Did you hear that boxer scream? that was so awful, Crying my eyes out

The Kennel Club is aware that a BBC documentary, Pedigree Dogs Exposed, is due to air on Tuesday 19 August and will explore the issue of the health of pedigree dogs.

We have not seen the documentary, despite repeated requests and so cannot comment on its content. However, the Kennel Club did agree to participate in its making on the understanding that the programme would be balanced and fair and contribute to the Kennel Club’s primary objective to promote in every way the general improvement of dogs.

The number of healthy pedigree dogs is very high. Comparatively, pedigree dogs are healthier than the human population which suffers from some 4,000 different types of disease, compared to only about 400 in the dog population. Furthermore, around 90% of dogs will not suffer from health problems that have a detrimental impact on their quality of life – and that figure is improving, thanks to advances in science and the continued investment of time, care and money from the Kennel Club and responsible breeders.

The Kennel Club:

• Works directly and indirectly through funding research bodies, to develop health tests for pedigree dogs. The most common of these, hip scoring, has seen breeders invest £20 million in testing since the scheme began and the mean hip score across the top 20 most commonly tested breeds has reduced year on year, meaning the likelihood of these dogs suffering from hip dysplasia has significantly lessened. More and more DNA tests are being developed as the science becomes available.

• Encourages responsible breeding practices and the Accredited Breeder Scheme is a kite-mark of quality that was developed to ensure the breeding of healthy, well adjusted puppies. Accredited Breeders use all of the health tests required for their breed and will breed their dogs to ensure that they have the healthy characteristics that are incorporated within their breed standard. A common method of breeding is called line breeding, which is used to breed an animal for particular healthy characteristics. All responsible breeders have an intimate knowledge of the dogs that appear in pedigrees – and they use that knowledge to breed for positive traits in health and breed standard.

• Collaborated with Imperial College so they could analyse the level of ‘inbreeding’ in pedigrees and identify the genes involved in inherited disease in the future. Unsurprisingly, the inbreeding coefficients were high because of the very nature of pure-breeding populations and the fact that many decades of dog breeding have led to problems. It is clear from the research that mating close relatives (mother/sons, fathers/daughters etc) is now uncommon and not the reason for the high inbreeding coefficients.

• The Kennel Club would never put ‘looks’ above the health of pedigree dogs, and we actively discourage the exaggeration of features in any breed. The standards have been, and will continue to be amended when necessary to ensure the breeding of healthy, well conformed puppies; and dog show judges are educated to judge to those standards ensuring that dogs with obvious problems that could affect their quality of life do not win, and that the rewards go to fit, healthy dogs

Caroline Kisko, spokesperson for the Kennel Club, said: “We welcome any discussion that will help to improve the health and welfare of dogs and we hope that this documentary will focus on what is being done and what can be done in the future to ensure the good health of pedigree dogs ultimately becomes first class.

“We fully acknowledge that there are still some health problems that belong largely to a time when less was understood about animal health and we continue to work to eliminate them.

“As successive generations of pedigree dogs come through – and with the investment of time, care and money that the Kennel Club and breeders are putting into education, improved testing and carefully planned breeding programmes - the number of healthy pedigree dogs, which is currently high, will improve even further.”

yes, its was blood-chilling. i never want to hear it again. the poor poor boy.

Having just watched that horrific program on BBC1 i feel proud to be the owner of a cross breed.

After joining this forum just today and being grilled on the ethics of testing dried dog food on dogs, how do those people feel about the awful practices carried out by breeders and and officials from the kennel club who claim to have canine interests at heart?

UTTER CRUELTY!!!!

Sorry for my first post.
I honestly believed that it was the kennel club policy to do all the health tests for seperate breeds, i found that its up to the breeders disgusting to be honest and the fact that they aloud that cav to sire all those litters and register them is just awful.

New statement from the Kennel club added to first post (thanks to MaryS for forwarding it onto us):