 |
I am told the late Queen was shocked by Pedigree Dogs Exposed and recognised the issues. She had been the official patron of the Kennel Club since 1952 and had visited Crufts at Olympia in 1969, but she never went back. Her passion was for working Labs and spaniels - well, apart from the Corgis of course. She also happily embraced the "dorgis" that were initially the result of a misalliance between one of her Corgis and her sister's Dachshund. The story goes that when the Kennel Club commissioned a portrait of the Queen in 1975, she insisted that a favourite dorgi, Tinker, was included in the painting.
It was a fantastically subversive move by the late Monarch and it tickles me that the Kennel Club had no choice but to smile and say "yes ma'am".
 |
| © The Kennel Club |
The Queen died in 2022 - seven months before the KC was given royal status by her son, King Charles III, to mark the Kennel Club's 150th anniversary.
Charles took over from his mum as patron of the Kennel Club, but he too has never visited Crufts and his breed of choice is the tufty-tufty Jack Russell Terrier. Last year he was, apparently, gifted a Lagotto Romagnolo called Snuff but no official photographs of the dog have ever been released.
The impression has always been that, despite the royal patronage, the late Queen and her son were not particularly enamoured with the show-world and had some awareness of the harms caused by purity-breeding. So I was genuinely shocked that an organisation that embraces a culture/breeding paradigm that has continued to harm dogs was given Royal status.
I decided, rather petulantly, that I was going to continue to refer to the organisation as just The Kennel Club. And I held out until last summer when Ian Seath was appointed Chairman on a ticket that promised a genuine commitment to health and making the KC more inclusive/less insular - in my view a necessary shift in focus given falling registrations and income on the current registration/show-scene model.
Particularly useful, I thought, is that Ian's career - outside of the dog world - spans R+D, HR, marketing, product development, IT and consultancy. He also has a science degree and is co-author of several peer-reviewed papers on canine health - a far cry from former Chairman Ronnie Irving who told me in Pedigree Dogs Exposed: "I don't want a bunch of scientists telling me what to do."
I first met Ian on the Eurostar some years ago on the way to a meeting of the International Partnership for Dogs in Paris. There was none of the defensive caginess I was accustomed to when meeting dyed-in-the-wool kennel club folk (barely disguised hatred sometimes, even).
It was quickly obvious that Ian understood the issues, even if he did breed Dachshunds (albeit the healthiest, most conformationally-normal variety - the standard wire). He had also done an enormous amount of work on health in the breed - several health surveys and a commitment to transparency even if the findings were uncomfortable.
I found him so refreshing that I think I even tipped him in a blog I wrote at the time as a future Chairman of the KC.
Despite what people think, I have always wanted the Kennel Club to be a success. Nothing would make me happier than a reformed, science-led Kennel Club that is a true champion for all dogs. So the promise of someone who seemed to embrace this agenda was a woo-hoo moment. Ian Seath's career expertise has been all about encouraging/coaching organisations to do better and there's no doubt he understands the threat from European legislation which is clamping down on conformational extremes and even dog shows themselves.
Also, he isn't a freemason (The Kennel Club has its own lodge). And yes, I know they do good work, but.... There has also been a spectacular failure by anyone to dig up any scandal about him other than that his wife has allowed her stud dogs to be used on non-KC-registered working Teckels. The RKC dirt-dishing FB account Clarges St Cat nicknamed him The Grey Man - but frankly that's something of a compliment given the page's allegations about past Chairmen and several board members.
The mood music from Clarges St in the past year has been extremely encouraging - lots of focus on health; a brilliant new small-populations project highlighting the importance of genetic diversity and the development of a new nose-to-tail veterinary assessment. It's all part of the new Health Framework launched in January this year - work that is independent of Ian but was very much supported by him.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
It has also been good too to see Ian get out and about a lot - not just to shows but to the wider dog world, including the agility, working and obedience communities which don't get so much of a say in what the Kennel Club does.
Crufts 2026 was a bit of a car-crash given the Best in Show Clumber with severe ectropion (and an owner who had been charged, two decades ago, with neglect of his dogs) but overall it has felt like the Royal Kennel Club is turning a corner.
