I have been a Dalmatian owner for 50 years and a breeder for 35 years. Granted I am not a large scale breeder...just a Dalmatian lover who breeds occasionally. My dogs are health tested and live in my home, sleep on my bed and are members of my family. In the 50 years that I have owned Dals I have had 3 males block. I don't think that Dalmatian stone disease is the biggest problem we have in the breed but it is one that we have an opportunity to do something about. Why on earth wouldn't we?
 
I was around when the first vote was taken and I actually don't remember how I voted or even if I did because at the time it didn't have any bearing on my life or my dogs....so I thought. That was before my sweet boy Woody (a Panore son) blocked. Luckily he had a surgery and never blocked again but this disease all of a sudden did have a bearing on my life.
 
After the "84" vote I didn't give much, if any, thought to the backcross project until the National in French Lick, Indiana. There I saw Dr Schaible's dogs and decided that there was probably merit to this reasearch and "someone" should be doing more about it. Of course, like many of us that someone wasn't me. Then Dr. Danika Bannasch was able to idenity the single gene responsible for the Dalmatian breed specific uric acid defect.  This was much more than a dream now it was progress beyond a shadow of a doubt for many people.
 
After seeing and meeting the LUA Dals and the people who were commited to this project at the "08" National I became a total believer. When I watched the LUA Dals in the ring that evening I was very overcome with emotion. As I looked around I saw I wasn't the only one. What surprised me was the fact that they were no better or worse than many classes of Dals I have seen over the years. They are Dalmatians!
 
I feel that we have wasted too much time already and I will vote YES!
--
Barb Allison
Rim Rock Dals
www.freewebs.com/rimrockdals