In 2001 the Executive of the NSDTR Club of Canada formed the Toller Health Coalition (THC).  The mandate of the THC is as follows:  “The mission of the Toller Health Coalition is to be leaders in the collection, research and dissemination of information, ideas, and knowledge of all issues related to Toller health. Our goal is to give members of the Toller community the resources and wisdom they need that will lead to ongoing and sustained health in their own breeding program and particularly in the breed as a whole.”

The first order of business carried out by the THC was the Health Survey.  This survey was mailed to over 700 members of the NSDTR Club of Canada and the NSDTRC (USA) in mid-January, all Clubs outside of North America were provided with the Survey for distribution to their members and was made available through the THC webpage.  Once the goal of at least 650 returned surveys had been reached, the THC was in a position to provide to all Toller fanciers, information on the current state of health in the breed including a list of conditions known to occur, the rate that these conditions occur in the breed, determination of the average number of disease genes an individual dog may carry and provide an estimate of the carrier frequencies for some conditions.  All information was made available through newsletters and the web page as soon as it is was compiled.

In 2003 the THC had hoped to launch the new format Open Health Registry which will be an expansion of the current Hip/Eye/Heart Open Registry which has been in existence for over 20 years.  Unfortunately, due to a lack of manpower this goal was not reached.

In 2006, there has been a resurgence in pursuing the THC goals and to streamline the health and genetics aspect of the NSDTR Club of Canada.  With the continuing advances and discoveries in Toller health and genetics, the time has come to ensure that all Toller fanciers have access to the information that they need.

The long standing health database will remain in existence for now, though the hope is to have much more regular updates available on-line.  Effort will be go into determining the feasibility of moving the database into a better, more interactive format - in the hopes that other national clubs, owners and breeders will help in the collection, verification and publication of all Toller related health information.

The THC will be active in health education.  The web site will play a major roll in the THC education efforts.  Those wishing to contribute stories on their own dogs are encouraged to do so online through the Contacts page of this website.  Contact persons will be made available, to help owners obtain the information, help and support that they may require when dealing with health issues in their Tollers.  Education packages will be available for breeders, new Toller owners and those researching the breed.

By contributing our knowledge of our individual Tollers to the THC we can ensure a healthy future for the entire breed – do it for the dogs!