Fraser Hale rocks

I laughed out loud today at a post by veterinary dentist Fraser Hale on Facebook which features the above pic. But it carries an important and serious message.

Fraser is a campaigner regarding brachycephalic mouths/teeth, pointing out that dogs with squished muzzles are suffering much more than we realise from the consequences of shoving the normal number of teeth into a mouth where they can't fit - i.e. misaligned teeth banging against gums and a way-above normal rate of periodontal disease

Here's his post:

We are prone to anthropomorphising (attaching human emotions/behaviours to non-human beings/objects). For instance, the geode pictured (above) looks super-happy. It is not happy. It is a rock. But it sure looks happy and it makes us smile to see it and we think "how cute, I want a happy rock like that in my life because I like to be around happy stuff". But it is a rock. It is neither happy, nor sad. It is a rock.

We do the same thing with animals whose anatomy makes it look (to us) as if they are smiling. Have you ever seen a dolphin that looks grumpy? Of course not, because their fixed craniofacial anatomy makes it look like they are smiling. 

Have you ever seen a happy bald eagle? Of course not, because their fixed craniofacial anatomy makes it look like they have a permanent scowl. So we assume all dolphins are happy and all bald eagles are noble and serious. That is anthropomorphism.

So what about the Boston terrier or French Bulldog, or other short-face breeds who have such distorted craniofacial anatomy that they often gasp for every breath they take? Their struggle to get enough oxygen causes them to breathe with an open mouth, lips pulled way back and this makes it look like they are super-happy, with a big, gape-mouthed smile. They are not super-happy. 

The very briefest of trawls will find a host of images of brachycephalics with the samedrawn-back-and-up lips. It really does look like a smile so it's hardly surprising people think it is.  Of course sometimes it really is just a relaxed and happy dog - this, for instance, is my Irish Water Spaniel x, Curly.

The difference lies in the overall tension in the face - and very often a dog that is too hot and/or in respiratory distress will have half-closed, glazed eyes.

Another common sign is pinned-back, immobile ears.

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The bald truth about the Chinese Crested

The top dog for 2010 in the Dog World/Arden Grange table (UK) is the Chinese Crested Ch Vanitonia Unwrapped (left), who clinched the title by winning best in show at the LKA,reported Dog World just before Christmas.  Vanitonia Unwrapped - pet name "Nora" - is believed to be the first dog to take eight Best in Show awards at UK all-breeds championship shows during one show season, and she is still less than two years old.

I've been having a low-level exchange with the Kennel Club about the 'Cresties" for a while now. My beef? That the dogs are being shaved and
depilated to look like they're hairless when they're not.

I spend enough on my dogs without having to buy them jumpers, too, so the hairless Chinese Crested is not a breed I have ever been interested in. But my hackles rose when I read an editorial about grooming them in Dog World a few weeks before Crufts last year. The writer wrote openly about how many of the dogs are not really hairless and so to meet the breed standard that calls for a smooth, hairless body the hair is removed.  She then went on to explain how to shave the poor little mites and then apply a depilatory crème as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Powderpuff

It isn’t - as you can see from the pictures of the very sore-looking Cresties below.

The Chinese Crested comes in two varieties. There’s the  ‘powderpuff” which has a full coat – and, indeed, is rather appealingly scruffy. And there's the "hairless" which can, in fact, be born with a varying amount of hair.  If it's sparse, they're known as a 'true hairless' and if they have more, they're known as a 'hairy hairless'.

True hairless  (Photo: Tommy Gildseth, CC-BY-SA)

The hairy hairless can be very hairy indeed...

It’s the hairier Cresties that have the best ‘furnishings’ – the luxuriant mane, tail and ‘socks’ that make the dogs look like My Little Pony. The ‘true hairless’ has much less hair in the 'right' places and so is nothing like as showy.  Indeed, the true hairless is usually pretty obvious in the ring because of this – and also because of the primitive dentition that comes with the hairless gene.  Certainly, a judge only has to look in the dog's mouth to tell the difference between a dog carrying the hairless gene and a shaved powderpuff (which sadly does happen).  So, the less hirsute ones are the genuine article and the ones with fluffy 'furnishings' are, mostly, dogs from which a lot of body hair has been removed. Sad to say, almost every bald dog I saw in the ring at Crufts was a fake. And the reason? These are usually the ones that win.

