Dalmatian Information

 All Show & Pet quality puppies are Health guaranteed and receive:
Dew Claws removed
(BAER) hearing test
Puppy temperament testing
Puppy worming and shots started
Socialization and Exposure to different environments

Dalmatians are a high energy breed of working dog, with high intelligence and natural athletic ability which combine with its natural instinct to protect and serve its family.  They tend to be discerning and reserved with strangers.  Highly socialized and well brought up Dals are less reserved to the point of being outgoing, but even with early and consistent socialization, they are highly protective of their people.  Consistant and clear directions will help maintain the congenial character of your spotted friend.  Despite the need for consistent exercise, this breed is best kept as an inside dog attending to his family.  They love to run and families that can provide a large yard or other safe arena for running and play will keep their Dal happier and healthier.

As with all purebred dogs, Dalmatians have some health issues that have been identified.  One is a problem with deafness (all or none) in one or both ears.  This can be identified through a neurological test given by a veterinarian referred to as BAER testing.  All Dracorn Dalmatians are BAER bilaterally normal for hearing.  Puppies are tested at six weeks and this information is made available to prospective buyers.  Another issue is urate stone formation.  Dracorn Dalmatians will not breed any dog that has a history of urate stone formation.  For more information on these issues, read the information at the bottom of the page or go to the Dalmatian Club of America website.

The Dalmatian typically stands up to 19-24 inches  at the withers. The range of height varies according to genetics and gender.  They weigh between 40-70 pounds. It is easy to overfeed a Dal as they always appear to be hungry and are good at convincing the kibble-keeper that the hunger pangs are terrible. Dalmatians shed year-round. Frequent vacuuming, proper diet and grooming will assist in keeping the hair population down.

Dalmatians can be territorial but we do not recommend training as protection or guard dogs. They can be good with children that are respectful and dog-friendly. High pitched screaming and running can create excitement and/or upsettedness in the Dalmatian. Tail and ear pulling should not be permitted. Common sense that lends itself to respect will tend to result in a win win situation.

Deafness:

Deafness is NOT uncommon in Dalmatians. It has been estimated that from 10% to 12% of the breed is deaf. Recent discoveries in the genetics of deafness have made it possible to reduce the incidence of deafness, with the possibility of virtually eliminating it in the future.

BAER stands for Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response. This is the electrical response of the patient's brain to a series of clicks passed into each ear in turn through a headphone.  Tiny, fine acupuncture-like needle electrodes that are slipped under the skin on the dog's scalp pick up the electrical activity of the brain in response to the click. This is shown as a recognizable pattern on a small TV-type screen.  A printout of this pattern is then sent to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, Inc (OFA) where the pattern is read by an OFA veterinarian and the dog is then certified normal or deaf.  Both ears must hear normally for the dog to be certified normal in hearing.  However, a dog that hears in only one ear will make a fine pet and the owner will not easily determine which is the hearing ear.  By only breeding dogs that hear normally, Dalmatian Breeders hope to eradicate deafness in the breed.

Uric Acid in the Dalmatian:

When some humans ingest foods high in purines, they develop gout or kidney stones. When some Dalmatians ingest those foods, they develop urinary stones and in particular those known as "purine" or "urate" stones. Dog foods containing high amounts of meat, beef and meat- or beef-"by-products" should be carefully evaluated as they may create abnormally acidic urine.  Of all stone-forming Dalmatians, the vast majority form urate stones but a few may form other types. Treatment can be the exact opposite for each type of stone so your veterinarian will want to first obtain an accurate assay in order to prescribe the most effective treatment.

Innumerable stone-forming dogs, Dalmatians included, live out their lives happily and uneventfully without any sign that they are stone-formers. Other Dalmatians, also never showing any symptoms, may not be stone-formers at all.  Most dogs who exhibit symptoms of stone-forming can be easily and successfully treated. Veterinary knowledge of canine urinary stones and their non-surgical treatment has expanded rapidly within recent years.  The best preventatives for stone-forming in Dalmatians are those of diet and water intake. Paralleling the splendid advances in veterinary knowledge, commercial availability of many special dog foods for this problem has also evolved. Most of these are readily available at local pet stores, others by prescription. After being weaned from the puppy diet, maturing and adult Dalmatians (stone-formers or not) can be fed now from a choice of non-beef, non-meat dog foods (such as vegetable-and-rice or turkey-and-barley) and go their entire lives without the onset of urinary stones. In others, stones already formed can be non-surgically and successfully dissolved with certain medications and prescription anti-stone-forming dog food from the veterinarian. 

The amount of dietary protein may contribute to the problem but, more importantly, the type of protein can be more damaging. For many Dalmatians, it is diets containing high amounts of purine- yielding foods that should be avoided. Certain foods such as liver and other organ meats are very high as purine-yielders, other foods like eggs and most vegetables and fruit are acceptably low as purine-yielders. 

Urate stones are composed of one or several of three types of purines: 1) ammonium acid urate, 2) uric acid or 3) sodium urate. Over 90 percent of stone-forming Dalmatians produce ammonium acid urate, a purine stone very responsive to simple non-surgical treatment with a conscientious program of anti-urate medication and anti-urate diet.  It all starts with a biochemical called a “purine.”  There are three types of purines:

• Oxypurines (like “xanthine,” “hypoxanthine,” uric acid, and “allantoin” – words with which the Dalmatian owner should become very familiar.)
• Aminopurines (like adenine and guanine that make up DNA.)
• Methylpurines (like caffeine and theophylline, which are drugs)

We eat purines when we eat meat and drink them when we drink coffee and our livers convert them ultimately into something called “allantoin” which is readily soluble in water and easy for us to unload in that waste/water mixture known as urine.  Purines convert to Hypoxanthine which converts to Xanthine which converts to Uric Acid which coverts to Allantoin.

This system works for all just about all mammals except for Dalmatians. Dalmatians are different.  Dalmatians just cannot seem to convert uric acid to allantoin; the process described above never gets past the uric acid stage. Dalmatian liver cells simply cannot absorb uric acid which is where the conversion to allantoin ought to take place. Dalmatians must excrete uric acid in their urine and the problem is that the stuff just is not that water soluble. Being unable to convert uric acid to allantoin is the main predisposing factor to uric acid stone formation and accounts for why 80% of uric acid bladder stones come from Dalmatians.

Only some Dalmatians form stones and we do not know what makes one Dalmatian a stone former and another one clinically normal. There are genetic factors, dietary factors, and unknown factors.  We know that male Dalmatians are reported as stone formers more often than female Dalmatians but this may be a reflection of the fact that only male dogs have the added stone complication of urethral obstruction, a problem female dogs rarely have to worry about (thus male dogs may be seeing the vet for their stones more than female dogs do).  Stone forming Dalmatians seem to be excreting more uric acid than their non-stone forming counterparts. The average age at which a Dalmatian first is found to have stones is 4.5 years. The risk of stone formation declines as the dog ages.

When normal urine flow is obstructed by a stone, the male dog will visibly strain to urinate. No urine will pass or only a few drops. The dog will attempt to urinate repetitively with little or no result.  If this happens, run; do not walk, to your veterinarian as obstructed dogs can die of a ruptured bladder.  Before agreeing to any surgical intervention, please call me!  There are other options available.

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