Why We Don't Share

I will occasionally get asked to share breed results and while all puppy owners and individuals on waitlists are given this information as needed and requested I do not and will not ever post this publicly unless somehow required by a club and to be frank, if a club chose to mandate this I would consider leaving the club and possibly leaving the breed based off the information that I will now provide for my reasoning. If you have further questions, as always, I encourage you to reach out to me and ask for info and clarification. I am always happy to discuss my choices but it seemed logical to add this statement to the page so that anyone can find it if they are curious and looking.

So on to why I do not publish breed results for my Tamaskan Dogs. There are a few critical aspects to consider before we get started. First and foremost, I am one of the Admins of the Tamaskan Dog Diversity Project, and have been since a few months after its founding. Since then I have specifically been the one working directly with Embark on behalf of the program and the breed that discusses, researches, and works with their team to determine breed composition related information, data, and development for Tamaskan Dogs. This gives me a very specific, and very highly informed level of insight into the process and the ramification of different stages of the recognition process from public relations, management, genetic, development, etc. perspectives. This position and involvement has massively affected my position on publicly sharing results at this time, so now you will find out why.

 Sadly there are multiple risks and dangers to sharing breed results. I wish this wasn't the case and that the public could be educated, responsible, and respectful but this is not the case and it has been proven time and time again in this application. The first risk is that of sharing wolf content. Results being pushed publicly do not only affect or trace to one dog. Our pedigrees are published, easy to track, and as a very open breeder in and out of the Tamaskan community the results of one dog could trace back to their sisters, cousins, parents, etc. and respectfully it is up to each person if they want results to be public. I do not think that it is ethical or fair to share my results when it could cause harm to others since there are areas where content could be banned and result in the seizure and possible death of a dog. And so while I do not currently have this issue results get updated, change, and people are busy. I also felt it was better to make a choice and act unilaterally across my program versus litter or dog by dog because that can look suspicious or cause individuals to make assumptions if a dog's results aren't published when others are.

The last point I made about results getting updated is the next challenge and feeds misinformation and hurts our education efforts. Not only could the results changing endanger a dog because of wolf content or a breed popping up correctly or incorrectly (because of how the system works). Results for our dogs will continue to change and update regularly as the Embark database builds, the algorithm grows and develops, and as Tamaskans as a breed develop. The algorithm, in simplest terms works based of the entirety of the database of dogs tested by Embark. Because of this as breeds are developed, tested, and the database grows the breed results and the sensitivity of the system will become refined. This will cause incorrect breeds to pop up, breed percentages to change, etc. Especially because many of the foundation breeds for Tamaskan dogs such as CSV, Sarloos, Norther Inuit, Alaskan Huskies, etc. are still very much having their DNA breed composition developed and refined. This is why you will see German Shepherd, etc. in shared results when we have never used those breeds to date - the breeds used aren't in the system and that is the closest it can pin. For what I hope are fairly obvious reasons I find this something that is challenging when we are trying to properly educate on the foundations, outcrossing, registration, legitimate Tamaskans v fake Tamaskans, etc.

Again, leading into the next point there is an issue with individuals and unethical breeders stating they have Tamaskan Dogs when they don't. This then causes individuals to end up with mixed breed dogs of unknown origins to assume or state that they have Tamaskans. This makes breed recognition, education, and clearing out the misinformation about our dogs looks, behavior, etc. something that we deal with every day and it is directly related to people thinking that because their dog has similar results to registered, legitimate Tamaskans that they to have a Tamaskan. Because of my work in the breed and my high involvement in the areas I am this is something I do every single day and I refuse to contribute to my own stress and the misinformation that this causes across the board. I want to help the breed build itself, be consistent, and maintain a positive reputation and this issue regularly poisons those efforts.

There are a few other less significant reasons that flit in and out of the process as things develop and change, but to be frank there has yet, in over 5 years, never been a single legitimate reason or argument made to share breed results publicly when all other information from the testing can be shared and content can be shared and confirmed as needed to those that need to have that information.

Puppy families are not the general public. Everyone on my waitlist has been vetted, applied to my program and is in the process of joining our family. I am very transparent with all of my health results and my program in general and this is a valid concern for many when wolf-content comes into play. I have specifically tailored my application to match individuals who are accepted to the right pairing and discuss this at length with those accepted. They can then be given this information with added context and education. Then they can be informed v. causing harm to the breed by propagating misinformation. Everyone also is given access to results to their assigned puppy. This all happens along with an in-depth discussion of their pedigree, all health testing results, the results of the parents, how the results of their pup match up to the mock up, their parentage verification, and other information/results like breed composition, any wolf content (if present), etc. 

I will share them publicly in only two possible scenarios. The first and hopefully only situation is that Tamaskans will one day be recognized, genetically, as a breed. This is not something that will happen soon because of how that process works. It is very complex and initiating the process early is detrimental and or can affect the data, results, etc. So one day we, as a breed will hit that point and at that time I will make all of my breed result public. The only other way I will ever make results public is if a club were to mandate it and I chose to remain in the club. I would need to think long an hard about if that was the right choice at that time, if I ethically agreed with the decision, and if I thought that the reasons I have at this time are still in line with the best interests of my dogs, my puppies, and the breed as a whole and then decide what to do at that time - no point in guessing or making suppositions.

I hope that this answers at least the basics. I do not fault anyone for making their own choices as owners, breeders, etc. to share their breed results publicly. We all have what information we do and prioritize different things. To me this information is for owners and breeders that are utilizing the dogs in their program but the public does not need nor have a right to more than our dog's registration information/conformation, health results and data, and titles (which I publish on multiple pages on my site). As always feel free to reach out and ask questions!