I used to show dogs up until about 30 years ago and bred the occasional litter (rough and smooth collies).
During that time I started to see things deteriorate very rapidly. The rough Collie suddenly started being bred smaller and with a much heavier coat so it couldn't move as well. The younger judges liked this new fad and these dogs were winning and becoming champions.
I saw the good strong straightbacked GSD's being bred with sloped backs bringing with it a huge amount of hip dysplasia. But these dogs again were the new trend and won so it continued. This was happening accross the board with various breeds like you saw last night.
I was disgusted then and got out of it.
I have owned a couple of GSD's since both were pet accidental matings but come from good straight backed dogs and bitches and never suffered a health problem especially hips. NEVER would I have gone to an "accredited" show breeder and got a sloping back one and the problems that could have come with that.
I was so saddened by what it has all become today. At the beggining of my time in show dogs we really were out to improve the breed but this changed to glamour and trends which I wouldn't be part of.
The breed standards have been misinterpreted for many years to give exaggerated looks and sadly become accepted.
I can only hope that the general public all watched it last night and any who have booked puppies from some of these "winning" so called top dogs, like that woman with her Cavalier will now cancel and refuse to buy any puppy that could be remotely related to him or any other breed that may have hereditary problems.
Only by the public refusing to buy puppies from such breeders and matings will it put a stop to all this.
If there is no market for them they will not be able to breed.
I am glad the prgramme was shown as there are so many people out there that wouldn't have had a clue what went on before. Even I was shocked at the scale of it all now.
Bang goes my dream of ever owning a beautiful cavalier again.
I will add that even when I got Shady my Rottie x GSD although no health tests I did make sure the Mum (GSD) was a straight back with no slope and I had Shadys hips x-rayed result was excellent hips thank heavens.

I hate to repeat this again but HD as been amoungst GSD(Alsatian)s since they came into the UK in the 1900s. The breeders of the so-called straight backed dogs(which were far from straight backed in reality due to short legs & long bodies with short ribcages)do not as a group X ray & I will quote again the court case that involved a top breeder of this type who sold a puppy to a Working Trials handler that had no hip sockets & a top score of 104, the parents were not x rayed & none of the 4 other generations behind them. The breeder still does not X ray & claims verbally that non of his dogs have been diagnosed with HD by his vet-well they couldn't be as they are never X rayed. He is a very wealthy man & even though the court case cost him £1,000s he continues to breed blindly

And yet the judge and other breeders in the ring knew and did nothing to stop her!!! And then to try and defend her afterwards - disgusting.

I watched this programme with increasing horror last night. I am appalled by the extent of the health problems in pedigree dogs. I have thought for a long time that pedigree dogs nowadays are too highly bred to a standard that, after all, is just what someone saw fit to write down on a piece of paper.

Most of the breeds were originally bred for working. How many of these pedigree dogs would now be suitable for actual work? The judge who said that GSD with the very low back end was better than a police style dog obviously does NOT care about dog welfare. And many of the breeders and judges on that programme did NOT care about the health of the dogs. They care about money. Pure and simple.

The attitude of the breeders amazed me. I couldn't figure out whether they were led by ignorance, stupidity or greed. I wonder how many of the Ridgeback breeders actually know the ridge is a deformity? Do they know it or do they just not care? It astounds me that they kill puppies who do not have the ridge when they are actually the healthy ones.

I have wondered where the KC breed standards came from and to find out that they originate from the Victorian 'leisure' class to me is infuriating. They were doing it for FUN! Not to 'further the breed'.

I hope that the programme has put off at least one person from buying a pedigree dog. After watching it I am now even more firmly against buying a dog from a breeder. I will never, ever give my money to a breeder. I know not all breeders are bad, but while these ridiculous KC standards are being upheld, more and more dogs are suffering all because people are trying to conform to a Victorian ideal of beauty.

It must be frustrating for you as a breeder of CKCS, as the documentary did seem to portray all breeders involved with cavs as uncaring about testing parents. We must remember that a lot of breeders do the best for their dogs and the future of their breed, BUT I think it's good that the BBC have highlighted the bad points.

I naively assumed that the majority of modern breeders did health test, as the breeds I have researched for my family have always been pretty good on those counts (Elkhound, Tibetan Mastiff, Estrela) and always hip score and publish the hip scores of sires and dams. I think that anyone who can breed from a dog they know to be ill or have a genetic fault is truly evil. What life are they creating for their future pups and the poor people who fall in love with those pups?

I'm not sure that health testing will help. It's the breeding to a certain conformity that causes the problems. Why are the KC so obssessed with how a dog looks and not by how healthy it is?

A CKCS has to have a head that looks a certain way. That means it's skull is too small for it's brain. The only way to change that is to change the breed standard surely?

Can I ask you a question... as it focuse on the CKCS anf that awful disease....

The quote from the vet saying the brain (size 10 shoe) fitting into a size 6 .... is the crux of the matter in Cavs..

Now surely if this was was true, ALL Cavs, would suffer as we saw last night, yet I see many Cavs (as they are a popular breed) leading healthy active lives..living into old age.

My understanding, is it is the disease itself that is causing the problem.. NOT the conformation of the dogs.

We also shouldn't allow ourselves to miss the very important message that even the health tested pedigrees are producing unhealthy dogs, with the closed stud books and ever reducing gene pool.

I am really finding it difficult to believe that european dogs are so perfect compaired to UK dogs
espech cos this bendy back GSD comes from europ
- and I know there are people on here defend it - but I can see no defense in changing the structure of dogs for a fashion
Dogs are so amazing that they can carry on without complaint putting up with the horrific bodies that we have decided they should be in
Although the genetic side is a big thing I think all breeders should take a long hard look at their dogs and what the actual dogs looked like when the breed standard was 1st written and then they should hang their heads in shame and try and get back to the dog that they were supposed to be keeping pure

I do NOT breed Cavaliers & only have dogs, I have no intention of ever breeding with my dogs as they both have SM. My bitch is a Border Collie