When it comes to health, dog breeds ain’t dog breeds! Visit Perfect Match Puppy to learn more about dog breed selection and choosing the right puppy destined for a long, healthy and trouble free life.
From tiny teacup Chihuahuas to enormous Mastiffs, there is an enormous choice when it comes to dog breeds — and everyone has their own preference. Many dog breeds also come in different sizes: Poodles and Schnauzers, for instance, can vary from teacup-sized all the way up to giant. Other breeds are similar in appearance with one being like a smaller version of the other. Examples are Collies and Shelties; Dobermans and Miniature Pinschers; Greyhounds and Whippets.
Different breeds also mean different grooming needs: Breeds with long hair, for instance, require more upkeep than breeds with short hair. Pretty obvious when you think about it, but often completely overlooked when selecting a puppy or dog. There’s nothing worse than a long coat that has been left unkempt and reduced to dreadlocks and felted tangles, so factor in regular brushing when considering long-haired dogs.
Some breeds on the other hand, like Briards, Schnauzers, Poodles, Wirehaired Dachshunds and Terriers, don’t shed. This is great for families with members who are allergic to dogs, as non-shedding breeds are less likely to trigger reactions. Another great advantage of such breeds is the obvious one: they won’t leave hair all over the place, which means less vacuuming for you. However, some of them require regular (every six to eight weeks) clipping so, unless you are willing to learn how to clip and groom your dog, you’ll need regular visits to the grooming parlor — and be prepared to pay for the service.
Overall, disregarding aspects like size, shedding and breed design can be detrimental to your efforts of finding your perfect dog. Let’s examine these serious mistakes in some detail below, shall we?
Why you are getting a dog? Most people want their dog to be a great companion and a good watchdog. This leads some people to go for the larger breeds… but unless you actually want a dog that is aggressive and physically capable of hurting someone, this can be an expensive mistake. Apart from the fact that a lot of the smaller breeds are great watchdogs, big dogs equal bigger potential problems and definitely higher expenses on all levels. Here are some of the BIG (pun intended) ones:
Big dogs cost more to feed
A dog weighing 40 kg will naturally cost three to four times as much to feed as one that weighs 10 kg. Over the lifetime of your pet, this difference can really add up: A dog food bill of $30 a week instead of $10 a week will cost $15,000 more by the time your dog is 15 years old!
Routine medicines are more expensive for bigger dogs
The doses of routine medicines needed for regular control of heartworm, fleas and intestinal parasites depends on the size of the dog. For example, while it may cost $10 to deal with worms in a small dog, you could be looking at $40 for a big one — and that’s over and over again…
Veterinary bills are higher with big dogs
The cost of just about every veterinary procedure is calculated based on the dog’s weight. That’s because bigger dogs cost more to treat. For example they need higher doses of anaesthetic and medicine, have to be housed in larger kennels and use up more suture material during surgery.
Would you buy a car with wonky wheels? Or a house whose doors and windows didn’t fit properly? Most people would not. But it’s amazing how all that natural good sense goes out the window when it comes to choosing a dog! Sadly, a lot of dog breeds are derived from the chance birth of a puppy with a genetic malformation: Some enterprising person thought “that looks novel” and voila! a new breed was born. Problem is, these malformations are really aberrations of the dog’s natural design.
Dogs have a proper shape which functions well, the result of millions of years of evolutionary improvement. If you want know what that looks like, examine the wolf or the dingo.
When I was training to be a veterinarian, we were taught that poorly designed dogs are prone to massive health problems. Once you read more about it below, you may even think (like I do) that it is in fact cruel to breed dogs with bad design — and certainly inadvisable to own any!
If you are like most people, you prefer a dog with a good chance of living a healthy life. So here’s a rule of thumb when choosing a dog breed:
Steer clear of breeds with exaggerated body features.
One thing to always keep in mind is that dogs are descendants of domesticated wolves. Over millions of years, nature has designed dogs to have a basic body size and shape that optimizes vigor and wellbeing, similar to that of their wild ancestors. So the more distorted the basic wolf-like body has become through selective breeding, the less healthy your dog is likely to be.
Unfortunately, the design faults of some modern, purebred dogs are actually written into breed standards for each breed — standards that emphasize how a dog should look, sometimes at great detriment to the healthy functioning of their body. This precedence of appearance over function can create unacceptable conformation and temperament defects; pain; physiological dysfunction and distress.
As a result of such breed standards, serious show dog breeders unwittingly perpetuate these genetic deformities in a misguided belief that they are “improving” the breed. Guided by the same standards, dog breeders compete in the show ring to produce dogs who embody the “ideal” appearance of their breed, deformities and all. In recognition of this problem, in 2008 the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) boycotted the biggest annual dog show in the UK, Crufts, for perpetuating the breeding of “disabled” dogs by the world’s kennel clubs. RSPCA’s Chief Veterinary Adviser stated that, “the welfare and quality of life of many pedigree dogs is seriously compromised by established breeding practices for appearance, driven primarily by the rules and requirements of competitive dog showing and pedigree dog registration.”
Distortions that predispose a dog to disabling health concerns include having a squashed face (e.g. shih tzu, pug), super-short legs (e.g. basset hound), super-long backs (e.g. dachshund) , tightly curled tails (e.g. pug), loose skin or exaggerated skin folds (e.g. Shar Pei), really long ears e.g. Cocker Spaniel), and being drastically over- or undersized (e.g. Great Dane, Chihuahua). Breeds bred to have big, heavy heads and shoulders (e.g. British Bulldog) usually can’t even pass through their mother’s birth canal and require cesarean births. Dog breeds with design traits dramatically divergent from how the dog was meant to be, naturally suffer impaired welfare and quality of life.
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