About The Club
The West of England Labrador Retriever Club was
founded in 1966 primarily to serve the five counties of the West
Country - South Gloucestershire, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon and
Dorset although membership from all parts of the UK and abroad are
very welcome.
Advice and help is always given freely to anyone
wishing to learn more about our breed. Advice is also given with
regards to buying a puppy, breeding your bitch, and finding a
suitable stud dog. There is a list of suitable stud dogs, all of
which are hip scored and hold current eye certificates which are
available from the Secretary. There is also a good up to date puppy
register run by the club which are puppies bred by members, and are
thoroughly vetted. The club holds two Open Shows a year and one Championship show where
both members and non-members are welcome to enter. Up to
five
Field Trials (Novice and Open Stakes) are organized a year.
In addition to this a Water, Cold Game, Novice, Puppy, and
Open Working test are held once a year. Further details of
shows and trials and tests can be found on their pages.
AGM REPORT 2010:
| 6th May 2010 News -
West of England
Labrador Retriever Club AGM Report by Paul Davey
We had a very successful
meeting of the West of England Labrador Retriever
Club AGM at the Wyndham Arms at Kentisbeare near
Collumpton on Sunday.
Both the show & working
side of the club were well represented. After an
excellent lunch Patrick Ridge, a local specialist
orthopaedic veterinary surgeon, gave a fascinating &
very informative talk on common limb conditions
affecting the labrador. He started on elbow dyspasia
which he explained was actually several different
conditions but the commonest in labs was fracture
medial coronoid .There were some very good photos &
videos taken during arthroscopy to explain the
diagnosis & surgical treatment
Next he discussed
Cruciate disease and again explained that it was not
simply a rupture of the cranial ligament but
involved problems with the joint surfaces & minisci(
miniscal tears often being the most painful) .
Hip Dysplasia was next
.It is now thought that laxity of the joint results
in abnormal wear & distortion of the femoral head &
acetabulum. He told us about the Penn Hip scheme
that is based on measuring this laxity . Apparently
the BVA are interested in further assessment of the
scheme as they think it has some merit.
It is however very expensive (£400ish) but on the
other hand can be done from 16 weeks so it may have
its place in the BVA/KC scheme in due course.
He finshed with some
general advice on managing and avoiding these
conditions especially keeping weight down.He said
that working dogs should have a warm-up & warm-down
just like athletes. If a working dog shows signs of
a problem stop him immediately & rest him so as not
to exacerbate it.
There followed several
questions from the floor and more anecdotes.
Patrick has a Springer that he takes beating &
retrieving so it wasn't just a vet's view.
A very good day.
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