Some have asked just why it is that we feel a need to have a page that “talks” about the health of the AWS, let us tell you.

We have experienced the pain of learning that an AWS we purchased, raised, trained, and of course fell in love with suffered from an abnormality which was found in his immediate ancestors and ignored by his breeder. Plain and simple, it hurts, and, in our case, we felt it a betrayal by a fellow breeder. And so it is that we decided to provide a page that brings the issue of breed health to the forefront and gives those interested in AWS health issues a starting point for educating themselves on the topic. We absolutely adore this breed and want to see it perpetuate for generations to come.

As one AWS community member has said, ‘health checks are not the only thing a breeder needs to consider when deciding to breed an AWS… for clearly, you must include temperament, conformation, coat, hunting ability, patches of white, etc.’ We agree but having breeders and owners who have an understanding of health issues and how to avoid them or deal with them is certainly more important than, or at least as important, as all the other factors we must take into consideration. The hunter with an AWS that can't keep up in the field because it has a heart problem, could care less about his dog's white patch and everything about his dog's health. The agility competitor whose AWS suffers from hip dysplasia is not going to be one bit concerned about how much coat her dog has if the dog can't run an agility course because of its bad hips. The companion dog owner is not going to worry about how good his dog's conformation is if the dog suffers from allergies.

Most of us will acknowledge that without good health, the rest of our lives, no matter how we are otherwise blessed, can be pretty miserable. The same holds true for our canine friends. Living with a canine companion that suffers from health problems can also be rather depressing and frustrating. Nobody should have to do that simply because a breeder did not do the responsible thing by identifying potential health issues that would need to be addressed when deciding upon a particular pairing of sire and dam.

Former President Jimmy Carter once said, "The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny" We feel that a similar statement can be made about the health of our pure-bred dogs. Never before have we had the tools to prevent problems from occurring or being as prevalent as they have been in the past. Through good breeding habits like the use of extensive health exams, DNA testing, genetic diversification, and other tools we can determine a better destiny for our AWS.

Do you wonder what health problems might affect the AWS? If so, you can read the accumulating results of the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) health survey for the AWS. From there simple internet searches on specific topics such as “cardiac abnormalities in dogs” can be conducted to increase your knowledge of such topics. Breeders who arm themselves with the right amount of knowledge, breed against health issues found in their breeding dogs, and who work toward greater genetic diversification will have a better chance of avoiding health problems in the offspring. And that will lead to a stronger, more resilient, pool of AWS breeding dogs to help lead this breed into the future.

At Little Brownies we believe that all breeders should screen their breeding stock for cardiac, eye, hip, and thyroid abnormalities, as well as degenerative myelopathy.