Shar-pei - the eyes have it

Have what?

Well, quite often entropion - the turning in of the eye margins causing damage to the dogs' eyes.

It is a direct consequence of the wrinkling/skin folds that have become a defining feature of the Westernised version of the breed but was never a feature of the original Shar-pei (see here).

And, indeed, it is is so bad that "tacking" is routine in the breed -  a procedure in which the vet places sutures around the eye when the dogs are pups to prevent the eye surface being injured by the inward rolling of eyelashes.

This often does the trick; sometimes, though, Shar-pei need more surgery to correct the entropion when they are older.

Shar-pei breeders are so de-sensitised to this that tacking (and entropion surgery) is not considered a big deal in the breed. In fact, in the twisted logic adopted by some breeders, tacking is actually considered a sign of a responsible breeder. And although the Kennel Club dictated a few years back that dogs that have had their eyes tacked cannot be shown, insiders tell me that an awful lot of show dogs will have had their eyes tacked as pups. It is hard to prove one way or the other.

But there are some breeders taking a stand and one in particular I'd like to praise.

Three years ago, I blogged this photograph, as featured in a book by the photographer Tim Flach. As you can see, this very wrinkled eight-week-old pup is sporting a stitch above her right eye - a "tack".

It turned out that the pup was bred by a UK-based breeder called Ines Alarcao. She took quite a lot of stick at the time and has since withdrawn from showing.

But she's kept breeding Shar-pei and she recently sent me these pix of her current litter of eight pups. Here they are at six weeks old. They all have clear eyes and not a single one has had to be tacked. They also have fewer wrinkles and bigger ears (breeding for very small ears in Shar-pei has led to tiny ear canals prone to ear infections).

Have a look at these photos and then see below for what Ines says about these pups.

It's a big improvement - at least in terms of their conformation.

I asked Ines how she had achieved it:

"I bought two girls from different lines four years ago , with reasonable eyes and not many wrinkles and good ears. I have mated them with guys with the same features. One of them produced a blue boy with excellent eyes, the other produced a girl with good eyes too, and  I have now mated these two together and produced this guys.   Some people say that good eyes are a matter of luck. Not true! But I had to find it through trial and error. I am keeping two girls from this litter , I bought another one that has got less wrinkles and more traditional features, and I have another 6 mth-old girl that i bred and kept with really good eyes. My new breeding program will  be based on them."

Now these pups are still too immoderate for me. And, in my opinion, this breed is too inbred and has too many inherent health problems (notably Familial Shar-pei Fever) to be able to justify breeding it at all.

But I really was pleased to see these pix. A step in the right direction.

Lola the Bulldog: tu-tu much

Now I'm all for a good party. And I don't have any inherent objections to dogs being dressed up.

But let's not pretend that this is for the dogs, eh? Especially when the party girl has to be taken out every 10 minutes and be blasted with air-conditioning to stop her collapsing (see from 10.31).

See how Lola tries to take the matter into her own hands at 11.15 minutes in with a blatant attempt at suicide.

Suspect this video will be taken down pretty quickly... enjoy, or otherwise, while you can.

Pedigree Cats Exposed

Extreme cats at the Supreme Cat Show at the National Exhibiton Centre in Birmingham today.

We didn't just fuck up dogs.

We tried very hard to persuade the BBC to commission Pedigree Cats Exposed but after much deliberating, they turned it down. "Too like the dogs" was their verdict.

Well exactly. 

Haven't quite given up yet. 

Frenchies: breathtaking

Now one would think that given the current focus on French Bulldogs that the breed club would have been able to furnish one for the breed stand at Discover Dogs yesterday that had, you know, nostrils.

But no. There wasn't a nostril between them.

Cataracts too... perhaps just an older dog

Dogs pant through their mouths - but they breathe through their nostrils. To get an idea of what this feels like, close your mouth and pinch your nostrils. Even the slightest pressure feels awful. Increase it and it's impossible not to feel panic.

This is what too many in this breed has to endure. The restricted airflow means the dogs have to make an increased effort to breathe which leads to (or is accompanied by) a host of airway pathology, often requiring surgery.

Stenotic nares - before and after surgery

The breed Club had a lot of info on the stand on Frenchie health and they talk such a good game re health that the Kennel Club has just taken them off their high profile breeds list despite there being little concrete evidence that this breed has improved (see here).

But ask yourself this: if they were really that concerned, would they have allowed these dogs to be put on display as examples of the breed?

I can only see two other possible reasons:

Either they are ignorantly unaware of the suffering caused by breeding dogs with stenotic nares like this.

Or there aren't any Frenchies with normal nostrils.

