Karlton Index 2013

The results of the 2013 Karlton Index survey have been published today. Launched last year, the aim of the Karlton Index is to highlight good practice within breed clubs, to share ideas and to "offer encouragement to all breeds in the difficult challenges faced in managing health and welfare issues."

"Its aim is also to recognise the hard work that is invested in breed health and to highlight the efforts to those who commit their time and efforts into these issues," explains Philippa Robinson, who created the Index.

Philippa is a pet owner who was "politicised" on this issue through the experience of owning a German Wirehaired Pointer, Alfie, who died aged four of idiopathic epilepsy. She now owns a gorgeous wire x weim crossbreed, in good health I believe.

Philippa first contacted me in March 2007 to tell me about Alfie and we interviewed her for Pedigree Dogs Exposed - an interview that hit the cutting room floor, not because it wasn't any good (Philippa talked fluently and passionately on the issues as she saw them) but because it was hard to stand-up, in a legally-concrete way, the claim that Alfie's breeder had been negligent. As such, Philippa appears in PDE only briefly, taking a walk with Cavalier campaigner, Carol Fowler.

After the film, the relationship continued, but we drifted apart a couple of years ago after a disastrous attempt to set up a charity designed to promote and campaign on better dog health and welfare.  The reasons were several-fold but probably boil down to Philippa being frustrated with my casual acquaintance with deadlines (justified...) and me put out by how sharp she can be on occasions.

Since then, we have exchanged the occasional email - most friendly-enough; others which have doubtless made one or the other of us bridle.

Meanwhile, I continue my role as the gobby blogger scrutinising breeds and health reforms with a critical eye. And Philippa has taken a different tack: she has now forged relationships with the Kennel Club and breed clubs/breeders, feeling that this is a more positive, productive approach.

The result is a very different Karlton Index to the last one, which was largely critical (and which is no longer available on the Karlton Index website). The 2013 survey is clearly designed to encourage more than damn. And that's fair enough. There are, after all, many ways to skin a cat.

But I have a problem with the Karlton Index and it concerns what it measures and how it measures it.

For notwithstanding the huge effort that Philippa has put into this  - all on an unpaid, volunteer basis -  the Karlton Index doesn't actually measure progress in health (as it claims) - it mostly measures the appearance of health. 

Just like dog shows.

So, for example, breed clubs get marks for disseminating health information, for conducting surveys and publishing the results, for holding health seminars and for out-reaching to pet owners through a half-decent website.

All well and good and sometimes this will translate into better health, but of course not always. Some breed clubs are real bullshitters and too often proactive health campaigners within the breed are  ignored and even vilified by other breeders. The Cavalier Club is a case in point - heaps of health info on the website, but behind the scenes still in denial about the extent of the health problems in the breed and even Committee members ignoring the breeding protocols designed to improve breed health.

Philippa's scoring is, she concedes, often subjective - garnered in the most part from looking at websites, talking to the KC and breed clubs and, in some instances, breeders on the ground. I imagine that some of her information comes privately from emails, too. But at best this gives a somewhat patchy picture of what's really going on..

There is one exception: one part of the survey is designed to measure "Impact", and this is spelled out precisely, as follows:

Elimination of conformational abnormalities. 

Greater genetic diversity for individual dogs and breed as a whole. 

Reduction in the incidence of genetic disease. 

In this year's Index, Philippa 41 breeds have improved their "Impact" rating - and yet I can find no hard or objective evidence, based on the criteria above, to support these claims. 

Meanwhile, here, according to Philppa, are the top 10 breeds for 2013.

Click to enlarge

And this, I think, illustrates the problem. In first place is the Dachshund - undoubtedly prompted by amazing work that's been done on health by Dachshund Breed Council Chairman Ian Seath. It ticks many of Philippa's boxes, but the issue remains that Dachshund breeders are in the main clinging to a conformational extreme that is contributing to a very high level of disc disease in the breed - up to 25 per cent. And rather than straight-up demanding more moderate dogs, the Club is (in my view) time-wasting in funding research into finding a gene or genes for Dachshund disc disease when both (and more) approaches are needed.

