PROBLEMS OF DOG-BREEDING AND

WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM

Professor Sir Patrick Bateson

University of Cambridge

Many dog breeders exercise the highest standards of welfare, are passionate about caring for their dogs properly and take great trouble to ensure that their puppies go to good homes. Nevertheless, current dog breeding practices do in many cases impose welfare costs on individual dogs from a variety of causes. Some of this arises from negligent or incompetent management, some from the use of closely related breeding pairs such that already high levels of inbreeding are worsened, some from the use of breeding pairs carrying inherited disorders, some from artificial selection for extreme characteristics that are directly responsible for failure to meet one or more welfare criteria, and some from the sale of dogs that are unsuited to the conditions in which they will be kept by their owners.

To improve the situation the best available science and advice should be provided to breeders to guide their efforts, together with harnessing the knowledge, skill and commitment to welfare that already exists within the dog breeding community. Those drafting Breed Standards should have regard to the need to avoid the selection for extreme morphologies that can damage the health and welfare of the dog. Where a problem within a breed already exists, the Breed Standard should be amended specifically to encourage the selection for morphologies that will improve the welfare status of the breed.

Prospective dog owners should be advised on what constitutes good welfare in dogs, how to identify a dog breed or type suitable for their personal circumstances, and how to find a dog breeder or other source that will reliably provide a fit, healthy and appropriately socialized dog plus necessary documentation covering identification and guidance.

A public awareness and education campaign should be designed to provide readily

comprehensible information on what questions to ask and what to look for when

buying a dog.

BREED RISKS FOR DISEASE

IN PUREBRED DOGS

Brenda N. Bonnett, BSc, DVM, PhD

B Bonnett Consulting - Wiarton, Ontario, Canada (former tenured faculty, University of Guelph)

What are some of the breed-specific problems in purebred dogs? Are levels of disease unacceptable? And, do you have a role to play in this issue?

We recognize that there are extreme differences in form and function across breeds of dogs, indeed, this variation is an integral feature in human-dog interactions. Presumably, we should not be surprised at the marked variation in types and rates of disease, health and longevity. Perhaps what is lacking is an understanding of which conditions should be of the greatest concern; what levels of risk are too high? But who decides what is acceptable or unacceptable?

Illustrated with 12 years of data from over 200,000 dogs yearly, at Agria Pet Insurance in Sweden, this presentation will examine disease occurrence in specific breeds and compare across breeds and with mixed breed dogs. Questions will be raised about both the importance and limitations of genetic testing and other disease control programs for informing breeding practices. Understanding the complex issues of health and disease in purebred dogs requires a broad-based view and a balanced dialogue. These can be enhanced by examining evidence and acknowledging, but not succumbing to, the emotional nature of our interactions with dogs.

CANINE GENETICS AND THE

ROLE OF THE PARENT BREED

Patricia H. Haines, DVM

Encouraging the further participation of the ‘parent breed club’ in the continued improvement of canine health and welfare requires an understanding and appreciation of what constitutes a parent breed club within the United States. This discussion will explain how parent breed clubs function, their role in purebred dog competition, and how the clubs and the breeders that constitute their membership currently promote canine health and welfare.

PEDIGREE DOGS EXPOSED: THE AFTERMATH

Jemima Harrison

Producer, Passionate Productions

Concern about purebred dog health is long-standing and is supported by the scientific literature but has resulted in very little real change. In recent years, responsible breeders have embraced health-testing and often help fund research, but purebred dogs today are still largely bred as they have always been, i.e., within closed gene pools and, outside of the working-dog communities, with greater emphasis often being placed on appearance than on health and function. The cost to the dogs has been substantial.

It is too early to tell whether the BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed, broadcast in the UK in August 2008 and subsequently in more than 20 countries, will trigger the fundamental change in breeding practices some believe is necessary to ensure the long-term future of purebred dogs. It has, however, led to the announcement of many new initiatives from, particularly, the Kennel Club in the UK. These include changes to 78 breed standards, better training for judges and, from 2012, vet checks at championship shows for 15 breeds recognized as having particular problems.

The film also led directly to three independent reviews, the setting up of the new Dog Advisory Council in the UK, an independent body with a remit to help establish best practices, and renewed veterinary and scientific interest in the issues.

This presentation tells the story of how the documentary came to be made and the diverse reaction to the film from the public, welfare/veterinary bodies, legislators, the Kennel Club and breeders. It also discusses the impact of changes introduced or planned by the Kennel Club and explores to what extent they address Pedigree Dogs Exposed’s central charges – that inbreeding and selection for human-defined “beauty” has resulted in an unacceptable level of health and welfare problems in today’s dogs.