Not of course that the public, equally culpable in all this, gives a shit. The French Bulldog breed stand was packed with lots of people cooing over the cute little dogs with the smushed-in faces.

Registrations for this breed are going through the roof.

There were just 349 French Bulldogs registered with the Kennel Club in 2003. Last year there were  4648 and, in just the first three quarters of this year, 4843.

I will be attending this event tomorrow... looking forward to it.

Bassets... too true

Spotted at the Kennel Club's Discover Dogs Show in London today.

French Bulldogs removed from the KC's high profile list

According to the French Bulldog Club, Frenchies are to be removed from the KC's high-profile breed list  (see here). This means the breed will no longer be subject to vet checks at KC champ shows.

The move is intended as a reward to a breed club that has, under the health stewardship of Penny Rankine-Parsons, embraced that there are problems in the breed and the need for research/health surveys.

The problem is that there's no evidence that any of the breed club's initiatives have actually improved the health of the breed.

There is certainly little evidence that Frenchie breeders are willing to give up on a conformation that in the past 100 years has tilted this breed from moderate to extreme brachycephalism... the same health-compromising, dim-witted direction that affects so many of the brachycephalic breeds.  

The Frenchie breed standard in fact calls for a "well-defined" muzzle, but in profile the breed now has practically no muzzle - a far cry from some of the dogs of old. 

Left: BOB French Bulldog 2011. Right:French Bulldog 1917

As the English Club's own advice on health spells out: "Being a brachycephalic breed that is fairly short and compact with a screw tail, the 'Frenchie' is prone to the associated problems these conformational characteristics will bring."

Of course. It's immutable. Set in stone. 

Have a look at the dogs being exhibited by current top winning kennel, Glenlee - including the Crufts 2013 winner, Renuar New War Bonnet. You can see their current showteam here; it boasts a veritable smorgasbord of stenotic nares.

The 2004 KC/BSAVA survey found that 53% of French Bulldogs suffer one or more health conditions and that the median age of death is 9 years old (only two thirds of the "lifespan of around 12-14 years on average" claimed by the French Bulldog Club of England).

Additionally, many can't mate naturally, over 80 per cent of the breed is delivered by C-section (ref here) and there is a neonatal puppy mortality rate of around 30 per cent.

Yep, this breed doesn't want to mate, doesn't want to be born and does its level best to die if forced into it.

Have a look at this American breeder's site for some eye-watering honesty about French Bulldogs.

It also states, as if it's bad thing: "Bargain-priced French Bulldog pups are bred for from large, long-backed, small-headed, out-at-the-nose French Bulldogs who can breed naturally because of their longer backs and legs. Puppy mills prefer them like this because the small-headed pups they produce can free-whelp without need of a costly cesarian making them more profit."

And just so we can tell the difference, there's a helpful illustration comparing the dreadful small-head, longer-nosed, free-mating, free-whelping ones and the desirable huge-headed, flat-faced, artificially-inseminated, c-sectioned ones.

Apparently, you're supposed to want the one on the right.

Despite all this dysfunction, only one winning Frenchie in the UK has failed a vet check since the KC introduced them in 2012.  But don't be surprised -  the vet checks are pretty much rubbish,  sufficient to pick up lameness or an obvious eye or skin problem, but useless at picking up anything more fundamental, including exercise intolerance due to underlying brachycephalic obstructed airway syndrome. The vets are not allowed to put a stethoscope on the dogs and the dogs only have to trot up and down a few yards. Winning dogs are also often carried/wheeled from the ring to the vet-check to give them the best chance of a pass.

So, if the vet checks are mostly a PR exercise, does it matter that the breed is now exempt?

Yes it does because removing Frenchies from the high profile breed list sends out a strong message that the breed is OK when it isn't - and at a time when KC registrations of this breed are soaring. And it also sends out a dangerous message to others on the high profile breed list - i.e. looking like you're doing something to tackle health problems is good enough.

Even more infuriating is that this morning the Dog Advisory Council - the independent body set up to monitor and find ways to improve dog health post Pedigree Dogs Exposed - has congratulated the breed club for being relieved of what it calls the "stigma" of being on the high profile breed list, as if somehow the Frenchie didn't deserve such a label.

This makes no sense at all. The Dog Advisory Council has stated clearly that it thinks the vet checks are "flimsy" and should be replaced with something much more robust. Why then should removal from such a meaningless test warrant any congratulations? And why would it see being a high profile breed a "stigma" rather than, say, an opportunity?

The answer? I suspect it's that the Council's David Sargan is working closely with the breed club's health rep, Penny Rankine-Parsons, on a Cambridge Vet School initiative to find a way to measure respiratory function in brachycepahlic breeds. (For more info see here.) It is a commendable project - and the French Bulldog breed club has been much better than the Pug Club in offering support.

