Hereditary health concerns in the Bouvier des Flandres include SAS (subaortic stenosis)  and glaucoma. We also face hip and elbow dysplasia as do all breeders of large dogs, however, dysplasia is not always genetic. Recognizing the need to broaden the narrow gene pool that has developed in the U.S. over the last few years, we have imported several dogs from Europe to compliment our lines. This has allowed us to continue to produce healthy puppies and adults free from serious genetic complications such as SAS or glaucoma.

All of our breeding stock is tested for hips, elbows, patella, heart, thyroid, and eyes including a gonioscopy. In addition to OFA hip tests we often Penn Hip as well. You will find each of our dog’s health records available on the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals website (www.offa.org) or click on their AKC registration number from this site to be directed. 

Hips and elbows will not appear on the www.offa.org website if the dog is under two years of age. Occasionally, we may breed a stud before the age of two after his hips and elbows have been prelimed. The OFA prelim letter and/or Penn Hip report can be viewed by clicking on the dog’s name on his/her respective web page.  

To minimize the risk of genetic health issues such as SAS and glaucoma, we believe that in addition to the enormous investment we make in health testing our dogs generation after generation, it is extremely important to evaluate the pedigrees of both the sire and dam before a breeding. This provides an additional safety measure that not only are we breeding healthy dogs generation after generation but we are breeding healthy lines.

For more information on Bouviers and health, please visit http://www.bouvier.org/health/gent_health.html