Now, sure, some extreme dogs appear to suffer less than less extreme ones. Yep, some varieties suffer less, too. But bottom line, what do you expect when you breed a dog that is so proportionately out of kilter?

Now there is no doubt that the Dachshund Club/Council are being truly proactive on health. And yet I fear that this gives out the message that breeding long dogs with almost no legs is OK when it isn't. 

And how about the Flatcoated Retriever in second place?  Again, the Flatcoated Retriever Society is reasonably proactive on health initiatives. It is now promoting a Flatcoat Death Register and last month the Club announced that it was reopening its Group Study, following a rolling cohort of Flatcoats for life - and better, still, it is open to all flatcoats worldwide. Both are useful, but as I have whinged on many occasions, the Society plays down the elephant in the room - that more than 50 per cent of flatcoats are dead from cancer by the age of 8/9.  (And when I mention it I am accused of "ruining the breed".) 

The Irish Setter, meanwhile, is in a dire state with epilepsy and bloat rife. And the inclusion of the Bernese Mountain dog at No 6 is a mystery.

I emailed Philippa with my concerns this morning, specifically about the subjectivity and arbitrary nature of her scoring. I asked for the data to support the improved "Impact" scores. And in relation to Berners, I asked her this:

"You praise the BMD Club for a health seminar that took place in 2011 (so not current) - a seminar about which [health rep] Steve Green himself said that only 30 UK breeders (out of 1200 club members) attended.  They have come sixth and yet this is the breed with the highest rate of cancer of them all. Additionally, are you aware that they have never reported on their 2009 health survey, and in fact have removed all mention of it from their website?  Steve Green himself is fab but how much impact is he having? Have I missed something?"

Philippa replied that individual breed summaries (that presumably will answer my questions) were not available but will be released in April/May.

Additionally, she wrote: "To address those questions and more I am planning follow-up workshops to be held at locations around the country (hopefully at vet schools) so that these incredibly important issues can be explored in a meaningful context i.e. not just batted about ping pong fashion on facebook and blogs."

The exchange kinda deteriorated from there, with Philippa saying she "didn't like the line" I was taking - and ending just now with her emailing: "You are very tiresome. And of course I would expect many of the quarters with whom I now engage to think that also. But what has really surprised me this past 18 months is the number of eminent people not connected with the KC or breed clubs who find both you and Beverley so. I won’t be visiting your blog to find out your thoughts."

Oh I bet she does... And I hope she does  - because flinging insults because she doesn't like the scrutiny isn't grown-up, professional or productive. And also because I believe my concerns are valid (as indeed she herself appeared to acknowledge at the start of the communication today).

(The reference to Beverley, by the way, is to Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs' Today magazine - and while I can understand that many find me an irritant, I can see no justification for including Beverley in the above. Bev is a hands-on helper on so many dog fronts - including running the successful Don't Cook Your Dog campaign and spearheading a super charity Tailwaggers which helps people struggling to pay vet bills. Beverley doesn't even opine that much on pedigree dog health these days; it's just that some have never forgiven her for claiming in Pedigree Dogs Exposed that "the dogs are falling apart".)

The bottom line is that I feel Philippa should have waited until she could provide the missing data.  After all, she has recently completed - with distinction - a Masters of Science degree in Human Resource Management and she tells me: "Part of [this] was a module called Research Philosophy and Methods - in which I achieved a mark of 78% - it is usually a very tough module for students so such a mark is rare."

And yet such a module must have stressed the importance of supporting your conclusions with hard data. After all, it is a demand made of any serious research.

I hope I'm not being too mean to Philippa - and I welcome views from others. I do see a point to the Karlton Index, and I do appreciate that she's put a huge amount of time into it, completely unfunded, as far as I'm aware. 

I just want it to be better - and fear that in its current form it is in danger of rewarding illusion; also that breeds which have no cause for complacency will triumph re how well they have done.

If we want to measure improvements in health, we need to find a way to measure real  indicators of better health -  morbidity, longevity, fertility, litter size, functional fitness  - and not just the appearance of doing something. 

