THE FINNISH PON CLUB'S REQUIREMENTS FOR BREEDING

The Finnish PON Club's breeding conditions require from a breeding dog to:

  • HIP EXAMINATION

    • The Finnish Kennel Club's PEVISA-regulation requires hip x-rays from a dogs that are to be used in breeding.
    The Finnish PON Club has taken a step further: the parents must be x-rayed and healthy. The result must be A-C.

  • THYROID GLAND
    Among PONs, some hypothyrosis exists. The dogs to be used in breeding must be examined for hypothyrosis and healthy.
    For examination the following are suitable:
  • TSH / T4 test.
    Naturally both TSH and T4 grades must be normal. The test detects the condition of the thyroid gland at the moment of the test. The result can also vary for instance during a females mating times. Also other problems in metabolism or illnesses can affect the T4 grade.
    Also a numeral value is calculated from the ratio of T4 / TSH, and this value should be more than 30. In practise this means that a young healthy dog the value can be more than 500, even 900. If the value is low, below 30, the dog might already be sick of hypothyrosis.

  • TgAA antibody test.
    Must be NEGATIVE.

    TgAA-examination gives longer run results. If the test is positive it means that the dog might at some point of its life became ill in hypothyrosis. New examination should be conducted at the age of 5 years.
    If the dog still at this age is TgAA negative but later on becomes ill in hypothyrosis, the nature of the hypothyrosis is considered as caused by the age. This way it has been separated from the hypothyrosis that appears at the younger ages.
    In connection with one group examination veterinarian Tapio Palolahti informed us that the illness is classified as hereditary if it is reached at younger ages (i.e. between 2-3 years of age) even though the pattern of heredity is not clear. If the dog gets ill for instance after 6 years of age, it is classified as hypothyrosis caused by age. Hypothyrosis is a rather common hormonal disorder among middle aged and old dogs. Our practise regarding hypothyrosis tests is the same as in Sweden.

  • EYE EXAMINATION
    The Finnish PON Club requires that the PONs that are to be used in breeding must have eyes examined for hereditary diseases.

    • Renewal in this examination is recommended to the carried out at the age of 6 years. The dogs must be healthy.

    At the grounding phase of the Finnish PON Club our breeding committee's objective was right from the beginning to have a healthy breed. Therefore eye examination was included in our objective program in order to notice possible illnesses at the very beginning.
    From the country of origin of the breed there was no statistics available regarding the health issues and in the beginning all of the health results we received came from Sweden, where some kind of eye illness had been noticed in PONs. Later on this illness has been associated with CCL-illness (canine ceroid lipofuschinosis).
    Since in Finland no eye illnesses have been found in PONs, and only in rare occasions in other countries, the breeding committee has moderated the breeding requirements regarding eye examinations. The examinations are not futile, however, since the Swedish PON breeding committee's has discovered that in connection with CCL cases dystrophy of the pigment cells has been observed. Therefore it is important to still examine our dogs even though other eye diseases have not been observed.

    IN BREEDING IT IS NOT ALLOWED TO USE A DOG THAT:

    FROM THE BREEDER IT IS REQUIRED THAT HE/SHE