NEWTON, England — All dogs, it must be said, are born great. Most achieve greatness in their own way. But for some — like Shola, a 9-year-old English shepherd — greatness is thrust upon them.
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In her first act as a hero, Shola battled through mountainous terrain and dangerous weather to search for missing people in central England’s Peak District and other rural areas.
His second act began in 2019, when, at the age of 4, He was diagnosed with a hereditary and incurable form of blindness.
Her owners went to an ophthalmologist to understand more about her condition, and eventually a sample of her DNA made its way to the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Canine Genetics. Using Shola’s DNA and samples collected from other English Shepherds, researchers identified the mutation that had caused her blindness and developed a test to identify it. Their findings were published last month in the journal Genes.
“We will never have blind puppies again,” said Jackie Graves, 62, who raised Shola and whose current litter came from two dogs without the mutation.
Shola has progressive retinal atrophy, a group of diseases that affect more than 100 breeds of dogs and involve the gradual deterioration of light-sensitive cells at the back of the eyeShola’s eyes turned milky and blind. The mutation is recessive and causes a “late-onset” form of the condition – it often occurs after dogs have had puppies.
Once dogs develop the disease, “there’s nothing you can do,” said Katherine Stanbury, a researcher in Cambridge’s department of veterinary medicine and senior author on the study. Because many dog breeds are highly inbred, many individual dogs are related, raising the possibility that they may have a recessive disease.
The new test, which costs 48 pounds ($62), involves a cheek swab. It allows breeders to identify dogs that carry the mutation, Stanbury said, and “make informed decisions with their breeding and, over time, eliminate this variant.”
English Shepherds, which are related to Border Collies, are known to be agile, loyal and easy to train. They were initially bred to help farmers track and herd livestock.
Shola was raised by John Coombs, 72, who rescued several people with his dogs.
The guides and the dogs spend years of hard training together. And disappointment: not all of them are found alive.
Shola set out with a simple command: “Seek and find.” She would take off, zigzagging to chase a scent. If she located a person or an item of clothing, she would lead Coombs to the find.
Today, her nose and ears have become her guides. She happily runs for a ball if she hears it bouncing. She is also a great sniffer.
One summer afternoon, Shola danced around John Coombs in a field. Her daughter Dotty, who works as a search and rescue dog, pranced around beside her.
“Seek and find!” Coombs told Dotty after hiding a purse.
Dotty zigzagged to track her scent to a bush. When Dotty found it, Shola barked too.
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