Behind the scenes, though, there have been rumblings that some didn't like the direction of travel. To understand why, you need to understand the make-up of the Kennel Club.
The Club is governed by a Board of Directors which is legally responsible for strategy, finances and oversight. The board appoints the Chief Executive who runs the Club's day-to-day operations and oversees about 200 staff. The board also appoints the Chairman - which is an honorary, expenses-only position albeit one that comes with a lot of prestige (and perks if you're into fine dinners and hobnobbing). The chairmanship is voted on every year, but most Chairmen remain in post for some years. Ronnie Irving was Chair for nine years, Steve Dean for four years and Tony Allcock for six years.
Critically, the directors are drawn from - and elected by - KC members. There are around 1500 of them and the important thing to know about KC members if that they are mostly current and former show breeders and judges - traditionalists steeped in Kennel Club culture.
The KC board (of 24) reflects this. There is currently only a couple of directors from the agility/obedience world and none at all from the working-dog world and so show breeders dominate.
Many still hark after the good old days - when they could do what they want with very little outside scrutiny; when the public bought in to the story that pedigree dogs were special and when the Kennel Club didn't have to spend a small fortune firefighting bad PR.
In reality, the good old days are long gone. Their flagship show Crufts still turns a profit but there's been a catastrophic drop in registrations (the KC's main income) and show entries have dwindled with fewer new people coming into the sport. Overall, the dog-show/activities side of the KC now runs at a loss.
Bad publicity costs the RKC dear. In 2008, Pedigree Dogs Exposed pushed the KC from an operating profit of £500k the year before into an £800k deficit - a consequence of hiring both a pricey PR firm to address the reputational damage and very expensive London lawyers (Schillings) to fight the Ofcom complaint the KC raised against the programme. I understood the KC's knee-jerk reaction to defend itself but the money would have been better spent tackling the issues raised in the programme rather than defend the status quo.
And yet, despite dwindling relevance and reputation, the instinct of many within the Kennel Club is to double down on what has always been its core business - dog shows, pedigree dogs and a gentleman's club in London's Piccadilly offering a three-course silver-service lunch. They blame what has been a precipitous fall from grace on a hostile outside world that, if only they get the optics right, will come round. After all, don't they love their dogs? Are they not doing an amazing job of preserving an invaluable cultural heritage? And when it's pointed out that many breeds don't look anything like the dogs of 100 years ago, they will maintain that it has been in the name of betterment, despite the wealth of evidence that in many breeds it has been to their detriment.
So what of the new Chairman, Gavin Robertson, appointed in something close to a boardroom coup on June 30th?
Without a shadow of a doubt, Gavin is show royalty - in the UK and overseas. He's been showing and breeding dogs since he was a child and is a senior championship show judge. He has bred over 90 UK champions and won Crufts in 2013 with the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Ch Soletrader Peek A Boo ("Jilly"). He also bred the Westminster 2023 Best in Show winning PBGV (Am Ch Soletrader Buddy Holly).
The vibe from some on the show Facebook pages after Gavin was appointed was one of relief... that it means a return to the RKC's raison d'être. "Us mere members, exhibitors and judges will be hoping you can bring order and pride back to the world of pedigree dogs," wrote one breeder on Gavin's FB timeline. "Congratulations Gavin. May common sense return to the RKC," wrote another.
But for many of us lobbying for the improved health of pedigree dogs, it felt like a bereavement. Boxer breeder Tim Hutchings , in a comment on Ian's Facebook page, spoke for many when he wrote: "Thank you for your incredible hard work, your integrity, your freedom from ambition, your normality, your absolute decency and for your 100% straightforward approach."
Facebook posts from the outgoing and incoming Chairs were revealing.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
What struck me most was Ian's closing line - "It's all about the dogs" - compared to Gavin's reference to the sport.
Gavin runs a breeding and boarding kennels and dog grooming parlour in Oxfordshire, from where he also runs a small company supplying high-end dog and cat housing. His Linked-in profile lists no higher education or business experience outside of his own. But, clearly, he has lived and breathed show-dogs all his life.