Because that's why many pedigree dogs are in the mess they are.

Sweet Pug Sounds

Yes, this dog's owner really has titled this video "Sweet Pug Sounds".

And when challenged has replied: "Many people who don't know pugs are either afraid of their noises or are worried something is wrong. I assure you he is fine... hot maybe, but fine."

Please feel free to hop over to YouTube and tell her what you think of that.

Well done the Cavalier Clubs

Now that's not something I write very often but in this case it's richly deserved.

The Cavalier Clubs Health Liaison Committee has written to the Kennel Club requesting that it refuses to register Cavaliers that could develop either of two distressing conditions: Episodic Falling and Dry Eye Curly Coat Syndrome.

The first is a neurological condition induced by exercise, excitement or frustration, causing the dog to become rigid and fall over. It looks like this:

Dry Eye Curly Coat syndrome, thought to be unique to the Cavalier, affects a dog's eyes and skin. Affected dogs produce no tears, making their eyes incredibly sore.

© Susan Jacobi

Additionally, their skin becomes flaky and dry, particularly around their feet, making standing and walking difficult. Most dogs born with the condition are euthanised.

The good folk at the Animal Health Trust developed a reliable DNA test for both conditions two years ago - both caused by simple recessives. A combined test is currently on offer from the AHT for £48 and many Cavalier breeders are now using it to test their stock. But not all. And with the carrier rate for EF estimated at one in five Cavaliers and DECC at one in 10 dogs, there's a clear need.

So this initiative from the Clubs is extremely welcome. Moreover, in the Club's request to the KC, it recognises the wisdom of continuing to use carriers so as not to further deplete the Cavalier gene pool.

Episodic Falling and Curly Coat/Dry Eye 

At the recent Cavalier Health Liaison Committee meeting, Clubs voted to ask
the Kennel Club to include all results from the EF CC/DE DNA tests in the
KC's registration system and in their Health Test Results Finder and
published by the Kennel Club in the Breed Record supplement. Furthermore the Club's requested that all CKCS that are not already heritably clear should
be tested for both EF and DE/CC prior to breeding and that at least one
parent of each litter is free of each mutation, to ensure no affected
puppies can be produced or registered.

The Club recognised the AHT's findings that it is perfectly safe to breed
with carriers, provided they are only ever mated to clear dogs and that we
should actively encourage breeders to include their carriers in their
breeding programmes so that the genetic diversity of the breed is not
compromised. The two mutations are inherited independently, so it is
perfectly safe for one parent to be a carrier of one mutation and for the
other parent to be a carrier of the other mutation, or for one parent to be
a carrier for both mutations. 

The Cavalier Clubs would like to thank the AHT for carrying out this work
which represents the culmination of several years research that has been
funded by several Breed Clubs, individuals and organisations including the
Kennel Club Charitable Trust. 

David Moger, Chairman Cavalier Health Liaison Committee 

So now the big question is: will the Kennel Club agree to the request?

The Kennel Club currently registers around 8,000 Cavaliers a year. That's well down from the 12,000 it used to register before Pedigree Dogs Exposed highlighted the breed's other even bigger health problems (syringomyelia and heart disease), but still a considerable revenue stream. And this is a breed popular with puppy farms and pet-breeders who often don't health-test.

Sure, the KC's Assured Breeder Scheme makes some demands of breeders (although not, astonishingly, that Cavalier breeders DNA-test for Episodic Falling or Dry Eye Curly Coat Syndrome despite the test having been available for two years. Actually, testing for heart disease and syringomyelia is STILL only a recommendation not a requirement under the ABS)

And it is true that the Kennel Club has put such restrictions in place for conditions of lesser frequency in one or two smaller breeds, such as the Irish Setter.

But to my knowledge the KC has refused requests from breed clubs representing numerically-large breeds for all registrations to be conditional on the proven health of the dog.

So this is a big leap.

Will we see the same tired old bleat of "but the breeders will go elsewhere... much better to not be too tough with them and keep them under the KC umbrella"? Or will they stand up for the dogs and in so doing send out a clear message that that KC pedigree certificate means something?

