04/08/2025
Good morning, y'all! We've got a quick update for you regarding Fable's status as a breeding prospect before we return to a steady flow of puppy posts.
If you've been following along for some time, you know that Fable has been dealing with mild food allergies over the last year or so. Recently, we learned that two of her eight siblings are experiencing allergy symptoms as well. While this is not ideal, it is also not surprising. We understand that Fable's dam has seasonal allergies, which have been treated successfully with over-the-counter antihistamines, and that she has a recent ancestor who also had a mild food allergy. (It's worth noting that this information was not disclosed to the owner of Fable's sire prior to breeding, nor were we made aware of it before bringing Fable home.) While Fable's paternal line seems to be clear of autoimmune issues, it's reasonable to expect that some of the resulting offspring from this breeding might be impacted, and we are seeing that play out as they mature.
Although the heritability of allergies is not well understood, the reality is that these concerns do indeed appear to be somewhat prevalent in the Windsprite breed. We're looking forward to the likelihood that the new IWC Health Committee will conduct a thorough study in the not so distant future, which will help us to make more informed decisions and to understand just how frequently these issues appear in the breed. In the meantime, having done significant pedigree research into our own girls and into the breed at large, we know that numerous Windsprites in past decades have been bred despite living with allergies, resulting in some affected offspring and some perfectly healthy offspring. We cannot say exactly what the strategy was behind those breedings. What we can say is that we will always be transparent about our thought process every step of the way, with all parties involved. We're well aware that this policy may not please everyone, but we stand by it.
In a rare breed with such a small gene pool, breeders are not just responsible for their own breeding programs. We are stewards of the entire population. We need to consider the big picture as we communicate and collaborate with one another. If we set a precedent of washing dogs from breeding for mild and manageable conditions, we may further reduce genetic diversity and risk even more severe issues. With this in mind, we are in the process of drafting a detailed breeding plan that outlines the massive amounts of information that we'll be weighing before we decide what to do regarding Fable, as well as what requirements must be met in her mate and what our process would be if we moved forward, such as careful tracking and monitoring of any future offspring.
We're determined to do what we believe is best for the breed as a whole, including washing her from breeding if necessary. This new information about Fable's siblings has swung the pendulum of indecision about her fate as a breeding prospect back in the direction of "no" and there remains a strong chance that the end result is that we do not move forward with breeding her. The good news here is... Fable is doing well! Given the mild nature of her allergies, there has never been a major impact on her quality of life to begin with, and we're happy to report that we feel quite confident at this point about her allergens and what ingredients we ought to avoid! She's been entirely asymptomatic for several months and we expect that to continue for the foreseeable future.
We'll continue to keep y'all posted along the way. Thanks for reading!
