Six Weeks Old: Microchips, DNA, and Eight Sets of Clear Eyes

Albert Collver holding a black-and-white English Springer Spaniel puppy in a veterinary exam room, with two travel crates on the floor. — Big day at the clinic. Every puppy now carries permanent ID for life — and left with a clean bill of eye health.

The Game On litter turned six weeks old this week, and we marked it with the single most important day of health work these puppies will have before they go home. In one visit, all eight puppies were microchipped, gave a DNA sample for PRA testing, and were examined nose-to-retina by a veterinary ophthalmologist. The headline we most wanted to write: all eight puppies passed their eye exam with normal eyes.

This is the part of raising a litter that never shows up in the cute videos — no wrestling, no puppy pile, no mush on anybody’s face. But for anyone bringing home a Springer, it matters more than almost anything else we do. Here is exactly what happened, and why it matters so much in this breed.

Permanent ID: eight puppies, eight microchips

First up was microchipping. Each puppy received a tiny microchip — about the size of a grain of rice — placed under the skin between the shoulder blades. It’s a quick pinch and then it’s done for life. That chip carries a unique number that a shelter, vet, or rescue can scan if a dog is ever lost, and it links your puppy back to a registry with your contact information. Collars slip and tags fall off; a microchip is permanent. Every one of our puppies goes home already chipped, with the number recorded on their paperwork so you can register it in your name on day one.

We keep a full record of every chip number matched to each puppy’s name, color, and AKC registration, so there’s never any question about which puppy is which. That same record is where the DNA and eye-exam results live too.

The DNA test: PRA-cord1 (CRD4)

Next, the veterinarian pulled a DNA sample from each puppy — a simple cheek swab and small blood draw — and sent all eight off to GenSol Diagnostics for PRA-cord1/CRD4 testing.

PRA stands for progressive retinal atrophy, a group of inherited diseases in which the light-sensing cells of the retina slowly break down. There is no treatment and no cure; a dog with the disease gradually loses vision, usually ending in blindness. The cord1 form (also written crd4/cord1, tied to the RPGRIP1 gene) is the variety that shows up in English Springer Spaniels, and it’s inherited in a simple recessive pattern. That means a puppy needs two copies of the mutation — one from each parent — to be at risk. A dog with one copy is a “carrier”: perfectly healthy itself, but able to pass the gene on.

Because it’s recessive, you cannot see it coming by looking at a dog. Two healthy-looking carriers bred together can produce affected, eventually-blind puppies. The only way to know is to test the DNA — and that’s precisely why we do it. Our results confirm each puppy’s status as Clear, Carrier, or Affected, and we hand that documentation to you at go-home. It tells you your puppy’s eyes are genetically sound for this disease, and it tells anyone considering breeding down the road exactly what they’re working with. (Results come back from the lab over the next couple of weeks, and every family’s paperwork will reflect their own puppy’s status.)

The eye exam: a specialist checks all eight

DNA testing covers the genetic risk. But genes aren’t the whole eye, so the same day, all eight puppies went to a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist for a hands-on eye exam (an OFA/CAER screening — the exam that used to be called CERF). This is a different, complementary check: the specialist dilates each puppy’s eyes and examines them under magnification for physical, structural, and developmental eye problems — the kinds of inherited conditions a DNA test can’t catch.

In Springers, that list is worth taking seriously: retinal dysplasia (folds or detachment in the retina), juvenile cataracts, distichiasis (extra eyelashes that rub the eye), persistent pupillary membranes, and other early eye faults all turn up in the breed and can affect vision or comfort for life. A puppy eye exam catches these early, before a dog is ever placed or bred.

The result we were hoping for is the one we got: the doctor examined all eight puppies and found normal eyes across the board. Clear, healthy eyes on every single puppy in the litter. Combined with the DNA test on the genetic side, that’s the complete eye-health picture — structure and genetics both checked and both clean.

Why we put a six-week-old litter through all of this

It would be easier and cheaper to skip these steps. Plenty of litters do. We don’t, because a Springer is a fifteen-year commitment, and vision is not something you get a second chance on. Progressive retinal atrophy is untreatable; retinal dysplasia and juvenile cataracts don’t fix themselves. The responsible thing — the thing that separates a health-tested, purpose-bred litter from a backyard one — is to do the testing while the puppies are still here, so that every family goes home with proof, not just a promise, that their puppy’s eyes are sound. It’s also how we protect the breed itself: knowing each puppy’s carrier status keeps these problems from being passed quietly down the generations.

This is the same standard we hold BlazE and Etta to as parents, and now it belongs to their puppies too.

And, of course — the scale

Game On Litter Day 42 weight standings — all eight puppies ranked by six-week weight, with seven-day gain and multiple of birth weight. — Day 42 standings — Tracker takes the lead, Wildcard tops the field at 9.67× birth weight, and all eight are now past 7×.

Health-testing day didn’t slow anybody’s appetite. At the week-six weigh-in the litter totals about 27.2 kilograms — roughly 60 pounds of English Springer Spaniel — after another +5.65 kg (12.5 lb) put on this week. A few standings notes:

A new leader: Tracker takes the top spot at 3,825 g (8 lb 7 oz), moving up from #2 and overtaking Purdey after her five-week reign.
Purdey is right behind at 3,760 g (8 lb 5 oz) — still the biggest girl in the litter.
Wildcard, born the smallest puppy at 360 grams, once again tops the whole field in relative growth at 9.67× her birth weight. The comeback story of the litter refuses to end.
All eight puppies are now past 7× their birth weight, and the litter is thriving in lockstep — no puppy lagging the curve.

The eight six-week-old English Springer Spaniel puppies crowded around a food bowl in their outdoor grass pen. — Eight strong appetites, one bowl. Weaning is well underway and the pan empties fast.

The hardest worker in the room

Etta, the black-and-white English Springer Spaniel dam, resting on a raised cot beside her six-week-old puppies in the pen. — Six weeks in. She grew them, she fed them, and now she’s raising a healthy, tested, clear-eyed pack.

Etta spent this week doing what she’s done from day one — feeding, cleaning, and keeping the peace over an increasingly rowdy pack — while we handled the paperwork side of good health. Between her genetics, her mothering, and a very thorough day at the clinic, these eight puppies are as sound a start as we know how to give them.

Six weeks old, permanently ID’d, DNA-tested, and eight sets of clear, normal eyes. That’s a very good week.

As always: when you collect your puppy later this month, thank Etta first.

— Albert & Terra

Nine-panel collage of all eight Game On litter English Springer Spaniel puppies at six weeks old, each on a colored background matching their collar, with a Game On Litter title panel in the center. — The Game On litter at six weeks — BlazE × Etta. Purdey, Diver, Domino, Trap, Tracker, Hunter, Wildcard, and Skeet.

Three Doves Performance Dogs — AKC Breeder of Merit, English Springer Spaniel
www.three-doves.com · info@three-doves.com · 636-751-3971

Three-Doves