Worse, I was contacted shortly before Crufts last year by a groomer who told me that some breeders are waxing the dogs and even using epilators – both of which pull the hair out from the roots. Ouch.  It made the breed top of my watch-list for last year’s Crufts - and I'll keep an eye out this year, too.

I dream of the day when I contact the Kennel Club to tell them of such issues and they write back thanking me for drawing it to their attention and reassuring me that they will do everything in their power to make such abuses stop.  Oh, and then actually stop it.

It started off promisingly enough. This is the email I got back from the KC’s Sara Wilde: “We are very concerned at the suggestion that owners may be using depilatory creams and thereby causing harm to their dogs.  This is clearly against Kennel Club rules which are in place to ensure dogs’ welfare and we will be monitoring the situation at DFS Crufts.

“We have also recently written to the breed clubs to highlight our concerns.  You will, I am sure, be aware that our Breed Watch pages highlight the specific issues of clipper rash and razor burns in Chinese Crested Dogs and thus the judge at Crufts (as well as other shows) has had this matter highlighted to them.  At Crufts there will be clear notices displayed in all grooming areas reminding exhibitors of KC rules relating to preparation of dogs for showing and these areas will be monitored by the stewards as in the past.  Our policy of random testing for banned substances in the coats of dogs remains in place.”

Two hours after this email, another one landed in my inbox - this time a post from a closed Chinese Crested list, forwarded by a concerned Chinese Crested owner who is also horrified at the practice of denuding the dogs. It read: “…I have just had a member of the KC general committee on the phone and they have had insider info that Jemima Harrison will be targeting Chinese Cresteds at Crufts. They also have undercover cameras with the intent to film people shaving their dogs. This will be used in the next programme due to come out.PLEASE, i urge everybody, put differences aside and all pull together. For the good of the breed be on the look out and DO NOT shave at CRUFTS. please tell as many as possible.”

Now there IS no "next programme", we were not filming at Crufts and the KC had no reason to think that we were, although it’s certainly true that there are now any many people who will send me photographs and videos of things that alarm them.  But I did go to Crufts and I did visit the Cresties to see for myself what was going on. 

I walked round with vet Pete Wedderburn, who writes a column and blog for the Daily Telegraph. Pete took the Crestie pictures above of very sore-looking dogs.  He was particularly shocked at this male's clearly raw testicles.

Afterwards, on one of the main Crestie internet lists, they chatted about how, although the KC had warned there may be spot-checks, there had been none on the Chinese Crested.  So much for the promised monitoring.  

I nagged the Kennel Club about this again recently. Their reply: "[It is] in hand, Jemima, and will be announced in due course."

But I will be surprised if they take steps to stop this because many Crestie exhibitors see absolutely nothing wrong with denuding the dogs. They don't want things to change.

I should say, by the way, that I have no evidence to suggest that Vanitonia Unwrapped is shaved and depilated for the show-ring.

But others most certainly are and, helpfully, one American exhibitor has posted a how-to-guide online.

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Bred for Looks, Born to Suffer

Tomorrow, if you're walking down Clarges St in London's Mayfair and hear strange popping noises, it will be Kennel Club staff's heads exploding in response to the RSPCA's new  Bred for Looks, Born to Suffer campaign, launched today with the above ad in the Mail on Sunday.

I have to confess to feeling a little uncomfortable about some aspects of the campaign myself.

I'm fine with the ad above as I feel really strongly that we should return pugs to an earlier version where they had longer muzzles. In fact, we've just returned from filming with world brachycephalic expert Professor Gerhard Oechtering in Leipzig who showed us the damage that has been done, internally, by breeding for such a flat face (see below). It is so much more than most people imagine - and it is heart-breaking to see what we've done to this characterful little dog that bears its fate with such cheerful stoicism.

I'm OK, too, with what the RSPCA's new campaign says on the main campaign page, although I know others will be hyperventilating at the singling out of pedigree dogs as opposed to those dreadful designer crossbreeds.

But I did wince at this page... which starts:

The way that dogs are bred today, in order to win shows, is having a huge impact on their health and welfare. This is why we’ve launched our Born to Suffer campaign which seeks an end to the breeding of dogs based on looks.
 
But it's not just show dogs that may be suffering. Many pedigree dogs never appear in shows, but many are bred by breeders who want to produce show-winning animals, and who sell their surplus dogs as pets.

