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With ZooEasy, we as the Toller Club are choosing openness and health

With ZooEasy, we as the Toller Club are choosing openness and health

Date: April 7, 2023

Esther Booker has been active as a volunteer with the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club Netherlands, the NSDTRCN, for 20 years. The NSDTRCN has been using ZooEasy for some time now and is working hard to fill the database. Esther explains why the club chose ZooEasy:

“We chose ZooEasy because openness and health are very important to us. ZooEasy is a great program for this. At the moment we still have a database that is managed by the BreedingAdviceCommittee (BAC). That works well in itself, but we would like to be able to share all information with our breeders and members. And we want to make the work of the BAC easier. That will soon be possible with ZooEasy.”

Working hard on building the database

The NSDTRCN started building a ZooEasy database about a year ago. They were and are still working hard at filling the database: “At the moment we are still working on getting the database complete and functional. We entered the data from our old database, which already contained many dogs thanks to our volunteers. And we have requested the file with all Tollers from the beginning of the registration from the Dutch Kennelclub, the Raad van Beheer. It wasn’t entirely smooth sailing, but it worked out in the end. The first file we received turned out to have an error and could not be imported, but the file after that was OK and was imported for us by ZooEasy.”

“Once the data had been entered, it was time to clean up. And because we want the database to be as complete as possible, we have also entered as many missing ancestors as possible. Together with an acquaintance from Sweden, we searched through old books and supplemented as much missing information as possible. Combined with the information we already had, we now have our database almost complete all the way to the founders. At the moment we are working on getting the Mean Kinship module fully working, after that we will do a course to learn how to use ZooEasy as well as possible. With the help of a number of extra volunteers, we will then go through and check the data again. After that, the database can be opened up for our breeders and stud owners, and later also for non-breeding members.”

A big step forward

Esther says that the NSDTRCN is very happy with the steps that have been taken so far:

“We have been working at this project for about a year now, and we hope to have everything ready by the end of this year. It is a bit of a job to set up the database and to clean up the data, but we’ve already made enormous progress. ZooEasy is a really big step forward in information sharing. Now we have all the dogs and all the data. Breeders and stud dog owners will soon be able to make whole pedigrees themselves! And we can also enter all health data for every individual dog.”

“What we ultimately want is to be able to share all the information in ZooEasy with all our breeders. Then we won’t be dependent on the database of the BAC anymore, with ZooEasy everyone can use it. We think that openness is very important. We would like breeders and dog owners to look up as much information as possible themselves. What is in the lines of dog X and dog Y, what potential risks might I run into if I want to make a combination, etc.”

Ready for the future

With the use of ZooEasy, the NSDTRCN hopes to be ready for the future and to safeguard the health of the breed: “We still use a breeding assessment form where breeders have to fill in all the details of their dog and the chosen male again and again. We will soon be able to do that much more easily via ZooEasy. We would like to use the Breedingrequest module for this, and we hope that people will be able to check more and more themselves. Our BAC only consists of two people, so they are very busy. If our breeders can sort out more themselves and become more self-reliant, that will save a lot of time.”

With the use of ZooEasy, the NSDTRCN hopes to be ready for the future and to safeguard the health of the breed: “We still use a breeding assessment form where breeders have to fill in all the details of their dog and the chosen male again and again. We will soon be able to do that much more easily via ZooEasy. We would like to use the Breedingrequest module for this, and we hope that people will be able to check more and more themselves. Our BAC only consists of two people, so they are very busy. If our breeders can sort out more themselves and become more self-reliant, that will save a lot of time.”