evaluated for hip and elbow disease, including Anzianne who had blue eyes. Only two of the nine had affected hips, but five of the nine had affected elbows. Only three of the nine had neither affected hips nor elbows.

One of those three was a male who had intimidated his family to the extent they asked for behaviour counseling. It was recommended that the regimen of strict obedience practise be relaxed so that daily confrontations would decrease. The situation improved, but the owners were not urged to breed him (he had achieved a CD and was one of 3 that were shown in conformation and easily obtained a CH).

The other male and female were bred and those offspring will be described in Part II. After one litter, this female was neutered, as were her four sisters.

Here we will look at the age and cause of death of the parents and littermates of the two 14 year olds in the "Root" litter.

The dam died at 10 years of age after recurrence of fibrosarcoma following previous surgery.
The sire died at 6.75 of pernicious anemia which did not respond to mu.tiple blood transfusions.
The first to go was at just under five years of age.....with lymphosarcoma; the 2nd to go was nine years old with a rear-end weakness that prevented her from getting up and walking; a few more months saw the 3rd go with histiocytosis; the 4th with gastric dilatation and the 5th (one of the 3 with unaffected hips and elbows) by euthanasia because of rear end failure; the 6th was 11 years of age when he died of melanosarcoma. The most recent to go went two more years and succumbed to fibrosarcoma.

PART II, OFFSPRING (PROGENY) OF 'ROOT LITTER'

A. After receiving word that her hips and elbows were not affected with dysplasia, 'Nali' was given time to have a litter of puppies which are described here. The mate for Nali was chosen by geographic location, by nice conformation and temperament phenotypes and by unaffected hip and elbow phenotypes. He was the son of 'winning' parents with many USA and Swiss champions in the pedigrees. He died at age 8 of histiocytosis.

On April 22, 1984, they produced eight live-born pups, of which 4 females and two males survived. Two of the females recently celebrated their tenth birthday.

None of these six were ever bred. Three of the six had affected hips; two of the six had affected elbows; one has a severe overbite. None of them were ever shown in the ring.

The first to die was 5 years of age, with a histiocytic lymphosarcoma; the second at 6 with lymphosarcoma, the third at seven with cancer, the fourth was euthanatized at 9 years old. The last two are starting their 11th year. They happen to be two that had unaffected hips and elbows.

B. When a request to use one of the two unaffected males came, it was accepted with only the requirement that the female have certification that her hips and elbows were not affected. It was not known that she had two previous litters totalling 14 pups, 3 of which had already developed cancers. She was shipped by air for the mating.

She turned out to be a reluctant participant in the mating, but produced eight puppies, born October 20, 1985. The sire died at age 10 of gastric dilatation.

Five of the eight had affected hips; seven of the eight had affected elbows (the quality of the eighth radiograph was not good enough to read); one had a blue eye.

The records on this litter are not complete at this time. The owner of the female became less interested in open follow-up when she found that one buyer was upset with the 'affected' results of the elbow screening. At this time we know that one of the eight died at five years of age and that one has had successful surgery to remove a cancer.

Part III THE LEGACY OF HOPE FROM THE ROOT LITTER

When the last two of this litter go, what do they leave for the International family of Berner owners in addition to their individual memories?

THEY LEAVE HOPE!
There is reason to believe that this small group of 9 BMD is representative of any group of 9 fullsibs, picked by chance, to be followed from birth to death. It reveals some of the health problems we know are causing the early deaths of BMD. Some of these problems are known to be inherited. Progress is being made to understand them. BUT, most importantly, it reveals what is possible for us to hope for in the way of longevity for this breed

If there is expected to be one in 5 or 10 Berner puppies born, that do not carry the genes that will cause them to die before 12-14 years of age, there is hope that we can cooperate to learn how to select and concentrate those genotypes that will support a 12-14 year life span.