Mirribandi Belgians

Health Register

At MIRRIBANDI we choose to health test all our dogs BEFORE they are bred from. We consider the bare minimum of health testing today (2002) to include Hip scoring, and Elbow scoring, and all our breeding dogs must also hold a current Eye Certificate.

We take our role of caretaker of this special breed very seriously, and we stand firm in our ethical beliefs. We choose to publish all known health results and conditions of all our dogs, and dogs of our breeding - be the results good, bad, or ugly, so that other breeders can use these details to determine the paths of their own breeding programs.

When we first started out in the Belgian breed, hip scoring was considered to be the only essential health check required before breeding. Since then, elbow scoring has become common place, as has yearly eye testing of all breed stock. We have embraced these advances in health screening and we also look forward to the future in hope that other new health checks will be made available to assist us in our breeding program and decision making.

In Australia, Hip scores and Elbow scores are obtained after a dog is 12 months of age. The dog is fully anaesthetised, an x-ray is taken, and the films are sent off for scoring.

Eye testing certificates are valid for 12 months - eye problems known to be in Belgians are often late on-set issues that can occur from 2 to 4 years. Eye testing can be done as early as 7-8 weeks of age, and it is wise to have breeding stock eye tested yearly. A specialist ophthalmic vet does eye testing. The yearly procedure involves putting drops into the dog's eyes to dilate the pupils, allowing the vet to perform a visual check deep into the eye. A Final Eye Certificate may be given to dogs over 7 or 8 years old, as any problems that occur after this age are considered to be normal old age issues, and not hereditary conditions.

We encourage our puppy buyers to health test their Belgians too - even owners of family pets, and we thank them all for allowing us to publish the results. It is important to health test as many puppies from each litter as possible, and not just test the prospective show or breeding quality pups - so that a broad overview of the true health of the whole litter is understood. If just the pick of litter was tested, one would never know if it were the healthiest of a bad lot, or an average puppy from an exceptionally health litter. The full results are important to enable all breeders to make educated decisions for the future development of this relatively healthy and wonderful breed.