He will, am sure, be running on a ticket of positivity about pedigree dogs - an approach he took after his 2013 Crufts'win when he embarked on a 130 mile walk with his PBGV Jilly. The idea was to promote pedigree dogs as fit for function and to raise money for some genuinely good causes (inc Great Ormond Street and Dog Lost).
"I am so proud of Jilly for winning Crufts and wanted to use the profile that her win gave us to do something for deserving causes," said Gavin at the time. "Outside of the show ring Jilly is such an active dog, so I know she'll have no problem walking 130 miles."
"The dogs that compete at Crufts have to be in great shape so she will be well-prepared for this challenge," said the Kennel Club.
It was a great idea - and would have been even better if Jilly had actually walked the whole way. But she didn't. For some of the walk they used another dog, while Jilly was transported in a van. This was spotted by chance by dog show photographer Sue Thatcher on one of the legs of the walk.
"Everyone was waiting for Gavin and the team to arrive at the Three Locks Pub at Stoke Hammond," she says. "They were all waiting outside the pub. But I had parked in the canal car park on the other side of the road and as I walked out of it I saw a blue van parked up the road. The door was open and outside on the blind side of the van there was a dog on a lead that I thought looked like Jilly. "To be honest, I didn't think much of it. It was only later when I looked at the pictures that I and others had taken along the route that I realised that the dog Gavin Robertson is walking in many of the photographs is clearly not Jilly." (Jilly's Jolly Jaunt Facebook page)
Although Gavin later claimed that he had never said that Jilly would walk all the way, to me it felt typical of the sleight of hand I have so frequently seen from both the Kennel Club and breeders. Too often, the "responsible breeder" veneer cracks when you look in-depth at their breeding practices - sometimes because they're not actually doing the health testing they claim distinguishes them from "back-yard" breeders; other times because of profligate inbreeding or because they're oblivious to the harm they're causing through the pursuit of a particular, rosette-winning look.
In Our Dogs two weeks ago, Gavin expressed a commitment to see through governance reform and health initiatives. I hope that happens. And I hope his commitment to health extends fully to his own breed, the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen, which suffers from an awful eye disease - Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG). It generally manifests around three or four years old and can be excruciatingly painful.
Affected dogs can lose their sight - and sometimes their eyes.
 |
"This disease is difficult to manage because it is often silent in its approach and, by the time the diagnosis is made, the dog's sight is often badly affected " writes eye specialist Professor Peter Bedford on the PBGV UK Club's website. "Once the process starts it is almost impossible to control. The earlier the diagnosis, the better the chance of effective treatment."
Today, all PBGV owners are urged to have their dogs' eyes checked regularly for early signs of the disease, the most common of which is elevated intra-ocular pressure.
The mutation is a simple recessive, meaning that pups have to inherit two copies of the mutation (one from each parent) to be affected. These dogs will almost certainly develop glaucoma if they live long enough. Carriers will not develop the disease - but will pass the mutation on to about half of their offspring.
The mutation, in a gene called ADAMTS17, was found by the genetics team at Animal Health Trust in 2015. Among the 311 dogs tested during the first year that the DNA test was commercially avaiilable, 19 were genetically affected (about 1 in 16), 146 were carriers (about 1 in 2), and 146 were clear (about 1 in 2). Put simply, half the dogs were carrying at least one copy of the glaucoma mutation - extremely high.
The team at the AHT, led by Cathryn Mellersh, had found that the mutation had most likely come into the breed in the UK via a single French dog - which just goes to show what can happen in a numerically small breed with a lot of inbreeding.
Nevertheless, given that PBGVs are mostly reputably bred by Kennel Club breeders under the auspices of the PBGV Club, the scientists estimated that it should only take about 15 years for the disease to be eliminated in the UK stock. (Only 85 PBGV were registered by the RKC in 2025 and only two in the first quarter of 2026 so it is, numerically, a very small breed in the UK).
The advice to breeders was to continue using carriers in the short-term (so as to minimise the impact on genetic diversity), to test all breeding stock and then to slowly reduce the frequency of the mutation by choosing clear dogs where possible.