BRACHYCEPHALIC AIRWAY SYNDROME:

ETIOLOGY, TREATMENT, AND PREVENTION

John R. Lewis, VMD, FAVD, DAVDC

School of Veterinary Medicine

University of Pennsylvania

Brachycephalic airway syndrome is a potentially life-threatening disease, which is a result of breeding for the brachycephalic (literally defined as “short head”) skull conformation. Consider an accordion, where the folds of the accordion are analogous to the soft tissues of the head and neck. Brachycephalic skulls are shorter than their mesaticephalic or dolichocephalic counterparts, but they still accommodate the same amount of soft tissue in a smaller volume. As a result, air passages and air flow are compromised. This lecture will discuss the components of brachycephalic airway syndrome, how we treat the disease, and what we can do to prevent the severe manifestations of the disease.

ETHICAL ISSUES RELATED TO SELECTIVE

BREEDING IN DOGS

Randall Lockwood, PhD

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Recognition that one or more subspecies of wolf served as the progenitor of all breeds of dogs has had mixed results in terms of shaping our relationships with dogs. Our understanding of the significance of the incredible genetic diversity in wolf populations has aided our understanding of the raw physical and behavioral opportunities available to humans in the selection of characteristics we have found useful or appealing. However, our understanding of the behavioral significance of wolf social structure and cognition has often reflected outdated interpretations of some basic principals influencing wolf and dog behavior.

The concept of dominance itself, as applied to wolf and dog behavior, has been called into question by many researchers. In addition, the various methods by which stable social order is maintained in the wolf pack have been misinterpreted by many dog trainers. We will provide an overview of some of the controversies surrounding the use, misuse and abuse of “wolf pack” concepts in training companion dogs.

A separate, but related issue is the extent to which human selective pressures have shifted the behavior of dogs from forms that were adaptive to the natural environment of wolves, to the point of producing behaviors that are non-adaptive or even maladaptive. Natural selective pressures occasionally produce physical or behavioral changes that ultimately prove to be maladaptive. Artificial selection in conjunction with domestication of many species for a variety of purposes often produces changes with substantial impact on individual animals’ health and welfare. We will explore how specific selection for changes in levels of inter and intra-specific aggression in dogs, including guarding and fighting breeds, has produced changes with enormous ethical and welfare implications.

THE IMPACT OF PUPPY MILLS ON THE

WELFARE OF PUREBRED DOGS

Frank McMillan, DVM, ACVIM

Best Friends Animal Society

With the high production of puppies come numerous costs to the welfare of the animals involved. The welfare of the breeding dogs is the most severely impacted; the inadequate socialization and high exposure to multiple causes of stress create suffering not just during the confinement in the breeding facility, but for years after release. Many of these dogs struggle to cope – with variable degrees of success – with emotional disturbances long after they have left the breeding facility. The welfare of the puppies sold out of puppy mills – from infancy to adulthood – is at risk of substantial impairment.

Finally, the welfare impact of puppy mills appears to have implications for the breed as a whole. With inadequate methods of quality control, creation of new official-sounding breed registration organizations, and the USDA admitting poor enforcement of its own regulations, the quality of the puppies re-populating each breed must be questioned.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF BREEDING FOR CONFORMATION: OWNER-DIRECTED AGGRESSION IN

ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIELS

Ilana Reisner, DVM, PhD, DACVB

School of Veterinary Medicine

University of Pennsylvania

English Springer Spaniels are among the purebred dogs most frequently presented to veterinary behaviorists, and particularly for aggression to family members. In a national survey of English Springer Spaniels randomly selected from the American Kennel Club breed registry, 48% of dogs had been aggressive to their owners, and 26% of dogs had bitten a person. Two-thirds of the bites in these cases had been directed to familiar people. This seminar will include a brief review of the biology of aggression, discussion of the term “springer rage,” and a focus on the characteristics and management of aggressive behavior in this breed.

THE RSPCA REPORT ON PUREBRED DOG BREEDING: CONFORMATIONAL SELECTION AND INBREEDING IN DOG

BREEDS

David R. Sargan, MA, PhD

Veterinary School University of Cambridge

Despite a shortage of good prevalence data for most canine diseases, it is possible to identify two separate sources for health and welfare problems in the purebred and pedigree dog: selection for abnormal, excessive or exaggerated physical, conformational or cosmetic features; and inbreeding. Taking each of these in turn I will consider approaches to identify the prevalence and extent of the problems (in mortality and morbidity terms) being caused to pedigree dogs.