(Although of course in Cavaliers it's a bit of a moot point given that the breed is completely buggered and you'd have to be an idiot to buy one.)

Watch this space...

Boz, bloat... and hope

This is my own boy, Boz, who suffered a GDV last week - a gastric dilatation volvolus, colloquially known as bloat.

The picture was taken at 3am a week last Tuesday as the emergency vets worked to stabilise him before surgery.  When I took it I didn't know if Boz would live or die. He was in cardio-vascular shock caused by his stomach twisting and cutting off the blood supply back to his heart.

Bloat kills in hours and it is a horrible, agonising death. Because Boz was at the foot of my bed I heard him unable to settle and begin to moan in pain. He did not show the hallmark symptom of either unproductive or "thready" retching, but he couldn't get comfortable and his abdomen was tight as a drum. When I listened to his tummy, it was completely silent. A telltale sign.

At 1am, I put Boz in the car and drove to the emergency vets 12 miles away.

So we caught it early and the surgery was reasonably uneventful. When they untwisted Boz's stomach (and tacked it so it can't twist again) the constricted tissues perfused with blood again. A little longer and the tissue would have died, become necrotic, necessitating more extensive - and riskier - surgery. As it was, the only small complication was that he vomited when coming round from the anaesthetic and inhaled some of it, resulting in aspiration pneumonia. He needed supplemental oxygen for 24 hours and antibiotics for a week. But he is now back to his old self: my beautiful, and much loved, boy... all the more precious for his brush with death.

So WHY did Boz bloat?

• It might have been the large meal he'd eaten quite late that night. That's thought to be a cause. 

• It might have been that he is male  - and slightly underweight.  

• It might have been because he wolfs his food (bolting food is another suspected cause). 

• It might have been his basic conformation - Boz is a large dog with quite a deep chest; a known risk factor. 

• It might have been that one of his parents was a retriever, a breed prone to bloat. (Although his other parent was a farm collie, much less susceptible.) 

• It might have been his age - the risk of bloat increases with age. Boz is now 8 years old. 

• It might have been that he is quite a "stressy" boy - some studies have suggested anxious dogs are more likely to bloat. 

• I know it wasn't because he is fed with a raised feeding bowl - another reported risk factor - because Boz's bowl is firmly on the ground. 

• I know it wasn't because he's fed just dry food, because like all my dogs he is fed a mix of kibble, tinned meat, fresh chicken and various leftovers.

• And I'll never know if it was because he had a first-degree relative that had bloated (one of the key risk factors) because I don't know who they are.  Boz is a rescue crossbreed.

So  I don't know for sure. And that's in part because there has been surprisingly little research into the causes of GDV/bloat, despite it being a huge killer of dogs, especially in the highest-risk breeds. Without veterinary treatment, it is 95 per cent fatal. Even with veterinary treatment, not every dog survives.

According to the Kennel Club/BSAVA 2004 health survey, GDV was a cause of morbidity in 44 breeds, and a cause of death in 65 breeds. It found that GDV hit one in four Grand Blue de Gascoigne, almost 15 per cent of Bloodhounds, almost 10 per cent of Otterhounds and 7.2 per cent of Irish Setters. Great Danes, German Shepherds and Standard Poodles are other high-risk breeds.

So it's great to hear of new research initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic that will hopefully result in equipping breeders and owners with new strategies to help mitigate the risk.

In the USA, the AKC Health Foundation is offering grants totalling £250,000 (raised through the breed clubs) to researchers - details here and here.

And in the UK, there's an exciting new collaboration between the Animal Health Trust, the Kennel Club and the Irish Setter Clubs.

It involves the KC mailing the owners of every KC registered Irish Setter (~11,000) to ask if their dog has ever suffered bloat and ask them to fill in a comprehensive questionnaire with questions about health, temperament, exercise and feeding regimens and so on.  