However, 11 years on, many of Gavin Robertson's Soletrader PBGVs are still carriers.
I asked the new Chairman about this in a series of questions I put to him for this article.
He replied: "The mutation was identified by Dr Mellersh's team, published in 2015, and the DNA test has been available to breeders ever since. When it arrived, the breed was told to expect that a very high proportion of dogs would carry it and breed carriers to clear and bring the frequency down generation by generation - because you cannot responsibly empty a small gene pool overnight, and every geneticist and ophthalmologist who has advised us has said exactly that."
But it is not this open-ended according to the PBGV Club UK, of which Gavin is Vice- President. There it states: "As part of her Animal Health Trust work Cathryn Mellersh produced a valuable and useful paper on the subject giving advice that Carriers should always be included in the first one or two generations that follow the launch of a DNA test for a recessive mutation. This...gives breeders the opportunity to capture desirable traits, such as breed type and temperament, before they start to select for dogs that are Clear of the mutation."
In fact, there have even been two Soletrader carrier x carrier matings since the DNA test was launched.
Gavin maintains that one was an accidental mating - and the other a record-keeping error. "The earlier one, years ago, a bitch got in whelp before I knew it, and I had to DNA test two males to establish the sire, who turned out to be a carrier.
"I informed The Kennel Club at the time, and there are records of that," he says. "The affected dog from those litters has been monitored and cared for. Mistakes happen in any kennel. What matters is what you do about them, and I chose transparency rather than hiding the facts."
Gavin has declined to name the dogs involved in this mating - or to answer a question about a mating last year between Soletrader Happy as Larry (who is a carrier) and Soletrader Fun Times for Rangali for whom there is no POAG test listed on either the RKC or PBGV Breed Archive websites.
But the dogs involved in the second carrier x carrier mating that Gavin admits to are known. They are Soletrader Buddy Holly and Soletrader Missy Elliott - both listed as carriers on the RKC. They produced a litter of five pups born on 29th April 2025. The pups' POAG status is not as yet listed on the RKC website, although I imagine it is known. It looks like Gavin has kept two pups - Soletrader Puppet Master and Soletrader Golly Miss Molly - for his show stable.
The mating was, says Gavin, his mistake. "I keep a breeding chart and a bitch was written up as clear when she was in fact a carrier," he admits. "That is on me."
Gavin has also produced an affected dog from a carrier x carrier mating that predates the DNA test (ie not his fault). The parents were Gavin's famous Crufts champion Jilly and Soletrader Dunc N Disorderly - both subsequently found to be carriers.
This mating produced Soletrader Annie Mac, whose DNA test in April 2015 revealed that she was homozygous for the POAG mutation - affected. She went on to be a successful show-dog - a champion in both the UK and USA.
Disturbingly, Annie Mac has since been bred twice (both times to clears) - once in the US (a litter of three born in January 2018) and once in the UK, resulting in a singleton pup born in February 2020. This was eight months after a BVA/KC/ISDS eye test in June 2019 certified that she was clinically affected with POAG and had elevated intra-ocular pressures. The standard treatment, in order to protect her sight, would have been to start eye drops that lower the pressure.
The problem - apart from the fact that every single pup born from an affected will be a carrier - is that the class of drugs used to treat canine glaucoma (prostaglandins) are the same ones used to terminate pregnancy in dogs. In both humans and dogs, labels warn against their use in pregnant or nursing animals. In dogs, the meds can cause partial abortion - the resorption (loss) of embryos.
Breeding from Annie Mac set up a direct conflict between her sight and her pregnancy. And it could also explain why she only had one pup.
Gavin has declined to answer a question asking if he knew that the drugs were dangerous in pregnant and lactating bitches.
The second problem is that breeding from a glaucoma-affected dog is also against explicit published guidance at every level: the European College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists states for primary glaucoma "NO BREEDING from the affected animal" (ECVO Manual, 2024); the RKC itself advises "we do not recommend that you breed from a dog that has been affected by glaucoma" ; and the BVA/KC Eye Scheme holds that "dogs affected by known inherited eye conditions should not be bred from" . Breeding Annie Mac breached the guidance of the specialist veterinary body, the national kennel club, and her own breed's health scheme.
