Veterinarians target exaggerated conformation at British dog show

As victories go, this one is hollow. But, let’s not ignore any movement when it comes to breed standards.

Best of Breed winners at Britain’s Crufts dog show in early March 2012 were checked by veterinarians before the group judging, and six of the 15 we removed from the competition.

The veterinary checks were to ensure the Best of Breed winners were not suffering as a result of exaggerated conformation. As noted in previous posts, purebred show dogs often have severe health problems due to poor conformation as a result of having been bred for exaggerated characteristics that are spelled out in breed standards. The BBC exposed this growing crises in a landmark documentary in 2008.

The six dogs pulled from the show were the bulldog (utility group), Pekingese (toy), Clumber spaniel (gundog) mastiff (working), Neapolitan mastiff (working) and Bassett hound (hound).

The past president of the British Veterinarian Association, Harvey Locke, is calling these vet checks a huge step forward in tackling the health problems of pedigree dogs.

“What has happened at Crufts this year should act as a catalyst for all vets in practice. Firstly, to be more proactive in educating their breeder and owner clients on the health consequences of breeding dogs for extreme conformation. And secondly, to ensure that any caesarean sections and surgical procedures to correct conformation problems performed on KC-registered dogs are reported to the KC,” he said.

My reaction is far more tempered by the fact that its the breed standards themselves that are causing ill-guided humans to breed for specific breed characteristics. But, no one is targeting the practice of breed organizations setting these standards. Instead, the vets are now just failing the dogs. What do we think is going to happen to those failed dogs? Something tells me they will be dumped or euthanized as the breeders cast them aside and go on a buying and breeding frenzy to come up with replacement dogs. Remember in the documentary what happened to Rhodesian ridgeback puppies born without a ridge? They were drowned.

Is there no one on this planet with the good sense to say, “Enough is enough. You are not going to require dogs or horses or any other animals to meet specific body measurements?”

I have a thought. How about requiring owners and handlers to meet specific body measurements to be able to show the animals?

And, better yet, let’s make those measurements exaggerated? For Connemara owners, the handlers must be overly small, since we’re requiring the horses to be under 14-2, even as the world gets taller. So, let’s say handlers have to be under 5 foot. And they have to have thick cannons, or calves, to match their horses, even if the handlers are children, since the horses have to have thick cannons to pass inspections by age 2. Whatever a normal child’s calf is, add several inches to make it good and “strong,” even if the child grows up to be obese and diabetic. Who cares? It’s all about the glory of winning. Oh, and the handler has to have a well-defined jowl and tiny ears.

Let’s see how long that lasts.