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Since the first day that this breed landed on US soil, there has
been a variety of information circulating. Some of it is
factual, and some of it is not. Here, we will try to sort out
some of the points that may lead some people to be confused and
mislead about this wonderful breed we call the Biewer or “Biewer
a la Pom Pon”. This breed has been renamed by some as the
Biewer Terrier.
Are the Biewers AKC accepted?
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No, the AKC has yet to accept the Biewer, as a breed that they
recognize. (This also applies to Biewer a la Pom Pon, or "Biewer
Terrier"). The following is a list of the FSS recognized
breeds.
http://www.akc.org/breeds/fss_breeds.cfm
In order to be
AKC recognized a breed has to be first admitted into the FSS
department, to be evaluated over a number of years. It has been
circulated by some that AKC acceptance is "just down the road".
The truth is it will be YEARS before the Biewer breed has shown
its stability enough for the AKC to support full acceptance. If
you have any questions about what is happening please contact
the AKC, they will always be able to help.
http://www.akc.org/breeds/fss_breeds.cfm
Which German
Registries are accepted by AKC
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One of the many questions asked of us is what German registries
that register the Biewer are accepted by the AKC? In fact, the
answer is none. The following link is a list of the ONLY
registries that AKC accepts. There isn’t one on this list that
registers the Biewer.
http://www.akc.org/rules/special_registry_services.cfm.
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The rumor that the AKC does not accept a specific German
Registry, the IBC, is in itself true. At the same time, it does
not accept ANY other registry from Germany or anywhere
else for that matter that registers the Biewer. This may change
in the future, we shall see!
Misconceptions about various Registries
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There are numerous registries throughout Germany, the USA and
Canada that register the Biewer. Each and every one of them
uses guidelines that they have developed to their own
specifications. There are rumors that some of the German
registries are not well accepted here in the USA. Some of the
American Registries have chosen not to accept any American born
Biewer that holds a German Registry. The only registry that the
BBCA can guarantee is the BBIR, Biewer Breed International
Registry, as they still do accept the German Registries in order
not to close their studbooks on various lines that are still
being imported from Germany.
UCI/NAKC vs. UCI e.V./IABCA
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For those interested in showing, there has been confusion
concerning what show venues are supportive of this breed and its
standard. There are two distinct splits among the main show
venues for this breed. One thing to remember is that the
initials, UCI are widely used in Germany and they are all
NOT the same club.
The first USA/Canada show
venue is the NAKC which is going by the United Kennel Clubs
International standard.
http://www.raritiesinc.ca/
http://www.u-c-i.de/index.shtml
This was the original
standard that the breed was shown under when it first was shown
in 2004 and is still being used today.
The standard
NAKC Rarities uses is Translated from the UCI Standard of
Germany.
The BBCA is proud to be a
member of the United Kennel Club International for the past 3
years and the only Biewer club to hold this honor.
The second USA/Canada show
venue is the IABCA.
http://www.iabca.com . The IABCA has changed their show
standard to reflect a different “type” of Biewer, the Biewer
Terrier. They are using a new standard that has been approved
in the past few months by the United Cynologie International,
e.V.,
http://www.uci-ev.de/ This standard differs from the
original standard of the Breed on various aspects.
Neither one of these UCI’s
holds any more importance or superiority over another although,
one is definitely more global and well known and that is the
United Kennel Clubs International.
Biewer or Biewer a
la Pom-Pon vs. Biewer Terrier?
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The big question, and one that confuses many people is this…
“Are all of the different names for the Biewer considered the
same breed?” The answer to this is YES. The “Biewer” and
“Biewer a la Pom-Pon” have been used interchangeably.
It is said that dropping the word Yorkshire from the name Biewer
Yorkshire a la Pom Pon is necessary to obtain AKC/FSS status.
The BBCA, BBCC and BBSA board members believe in our Breed Order
and Code of Ethics in only allowing pure Biewer to Biewer
breeding, so it was agreed upon to drop the Yorkshire name as to
not cause confusion regarding the Breed in relation to the
Yorkshire Terrier. We have treated the Biewer Breed as its OWN
breed since the club’s inception.
The “Biewer Terrier” is a new addition into the "name" pool.