Selection for extreme traits in anatomy is causing easily measured effects on mortality and severe effects on morbidity to a number of breeds that are currently increasing in popularity in many countries. I will give some quantitative information on shortened lifespan and morbidity connected with conformational traits for brachycephalic and giant breeds.

Molecular genetic analyses such as surveys of single nucleotide (SNP) and microsatellite polymorphisms conducted within “unrelated” animals of known breed have allowed fresh calculation of levels of inbreeding in pedigree breeds, which fit well with genealogical estimates of effective population size, but are higher than Coefficients of Inbreeding calculated genealogically. Thus, while many genealogical analyses suggest inbreeding coefficients well below 0.1, molecular studies give a very different picture, with many pedigree breeds having 12 to >30% or more of the genome homozygous and much of this likely to be autozygous across the breed. Breed histories showing very small founder groups and long evidence of line breeding prior to breed closure, are part of the explanation for this. Inbreeding increases the prevalence of monogenic recessive disorders (and therefore morbidity from such diseases) very significantly, an effect that is most noticeable in considering numbers of disease free animals in breeds where several independent disease alleles are present.

In the RSPCA report, several potential ameliorations of these problems were suggested, based on changes in breeding schemes and registration criteria for purebred dogs, and on changes in breed standards. In addition an expert panel was proposed to examine available prevalence data and severity scores for inherited diseases and prioritize problems to tackle, and to commission further research. I will examine progress in the UK since this report.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOG BREEDS:

WHY AND HOW PEOPLE BREED DOGS

Frances O. Smith, DVM, PhD

Diplomate American College of Theriogenology

This presentation will focus on the evolution of the dog from the first days of domestication through the present day with the availability of over 493 different breeds of dogs worldwide. The FCI (Federation Cynologique Internationale recognizes 339 breeds in 84 member countries. The UKC (United Kennel Club) recognizes 358 breeds. The AKC (American Kennel Club) recognizes 164 breeds. The CKC (Canadian Kennel Club) recognizes 202. Individuals who TREASURE specific traits of canines whether physical or behavioral have selected for those phenotypic traits that attracted them to these canines and the genotypic results of the selection process. The presentation will discuss who breeds dogs and what the motivating factors for dog breeding are. It will discuss the ethical issues involved in making a decision whether or not to breed a companion animal and rebut the concept that purebred dogs are inherently unhealthy. Animal Health databases allow both the individual consumer (the potential dog owner) and the breeder to make decisions regarding any health issues that may face a canine companion in their home.

EFFICACY OF HIP DYSPLASIA SCREENING:

AN ANIMAL WELFARE IMPERATIVE

Gail K. Smith, VMD, PhD

School of Veterinary Medicine

University of Pennsylvania

Canine hip dysplasia (CHD) is a highly prevalent orthopaedic disease of the dog causing pain and disability. It is a disease of complex inheritance meaning many genes and environmental factors play a role in its expression.

Controlling such a disease is an animal welfare imperative that requires validated screening methods satisfying 6 important criteria.

Screening test should have a high predictive value for the disease, CHD;

High precision test, both within and between examiners;

Probability and range of severity of CHD should be represented by a continuous metric;

The metric (phenotype) should be measurable as early as possible in life and should be constant throughout life;

The metric should have high heritability;

The metric must provide for the application of selection pressure.

The common tests used for hip dysplasia screening will be evaluated against these criteria. Recently published efficacy data from the past 37 years show extremely slow genetic improvement in hip quality and strategies to accelerate this improvement will be emphasized.

CANINE BEHAVIORAL GENETICS:

STATE OF THE ART

Linda van den Berg, PhD

Leiden University Medical Center

All modern dog breeds are descendants of the grey wolf. Dogs were originally selected for behavioral traits: dogs have been bred to guard, herd, hunt, pull sledges, and to provide companionship. Early canid domestication probably involved selection for tameness. Selection studies of silver foxes at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk have shown that a few generations of selection for tameness can lead to a domesticated strain of foxes that not only show dog-like behaviors, but that also display phenotypic traits such as curly tails, drop ears, and loss of pigment. The early domestication of dogs was followed by the formation of dog breeds. Extreme founder effects, drift, and selection for novelty, in combination with genetic isolation during breed formation, have resulted in genetic homogeneity and a high frequency of risk alleles for certain diseases within breeds.

Canine genomic tools such as microarrays for genotyping and gene expression studies have enabled the identification of causative mutations for several canine morphological and disease susceptibility traits in recent years. In this talk, I will discuss the latest knowledge regarding the inheritance of behavioral traits in dogs. Behavioral traits that will be discussed include canine personality, anxiety, and aggression.