Pedigree pup....or not?

[amichell]

I'm in a bit of a dilemma and hoping for some advice.

I bought Lucie at 3.5 months from what I thought was a good breeder. She is (French equivalent) Kennel Club registered and states that all her dogs are tested clear for APR and FN. I paid top price for Lucie (Dad was a show champion) and I was led to believe that once she was 12 months old, I could put her in front of a judge for her pedigree confirmation. The breeder has forwarded Lucie's birth certificate, which all looks in order and I have her ownership papers.

Lucie was fine until a couple of months ago when she started having problems with her eyes. She was diagnosed with Entropion and had to have an operation to correct her eyelids; I believe that she now can't be confirmed pedigree because of this.
Entropion hasn't been confirmed as a hereditary condition and I had no reason to think that the breeder would deliberately breed from a dog with the condition, so I just put it down to bad luck. But I did email the breeder at this point as I realised I still hadn't received copies of Lucie's parents certificates for the APR and FN tests as she'd promised.

Then last week I had to pop back to the vet and I was really shocked when he told me that Lucie would have failed her confirmation anyway due to her colouring.
Can anyone tell me if this is true? (I posted some pictures of her in the puppy section.) The vet mentioned her white tail, would this be classed as a fail? She also has a white patch on her head.

Then tonight I went back through all Lucie's paperwork and on her sale papers under the heading ‘conditions particular’, I found the words ‘for company’.
I'd never noticed this before. Is this normal? Would a breeder write this for any other reason, other than she knew Lucie could not be confirmed pedigree?
 
I'm really starting to wonder if the breeder saw me coming. I still haven't received the APR and FN papers. She emailed back a polite message to my request and said she'd pop them in the post but that was a month ago. Now after hearing the vets comments and finding the words ‘for company’ on her paperwork I'm really starting to wonder if the breeder knew she couldn't be confirmed. It would make more sense to why Lucie was still unsold at 3.5 months than the reason she gave me.

I'm not sure where to go from here, I feel a bit foolish as I probably should have checked all this earlier. I guess I should write to the breeder to inform her of the Entropion, but I wanted to get my facts straight first to know what else to put in the letter.
Can anyone answer my questions or offer any advice please?

Apologies for the long post!

[Jane S]

I don't know the ins and outs of the French system for registering puppies/confirming pedigrees but can categorically say there is absolutely nothing  wrong with Lucie's colour or markings - she is a dark blue roan and nothing about her colouring goes against the breed standard at all (the FCI standard used in Europe is the same as the UK breed standard). White markings on the tail and on the head are really nothing out of the ordinary for a blue roan. I've no idea why your vet would have told you otherwise but have yet to find a vet who is an expert on breed colours and markings so I'm perhaps thinking he was referring to her undocked tail (I know docking is still very much the norm in France)? But even so, I can't think why having an undocked tail would prevent you getting a confirmed pedigree?

As far as entropion is concerned, it is generally acknowledged to be a hereditary condition but it wouldn't prevent a dog being registered in the UK - the situation is obviously different in France but I don't know enough about the system to advise, sorry. It's a shame your breeder hasn't sent you the health test results you asked for yet. Are you able to look up Lucie's parents on an online database like we can in the UK? I think we take it for granted here that we can now check up on the health status of every KC registered dog but I know not all countries have this facility yet.

[amichell]

Thank you Jane, that's a big relief. I'm so new to all this I could of easily missed something so obvious. I was sure the vet was referring to her tail colour but some things do get lost in translation.
 
I think a docked tail is okay for the moment but I believe it's soon to be banned in France (except for specific hunt breeds) so show cockers breeders are starting to phase it out. It was about 50/50 when I was looking at breeders.

Maybe I'm wrong about the Entropion, the vet told me that too! But I did read that ‘in principle, Entropion is a point of non-confirmation’ in France, so I guess it depends on the case and the judge. I just presumed it was the same in the UK.

I think I should just ignore the vet, he's making me paranoid. The breeder was a little pushy about me taking Lucie rather than an 8 week old pup and I started to worry it was for other reasons than the obvious. I'll probably find the papers in the letterbox tomorrow!
I found Lucie's parents tests listed, it's not an official database but it's a bit complicated as her father is German.

I don't wish for her to have a litter so the Entropion being hereditary isn't an issue.

Thanks for your help 

[Jane S]

Try not to worry - Lucie looks a lovely typical Cocker pup to me and as you don't intend to breed, her entropion is a non-issue (although I would let the breeder know for her records if nothing else). Reading your post again, I don't think it's unusual for a breeder to state a pup is for a pet or companion only (I think that might be meant by "for company"?) - this is something I usually include on our contracts when we sell a puppy so that the new owner is clear that we are not selling a pup for breeding etc

I've had a little read up about "confirmation" of a pedigree in France and looks like it can be quite a lottery sometimes- someone posted that her English bred Labrador was refused confirmation as there were already plenty of Labs in France

[amichell]

Ha, that sounds like the French!

Thank you, I'm not so worried now. Sometimes the French see the English coming and being so naive about cockers and breeding, I was starting to think the breeder had maybe pulled a fast one on me! It wouldn't change anything for Lucie now anyway, she may not be confirmable but she's perfect in every other way!

I'll let the breeder know about the Entropion. I see on her website she has just had another litter with Lucie's Dad as the sire.