All good stuff.

But this doesn't take away the fact that the French Bulldog is a fundamentally unhealthy breed.

I've had an exchange of views about this today on the DACs Facebook page. David Sargan has admonished me for being ungracious in not recognising all the wonderful work the breed club is doing. He also suggests that the most extreme health problems may reside in the swathe of imported puppies from Eastern Europe - something that could be true but for which there is no supporting data.

I have accused Sargan of drinking the breed club Kool-Aid; his perspective shot by the close contact with a handful of people in the breed who are making the right noises (something I've seen so many times). That's not to say that I am dismissive of the measures the breed club is taking to improve breed health. I'm not. It's just that there is no evidence that any of them have been effective as yet (after all, how could they, when most of them are so new?)

And, anyway, the measures don't go far enough.

Frenchie breeders need to give this breed back some muzzle. The club also needs to state emphatically that dogs that have had surgery to correct breathing problems should never be bred from - instead of its current advice that they can be used as long as mated to a more sound dog.

Stenotic nares need to be severely penalised.

The breed standard should also (as does the FCI standard) call for taillessness, or too short a tail, to be a disqualifying fault and an effort made to breed for a longer back. All Frenchies used to have a tail. But in the pursuit of a shorter body/spine, it has been largely lost, leading to several health problems (see here).

1899 French Bulldog -  described as being "first-rate in skull and body properties"
(Picture courtesy:Pietoro's Dog Breed Historical Pictures)

2013 - top-winning Eastonite Hurricane

It's quite a difference, isn't it? And I can't see a single change here that is functionally beneficial to the dog. Earlier dogs had a smaller head, wider nostrils, longer muzzle, longer legs, longer spine and tail. And they whelped naturally because routine C-sections for dogs are an entirely modern phenomenon.

After all, if you were a dog, which would you prefer to be... This one, from 1925?

 Or this one?

Crufts 2011

Syringomyelia in pugs

Peppi, the Pug with syringomyelia

Four years ago, Heather from Shropshire called the Kennel Club looking for a Pug puppy. They recommended a breeder in the West Midlands who had puppies on the ground.

Heather called and reserved a fawn pup. A little while later, the breeder called to say the pup had been PTS because of hydrocephalus and offered Heather a black male as an alternative.  Heather agreed and, a little while later, handed over £970 and took the pup home.

When Peppi was 12 months old, he had a fit. Six months later, another one. A check didn't reveal much and Heather was told to wait-see. Some dogs have a fit or two but never go on to develop full-blown epilepsy. And, indeed, that's what happened in Peppi's case.  But by March this year, Heather knew her beloved Pug was in trouble. "He wasn't eating or drinking and I could tell he was in pain."

Peppi was referred to Pearl Vets in Shrewsbury where he had an MRI. The diagnosis? Syringomyelia.

Although the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is the poster pup for syringomyelia, it has been reported in several small breeds, including Pugs (of all the breeds that cannot afford yet another health problem to add to its litany of issues).

Heather did the right thing - she called the breeder, Michelle Jones of Precious Pugs.  Ms Jones was clearly a little alarmed, revealing that she had kept two others from the litter to breed from. Heather expressed concern about this - after which the conversation got a little frosty. Heather claims it ended with Ms Jones threatened to sue Heather if she started bad-mouthing her breeding.

Heather is very upset about her little dog's suffering. Peppi has been on steroids now since March and although it has helped his condition, he has blown up like a balloon. She called everyone, including the Kennel Club, to complain. And finally she contacted me.

Now note that I am not blaming Ms Jones for the fact that one of the Pugs she has bred has syringomeylia. As I said, it's present in a lot of small breeds and it's perfectly possible that Peppi is the first dog of her breeding that has been diagnosed with SM.

And of course I think anyone that buys a Pug is pretty much nuts. If it isn't syringomyelia, it will be brachycephalic airway syndrome, or hemivertebrae or pigmentary keratitis or luxating patellas or....

But I do object to breeders threatening to sue pet owners for going public with their dogs' health problems - and unfortunately, it happens too often. For the record, it's a meaningless threat. Truth is a very good defence in any defamation/libel case.

So here, for the record, is Peppi's pedigree in the hope that it might join up some dots.

Lots of champions in here - and a lot of inbreeding. The Kennel Club's Mate Select reveals that Peppi (Kenine Ebony King) has a co-efficient of inbreeding of 21% - against the breed average of 6%. Peppi's parents are half-siblings and there are many repeat names throughout this five-generation pedigree.

Click to enlarge