"We are also going to ask owners to take some simple body measurements, to see if there is a correlation between any of them and an increased risk of bloat," explains Cathryn Mellersh at the Animal Health Trust.  "I’m doing this with Tom Lewis, who will estimate the heritablity of bloat, which will tell us how much of the risk is due to genes versus the environment.  As far as I am aware heritabiity has never been investigated before, but as this will hopefully be a large dataset Tom should be able to estimate it with a reasonable degree of accuracy."

This is a fantastic use of the KC database and genuinely exciting. Well done, too, to the IS Clubs for raising the £12,000 needed to help make it happen.

In the meantime, please make yourself aware of the symptoms of bloat. It is a genuine emergency and acting quickly can save your dog's life.

This video shows an Akita in fairly advanced stages of bloat. The dog was being filmed by his new owners, who had no idea what was going on. Fortunately, they got him to a vet in time and he survived. NB: it is distressing to watch.

Want to know more? Check out the Canine Bloat Awareness page on Facebook here.

References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8050972
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11128539
(http://www.moonstruckmeadows.com/Bloat%20(GDV)%20Study.htm)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22657929

Message from a Bulldog fan

Sent to my personal Facebook.

Mario Crisan

I am the proud owner of my very first bulldog. 16 months old white boy. I've had many breeds in the past, hunting and guard large dogs but by far my bulldog, my pride and joy is the best dog I've ever had. The most human one!

With this in mind, I don't appreciate your articles about the bulldogs and I would like you to apologise and stop writing lies and denigrate this wonderful breed! My boy tyres down other breeds in the open parks when they play and I could always send you pics or videos of how fit and agile he is. I see you have a problem with dogs panting? Why do you have a problem with that? That's how they breathe or did you not know that? I look at your dogs pics and they pant too. Wow, I'm really surprised by it as according to you only bulldogs pant. How come there isn't a bitter article aimed at the breed your dogs are because they pant? In fact, a lady is at least fair play, you don't seem to be fair play, therefore what are you then?

Because of nasty people like you, this fantastic breed gets such bad publicity. I'm not a breeder I put money in my dog instead of taking out any and I'll carry on doing so until I can! My dog is my child but I'm fed up with people being so uneducated or stupidly ignorant to get surprised every time they see a bulldog move, or jump or run.

Don't forget, this breed in it's current shape has been around since 1920 and during this time the breed had survived, improved and more it is very popular. Why do you think that is despite your efforts to ruin this breed every year?

If you are a lady, I will send you pics and videos of my boy playing and acting like a normal dog and I would like you to publish them and apologise to the bulldog world for hitting the breed with no reason!

If this message gets ignored, you'll just prove the world you are a ignorant wannabe cunt who'll eat shit to move up and forget about manners and fairness.

Kind regards,
Mario

Boxers: the heat is on

New research reveals that body condition plays a critical role in thermoregulation in brachycephalic breeds such as the Boxer, Bulldog and Pug.

“Brachycephalic dogs are at greater risk for heat-related illness, presumably due to the structure of their respiratory tract,” explains Professor Michel Davis of Oklahoma State University in an article on the AKCHF website. “Dogs rely on the respiratory tract to dissipate metabolic heat, and this process is hampered in brachycephalic breeds due to their airway anatomy.”

This makes endurance activities tougher for brachycephalic breeds. But the research found that carrying too much weight may be an even bigger risk. 

“While brachycephaly had an important impact on our research results, body condition score seemed to have a larger impact,” Davis says. “In other words, being overweight is probably more risky than being brachycephalic and a lean brachycephalic dog may not have that much of a risk. The overweight brachycephalic dogs had two strikes against them.”  

Nevertheless, the article goes on to feature Boxers - a breed that in the main is kept pretty lean and so one would think would not suffer so badly.

Not so, according to top Boxer breeders Linda and Skip Abel from Minnesota, who have bred Boxers under the Storybook prefix since 1993.  The Abels are portrayed as being responsible breeders for taking so much care to avoid heat-stress when travelling with their Boxers and for informing their puppy buyers of the risks: "“I caution new puppy owners about these issues,” says Mrs Abel. “A lot of times they are young families or a young, single person who wants to go jogging with a Boxer. I question them about whether a Boxer is the right breed for them."