Gavin's response: "I bred [Annie Mac] to a hereditary clear dog, which produces carriers but never affected puppies, and she had a single carrier pup in February 2020. She developed clinical signs only much later in life, which was managed with drops. She died only just recently, aged nearly thirteen, of old age and not of POAG. She spent her retirement in a pet home with someone I know well and see regularly, went for her pressure checks, and was on drops in her later years to keep her comfortable. She had a good, long life."
Cathryn Mellersh, now at the University of Cambridge where she is head of the Canine Genetics Centre, is uncomfortable about carrier x carrier matings: "Carrier to carrier matings simply should not happen once a DNA test is available. I also don't really like breeding with affected dogs for two reasons," she says. "The first is in consideration for the bitch as she could be in pain or on medications that might affect the pups. This will vary with disease and age of onset, but should be considered. Second, it will produce a litter of all carriers, so won't help reduce the mutation frequency at all. It won't produce any clear dogs that could potentially be bred on from. If the affected parent is exceptional, or free of another common mutation, then it might be justifiable, but it should be looked at carefully."
A clue as to why the ADAMTS17 mutation took hold in the breed might be because the gene also plays a role in skeletal growth. A second paper from the AHT, in 2019, found that dogs that were homozygous (ie had two copies of the mutation) were shorter and more compact than dogs without the mutation - attributes that at least historically were actively selected for after the breed was split genetically from the larger Grand Basset Griffon Vendéen in the 1970s (prior to this, interbreeding was allowed).
Essentially, any selection pressure favouring the shorter or more compact dogs would inadvertently co-select the disease allele, because the shorter dog is more likely to carry it.
Another area of concern is that Gavin has talked openly about how he likes to inbreed/line-breed.
Annie Mac, for instance, was very inbred with a COI of 27.3% according to the RKC website. (Her father is also her great grandfather and her great-great grandfather).
 |
| Click to enlarge |
In an interview with Ante Lucin dating from 2021, Gavin says: "With our breed, because they are not a standard shape.... I do a lot of line-breeding.. I am a huge fan of doing line breeding and I know now you have to be careful of two much inbreeding but I am a huge fan of half-sister/half-brother.. this sort of combinations that really cement [the look]"
I asked him if this was still his view on inbreeding and if so how he balances it with the need to retain genetic diversity in a small breed.
"No serious breeder in a small population breed can ignore diversity, and I do not," he says. "I breed to the whole dog, not to a single trait and not just to eye status, and I plan several generations ahead. As a long term breeder, I have used dogs from all over the world to open up the gene pool as best possible, taking in health and breed type as the main factors.
"What I mean by 'cementing type' is breeding consistent, healthy, fit-for-function dogs, not narrowing the gene pool for its own sake. After a good many years and a great many healthy dogs, I would say we get it right far more often than not."
I asked if he felt he should be setting a better example.
"The genetics of POAG in the PBGV began to be investigated around 15 years ago," he says. "I was helpful during the original research, providing DNA from affected and clear dogs and helping to raise funds. I contributed more dogs to the research programme than anybody else in the UK.
"Overall, my view is that we should breed on the best genetic and veterinary advice available. Reduce a problem steadily rather than recklessly. Be open about mistakes. Look after every dog for its whole life. And engage with new science instead of hiding from it. As a breed in the UK, breeders like myself welcome and embrace new veterinary health recommendations to improve the wellbeing of this breed."
The best veterinary advice, clearly, is to not breed from a dog with glaucoma.
As my old mum (and René Descartes before her) used to say: "Watch what people do, not what they say".
Gavin Robertson is a successful breeder who is personable and articulate and the RKC is much more than just its Chairman. But I fear the Board has made a poor choice in someone that may keep the show-breeders happy but does not appear to have the bigger-picture experience, education or financial acumen of his predecessor.
There is no doubt that the Kennel Club is now at a crossroads. It cannot survive as a viable force without diversification; without increasing its relevance to the wider dog-owner public or without continuing to embrace health reforms that mean some quite fundamental changes in the way we breed dogs. This won't be done by PR spin - and it needs to be headed up by someone who sets an exemplary example on health.