Those that have chosen to call their dogs by this name have
claimed that they are different. In what aspects we ask? We
are not sure! They are derived from the same gene pool as the
Biewer a la Pom-Pon and all have been breed from the same dogs
that had been imported from Germany years ago. If they have
added different breeds into the Biewer Terrier lines, that
remains to be seen.
The Reasoning behind this is…
The AKC only considers
adding new breeds to the FSS® or its registry upon request. The
breed must be recognized by an acceptable
foreign or domestic registry.
The FSS® is not open to "rare" breeds that are a variation of an
AKC-registered breed or the result of a combination of two
AKC-recognized breeds. This includes and is not limited to
differences such as size (over and under), coat type, coat
colors, and disqualifications of coat colors and/or types that
are from Conformation Events by AKC breed standards.
In order to be admitted
into the FSS the Biewer would have to be proven that it was a
mixed breed not a piebald gene occurrence as stated by Mr.
Biewer. How
the piebald gene got entered into the pool of genetic makeup up
the Biewer remains a mystery. The original dogs imported to the
Biewers (which produced the first tri colored offspring) came
from the Streamglen Kennel in England. If any other breeds were
in the genetic makeup of the dog it is unknown as DNA was not
readily available or often used in Germany in 1989.
Since Mr. Biewer’s
Biewer breed originated from the Yorkshire Terrier it would
never be allowed in the AKC under these circumstances.
One particular club is making the claim that the breed they
refer to as “Biewer Terrier" is of mixed breed heritage... as
per the testing they have obtained through the MARS Corp. The
testing being used at MARS Corp. is for mixed breed heritage
testing and is not recommended for purebred dogs.
The following are statements regarding Mars Testing that were
obtained from the
Mar’s website. Here is a link to that page as well…
http://www.wisdompanel.com/faq.html
Can you determine breed purity?
Wisdom Panel™ Insights test analyzes over 300 genetic markers
to determine the ancestral breed composition of a mixed-breed
dog. Within this panel, there are almost no markers which are
absolutely specific to one breed. Each breed will have a
combination of markers within the panel that represent the
breed. Within a mixed-breed dog, depending on the heritage of
the breeds, not all of those markers may be passed down through
the generations to appear in the genetic make-up of the dog that
is tested. For example, on average, you would only expect 25% of
the breed markers from a Grandparent to be passed down to the
current dog. Thus, the way the test works is to use a best-fit
model that is selected on the basis of the highest probability
for each breed depending upon the analysis of markers that are
found in the current dog. The final report is generated
depending on the highest probability breeds found with a lower
limit cut-off to ensure that the false positive reports are
reduced to a minimum.
The relationship between the markers and breeds is unfortunately
proprietary information as it forms the basis of the test and is
therefore not publicized. Where pure breed dogs are concerned,
most often the report generated by the test will simply indicate
the pure strain of the breed in question as no other markers
will be found at a high enough confidence level to generate a
result. However, although our sample base covers 170+ breeds and
comprises more than 8,700 samples in total, there are several
cases in which pure breed dogs may not be detected as purebred
by Wisdom Panel Insights test.
First, if the dog in question is not or was not bred within the
continental US, even if it is an example of an AKC recognized
breed, then we may not pick up the breed signature as the
distinctive markers that identify the breed may vary greatly in
foreign lines. Secondly, if there has been a very isolated
breeding line for the pure breed, then we may not have enough
coverage of that breed's gene pool to identify the dog as
purebred. For these reasons, we do not advertise or recommend
the use of Wisdom Panel Insights as a test for confirming the
purity of a purebred dog. This is due to the fact that Wisdom
Panel Insights is designed to find multiple breeds in an
analysis, under the assumption that the dog it is testing has
more than one breed in its mix. A test to determine breed purity
would need to be designed for that purpose and its accuracy
validated.
Do you identify UKC breeds with
the Wisdom Panel™ Insights test?
In the development of Wisdom Panel Insights, we have genotyped
more than 13,000 dogs. There are more than 8,700 purebred dogs
in our database that our computer algorithm uses to detect
breeds in a tested dog's genetic background. Most of these dogs
were registered with either the American Kennel Club (AKC) or UK
Kennel Club (UKC).