And the reason I winced is that, although it's true to say that it's the show-scene that often stamps the current 'look' on a breed, there are loads of breeders breeding purely for the pet marked who are producing dogs that are no better (in fact in some instances worse - pet-bred Shar-pei, for instance, are usually much more wrinkled than their show-bred cousins).  In other words, I think to single out show breeders in this instance is unfair. I know, I know, people will no doubt yelp that that is exactly what I do. But I wouldn't have done if I had been copywriting the RSPCA campaign. 

Here, by the way, is a a 'grab' from the footage we shot of the inside of a pet-bred pug's mouth when we filmed in Leipzig. Pugs have the same number of teeth as a dog with a longer muzzle and this is nature's attempt at accommodating them.

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Bull Terriers: head case

1915

This is what a Bull Terrier looked like 100 years ago - a fit and functional, well-balanced and in-proportion dog. Note in particular this dog's head... there's nothing abnormal here.

And here's a modern Bull Terrier - bred by a chap in called Lyndon Ingles in Wales who breeds for a Bull Terrier that is a working all-rounder. 

The breeder of that 1915 Bull Terrier would have no problems recognising Lyndon's dog. But what on earth would they make of these three Bull Terriers, shown at Crufts today? 

I always get a rise from the Bull Terrier breeders when I dare to mention that what they've done to the Bull Terrier's head is pointless and ugly. 

So I'll say it again.

What show breeders have done to the Bull Terrier's head is pointless and ugly. 

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World's first striped pug

Striped pug, anyone? 

German scientists have succeeded in transplanting a key gene that codes for the zebra's stripes into a dog - to produce the world's first litter of striped pugs. The researchers say they have been inundated with requests to buy the transgenic animals, which will inevitably be a surefire hit with breeders and owners looking for something completely different.

It is the latest in a series of efforts to transplant genes into another species to dramatic effect, most famously the creation of mice that glow in the dark through the insertion of a gene that produces a protein that gives jellyfish a green fluorescence. The German researchers used the same technique to introduce the striping gene into pug embryos - a retrovirus, much like the one that causes AIDS, to deliver the gene into the cells and insert them into the dog genome. 

The gene governs the switching on and off of melanocytes (pigment cells) - the process by which stripes are formed in the zebra.

The result was a litter of four pugs -  two males, two females - now a year old and all with distinctive striping.  Such is the demand for the animals that the team are repeating the experiment to help fund further research.

The pugs are, says lead researcher Frans Liebermop, genetically identical to any other pug, other than for the striping gene. And there may even be a real benefit to  pugs who are well-known for overheating... the zebra's stripes are thought to help the animal regulate its temperature by dissipating heat more effectively than solid colours.

In response to the news, a Kennel Club spokesperson said: "Genetically, these are provably pugs. If the benefit to the offspring could be proved, we would certainly consider allowing the registration of striped pugs - we are always looking for ways to improve dog health."

But it's unlikely to go down well with the purists. A couple of weeks ago, there was uproar on dog forums when this ad appeared on Pets4Homes asking £10,000 for the world's first chocolate and tan pug. Chocolate and tan is not a recognised colourway in pugs. In that case, though, it was almost certainly introduced by crossbreeding with another toy breed.

The German team, based at the April Täuschen Institute in Frankfurt, says their research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal later this year

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The demise of the Great Dane

The two line-drawings at the top are taken from British Dogs, Their Points, Selection, And Show Preparation by W.D Drury, published in 1903. They formed part of the Great Dane breed standard adopted by the Great Dane Club (UK) at the time. The two pictures underneath are of modern show dogs (on the left, UK; on the right a French champion).

One hundred years ago, the breed looked like this...

b.1899

Today we see dogs like this (below) in the show-ring. It is not every dog in every ring, but it is in sufficient number to sound the alarm.

Can anyone truly think that this is any kind of an improvement on the dog of 100 years ago?

In France, particularly, the rise of what's often called the Euro-Dane is turning the breed into a Neapolitan Mastiff - a grotesque, floppy-flewed caricature of what the breed used to be.

© Falkhor Babinosaure

Better body... but who on earth thought that head was a good idea?