I spotted this comment on Ian Seath's Facebook a few days ago - from border collie breeder, Jill Spurr.
"It seems to me that the RKC is at an 'adapt or die' juncture," she wrote "and in order to keep the historic part people hold dear, members need to be ready to embrace change. It's really quite astounding that RKC is not thriving when the pet care industry in the UK is worth around £10 billion, the lion's share being on dogs. It's constantly subject to premiumisation too, and earmarked by capital investment specialists as a growth area. If the Board isn't asking why legacy brands like RKC and Crufts aren't part of that growth, they aren't asking the right questions."
Or possibly just not liking the answers.
References
Forman OP, Pettitt L, Komáromy AM, Bedford P, Mellersh C (2015). A Novel Genome-Wide Association Study Approach Using Genotyping by Exome Sequencing Leads to the Identification of a Primary Open Angle Glaucoma Associated Inversion Disrupting ADAMTS17. PLOS ONE.
Jeanes EC, Oliver JAC, Ricketts SL, Gould DJ, Mellersh CS (2019). Glaucoma-causing ADAMTS17 mutations are also reproducibly associated with height in two domestic dog breeds. Canine Genetics and Epidemiology 6:5. https://cgejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40575-019-0071-6
Bedford PGC (2017). Open-angle glaucoma in the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen. Veterinary Ophthalmology 20:98–102. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26945802/
European College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists (2024). ECVO Manual — Chapter 8: Breeding advice. ("NO BREEDING from the affected animal" — primary glaucoma.) https://www.ecvo.eu/media/chapter_8_vet_advice_2024.pdf
The Royal Kennel Club. Glaucoma in dogs ("we do not recommend that you breed from a dog that has been affected by glaucoma"). https://www.royalkennelclub.com/health-and-dog-care/health-dog-care/health/health-and-care/a-z-of-health-and-care-issues/glaucoma-in-dogs/
BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme. Primary glaucoma — advice for owners ("dogs affected by known inherited eye conditions should not be bred from"). https://www.bva.co.uk/media/2812/primary-glaucoma-for-owners.pdf
PBGV Club of America. POAG in the PBGV (affected dogs "will pass the defective gene to all offspring"). https://pbgv.org/poag-in-the-pbgv/
UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory. Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma (POAG) in the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen (10.4% prevalence; onset 3–4 years). https://vgl.ucdavis.edu/news/new-test-available-primary-open-angle-glaucoma-poag-petit-basset-griffon-vendeen
FCI Standard No. 67 — Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen (historical summary; height 34–38 cm). http://www.fci.be/nomenclature/Standards/067g06-en.pdf
PBGV Club of America. Breed history (1909 standard; Grand/Petit interbreeding banned 1970s). https://pbgv.org/pbgvhistory/
BGV Club (UK). A History of the Breed (interbreeding ban, 1970s). https://bgvclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/401THEGBGVAHISTORYOFTHEBREED.pdf
MSD Veterinary Manual. Prevention or Termination of Pregnancy in Bitches and Queens (PGF2α as the standard abortifacient). https://www.msdvetmanual.com/management-and-nutrition/management-of-reproduction-dogs-and-cats/prevention-or-termination-of-pregnancy-in-bitches-and-queens
Merck Veterinary Manual. Treatment of Glaucoma in Animals (sustained IOP >30 mmHg warrants aggressive therapy; latanoprost first-line). https://www.merckvetmanual.com/pharmacology/systemic-pharmacotherapeutics-of-the-eye/treatment-of-glaucoma-in-animals
VCA Animal Hospitals. Latanoprost ophthalmic (use with caution in pregnant/nursing animals). https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/latanaprost-ophthalmic
Canine Genetics Centre, University of Cambridge. Relieving the pressure of inherited glaucoma in dogs (credits Peter Bedford's survey work; Mellersh affiliation). https://www.canine-genetics.org.uk/relieving-the-pressure-of-inherited-glaucoma-in-dogs/
Robertson, G. Interview with Ante Lucin (2021). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prJ6q37adL4
No comments:
Post a Comment