Why are we so excited? I'm glad you asked.

In the last 33 years, OFA has evaluated nearly 8700 Mastiffs. Over that time, 7.4% have been rated 'Excellent' while 19.3% have been discovered to be dysplastic. The Mastiffs that have been evaluated by OFA are the Mastiffs that breeders feel are worthy of the time and expense to get that done. In other words, these are the 'good' dogs, the breeding stock kept by breeders, that has been evaluated. SO, of the BEST dogs, one in five is dysplastic! Imagine how high dysplasia is in the general population!

We could play with the math but it leads to conjecture because we don't really have enough facts. This is a fact, our dogs are testing out excellently.

Here are a few statistics (% that ARE dysplastic) for mastiff breeds from the offa.org website:

55.9 DOGUE DE BORDEAUX
48.5 NEAPOLITAN MASTIFF
46.7 ST. BERNARD
30.4 PERRO DE PRESA CANARIO
29.1 FILA BRASILEIRO
25.6 NEWFOUNDLAND
24.5 BULLMASTIFF

I will say this, with the exception of the Newfoundland, there have been a lot more Mastiffs tested than these other breeds. That means that more information is available to the Mastiff breeders than to the poor souls breeding and buying Neapolitans!

So far, we have had six Morrigan pups completed and we have received 4 Excellents and 2 Goods. Lexus is pending.

More pictures! Isn't Tammie great!

And I also scanned in Oscar and Chocolates OFA certificates:

BIG NEWS!

Normally, Laura checks the mail. She likes it. Yesterday, she was working very late and about 10:30PM I realized that the mail had not been retrieved. On with the boots and down the drive I go. While walking in the dark I tripped over a large branch that had fallen from one of the trees. Thank goodness my back is getting better! Anyway, when I got back to the house, there was the OFA letter that Jennifer has been waiting for. I called her immediately (yes, it was late) but she didn't answer. I couldn't wait and I opened the letter.

Both Oscar and Chocolate passed their respective elbow tests and they both scored an 'Excellent' on their hips! WOW. That is four dogs (Tug, Achilles, Oscar and Chocolate) from the Trojan/Morrigan breedings that have scored 'Excellent' with Boudi and Macey showing well with 'Good' scores. We are still waiting on Lexus' results.

Still Jennifer didn't call. I had to speak to someone so I called Catie (a confirmed night owl) and told her the good news. Jennifer finally called this morning and I got to hear her excitement. She squealed like a three year old! I love good news.

Here are some pictures that I received last Thursday. The pups have really grown and are super sweet.

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And some more. I think the rain may have been the reason for the bath.

Pictures from the 12th. AKA 'Unsanctioned Bath Day'.

Pictures from the 8th.

Pictures from the 7th.

I don't have a lot of time but, I would be a cad if I didn't post the pictures that Tammie has sent me!