This is not just an aesthetic issue. Floppy flews are dysfunctional. There is no benefit to a bigger/heavier ear leather. Over-sized bodies elevate the risk of joint issues. Many Dane eyes are wincingly painful, too - both for the dogs and for any observer not subsumed into a breed culture that makes them oblivious to the every-second-of-the-waking-daydiscomfort dogs like this endure.

UK showdog

Almost every day I hear a breeder of a breed with dreadful eyes (Danes, Clumbers, Neapolitans, Bassets) justify the breeding of these dogs by telling me it's a minor issue compared to other bigger breed issues. But it isn't - not for the dog. If you think it's OK, please poke yourself in the eye with a dirty finger and leave the conjunctivitis untreated for a few days.

UK showdog

Then there's the swingeing longevity, or rather lack of it. Average life expectancy today? Just six years old, with cancer being the biggest cause of death, followed by bloat/digestive issues, heart disease, joint problems and spinal disease (source: Finnish KC database).  And it is not just Finnish Danes. The KC's 2004 health survey found a median age of death for the breed of 6 yrs 6 months.

I continue to be at a loss as to why poor longevity in Danes and many other breeds doesn't trigger a massive effort by Kennel Clubs and breeders to do something to tackle it. Instead, breeders seem to claim it as some kind of breed feature, something they accept as one of those things; not their fault... not much they can do about it.

This is not true. They can do something about it. 

I have a soft spot for Danes because I grew up with two of them. Neither of them were any great shakes. One had a digestive problem that kept him rake thin. The other was a nice-but-dim-Tim who died young of a reason lost in time. This is me with him when he was a pup at a fun dog-show in the 1970s (we came second in the dog-with-the-longest-tail class).

I remember being concerned about his slightly saggy eyes at the time; but the ectropion (as I now know it to be) was very minor compared to what you see in today's show dogs. They also used to be dry-mouthed; whereas today most Dane owners have to deal with globs of viscous slobber that makes the breed increasingly undesirable as a family dog.

Here's another beautiful Dane head from the 1970s compared to a modern UK show dog.

Many of today's Great Danes are a disgrace, with mostly no purpose other than to be an oversized, slobbery mess. They are a travesty of what they used to be.

Here's one of the reasons why... take a look at the points system that was in place for many years in the UK. Although no longer used in the UK, it helped set the agenda.  Most important? The head and the size. Least important, less so even than the tail or feet? Overall condition.

Source

Want to know what do to do about it?

• international breed database that records health data and is open to all

• make death reporting (age and cause) a priority

• store semen when dogs are young and use it if they prove to be healthy into later years

• revise the points system (where still in use) to make condition/activity more important.

• rewrite the breed standard to reduce the minimum weight; introduce a maximum height and weight.

• worldwide symposium aimed at uniting breeders in a breed conservation plan

• breed them smaller. As with many giant breeds, there has been a creeping increase in size. Today's Danes are massive - much bigger than they used to be.

Big dogs die young. Bigger dogs die younger.

And bigger dogs with deep chests die even younger.

(The bloat situation is so bad in the breed that many breeders and owners do a pre-emptive gastropexy.)

This is also, perhaps, where the new International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD) could play a role. If every signed-up KC contributed pictures of their top-winning dogs every year, the side-by-side comparisons would alert to the different types, prompting discussion that would hopefully help reign in excess.

Additionally, in the UK, the Kennel Club now needs to make this breed a Category Threebreed - one whose conformation demands urgent action.

To finish with an eye-cleanser,  I should say that there are still some nice show Danes around - this is the Dane that took Best of Breed at Westminster this year. The dog is too big, and his neck is too long, but the WKC winner is much more moderate than some of the travesties we are seeing on this side of the pond.

And how about this... a Dane in the Finnish show-ring. Beautiful - and pretty typical of the breed in Finland; a country so often ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to the health of purebred dogs.

So let's see more of them.. and a lot less of these.

© Falkhor Babinosaure

© Falkhor Babinosaure

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BREAKING NEWS: KC survey reveals apocalyptic drop in purebred dog longevity

There has been a catastrophic decline in purebred dog longevity, according to the results of a long-awaited health survey released by the Kennel Club yesterday.

It has taken the KC over a year to report on its 2014 health survey - the largest ever survey of its kind - and a follow-up to its 2004 survey.  It makes for grim reading.

Across all the breeds, median longevity has dropped by 11 per cent in a decade. Kennel Club registered dogs now live on average to just 10 years old - down from 11yrs 3 months in 2004.

