Is anyone watching this?

Appalling to see there is still resistance from breeders to attempts to reduce problems in their breeds.

Alternative site for SM free Cavalier pups:
http://www.companioncavalierclub.co.uk/cavalier-puppy/

Margaret Carter's blog:
http://cavalierpuppy.co.uk/blog/

On BBC4, 9-10pm.

Had dogs all my life, and have always gone for mixed breeds.
Never had a dog fail to reach 15yrs, and no major problems other than old-age related.
Can't beat a bit of hybrid vigour.

I have had one pedigree dog from a rescue and then one of the same breed from a breeder; the rescue died at 8 from cancer, the other went to 13 which is a good age for a big dog. The rest of my dogs have been crossbreeds/mongrels and very healthy until old age.

My pedigree Siamese cats lived longer than any moggie, one was still bossing us around at 22 years old!

The problem with dogs is that there's much more genetic variation in the breeds. Your basic cat is pretty much the same throughout the different breeds, but with dogs you get everything from the Yorkie to the Irish Wolfhound. So it's much easier to accidentally breed in an undesirable characteristic while seeking to improve the appearance.

There are a few problems with certain breeds of cats, for example Manx cats have a short backbone, which can cause problems with internal organs, and some strains of Maine Coon can suffer heart trouble, but it's much less common than with dogs.

Still say they should operate an open stud book.

That, along with only allowing breed standards that are healthy and fit the function of the dog (For example, even a companion dog like a Pug needs to be able to breath!! A GSD should be able to run & jump!) would improve almost all breeds.

It would need to go hand in hand with proper controls on breeding - the KC needs to compel health testing & in some cases, only allow pups that are clear of illness to be registered.

KC registration should be a gold standard. At the moment it is just a ticket into the show world. Something very few people who buy a puppy are interested in. All most people who want a pedigree want is a healthy puppy that looks and (hopefully) acts like the breed they have chosen.

I've only ever had pedigree dogs, but they've all been home bred and I saw them with their mum and siblings before I bought them.

I agree. Also, I think they should limit the number of times a dog can be used for stud - say five matings. This would remove the financial incentive to breed from unhealthy sires and would prevent the gene pool from shrinking further.

Another thing I think the pedigree database should do is record year and cause of death. It would then be obvious which lines were prone to which illnesses, and give an indication of how many pedigrees fall sick in middle age after they have been used for breeding.

Most dog owners have their dogs as companion animals and most breeders sell puppies for this reason. No one is happy about a dog which develops a fatal or disabling condition after being an apparently healthy young dog.

What was obvious from this program is that most breeders are full of their own self importance and don't give a damn about the dogs themselves. Huge changes need to be made to dog breeding. No related animals used for breeding, limited performances as a stud dog and a full health screening to be made available on both stud and bitch before a puppy is purchased. These poor dogs and their deformities in the name of show fashion made me both sad and angry.

I just finished watching this on the Iplayer. It’s so annoying that so little has been achieved in 3 years. How can anyone justify a dog with so many health problems not only being allowed to compete but actually go on to win competitions? Surely one of the first things people did was to put a stop to unhealthy dog competing.

I agree with JulieD the leaders of the breeding groups care far too much about their reputation and not enough the actually breed.

Thats how it's always been, breeds have always been about the humans and not about the dogs. Even the language is weighted toward them "pedigree", "purebred" etc set against "mutt" and "mongrel", whereas hybrid dogs have the larger gene pool and are genetically healthier. It's always been about style over substance.

Small dogs are popular and getting miniature/toy versions is done by breeding from the smallest pups, sometimes the weakest or runt. That does not seem the route to a healthy animal yet all the miniature Yorkies and Dachshunds owned by aunts and cousins have reached their late teens. They do not seem to have suffered the problems suffered by some breeds from being fashionable, then overbred to meet demand.

I agree it is less of a problem but I suspect a lot of that is down to the popularity of the common British shorthair or moggie. Bengal cats have become very popular in a short time, a vet nurse told me they are seeing some sickly animals as a result of very young cats churning out 2 or more litters a year.

My favourite type of cat, Siamese, have suffered from breed standards that allowed some ugly variations with big noses and cross eyes, long thin faces to be accepted and to win Championships. The original Siamese had lovely faces, some breeders still specialise in the "old fashioned" look.

And then of course there is the Persian.

My Persian has a completely flat face - no nose to speak of, just a tiny patch on her face with two nostrils in it. She has problems with breathing and with her eyes because of it. Her jaw is occluded so her tongue sticks out all the while.

They are also prone to kidney problems as a breed and its best to feed them a specialised food. They can't groom themselves properly, Layla can't even manage basic hygiene so I have to trim all the fur from her backside.

She was used to churn out litter after litter until her last litter died because she had an infection. Then she was dumped in rescue

But if you look at the persian from 100 years ago, it was a much healthier cat.

It's one reason why I chose a Maine Coon (without heart disease!) - to me, they're how a cat should look. Nice big head, sturdy body, perfectly designed!

With moggies, of course, you get survival of the fittest - our current moggies are 15 and 20, and the last one died at age 17.

I'm a Persian cat owner and have had 5 over the years. Only one had the really squashy face and we had problems with constant conjunctivitis. It's such a shame and now the breeding standard is that, if the nose is higher than the bottom of the eyes, they are now considered as cruelty cases. Finally!!

I only get them from rescue centres and as they are not the most common cat, I take the first Persian cat I see. Luckily the last 2 have had longer noses. My Mum and I have a little saying that my cat is not a "high-grade" Persian, but not being so, gives them a longer life. Still as fluffy though and need a lot of grooming and trimming of bottoms when the winter coat comes out. That's why I love these cats, as they are my fur babies and I love to groom them for hours on end - only for them to go straight into the soil or any pile of wood chips/cut grass and roll around!

My friend has Chihuahua dogs, they are so small and go into shock quite easily. Plus if you have one, they can die of loneliness, so you need 2 or to take the one with you absolutely everywhere. Another friend had a Sausage dog (can't spell daschund ) and the back problems this poor thing has is not good.

This is the problem. If these animals were living in the wild, they'd have died out for sure because the genetic mutations that created them have a negative survival value. It's because of humans, and what we (or at least some dog breeders) want from our animals, that these breeds persist. Same applies to cats, of course. I've never seen the attraction of the Sphynx cat, for example, which is completely hairless. This cat arose from a single genetic mutation, and should have been allowed to die out. Instead, some eejit breeder thinks "Hey, I could have a new breed here", and back-crosses the kitten with its mother, and away we go. Poor gene pool, horrible looking cat, health problems inevitable (skin cancer, prolonged diarrhoeal disease, heart disease). I just don't get it.

Even with the new ruling on nose leather, I don't think the modern Persian has a healthy face. However the kidney problems should be sorted. There was a lot of PKD in the breed, but cats cannot carry it so it was relatively easy to eliminate. The first steps were scanning cats but that missed some. Now there is a gene test for the common kind of PKD in cats, and it's possible to be sure that affected cats are no longer being produced.

PKD occurs in many other animals, including humans. A friend's wife died from it, though at 80+.