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The present study gives a detailed phenotypic and genotypic characterization of three Trueperella abortisuis strains isolated from a ten year old male Hovawart dog with an abscess of anal sac, from urine of an eight year old European shorthair cat with urolithiasis and nephrolithiasis and from a 14year old Maine Coon cat with a perianal abscess, respectively. All three strains could be identified phenotypically, by MALDI-TOF MS analysis and genotypically by sequencing the 16S rDNA and the molecular target genes gap and tuf. The present study gives a first description of T. abortisuis of this origin.

Analyses were conducted on pedigrees of 845 animals registered at the Hovawart Club in Poland (113 dogs and their ancestors). The degree of inbreeding was calculated for the whole population (0.0026) and separately for male dogs (0.0021) and bitches (0.0031), and the coefficient of mean relationship was calculated for the entire population (0.0064), among male dogs (0.0064), among females (0.0073) and between males and females (0.0061). The inbreeding and relationship coefficients obtained are lower than those estimated for Polish populations of other dog breeds. The calculated effective number of founders (268) and ancestors (233) may indicate rather low genetic diversity. Preferences of breeders concerning coat colour were discussed. Black and tan coat dogs dominated at first, followed by blond ones, and over the last five of the analysed years black coat dogs emerged.

The reliability of six judges who assessed the behaviour of dogs simultaneously in the behaviour tests (BTs) of the Swiss Hovawart Club (SHC) was examined on three dates in spring, summer and autumn 2006. The reliabilities were calculated using the Spearman–Brown prediction formula and Spearman rank correlations for quantitative traits and the kappa coefficient for binomial variables. Secondly, the validity of the BT was studied in a retrospective study by comparing the results of BT of dogs which later showed behaviour problems related to aggressiveness with the results of behaviourally inconspicuous dogs. Problematic dogs were reported to the club because they had to be euthanised or re-homed with different owners because of their behaviour problems. The behaviour problems were quantified by using a questionnaire for the owners who had reported the problems. Generally, the reliability between the six judges was high, but there were differences of agreement on the three different dates. The results of the retrospective study indicated that the behaviourally inconspicuous dogs had generally better scores in the BT than problematic dogs. When dogs with a problem of aggressiveness and their matched control dogs were compared, there were significant differences in the trait “playing” in the questionnaire and the BT. Dogs who later displayed aggressive behaviour played less enthusiastically than dogs who remained non-aggressive. However the other traits which were assessed in the BT were not useful to predict which dogs would develop problems of aggressiveness later.

The three recognised colour varieties of the Hovawart breed of dog, black, black and gold and blonde, are due primarily to combinations of the mutant alleles solid black (A s ), black and tan (a t ) of the agouti series and the non-extension of black allele (e). The e allele is epistatic to the agouti alleles, thereby reducing the four possible phenotypes to three.