Some breeds have seen jaw-dropping decreases compared to the 2004 survey.

Bull Terriers now die on average at just seven years old - down from 10yrs in 2004 (a 30% decrease)

Beagles: down from 12yrs 8mths to 10 yrs old.

Dobermanns: down from 10yrs 6mths to 8 yrs today.

Dalmatians: down from 12yrs 6mths in 2004 to 11yrs now.

Border Terriers: down from 14yrs to 12yrs

Irish Wolfhounds: down from 7yrs to 6.5yrs

Rhodesian Ridgebacks: down from 11yrs to 9yrs.

Bulldogs: down from 6yrs 3mths to an even worse 6yrs.

Boxers: now living to 9yrs, compared to 10yrs 3mths in 2004.

Cavaliers: now dying at 10, as opposed to 11yrs 5mths in 2004.

Irish Setters: now dead on average at 11 - down from 12 in 2004.

Whippets: down from 12yrs 4mths to 10yrs.

Even the nation's favourite dog, the Labrador,  is dying younger - at 11yrs old compared to 12yrs 3mths in 2004.

I found a few breeds with modest increases: Flatcoats now live to 10yrs - 2 months longer than they did in 2004. Great Danes died at 6yrs 6mths in 2004 and now survive on average to 7yrs. The Old English Sheepdog now lives 3 months longer (11yrs as opposed to 10yrs 9mths). Bernese Mountain Dog longevity has stayed the same at 8.

But, at this rate, many Kennel Club breeds could be extinct in 100 years' time.

It is a disappointing that the KC chose not to mention this decline in the release accompanying the survey findings (see here).

Now don't get me wrong  -  it is genuinely great that the KC is doing these surveys; it just needs to be honest and not play down negative findings.

I remember how the KC maintained both in and after Pedigree Dogs Exposed that 90 per cent of KC registered dogs were "perfectly healthy" - despite its own survey (the 2004) one finding that almost 40 per cent of KC dogs suffered from one or more health issues.

This time, as before, the KC reports that the main cause of death is old age - reassuring until you look at the actual figures.  In 2004, 17.8% of dogs died from old age. In 2014, it dropped to 13.78%.

Headline: more than 85% of KC registered dogs today do not make it to old age - and almost all die, or are put to sleep, because of disease.

(Trauma/accidents/behavioural issues account for only a tiny percentage of deaths reported.)

The new findings shouldn't be a huge surprise. Despite frequent claims by many that dogs are living longer today than ever before - it has been pretty obvious that an increasing number of breeds are tottering on the brink of viability. It does not, however, make the findings any less heartbreaking for everyone who loves dogs.

The reason for the decline? Closed gene pools... obsession with purity.. popular sires.. dogs being judged on looks not health... and the erroneous belief that breeders can health-test their way out of trouble.

Now there's some wiggle-room in this survey for those who want to question the results.  There were far fewer deaths reported than in the 2004 survey.  And while the 2004 survey was sent out to breed clubs; the 2014 survey was sent out more widely to owners of KC-registered dogs. This means that the surveyed populations were not identical.

When I talked to the KC about the survey in June 2014, though, they were at pains to point out that it would be backwards-compatible with the 2004 survey. 

This is important because, as the KC itself said when the 2004 survey findings were released: "Data gathered from this survey will provide baseline information against which the success of future control schemes can be measured."

The KC has, in fact, withheld certain data that it feels is not statistically significant in the 2014 survey  - e.g. if fewer than 30 deaths have been reported in a breed; hence, rather disappointingly, why there is no median death data reported for many of the current breeds of concern: Pugs, French Bulldogs, Bostons, Dogue de Bordeaux and Neapolitan Mastiff. (Although, frankly, it is telling that so few owners/breeders of these breeds, who these days so often spout a commitment to health, contributed to such a well-publicised survey.)

The Kennel Club needs to encourage these breed clubs to run ongoing health surveys to monitor longevity in these breeds, as well as to find a way to encourage more people to contribute to their next survey (which will presumably be in 2024).

In the meantime, the current findings should be a call to arms. There are some breeds today that are little more than ghosts of what they were.

But I suspect we'll get the usual denial.. the deflecting blame on to vaccines, commercial dog food, puppy millers, vets or big pharma... 

And all the while the dogs we purport to love so fiercely will continue to wither and wane.

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