And then she adds:

"In general, a Boxer is not a breed that spends a lot of time outdoors. These dogs simply can’t lie around in the sun without the heat becoming an issue.”

Wow. Really?

The Boxer was originally bred as a swift and strong hunting dog, capable of bringing down boar.  They were also once used in Germany as police dogs and they would have been utterly useless in either capacity if they were prone to keeling over through heat-stress.

So what happened?

The 'effin show-ring happened.

Here's what Boxers used to look like:

1897

Over the next 50 years, they became more "refined" (as the breeders like to call it). By the 1940s, the distinctive undershot jaw was well-established and I am sure most people would recognise this dog as a Boxer (as opposed, perhaps, to the one above). But the muzzle still had a really good length to it.

1944

And they could have stopped there. But of course they didn't. Here's a modern show dog, photographed in the UK ring recently. They're not all like this, but some are - and it's a type favoured on the continent, including in the breed's country of origin.

Here's another one:

It's a heck of a "refinement", isn't it?

Of course, the Boxer is not (yet) as brachycephalic as other breeds and I am sure I'll be inundated with breed afficionados telling me how fit and athletic their dogs are. I am sure many are. It is also true that there are videos on YouTube of Boxers bred for work that do not have significantly longer muzzles (although I note that most of them are marked by huge nostrils which must help).  

No, my chief objection here is to the description of the breed as "not an outdoor dog" - and the acceptance that it should be so by the very people that have inflicted the need for air-conditioning on the dog, almost as if they weren't complicit in the whole sorry process.  Because therein lies the road to hell.

Make no mistake about it, that short muzzle and undershot jaw are defects (the latter colloquially known as a Hapsburg Jaw in humans, perpetuated by inbreeding in the Hapsburgs - pretty much as it has been in Boxers, too).

In moderation, neither are likely to present huge problems. In other words,  you should be able to have your Boxer and heat it... safely. The problems arise when things go too far - which, clearly, they have done if you are breeding Boxers that aren't capable of going for a jog with their owner on a warm day.

Meanwhile, there are some bonkers show breeders (not in the UK, thank goodness) doing this to the other end of the dog. Apparently it's done in the belief that it makes the dog look like it has "attitude".

Sigh.

You gonna tell me it's just the stack? 'Cos that's how it started with the GSDs.

Have a look at Pietoro's collection of historical pix of Boxers - fascinating (as his collection is for all the breeds).  You can find the Boxer collection here.

And the inside of the Boxer? That's a whole other story... coming soon...

Exclusive: worrying affliction evident at Cruft's 2013

It's called Obsessive Grooming Disorder.

Apparently these are dogs.

I spent some time ringside at the Pekes and saw fewer gasping guppies this year than in the past. Compared to the likes of Danny, who won Crufts in 2003 despite waddling into the ring clearly fighting for oxygen (and this despite surgery to address his brachycephalic airway syndrome), this is an improvement.  The continued highlighting of breathing problems in brachycephalic breeds by me, the vets and others has undoubtedly made dogs that are struggling to breathe much less acceptable to everyone. We have better-informed judges, breeders and public and I honestly believe that dogs like Danny could not win today.

Danny the Peke - Crufts Best in Show 2003. 

But let's not get carried away here. There is still w-a-y too much coat and the breed standard still demands "a rolling gait" - an abnormality that has been deliberately selected for and why most of them move so v-e-r-y slowly. Indeed, I saw more sprightly, less profusely-coated Pekes get thrown out at Cruft's this year.

And the Best of Breed dog, while not showing any signs of respiratory distress, still had very narrow nares and the slightly-squiff eyes commonly seen in flat-faced breeds with shallow eye sockets.

If you have ever toyed with the idea of getting a Peke, please buy a Tibetan Spaniel instead. Enjoyed seeing these at Cruft's this year. What a Peke should be.

Indeed, pretty much what a Peke used to be.

1910 Peke - Ch Broadoak Beetle - sourced from Pietoro's Dog Breeds Historical Pictures

Above and below: Tibetan Spaniels @ Crufts 2013