No Course Thursday.....

I'm sorry to have to announce that the course by Leigh Smyth on Parasite Control this Thursday has had to be cancelled. She will announce a new date soon.

BREAKING NEWS: KC survey reveals apocalyptic drop in purebred dog longevity

There has been a catastrophic decline in purebred dog longevity, according to the results of a long-awaited health survey released by the Kennel Club yesterday.

It has taken the KC over a year to report on its 2014 health survey - the largest ever survey of its kind - and a follow-up to its 2004 survey.  It makes for grim reading.

Across all the breeds, median longevity has dropped by 11 per cent in a decade. Kennel Club registered dogs now live on average to just 10 years old - down from 11yrs 3 months in 2004.

Some breeds have seen jaw-dropping decreases compared to the 2004 survey.

Bull Terriers now die on average at just seven years old - down from 10yrs in 2004 (a 30% decrease)

Beagles: down from 12yrs 8mths to 10 yrs old.

Dobermanns: down from 10yrs 6mths to 8 yrs today.

Dalmatians: down from 12yrs 6mths in 2004 to 11yrs now.

Border Terriers: down from 14yrs to 12yrs

Irish Wolfhounds: down from 7yrs to 6.5yrs

Rhodesian Ridgebacks: down from 11yrs to 9yrs.

Bulldogs: down from 6yrs 3mths to an even worse 6yrs.

Boxers: now living to 9yrs, compared to 10yrs 3mths in 2004.

Cavaliers: now dying at 10, as opposed to 11yrs 5mths in 2004.

Irish Setters: now dead on average at 11 - down from 12 in 2004.

Whippets: down from 12yrs 4mths to 10yrs.

Even the nation's favourite dog, the Labrador,  is dying younger - at 11yrs old compared to 12yrs 3mths in 2004.

I found a few breeds with modest increases: Flatcoats now live to 10yrs - 2 months longer than they did in 2004. Great Danes died at 6yrs 6mths in 2004 and now survive on average to 7yrs. The Old English Sheepdog now lives 3 months longer (11yrs as opposed to 10yrs 9mths). Bernese Mountain Dog longevity has stayed the same at 8.

But, at this rate, many Kennel Club breeds could be extinct in 100 years' time.

It is a disappointing that the KC chose not to mention this decline in the release accompanying the survey findings (see here).

Now don't get me wrong  -  it is genuinely great that the KC is doing these surveys; it just needs to be honest and not play down negative findings.

I remember how the KC maintained both in and after Pedigree Dogs Exposed that 90 per cent of KC registered dogs were "perfectly healthy" - despite its own survey (the 2004) one finding that almost 40 per cent of KC dogs suffered from one or more health issues.

This time, as before, the KC reports that the main cause of death is old age - reassuring until you look at the actual figures.  In 2004, 17.8% of dogs died from old age. In 2014, it dropped to 13.78%.

Headline: more than 85% of KC registered dogs today do not make it to old age - and almost all die, or are put to sleep, because of disease.

(Trauma/accidents/behavioural issues account for only a tiny percentage of deaths reported.)

The new findings shouldn't be a huge surprise. Despite frequent claims by many that dogs are living longer today than ever before - it has been pretty obvious that an increasing number of breeds are tottering on the brink of viability. It does not, however, make the findings any less heartbreaking for everyone who loves dogs.

The reason for the decline? Closed gene pools... obsession with purity.. popular sires.. dogs being judged on looks not health... and the erroneous belief that breeders can health-test their way out of trouble.

Now there's some wiggle-room in this survey for those who want to question the results.  There were far fewer deaths reported than in the 2004 survey.  And while the 2004 survey was sent out to breed clubs; the 2014 survey was sent out more widely to owners of KC-registered dogs. This means that the surveyed populations were not identical.

When I talked to the KC about the survey in June 2014, though, they were at pains to point out that it would be backwards-compatible with the 2004 survey. 

This is important because, as the KC itself said when the 2004 survey findings were released: "Data gathered from this survey will provide baseline information against which the success of future control schemes can be measured."

The KC has, in fact, withheld certain data that it feels is not statistically significant in the 2014 survey  - e.g. if fewer than 30 deaths have been reported in a breed; hence, rather disappointingly, why there is no median death data reported for many of the current breeds of concern: Pugs, French Bulldogs, Bostons, Dogue de Bordeaux and Neapolitan Mastiff. (Although, frankly, it is telling that so few owners/breeders of these breeds, who these days so often spout a commitment to health, contributed to such a well-publicised survey.)

The Kennel Club needs to encourage these breed clubs to run ongoing health surveys to monitor longevity in these breeds, as well as to find a way to encourage more people to contribute to their next survey (which will presumably be in 2024).

In the meantime, the current findings should be a call to arms. There are some breeds today that are little more than ghosts of what they were.

But I suspect we'll get the usual denial.. the deflecting blame on to vaccines, commercial dog food, puppy millers, vets or big pharma... 

And all the while the dogs we purport to love so fiercely will continue to wither and wane.

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How did your breed do?

See the 2014 survey results here.

Compare to the 2004 survey results here.

