At Happy Tails Mini Goldens, all of our parents dogs are OFA tested to ensure that they have been cleared for every possible disease for their breed. This includes hips, elbows, eyes, cardiac, thyroid, patella, etc. all with AT LEASE a "good" rating, and a minimum of "fair" on hips and elbows. We test our parents twice: once when they're 12 months old (preliminary testing) which helps us know if they're suitable for breeding in the first place, and once at 24 months old, which gives us a better idea of where they sit on the scale of "alright" to "amazing" once their joints and bones have settled in to their fully adult body. If our parent dogs don't match these standards, then we can unfortunately no longer breed them and won't produce any pups through them. Our goal is to create healthy puppies, and we do that first be ensuring that all of their parents are OFA tested and cleared.
When choosing each and every one of our potential puppy parents, we test them at two weeks old with a genetics test that will tell us each amazing thing about each dog, including what genetic diseases they are at risk of, cleared of, or carriers of. With our parents, we ensure that every single one of them only has 1 copy of any possible diseases, and if they carry that copy, we never breed them to another carriers of that genetic disease. Puppies who only have one copy from one parent are completely unaffected and risk-free throughout their life, so we strive to ensure that they will never inherit more than that from one of our parents. Outside of being carriers for one genetic variant, our dogs will be completely clear of every genetic disease related to their breed (and all diseases that Embark tests for) to ensure each pup will inherit no shortcoming from their mom or their dad.
We use PawTree Kibble with our dogs and have found that it is the best fit for what we wish for their lives and their health! PawTree contains a wide variety of freeze dried food (which avoids the harsh chemicals kibble usually gets from oven baking), has NO fillers (which means it is 100% pure, raw ingrediants) and carries no wheat, which can be harmful to dogs in the long run. Each recipe with this PawTree kibble is 100% meat or veggies, and occasionally some type of grain (eg, oatmeal), so it is very nutritionally and calorie-dense. It also includes a wide variety of vitamins and additives which helps with their coat, joints, heart, teeth, bones, brain, digestive health, and liver. We have found that when using these supplements with our dogs, it helps them be sharper, move easier for YEARS longer, pass all of their health testing easier, and can even reduce shedding and coat texture. There's SO much happening on the inside that we can't see as well, but all of our dogs have never needed any trips to the vet outside of usual checkups, and ours says they're some of the healthiest he's ever seen!