Nowadays it seems very fashionable to criticize purebred dogs. Even the BBC has joined the crowd with a documentary (Pedigree Dogs Exposed) outlining the dangers of breeding pedigree dogs to the health of dogs. They identify two main problems:
-The selection of pedigree dogs is done according to criteria that are not healthy for dogs.
-Too much inbreeding increases the probability of genetic diseases.
For the first problem, the solution is easy in some cases: if the Cavalier King Charles has a nose that is too short that it does not allow them to breathe properly, the standard should be changed so that they have longer noses. In some cases, such as Basset breeds, there are some complaints that selecting them for dwarfism can lead to arthritis; but short legs are not intended for appearance, it has proven useful to have dogs that cannot run too fast, for hunting and even as companion dogs.
As for the second question, the root of the problem seems to lie deep within the mindset of many dog enthusiasts. The purity of pedigree dogs has been used so much as a marketing gimmick to sell dogs at a higher price that people don’t even bother to question.
In the past, the pedigree was done by hand by the breeder, there was no database that would allow people to search for the ancestors of their dogs, and there was no way to verify a dog’s kinship through DNA. So the breeders were bringing new blood to their lines by crossing with other breeds. As long as they didn’t cross too much and the dogs kept looking and behaving the way they were supposed to, the customers were happy. For example, at the end of the 19th century, the Brittany Spaniel was a small French pointer of no particular importance, until some English hunters came to Brittany with their very efficient English setters and pointers. The owners of French Brittany were very happy to be able to breed their dogs with these English champions (the English had been the first to select show dogs based on their ability). This is how the Brittany Spaniel became the number one French breed.
Today, breeders who cross a Brittany Spaniel with setters or pointers are called “thieves” by ninety percent of pedigree dog enthusiasts. How can the same be judged so differently a hundred years later?
And the Boxer case? Traditionally, the Boxer’s tail has always been docked, for cosmetic and practical reasons. Over the past decade, the tail docking ban has been enforced in many countries, including the UK. A well-known English breeder, Dr. Bruce Cattanach (www.steynmere.com/BOBTAILS.html), discovered that some breeds had a naturally short tail. He began an experiment to pass this short-tailed gene from one of those breeds to the Boxer. By crossing a naturally short-tailed Corgi with a Boxer, selecting a short-tailed pooch, crossing it with a Boxer and so on, you obtained after several generations some dogs that looked like Boxers and were born with a naturally short tail. He managed to register them with the Kennel Club through a special and difficult procedure to give a pedigree to an impure breed dog (like the first of his line).
The experiment was a success and short-tailed boxers with less than one percent Corgi blood were exported to different countries. Until the German Boxer Klub, who is in charge of defining the standard of this German breed, decided to ban any Boxer born with a short tail due to the fact that these dogs were not 100% pure Boxers. Therefore, a desired trait (short tail) was banned for breed purity reasons. Something seems to have gone wrong, doesn’t it?
Another factor is aggravating the situation: the regular appearance of new breeds. National pride plays an important role in this phenomenon, each country wants to have its own breed of dog, which is generally a derivative of another older breed. Once this new breed of dog is recognized, it becomes very difficult, even impossible, to cross it with subjects of the original breed. Therefore, the recognition of new breeds creates a small population of dogs whose inbreeding increases with each generation.
As proof that there are too many breeds, there is a questionnaire on the three hundred and thirteen breeds recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale. It allows you to guess the race from the images. This questionnaire has been shown to many people, including some general judges (judges can judge all races), and none of them were able to recognize all races in the “hard” mode, where the identification of a particular race must be chosen . the complete list of possible dog breeds.
www.braquedubourbonnais.info/en/dog_breeds_quiz.htm
Isn’t this proof that there are too many dog breeds?
