C&C Ranch

Long post, please read if you’re interested in one of our pups from Sun and West. Also for the fastest/up to date updates please follow us on Facebook. Our sweet Sun is finally in heat and after passing all her OFA testing for Australian Shepherd, we are excited to say we will breed her on this cycle. That puts puppies going home around New Years so families on our waitlist plan accordingly. All health testing, pedigree and DNA testing can be found on our website linked below-click the blue links on the website. https://www.campbellsranch.com/cc-ranch-femaledogs Sun has proven herself in work ethic on the ranch as well as a loving personality gentle enough our 4 year old helps train her and will be showing her this year in Obedience, Rally, Showmanship and Agility. Sun is old school working lines, has medium/higher drive and is very athletic. She will be paired with West who is medium drive, a silly goofball who is also athletic and loves his family. He helps work the cows on the ranch as well as shows in obedience, rally, showmanship, agility and just got a Reserve Grand Champion in Trick Dog at the last show. All health testing and pedigree can be found for West link below. https://www.campbellsranch.com/cc-ranch-studdog I believe these pups will excel in all aspects of work either in stock or sport. Both parents are food and toy motivated with a good off switch. We have a waitlist for this litter already, those on the list are always welcome to move their retainer to a future litter. Our waitlist goes off of seniority. Once first pick has chosen, we will move on to second in line and so on. Your name is added to the waitlist in order the retainer fee was received. As Breeder, we reserve the right to first pick of the litter. Please view our policies and contracts here https://www.campbellsranch.com/cc-ranch-puppypolicies Full disclosure: Sun has one copy of HC. All pups will be tested prior to going home for the gene. We follow breed required health testing and do OFA eye certifications every year. She was the first in her line to be DNA tested and we were all surprised to find one copy as it has never expressed in her pedigree, she came from a very well respected breeder who has bred working dogs for several decades and has never had anyone come back saying their dog was affected. For this reason we have chosen not to cull her lines from the breeding program but instead to selectively breed it out so these incredible lines continue. We have a health guarantee and stand behind our dogs, all homes will be made aware if their puppy has the gene or not. Here is more reading on the matter for further educate anyone that would like to. “Cataracts are the most common eye problem in the breed. Cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye, which reduces vision or even leads to complete blindness. The lens of the eye is made up of proteins and water, and structural changes to the proteins make the lens cloudy and prevent light from passing through unhindered. There are many different types of cataracts, varying in severity, age of onset, location of clouding in the eye, and cause. This cause can be, for example, trauma, old age, an underlying disease (such as diabetes) or hereditary predisposition. Hereditary juvenile cataracts occur in Australian Shepherds and often manifest themselves between 2 and 7 years of age. This is often at an age that the dog has already been bred. It was therefore really good news when a test came on the market in 2008 for an HSF4 mutation that turned out to be an important risk factor for hereditary cataracts in Aussies. On this same gene, the researchers had already discovered a mutation in which an extra nucleotide had been added (a 1 bp insertion) that was associated with cataracts in the Boston terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers. In the Aussies, however, there was no extra nucleotide, but one less (a 1 bp deletion), which disrupted the function of the poo gene. DNA tests are offered for both of these mutations, so you should always pay close attention to which breed the DNA test is for, otherwise you will be testing for a mutation that does not occur in your breed at all. The mutation is dominant with incomplete penetrance. This means that having 1 copy of the mutation is already enough to develop cataracts (=dominant), but that this does not actually happen in every dog ​​(=incomplete penetrance). This suggests that there are other unknown factors, genetic and/or non-genetic, that influence whether or not a cataract develops. The mutation present in Aussies was found in the study to increase the risk of bilateral cataracts by 17x compared to Aussies free of the mutation. In dogs with 1 copy of the mutation, the cataract usually develops quite slowly and rarely leads to complete blindness. However, there is speculation that dogs with 2 copies are more likely to have severe cataracts that worsen more quickly. The mutation on the HSF4 gene causes about 70% of all hereditary cataract cases in our breed. So there are Aussies without this mutation who still develop cataracts, and there are Aussies with this mutation who do not develop cataracts. That sometimes gives people the idea that it is not a useful test and that no real conclusions can be drawn from it. That is absolutely not true. It is a strong risk factor that explains a huge part of the hereditary cataracts in Aussies. That makes it a very important mutation and the DNA test is a wonderful tool. Because the mutation is so common in our breed - it was estimated several years ago that nearly 1 in 4 Aussies had it - it is not recommended to exclude all dogs with the mutation from breeding. However, it is strongly recommended to test all animals before breeding and to prevent producing pups with 2 copies of the mutation.” • Mellersh CS, McLaughlin B, Ahonen S, Pettitt L, Lohi H, Barnett KC. Mutation in HSF4 is associated with hereditary cataract in the Australian Shepherd. Vet Ophthalmol. 2009 Nov-Dec; 12(6):372-8. • Mellersh CS, Pettitt L, Forman OP, Vaudin M, Barnett KC. Identification of mutations in HSF4 in dogs of three different breeds with hereditary cataracts. Vet Ophthalmol. 2006 Sep-Oct; 9(5):369-78.