...never more!!! This has been keeping in my mind recently. At the beginning I thought that I would not deal with this in public but circumstances and behaviour of the breeding station The Chineese Wall forced me to do it. I want to share my experience about the import of a dog from abroad and especially about the problems which can follow.

How did everything start. At the time when Arky was a year old I wanted to buy him a friend. I had been choosing a dog for half a year. Firstly, I chose a dog in the USA, but according to an inadequately high prize I gave it up. Finally I brought him from Netherlands. The breeder knew since the beginning that I wanted Mahjong for breeding and I was looking forward to going to exhibitions with him and bringing “a new and healthy blood “. I took care of him as much as I could. When he was 4 months we went to the first exhibition in Mladá Boleslav. He was awarded there as promising. No one would think, that it was his first but last exhibition. After a few weeks we found out ,that his lower jaw is not growing and he has an overlap. We immediately visited a wet doctor Mr. Herčík in Prague and then doctor Tomáš Fichtl in Brno. I was told that it was a genetic indisposition. I also contacted the breeding station The Chinese Wall. I wanted to know if any of Mahjong´s siblings or any other puppy had any troubles with their lower jaws. Her answer was obviously:”NO”! If it is truth or not I will never find out. The breeder told me, that it was too early and that Mahjong´s jaw would grow within a year and his teeth would be fine. She advised me to have braces or bits for Mahjong. It would mean a surgery and I would not admit that according to the painfulness.

All the time I hoped that the time will fix everything. Unfortunately his overlap was getting bigger and bigger and his lower canine teeth grew to his palate. From doctor Fichtl I had known that this defect is impossible to fix by a surgery because of a big overlap, which means that Mahjong will have big problems both with his canine teeth that will have to be shortened and his palate that will fall over the lower jaw and he will have troubles with eating.

This week I sent the medical report about Mahjong diagnosis to the breeder. I asked her for a financial settlement because Mahjong is not suitable for breeding. I received an E-mail with this information: “......we did not buy Mahjong for breeding”. Mrs. probably wanted to say that we went to Netherlands so that we would have a dog to sleep with us in bed. She also reminded me, that we had to give him the mentioned braces and bits – which probably would be enough for breeding in Netherlands, but not in the Czech Republic. She refused any financial supplement. Money is not my priority, this is about the principles and her attitude towards the problem. Just for fun, she offered me a puppy from Nantoun I´m Walnut for 900 Euro. It seems that we do not have enough of them in the Czech Republic.

I know that it is common not to breed with genetically defected dogs. Mrs. Breeder probably thinks that after the lower jaw surgery Mahjong could be a perfect dog without genetic indisposition. I would never let breed with genetically defected dog.

My advice to everyone is: “If you want to bring a dog from abroad and you do not have information about the breeding farm never buy any dog younger than 4-5 months, who has not changed his teeth. You might pay more but you will be sure, that the dog is all right and suitable for breeding. Now I understand why in some countries dogs are sold for much higher prize and have gone through several exhibitions.

Jitka