3 ms·

> French bulldogs are designed and bred to have health problems. They should be verboten to breed at all, but that's not possible. Well, to a certain extent a

• Scaevolus 4y ago
  You can screen out hip dysplasia genetically, but the fundamental breed standards for bracycephalic dogs mean they always have compromised respiration. There is no way to breed them that avoids it.
  • mgarfias 4y ago
    No, you can’t screen it out. Genetics only account for about 30% of the causes of hip dysplasia
    • bayesian_horse 4y ago
      I generally agree. With the breeding standards of German Shepherds for example there will always be a tendency. But also in general, I'd like to caution about overinterpreting the "x percent genetic" figures. They are computed for a particular population of individuals at a particular time. If a breeder's association then changes their guidelines to screen, for example, for HD, and they actually do a good job at it, that figure will go down, because the following generations will have fewer variation in the genes responsible for it.
      • mgarfias 4y ago
        Yet, diet and environment have a huge impact on hips. Also, OFA’s ratings are crap
        • m-ee 4y ago
          What are the issues with OFA ratings? They’re treated as sacrosanct on the dog reddits but I’ve never really investigated further
          • mgarfias 4y ago
            Completely subjective. The final rating is the average of what three radiologists think about the joint conformation. And, it gets worse, some breeds are rated more harshly that others. For instance, a GSD with an ok looking hip joint will get a “good” rating, but a white Swiss shepherd with the same hip would get a “fair” as OFA wants the WSS to have better hips, so they judge it differently. Also, they take age into consideration, so a 2yro dog will be judged more harshly than a 4yro. We use PennHip, which measures the distraction in the joint, and uses it as a predictor of future health. GSDs on average have a median rating (working from memory, numbers will be handwavy) of something like .5. Thd WSS is more like .4. I’ve seen our kids come back with a pennhip rating of .28/.29, and a fair OFA rating. We’ve stopped sending X-rays for Ofa hips as it doesn’t give us any actual information.
• bayesian_horse 4y ago
  I wouldn't even say "sketchy". The written "standard" and even the breeder's attitudes what makes a beautiful dog are the culprit, even when the breeders have high standards regarding health, genetics and welfare otherwise. Genetically, people who breed by accident or intentionally without "proper breeding practice" at least don't breed their dogs to have health problems on purpose.
  • Doxin 4y ago
    > Genetically, people who breed by accident or intentionally without "proper breeding practice" at least don't breed their dogs to have health problems on purpose. The argument is even stronger than stated here: Mutts are on average much healthier than breed dogs. The life span of e.g. village dogs is higher on average than pretty much all breed dogs.
• bayesian_horse 4y ago
  There can be big dogs with an acceptable risk of HD. But it takes an effort most breeding organizations don't want to take and the breeding standard usually works against that anyway. Hard to say what the most healthy "breed" is, in general, even for me who actually studied this stuff. Even crossbreeds will inherit the problems from their ancestors, crossbreeding isn't inherently better. For most people I recommend going for a dog that is around the size of a Beagle, but even Beagles are bred to have shorter legs than "wild type". Also beware of breeds who reportedly have fewer issues... sometimes it's just that there haven't been published studies to that effect and often because the sample sizes are too small.
• euroderf 4y ago
  The Atlantic ran a great article a looong time ago (80s?) about how professional breeders were/are ruining dogs with health problems. Hip dysplasia is just an appetizer.