Violet
This week’s podcast features some of the results of the massive nationwide 2014 purebred breed-health survey conducted in the United Kingdom. In addition to demonstrating how complex the issue of purebred dog health is, the results made me think of one of the (two) purebred dogs I’ve owned. Perhaps it will cause you to think of one of your own or purebred dogs you know or knew well.
According to conventional purebred wisdom, Violet (a Pembroke Welsh Corgi) should have been a complete disaster. She was the product of an intended mating of 2 dogs destined to be spayed and neutered because of immunity problems. But during our almost 15 years together, the only evidence of this I saw was a tendency for seasonal skin flareups that disappeared when I changed her diet. The only other medical problems she experienced occurred in late life–some minor hip discomfort and suspected hemangiosarcoma. Both of these I later learned probably owed more to her pre-adult spaying than her breeding. Her behavior was rock-solid, quiet and reserved, yet friendly and playful. She was a perfect dog in every way who owed her existence to a breeding blunder.
Since then the number of reasons for breeders not to breed seems to increase exponentially. This raises the question: In our efforts to create a perfect purebred dog (or cat or horse or cow, sheep, pig, or chicken), are we doing more harm than good?
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