Canine health: looking back and looking forward

♦ January 2, 2024

This article was published in the Our Dogs Annual 2024.

The health and welfare of pedigree dogs has been a major concern in recent years. Issues around exaggerated conformation, inherited diseases, and irresponsible breeding practices came to widespread public attention following the BBC documentary ‘Pedigree Dogs Exposed’ in 2008. This sparked numerous initiatives aimed at improving dog health, including research studies, actions by kennel clubs and breed clubs, education campaigns, and legislation. 

In 2011, the KarltonIndex Awards were established in the UK to recognise and incentivise the work being done by breeds and breed clubs to address health issues. The KarltonIndex methodology developed by Philippa Robinson provided an objective way to assess progress, based on leadership, communication, participation and impact. The awards helped share best practices, highlighted areas needing improvement, and raised awareness of health issues.

Some breeds scored highly in the KarltonIndex for their strong leadership, health strategies and engagement with veterinary researchers. Others showed significant progress across the two reports published in 2011 and 2013. However, work still needed to be done in breeds that scored poorly. Sadly, Philippa passed away in 2018, but her legacy continues as many breed communities persist in their efforts to improve dog health, inspired by her passion for continuous improvement.

Breed clubs have implemented many good practices, including appointing Breed Health Coordinators and Committees, developing Breed Health and Conservation Plans, establishing screening schemes, revising breed standards, funding research, and communicating with breeders and owners. However, breed club communities represent a small proportion of overall breed registrations. Wider outreach is needed to promote health among non-show breeders and buyers.  

In writing this article for the 2024 Our Dogs Annual, I reflected on several of my “Best of Health” articles from 2023 that looked at the bigger picture of dog health improvement from different perspectives:

Mapping Initiatives to Improve Dog Health 

A 2022 paper from Danish veterinary researchers reviewed initiatives in four categories – research, kennel club actions, buyer education and legislation. It echoed concerns that our change efforts are too disjointed and siloed. While breed health data and DNA testing have advanced, translating this into genuine improvement has been slow. Revising standards and breeding advice helps, but monitoring compliance is difficult. Legislation also has limitations in reaching all breeders. We need a better understanding of human behaviour to effect real change.

Breed clubs need their own good quality research

If a breed has concerns about a particular health condition, age of death or cause of death, it should ensure it can collect sufficient good quality data from a representative sample of dogs. I have previously emphasised the value of clubs collecting data that can show any differences between sub-populations (e.g. show vs. working or show vs. non-show).

The point of Breed Health Surveys depends totally on “the exam question” you are setting out to answer. If the exam question is “what’s the biggest issue?”, most Breed Clubs’ surveys have been able to answer that. The KC’s 2004 and 2014 surveys did that too. If you want to know where to focus effort on improvement, asking about prevalence and age of diagnosis isn’t going to get you very far. You need to know about severity and welfare impact as well. Finally, if you want to know if there’s been any change (for the better or worse) over a period of time, you’d better make sure you’re measuring the same thing, in the same way, at the start and the end. Otherwise, you’ll end up with “Garbage in, Gospel out” with someone cherry-picking the results to suit their own argument!

The VetCompass project and its reports gives us “big data”; breed health surveys give us “small data”. We need both, but most importantly, we need to define the “exam questions” before rushing off to design surveys, or to see if we have data already available.

Multi-stakeholder collaboration

The Danish research suggests that the current approaches to multi-stakeholder collaboration are not working to improve the health of pedigree dogs or not working fast enough. One option could be for each stakeholder group to just “do their own thing”, without engaging with others or seeking alignment or consensus. This option may seem appealing for some groups who feel that they have more autonomy, control or influence over their own actions and decisions. However, this may lead to negative consequences for the overall health of pedigree dogs, such as duplication of efforts, fragmentation of resources, inconsistency of standards, or lack of accountability or evaluation. It also has the potential to cause further polarisation and divergence of views.

Another option would be to seek ways to collaborate that are more flexible, adaptive or responsive to the needs and preferences of different groups. This could involve exploring methods that are more inclusive, participatory or democratic, such as co-designing solutions with breeders or buyers, forming networks or coalitions around specific issues or goals, or using online platforms or tools to facilitate communication and interaction. It may also involve identifying and addressing the root causes of barriers or conflicts that hinder collaboration, such as clarifying roles and responsibilities, building trust and rapport, finding common ground or mutual benefits, or resolving disputes or disagreements. Organisations such as the International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD) and the Brachycephalic Working Group (BWG) both fit these approaches, having set up groups of committed individuals to work together on specific themes. 

8 Accelerators for Breed Health Improvement

Drawing on John Kotter’s work, I described eight accelerators for breeds to advance health improvement efforts: 

  1. Create urgency around a shared vision 
  2. Build a guiding coalition of diverse voices
  3. Develop strategic initiatives aligned to the vision
  4. Enlist a volunteer army from outside the breed clubs  
  5. Remove barriers to make it easy for people to participate
  6. Generate quick wins and celebrate progress 
  7. Sustain acceleration with new volunteers and ideas
  8. Institute change through robust succession planning

These accelerators emphasise the need for strong and diverse leadership, strategic focus, broad engagement and celebrating progress. Sustainable change requires continuity of effort. 

Key insights from 2023

Several key themes emerge from reflections on dog health improvement efforts in 2023:

  • We have good epidemiological data on breed health risks, but translating this into genuine improvement remains challenging. Simply having more data or health tests is insufficient.
  • Initiatives to date have been fragmented and poorly coordinated across research, breed clubs, education and regulation. A more unified approach is needed, underpinned by behavioural science.
  • Engagement and compliance beyond the show community is difficult. Wider outreach is essential to influence non-show breeders and buyers.
  • Celebrating progress, generating quick wins and sustaining momentum is vital. Long-term complex change requires continuity of leadership.
  • The Breed Health and Conservation Plan methodology provides a robust framework to benchmark progress across breeds. But, BHCPs need to be communicated more simply and more widely. 
  • Breed clubs have championed many excellent health initiatives, but some breeds continue to lag. Support and knowledge-sharing between breeds could still be improved. We can learn lots from each other (in the UK and internationally).

Looking forward to 2024

To accelerate improvement in 2024, I propose three priorities:

Firstly, build further engagement between all stakeholders in dog health – researchers, veterinarians, regulators, breed clubs, campaigners and the public. The 2022 Danish paper showed our current fragmented approach is failing. We need a coalition to align efforts and make more effective use of knowledge and resources. The IPFD’s planned International Dog Health Workshop to be held in Finland in 2024 could be a pivotal event for reinvigorating stakeholder collaborations.

Secondly, revitalise consistent benchmarking of health improvement across breeds. The Kennel Club’s Breed Health and Conservation Plan initiative has paved the way for applying a consistent approach across all breeds. These documents need to be more widely available and translated into easy to understand, actionable messages for breeders and owners.

Thirdly, prioritise behavioural science to understand the choices of breeders, buyers and owners. Improving health requires changing human behaviour. We need to apply evidence-based methods to address the complex societal factors influencing decisions.

Progress in dog health is a shared responsibility across many communities. But by working together, celebrating achievements, and continuously improving, we can build on the legacy of past efforts. With commitment and consistency, we can ensure every pedigree dog has the best possible life.

 

 

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