Spring 2016  Saber Tails 69    

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America

to let prospective puppy owner and the general public 

know about these categories and to educate them on 

the value of contacting a Breeder of Merit.  The public 

can find out about different breeds, their suitability 

for a particular family, the health tests recommended 

by their Parent Clubs, and a search function to find 

breeder listings with their promotion and advertising 

pages.  There is a contact form that a person can then 

click to send an email directly to a particular breeder.  

There is a link to the Parent Club websites for all the in-

formation that can be found there.  The site has a “How 

to Pick a Puppy”  E-book that helps to match a breed to 

a family’s lifestyle.

Director of Marketing

Mr. Stephen Smith reviewed the launch of the new 

website and agreed it was not “smooth sailing”.    He 

reported that they have made substantial progress.    

The AKC now has more than 4 million unique visitors 

to the website each month.  AKC’s Facebook audience 

has grown by more than 20% with some 4.7 million 

fans on the difference pages.  This places the AKC and 

pure-bred dogs at the forefront and raises awareness 

of AKC’s mission.  Mr. Smith urged us to contact them if 

we have any problems or comments about the web-

site.

Respectively submitted,

       

Anne Gallant

IMPORTANT NOTICE • DNA/BLOOD BANK SUBMISSIONS

PBGVCA is asking all samples of blood go to CHIC.  

When blood is 

donated to CHIC, the dog receives a number and the dog and owner will be recog-

nied in Saber Tails for the donation to health and research.  To learn how to donate 

your PBGV’s blood to CHIC, go to pbgv.org, click on ‘Health’ then ‘Health Commit-

tee.’  Under DNA/CHIC, you will see a link to click on that will give you the informa-

tion.  There is no need to resubmit blood if it’s already in the University of Missouri’s 

blood bank.  Thank you to every participant for your time and effort in this matter.

70-80% of cases; it is presumed to have multiple genetic 

causes. Fortunately, the PBGV is not a breed that is at 

high risk for seizures, but there are affected dogs in our 

midst. Dr. Ned Patterson specializes in seizure disorders 

at the University of Minnesota. He is no stranger to the 

PBGV community. He has presented the health seminar at 

PBGVCA National Specialties and is funded by the PBGV 

Health & Rescue Foundation (http://www.akcchf.org/re-

search/research-portfolio/2133.html).

Dr. Patterson described some of the new antiepileptic 

drugs that are being used. Half of treated dogs are well 

controlled on one drug, and another 20% are well con-

trolled on two drugs. Unfortunately, 20-30% of affected 

dogs are refractory to treatment despite being on 2 or 3 

daily medications. Surgery to remove the seizure focus in 

the brain is successful in some people with epilepsy, but is 

not yet used in dogs. Current research in canine epilepsy 

centers on identifying genes that link to epilepsy, identify-

ing biomarkers in the blood that predict seizure activity, 

and testing new drug therapies. Dr. Patterson described 

the need for better electrical devices that can detect a 

dog’s susceptibility to seizures or warn about an upcom-

ing event. Such devices are used for seizure detection and 

prediction in people, and are being tested in dogs. Success 

has also been reported with vagal nerve stimulation in 

both people and dogs with refractory epilepsy.

Dr. Patterson was encouraging when he spoke about the 

advances in treatment for most canine seizure patients. 

However, he acknowledged that in most cases we still can-

not identify the dogs who will pass susceptibility genes to 

their offspring.

If you have questions about the AKC CHF conference re-

port, please contact Laura Liscum at laur.liscum@tufts.edu.

AKC Canine Health Foundation Conf. Cont’d from p 63