Another Reason Looks Aren't Everything
- lotsapuppies123
- Jan 29, 2024
- 5 min read
Hello, fellow dog lovers. I’m back with another post on dogs!
This post is on bad dog breeding. Many dogs have been horribly bred, even just in the past hundred years. This dog is from 1915. I want everyone to guess what dog breed this dog is.
Photo by Wikipedia
Have you guessed?
Very well. Let’s see who guessed right.
The answer...
Bull Terrier!
Did this breed surprise you? I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
Bull Terriers, or very commonly known as the “Target Dogs,” (because their mascot is a Bull Terrier named Bullseye), are muscular dogs with pit bull heritage. They are known for their compact bodies and…egg-shaped heads? But I didn’t see an egg shape in the picture…
This is just one example of how we’ve ruined many dog breeds. I mean, look at the current-day bull terrier:
Photo by Shopify
Because of this kind of breeding, Bull Terriers have developed all sorts of eye conditions and breathing problems. And that’s not even the worst of it.
Photo from "Franseco Namio," Pinterest
I've also included another picture of a dog we've horribly bred. I'm sure you can guess this one...
Photo from Wikipedia
You probably recognize the curly tail, short stature and, most commonly know, their flat and smushed face. It’s a pug!
You might notice a couple differences. For starters, the face is not very wrinkly. This is a recently bred trait for this breed. The pug’s eyes are not as bulging, and their face is not as flat as you would expect. This is also new.
But their new traits come with a downside. According to a study done by The Royal Veterinary College, pugs can’t be considered “a typical dog” due to health issues.
They have an increased risk for 23 different disorders. This includes being 54 times more likely to have brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome. Flat-faced dogs, also known as brachycephalic dogs, can’t breathe or pant as easily as other dogs can. They are 51 times more likely to have narrowed nostrils than any other breed. How are they supposed to breathe when their face is flat and their nostrils are tiny? Since they hardly have an airway, during summer months, they can get heatstroke or other heat-related problems.
They are also 11 times more likely to develop skin fold infections. In case you didn’t know, dogs such as the Chinese Shar-Pei and the English Bulldog need their wrinkles cleaned. Otherwise, they trap in moisture and can get infected. Pugs fall under this category as well. Not cleaning their wrinkles can result in irritation or infections.
Photo from Shopify
17.4% of pugs were obese, which is an astonishing number when you put it next to 7% of other dogs. And the curly, cute tail that everyone loves so much is actually a malformed vertebra, which can result in a slipped disc.
The worst part is that their population is rising. More people are buying pugs—and not because they’ve educated themselves on how to care for their wrinkles and flat faces, but because they are cute. People look at their flat faces and decide they want to own a pug, too.
Lots of purebred dogs often struggle with health problems because of overbreeding—and the German Shepherd may have taken the worst blow of all. They suffer from many forms of cancer, degenerative myelopathy—or a disease that paralyzes the legs and affects the spinal cord, resulting in a lifespan of 1 to 2 years—, heart disease, and elbow dysplasia. But the most common hereditary issue in German Shepherds is hip dysplasia. Their loose hips and joints can cause them to limp, sway, or even go lame in one or several legs. It’s no wonder that their lifespan is only 9 to 13 years. Some German shepherds don’t even live past 8.
1 in 3 white dogs are deaf, including dalmatians. Imagine this—a litter of 9 puppies, and 3 of them will never hear anything. Dalmatians also suffer from many bladder-related issues, such as bladder stones.
You may ask, why do dogs have all these horrible health issues? The answer is selective breeding. If we want fluffy dogs, we'll breed fluffy dogs together and they'll get fluffy offspring. This can result in many occurrences of inbreeding or accidentally breeding in mutations. Random mutations such as hip dysplasia will randomly occur in one of the fluffy offspring, and as they breed the dog, these illnesses inadvertently get passed onto the next generation.
But not all is lost. Norway banned breeding 2 dog breeds that have suffered from horrific breeding: Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and English Bulldogs.
Photo from Shopify
A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel may look cute with their bug eyes and adorable, floppy ears, but their faces come at a downside. They often suffer from a disease called
Chiari-Like Malformation where their brain is too big for their skull. Since the dogs’ brain is trying to grow and fit in the skull at the same time, it can cause excruciating pain in the dogs’ head.
English Bulldogs suffer from many problems similar to the Pug—small airways and flat faces make it difficult to do the simplest things, such as drink water, pant, or breathe.
It is now illegal to breed these two dog breeds in Norway—part of their Animal Welfare Act. These popular breeds are still allowed to be owned and managed, just not bred, which should deter irresponsible breeders from breeding them in Norway. And it could allow more people to adopt, not shop.
There are other groups who are trying to change a breeds ways, too. For example, LUA (Low Uric Acid) Dalmatians. As I stated before, dalmatians have lots of bad health issues, but it goes deeper than that. Their breed has a metabolic defect that causes high levels of uric acid in their urine, also known as HU. This is bad because dogs with the condition are prone to urinary obstruction. Every dalmatian has HU. Every dalmatian in the world has it. At least, until now.
If you cross a dalmatian with a dog that doesn't have HU, you can get puppies without HU. It took 5 generations, but LUA Dalmatians had created a dalmatian with low uric acid and still matched the proper breed type, which was proven when the AKC accepted a LUA dalmatian as a regular dalmatian. We are on the right track to eliminating all dogs with unhealthy issues.
In all, we dog lovers can celebrate this victory we’ve achieved. However, we still have a long way to go. Many dogs have been overbred, inbred, and irresponsibly bred. But in the future, more dog owners will recognize the effects of selective breeding. Dogs will be completely different—and hopefully for the better.
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