Can you help me with my study on dogs?

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Danielle Murphy

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Hello! I am a MSc. student of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare in the University of Edinburgh. For my dissertation, I am carrying out an online survey to study the attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours of owners around the purchase of purebred dogs in the UK. More specifically, I'm targeting the top 10 registered breeds of 2014. This includes the Labrador Retriever, English Springer Spaniel, Cocker Spaniel, French Bulldog, Pug, German Shepherd Dog, Golden Retriever, Border Terrier, English Bulldog, and Miniature Schnauzer. You will notice that a good few are gundog breeds. The whole idea behind the project, is to see how people are buying their dogs, and why they are attracted to particular breeds.
I was wondering if anyone is UK based, and own one of the above listed breeds, could you spare some time to take part in my study? All participants that take part remain anonymous, and I'm most certainly not trying to sell anything! Any information you share will go towards helping others make responsible choices when getting a dog. I'm also not a member of any radical Animal Rights group, the information gained from this study will go towards helping both breeders and buyers. I own purebred dogs myself! I would really appreciate it!
Here is the link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PWZ2W6J?fb_ref=Default

Regards,
Danielle Murphy
 
You have hip displaysia listed twice for my breed which I suppose could give you an error of 100% for this disease if someone ticked both boxes?
 
That's a very interesting list blackcob. I was surprised at one or two on there but especially the French Bulldog. I don't think I have ever seen one just out and about.
 
Chiffy said:
That's a very interesting list blackcob. I was surprised at one or two on there but especially the French Bulldog. I don't think I have ever seen one just out and about.
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frenchies are the latest must have dog for complimenting your outfit-fashion dogs grrr grrr grrr-makes me so cross-they fetch massive amounts of money and puppy farming/back yard breeding them is now huge
 
twiiggy, that's sad. I must say when I saw the list I was quite pleased my own breed, flatcoated retrievers are not being overbred. It is often a worry when a breed does well at Crufts and comes to the attention of the general public that unsuitable owners will appear.
 
It must seem that I am a heartless owner as I'd never heard of most of those diseases, let alone had a dog with one in over 40 years. But then I've only ever owned working dogs and needed a maximum of a lot more than 20 owned!
 
Chiffy said:
twiiggy, that's sad. I must say when I saw the list I was quite pleased my own breed, flatcoated retrievers are not being overbred. It is often a worry when a breed does well at Crufts and comes to the attention of the general public that unsuitable owners will appear.
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But unsuitable owners appear regardless - they might buy a particular breed because it is popular, but they would have bought a breed anyway, and there isn't anything wrong with raising the profile of a specific breed.
 
As long as that 'profile raising' points out the sort of home the dog needs. The Flatcoated Retriever Society does its best to regulate where its registered litters go, consequently few appear in rescue except ones that go back to the Society rescue due to change of circumstances or death of an owner.
I wish this could be said of all breeds.
 
Chiffy said:
As long as that 'profile raising' points out the sort of home the dog needs. The Flatcoated Retriever Society does its best to regulate where its registered litters go, consequently few appear in rescue except ones that go back to the Society rescue due to change of circumstances or death of an owner.
I wish this could be said of all breeds.
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But again, the onus on researching what type of dog you should actually be looking for should rest with the potential owner. I did a lot of research into my pup, and I was in contact with the breeder months before she had put the bitch in pup, the likes of preloved and sites like that promote bad breeding and act as a spring board for impulse buyers who want a pup now.

I have a golden retriever which is up there with the top 10 (presumably because of it's temperament/family credentials) and if you go on preloved and rubbish sites like that people are churning them out, bad breeders won't stop until people stop buying from them, will they?

You could argue that there are less "back street breeders" with the flatcoats because there aren't as many litters being produced/ as much demand for the pups.
 
Chiffy said:
That's a very interesting list blackcob. I was surprised at one or two on there but especially the French Bulldog. I don't think I have ever seen one just out and about.
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It's a relatively recent phenomenon - in 2005 there were 324 French bulldogs registered with the KC, in 2014 there were 9,670.

Horrid little things with no nostrils and crumbling spines but hey, they're fashionable. :p
 
I have filled in the survey on behalf of my working cocker spaniels - it is skewed however, because show cockers are prone to all the diseases listed, while working cockers are not. You do not differentiate.
 
I can well believe it, I did lot of poking around at cocker pedigrees before mum bought hers last year and I was surprised by how high the inbreeding COIs were in a lot of working lines. Health tests rare as hen's teeth as well.

If your vet says that no working cocker has ever been diagnosed with hip dysplasia or a hereditary eye disorder then they are wrong, sorry!
 
Noooo dont mention the show specimens, they make me cringe every time :D :D Yep that is the statistic I usually quote - heard it from GRWE but no evidence to substantiate it before anyone jumps on me :) - most of them appear to be asleep in my living room at the moment :p
 
blackcob said:
I can well believe it, I did lot of poking around at cocker pedigrees before mum bought hers last year and I was surprised by how high the inbreeding COIs were in a lot of working lines. Health tests rare as hen's teeth as well.

If your vet says that no working cocker has ever been diagnosed with hip dysplasia or a hereditary eye disorder then they are wrong, sorry!
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maybe we are just lucky - we only come across working, working cockers and not pet ones. They're not saying "no wcs" just not ones that they see
 
Christ how many C-sections must be going on for the bulldog to be top 10....

the increase in frenchie numbers is quite something too.
 
Done :) We have 3/ the 10 plus an unregistered terrierX

My 'pure' show bred cocker has an inbreeding coefficient of 6% and is still going strong aged 14 :)

I've seen both show and working ones in intensive care with IMHA
 
I just do not understand why people do not research lines. Its so easy nowadays to post on a dog site saying what do you think of this dog i.e. the stud dog and does any one own any offspring by him? As well as the health tests but come on wise up a bit just like they do no here with stallions. I researched my dog's line albeit without the internet when I bought her 13 years ago. Pedigrees are expensive to buy never mind health wise so why not put time into research. My dog was never advertised it was the stud dog owner that I contacted who put me in touch with an owner who was going to use him.

Its very very important to see both parents not just the mother.
 
Inbreeding does not "cause" health problems. The problems are caused by the poor selection of breeding stock regardless of the breeding system.
 
Was really surprised that there wasnt any sled dog breeds on the list as they seem to be increasingly common these days, sadly there might be a huge amount of back yard breeders so maybe thats why they arent on the list.
 
Dry Rot said:
Inbreeding does not "cause" health problems. The problems are caused by the poor selection of breeding stock regardless of the breeding system.
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Exactly its why researching into the lines are so important. Select what your breeding to and from.
 
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