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