Wisdom Panel Insights test is not intended to determine whether
a dog is a purebred member of a breed, and because of this, the
computer algorithm we use is optimized to search for
combinations of breeds present in a mixed-breed dog. This may
result in minor inaccuracies if the test is used to determine
the purebred nature of a dog, and we do not recommend the use of
the test for this purpose.
Will Wisdom Panel™ Insights
mixed-breed analysis test for purebred dogs?
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No. Mars Veterinary’s current focus is the development of a
state-of-the-art mixed-breed genetic identification test for
dogs. Mars Veterinary has completed over 19 million genetic
marker analyses and has typed over 13,000 dogs from the American
Kennel Club (AKC) registered purebred dogs as well as
mixed-breed dogs. This process gave Mars Veterinary the ability
to distinguish between a purebred and a mixed-breed dog as well
as the capability of identifying breeds present within a
mixed-breed dog.
However, in order to identify a dog as an official or registered
purebred, the DNA collection, analysis and development of the
test would be much different. A purebred is defined as a canine
that is bred from members of a specific or registered breed over
many generations. Validation of purebreds and what constitutes a
purebred is a job for kennel clubs such as the American Kennel
Club (AKC).
Biewers imported to the USA are a FOREIGN breed and by the MARS
Corp. own admission their results are NOT to be considered
accurate in reference to foreign bloodlines.
If the dog in question is not or was not bred within the
continental US from dogs of US origin and influence, even if it
is an example of an AKC recognized breed, then we may not pick
up the breed signature as the distinctive markers that identify
the breed may vary greatly in foreign lines.
Secondly, if there has been a very isolated breeding line for
the pure breed, then we may not have enough coverage of that
breed's gene pool to identify the dog as purebred. We
know that the Biewers were very heavily linebred.
For these reasons, we do not advertise or recommend the use of
Wisdom Panel Insights as a test for confirming the purity of a
purebred dog. This is due to the fact that Wisdom Panel Insights
is designed to find multiple breeds in an analysis, under the
assumption that the dog being tested has more than one breed in
its genetic makeup. A test to determine breed purity would need
to be designed for that purpose and its accuracy validated.
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The only constant in all of this is that the Biewer Breed Club
of America has ONLY bred Biewer to Biewer since the clubs
inception and will do nothing less in the future. Some clubs
have since chosen to follow OUR lead regarding this type of
breeding.
Biewer Parent Club
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Contrary to many posted references to a Parent Club for the
Biewer, there is NOT an AKC National Biewer Club at this time,
as they are not AKC accepted. There are several clubs with
different views on the future of the breed. It is a national
breed club's responsibility to preserve, protect and promote the
breed and this responsibility should not be taken lightly. The
parent club must educate the public and breeders about the
Biewer as a breed on its own merit with research studies and
seminars. It must be dedicated to preserving the gene pool and
furthering the development of the Biewer through strict
guidelines for its breeders and promotion by hosting
conformation events, agility & obedience trials and pet
therapy. If and when the Biewer breed does get accepted into
AKC at that time the AKC will pick a club that fulfills all the
necessary requirements to be its parent club and not before.
DNA
Misconceptions
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The DNA testing profile of a dog is seeing their "genetic
makeup" much like a human. Each dog has its own set of alleles
which are unique to them alone. Currently, many
different breeds of dogs are able to be determined by testing of
their DNA for breed specific illnesses and even certain breed
identification. This type of mapping is only available to
breeds that have a genetic bank to compare against. These
breeds are mainly the accepted purebred dogs that we are
accustomed to seeing.
There are many that claim that a Biewer can be proven to be
purebred by just this type of DNA testing. So far, there is no
breed specific illness or breed identification that have been
traced and followed to be eligible for this type of testing for
our breed. The DNA data profile for the Biewer has still not
been identified as it takes many years and dogs to complete a
profile such as this.
So, when you hear that a Biewer can be identified to be
purebred by DNA alone, this is very misleading and totally
incorrect. You can check parentage of a puppy by comparing
their DNA to their parents and therefore a claim can be made
that this dog is "purebred" if the DNA of the parents match up
to the puppy. This is called DNA Parentage Profiling. The
BBCA, in conjunction with the BBIR,
Biewer Breed International Registry, is working with MMI Genomics
http://www.mmigenomics.com/products2.html to build a DNA
profile database for the Biewer as each pair of breeding dogs is
required to be tested before breeding and their litter
registration occurs.
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