GAO Chides TSA for Failure to Place Bomb Dogs at Airport Checkpoints

A report of the Government Accountability Office published February 17, 2016, summarizes recommendations the GAO has made since 2003 concerning the Transportation Security Administration's security-related technology acquisitions (GAO-16-276).  The GAO report contains the following chart, which indicates that TSA has failed to implement a total of seven GAO recommendations, two from 2004, one from 2012, one from 2013, and three from 2014.  

GAO Recommendations on TSA Acquisitions 2003-2015

Most of the unimplemented recommendations have nothing to do with dogs, but two that were made in 2013 concerned explosive detection dogs for passenger screening.  One recommendation was that TSA should determine the effectiveness of dogs in passenger screening.  The GAO had stated in two prior reports (GAO-13-239 and GAO-14-695T) that passenger screening canines sometimes misidentified which individuals were actually carrying explosives at airports.  This was discussed in several prior blogs (February 18, 2013; January 22, 2015) and the GAO even released a video clip (scroll down in blog of January 22, 2015) of one of its tests showing a dog passing by a decoy carrying an explosive odor and alerting to an innocent passenger walking through a terminal.  Despite this obvious problem, the GAO now says that TSA has appropriately determined the effectiveness of TSA-deployed canines.  It would be useful for the public's peace of mind to know what changed in the last few years to lead the GAO to place its stamp of approval on TSA canines, but we may have to wait a long time for any significant information about this.

The other recommendation that was made in 2013, but which has not been fully implemented according to the GAO, concerns the location of passenger-screening canines throughout airports.  The 2013 report had much to say about this, but the 2016 report only indicates that passenger-screening dogs are not being used at checkpoints. Again, the current report provides little detail on the present level of this deficiency.  If TSA is resisting the idea of deploying dogs at checkpoints, this may have more to do with concerns that clogged checkpoints would become even more clogged with dogs present.  A highly publicized letter from Miguel Southwell, General Manager of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Peter Neffenger, TSA Administrator, states that if TSA cannot speed up checkpoint screening, the Atlanta airport may replace TSA screeners with private contractors.  How this might affect canine operations throughout the airport is not clear, but TSA may not want to signal at this time that it will add more steps to the checkpoint process.  Rather than re-analyzing the issues regarding TSA canine deployments with such little information to go on, I have chosen to add a brief discussion to the Update Notes in the prior blog posted February 18, 2013. 

Official 10th Anniversary Tee's Available Now.....

As it is now 10 years since I lost my best friend, it seems only right that he is remembered as the dog that started all of this by appearing on an official SHAK T Shirt. Shak was my soul mate and companion for 7 and a half years till Lymphoma took him away. I miss him.....

You can get your hands on the SHAK Pop Art Tee's initially just available till June 19th by following the link below......

 https://www.tboom.co.uk/shak-the-dog-that-started-this

No Reiki Course This Weekend.....

Due to unforeseen circumstances I'm afraid the Reiki course for Sunday has been cancelled. Leigh will be in touch to announce a new date very soon.

BOAS: airway surgery helps but does not cure

This YouTube video above was posted by this French Bulldog's owners in an effort to help raise over $5000 for surgery to help the dog.

Thousands and thousands of short-faced dogs need this surgery - the consequence of our obsession with flat-faced "cute" dogs.

I don't know if Panda's owners were successful or not. I hope so. The dog was clearly suffering.

But, as a new paper reveals, while airway surgery can help some dogs, it is not a cure.

The team at the University of Leipzig featured in Pedigree Dogs Exposed: Three Years On looked at the success of the surgery they perform on brachycephalic dogs.

The owners of 62 dogs (37 Pugs and 25 French Bulldogs) completed a questionnaire following surgery.

The findings:

• life-threatening events reduced by 90% (choking decreased from 60% to 5%; collapse from 27% to 3%
• sleeping problems decreased from 55% to 3%
• the occurrence of breathing sounds declined by 50%
• there was a marked improvement in exercise tolerance
• there was a modest improvement in heat tolerance

But is was not a cure. As the authors say: "...despite the marked improvement perceived by dog owners, these dogs remained clinically affected and continued to show welfare-relevant impairments caused by these hereditary disorders."

We also know that BOAS is progressive and this study only looked at dogs up to six months post-surgery.

There's also the rather large point that we should not be breeding dogs with a high risk of choking, collapse, sleep problems, raspy breathing, and intolerance to exercise and heat.

Not quite sure how many times I can say that. But I'm not going to stop until we see more progress.

GSD Paddy at Westminster

I wrote about German Shepherd Ch Kysarah's Pot of Gold in December (see here) - a blog that provoked a lot of opinion from all sides. Some thought, as I do, that the dog is a tragic indictment of what the show-ring has done to the German Shepherd. Others defended the dog saying I had used "bad" pictures of the dog. The owners, meanwhile, accused me of photoshopping the images.

I hadn't, of course, but will no doubt be accused of the same for showing these screen-grabs from the television coverage of the dog - pet name "Paddy" - at the Westminster Dog Show today. 

Paddy didn't win today. But he was given an Award of Merit - a kind of consolation prize awarded at the discretion of the judge. 

Again, no dog should stand, walk or run on their metatarsals like this. Dogs are supposed to be digitigrade animals, not plantigrade. It is a functional fault.