Dear Viamonte Podengos owners,

Althought the Podengo Pequeno has allways been recognised as a realtively healthy breed compared with other breeds it does not mean it is completely free of any health issues.
It is nowadays accepted the breed can suffer from any regular disease found in other small breeds. However the small ammount of cases reported make us believe our Podengos are still one of the most healthy breeds but a close atention must be paid if we want to keep it this way.
My 17 years of experience as a Podengo Pequeno breeder makes me subscribe the idea of a "relatively healthy breed" yet a few cases of reported health issues makes me also be alert for the health of our breed in the futur.
Before Podengo I had Dobermanns and Rottweilers so I know there simply aren´t breeds totaly exempt of health issues, the idea of a breed with no issues is just completely faulse and a fraud.
Now back to our Podengo Pequenos which should be our main focus. 
The main reports I´ve had in these years considering health issues has been of Legg-Calve-Perthes disease and Luxating Patellas, more of the first than of the second. These two are in my opinion the main problems we are able to find in the Portuguese Podengo Pequeno population worlwide so far.
I also have had reports of a few cases of:: Epilepsy, Degenerative Myelopathy and  Progressive Retinal Atrophy.
I´m sure more issues will arise in the future but I think these are already more than enough to make us be alert and do something to prevent it in the futur as for the best of our posibilities.

We just recently have concluded the internationalization process for the Podengo Pequeno and more and more there is no reason for the breed to be included in the rare breeds lists anymore. Today we can find it in almost every european countries ( FCI ), in the United States ( AKC ), in England ( KC ) and even in Australia ( ANKC ). Viamonte Podengos itself live now in nineteen diferent countries worlwide. There are inumerous breed clubs across the world as well as breeders and almost daily a new litter is born making the Podengo Pequeno population increase in numbers every day.
It is my belief and understanding breeders and breed clubs have a crucial role to play in the health of our breed and keep it as healthy as posible.

Because every single dog counts I´d like to extend an invitation to ALL those who own a Podengo Pequeno to participate in the effort of keeping our breed at least as healthy as we know it today. To achieve that we will need the help of every one: Breeders, Exhibitors and Owners ( both pet and show ).
Pet owners are also as important because they are a significant part of the population and the results of their dogs health tests will help all of us to understand better what lies ahead.
Everyone has the responsability and the duty to contribute for the betterment of our breed health.

Similar to other breeds clubs worlwide some Podengo Pequeno breed clubs have already established a protocol and a Code of Ethics in an effort to protect the health of the dogs produced. A number of tests are recomended beeing the focus in the hips, knees and eyes.
- Hips X-rays to check namely for Leggs-Calve-Perthes disease
- Knees exams to check for Luxating Patellas
- Eyes exams to check PRA progressive Retinal Atrophy ( but not only )

This should be ideally the three kind of exams every Podengo Pequeno owner should do to their dogs ( including pet quality dogs ).

It is something we at Viamonte will do to our dogs starting this year ( 2015 ) and recomend to ALL our puppy owners do to their dogs too.

Now, all this will be worthless if we can not share this information mainly with the dog´s breeders! Only the breeders with the most ammount of information can make the better decisions by the time to choose the breeding combinations.
But this is not only valuable information to the breeders, it is of vital importance the breed clubs can also have access to this in order to understand what most affect our breed and how avoid it in future as well as assist any cientific investigations to help understand and avoid futur problems. The protocol is not the same in every breed club or country so my sugestion here is to contact yours to make sure how you can help and send health exams results for data collection.

In conclusion, I would like to request, every Podengo Pequeno owner, and in particular every Viamonte Podengo owner, to preform the exams ( Hips, Knees and Eyes ) to their dogs.
To the Viamonte Podengo owners I want to ask to send me copies of the exams results if posible by email or by regular mail.
All data, details and results will stay private and won´t be public unless you clearly stated otherwise, however I strongly advise for the benefit of all involved mainly other breeders to allow results be public and available. Ultimately it will be your decision that prevails.

Together we are still on time to keep our breed a healthy one.

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Miguel Sabino
February 2nd, 2015