Yeah some breed clubs can pretend all they want that they care about the health and temperament of their breed and whatever. But then they go and ban an amazing breeder who is breeding exceptionally healthy, conformationally correct, good tempered, competitive dogs in a breed that has major health and temperament issues. Not only that, the breeder is very active in the community, and doing a lot to promote to breed and prove her dogs in various sports on top of their confo championships..
And why do they ban her for life? Because she dared to breed a bitch with the wrong kind of spot. Doesn't affect the dogs in any way. Oh except that there is a very good chance these "wrong spots" actually decrease the chance of a major health issue that's inescapable in the breed. But how fucking dare she breed a beautiful dog with all her health clearances and exceptional movement and temperament ... but that wrong spot! Oh no!
Okay Dalmatian Club of Canada. If it's worth banning an amazing breeder for life over one "bad spot" then I think maybe your whole club can be flushed down the toilet. Same as all these other breed clubs that claim they want to preserve and better their breeds, but actually do nothing to improve or actively work against the health of the breed. They just want to keep the status quo. And then wonder why all the dogs are sick and bad tempered ...
Just if anyone is wondering how a patch/"wrong spot" can decrease the risk of a major health issue, it's that deafness is more common in patchless dogs than those with patches. Deafness is also genetic to some extent, with deaf parents more likely to have deaf puppies (but a deaf puppy can be born from hearing parents and vice versa. Yes, this includes dogs that are only deaf in one ear having completely deaf puppies).
As far as I know the exact mechanism linking patches to reduced deafness, and how this impacts the heredity of deafness, is not completely known. However, in layman terms, the mechanics behind why Dalmatians (and other dog breeds that are mostly or completely white) have high frequencies of deafness is that the pigment producing cells are also used in the development of the inner ear, and when they are not present the inner ear does not develop properly which causes deafness. A dog with patches theoretically has more pigment producing cells than a dog without patches, and this is thought to be part of the reason why dogs with patches have a lower likelihood of being deaf. However there is no genetic research directly linking the two traits (that has been published when I last studied this), and patches don't completely prevent deafness. Just ask the Australian Cattle Dog which usually has patches but still has higher rates of deafness compared to other dog breeds.
Deafness is linked to blue eyes for the same reasons, though blue eyes show a lack of pigmentation, so it is considered that blue eyed animals have a higher frequency of deafness. The lack of pigmentation causing deafness is a trait common in many animals, thus why people think white animals, or even animals with white faces, are often deaf, like in cats and horses. Even white alpacas have higher rates of deafness!
