“Wobbler's syndrome” which most people think comes from breeding an “elegant, swan-like neck” which can't support a heavy head and causes the dog's spine and cervical vertebrae to become misaligned, causing a drunken, wobbling gait that *may* be corrected by expensive, dangerous surgery.
[they fuse the weak cervical vertebrae, in essence]
Hip dysplasia from the over-angulated rear ends.
[same as GSDs]
Dilated cardio-myopathy possibly from “over sizing” the breed.
Males were originally 28”/females 26” tall -max- and now Dobes of that size are considered ‘small’.
My dogs lived to be 13-14, easily but now if they make it to 10 without dropping of heart failure, it's considered a miracle.
There's now a DCM DNA test to see if your Dobe has the first -known- gene that causes DCM and through reading the posted results and studying the positive dog's bloodlines, it's painfully obvious which dogs brought this horror into the breed....yet those "famous champion" dogs, ~posthumously~, are *still* siring litters via artificial insemination...and the owners of those tubes of death -know- it but they get $1000 and up for each ‘straw’ of killer sperm.
[yes, that enrages me beyond all reason]
“Missing” teeth which came from elongating the original medium-lengthed blunt-wedge skull.
Shoulder dysplasia from overdoing the total angulation of the dog.
*Loads* of skin issues from breeding the “colored” Dobes which are dilute mutation of the original Black & Rust dogs.
[”Blues” and “Fawns” most affected..some countries still ban those colors from the show ring]
Hypothyroidism is now the “norm”.
There are so many other health issues that I can't bear to post them all.
It breaks my heart to even sit and ponder them all.
I've been ‘in the breed’ so long that I've had the sorrow of watching a formerly robust, almost obnoxiously healthy breed decline, right before my very eyes.
In case you're wondering, Odin tested -negative- for the DCM gene.
When I got the results in my email inbox, it was an hour before I could stand to open the PDF and read them.
When I finally did, I wept like damn fool...with relief.
Some here do understand the irrational depth of my love for this silly dog and rejoiced with me.
And, any GSD owner who's had to put down a 2 or 3 year old -pup- for _hip dysplasia_ will understand my rage.
It is sad to see any breed decline. That is the reason I got into Shilohs. GSD are in such bad shape, I wanted a big healthy dog that wasn’t going to fall apart. Fixing the hips was one of the main goals of creating the breed. My older girl is almost 3 and her PennHip measurements were .27 on both hips. That is crazy tight. She is 27 inches tall and weighs 80lbs. And she is on the small side. The males can get around 120. There is one breed warden that must approve all breedings and the breeders really focus on health testing. Having one breed vision is helping the group of breeders stay focused.