Health problem free dog

A mongrel is your best bet!

i had a fantastic heinz 57 from Battersea Dogs home. vets thought she was probably collie/greyhound/possibly a bit of retriever or GSD thrown in for good measure.

I had her for 17 years and she was generally a very healthy dog, only attending the vets more frequently than annual jabs in her last few years when she started to get a bit creaky, got a bit deaf and developed a very slight heart mumur. She still barked at the vet when he came to send her off to doggy heaven though !

She was with me through thick and thin and I still miss her like crazy even though its been nearly 6 years since I lost her :o(

However, every breed has its weak points and I don't think anyone would say that there is any one breed that is totally free of a health problem just that some are more serious than others!
 
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Many breeds don't have problems listed.


No point in getting a greyhound though if your lifestyle suits a Chihuahua (which incidentally are a long lived breed if responsibly bred)

Mongrels can have any of the problems of pure breeds.
 
http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/doghealth/

There is a link on that page with all the breeds and their recommended health checks.

My breed (german shorthaired pointers) only recommend hip tests when looking for a puppy, although my boys dad's breeder said she has never met one with bad hips (this was long after I bought him!). Just a sensible precaution with a large dog whether pure/cross!

There are plenty of healthier breeds.
 
Terriers as a general rule have few inherent health problems but if you want a pedigree the KC give you an idea and a starting point for each breed to see if there are any but is limited so do plenty of research outside this resource too to double check.

Depends on what type of dog you want, often dogs bred from working strains rather than for the show ring have fewer problems (also very different look/type and temprement) but only if they have been responsibly bred in the first place.
 
Not a breed, per se, but I'd recommend a "Daisy" . . . no health problems whatsoever (unless you count massive shedding), no temperament issues either . . . loves everyone and everything she meets, accepts most strange situations with calmness and a sense of humour, excellent recall (now . . . after quite alot of human intervention), fantastic foot-warmer, loyal to the point of hero-worship. Plus, she's awfully cute . . .

Daisy.jpg


Daisy2.jpg


Daisy3.jpg


In all seriousness, Daisy is a mutt/Heinz 57 dog . . . probably part border collie, maybe part jack russell (although she has NO JRT personality traits) and perhaps something else soft like a beagle or a springer . . . the only time she goes to the vet is for jabs . . . or when she was spayed.

Our other Heinz dog (Fred - jrt x border collie) is also unbelievably healthy and only goes to the vet for jabs and when he got hit by a car (which was awful - broke his tibia in two places :().

I can't speak for pure breds . . . have always had mongrels/mutts/rescue cross breeds . . . but I guess if you buy from a reputable breeder who is aware of the health issues of the breed and makes sure the parents are suitably screened, etc. and match accordingly.

Hope that helps (and excuse the shameless pics of my pup).

P
 
Getting a mongrel is certainly no guarantee of ending up with a healthy dog.

Two out of our three are mongrels, one has a congenital heart murmur that requires medication which he'll be on for the rest of his life. The other developed hereditary cataracts and was blind by the age of three. She's since had them removed at a cost of £5000. Neither the medication or the surgery would have been covered by insurance (we save a bit every month instead) as both his murmur and her eye problems were apparent when we got them and wouldn't have been covered :rolleyes:

So far the third dog, a pedigree whippet, is miles healthier!!
 
Would the best way to avoid health problems not be to know what health tests are required for the breed of dog and also to understand how the scores work (i.e. just because they have been hip scored doesn't mean that they have good scores).
Would a responsible breeder not have at least 5 generations of health test, whilst it doesn't guarantee a 100% healthy dog, it gives a better idea that the dog is bred from parents that have few health issues?
 
Naryafluffy said:
Would the best way to avoid health problems not be to know what health tests are required for the breed of dog and also to understand how the scores work (i.e. just because they have been hip scored doesn't mean that they have good scores).
Would a responsible breeder not have at least 5 generations of health test, whilst it doesn't guarantee a 100% healthy dog, it gives a better idea that the dog is bred from parents that have few health issues?
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Not necessarily. In one of my breeds a health problem appeared in the early 90's and as it was late onset and soon discovered to be recessive it pretty much cut back breeding for several years while people figured out where,& how it occurred. Then those same breeders funded research into a DNA test for the condition. (thankfully now found)
As this was late onset some of the males were held back from breeding and so were only used at eight years onwards when they could reasonably be presumed to be, at worst, carriers. This means only three generations might have tests.

In breeds such as GSD's HD & Haem tests have been the norm for decades so no excuse. Elbow testing is more recent.
 
those fluffy ones which come in all shapes, heights and colors are usually problem free, dont eat much, the odd wash ................... i think you find them in the toy shop.
 
PucciNPoni said:
A vet once told me they love border terriers cos they have relatively few health issues.
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I must be unlucky the :-)) mine won me 'patient of the month' at our local vets (ie most money spent in a month I reckon).

She has really bad hip dysplasia as well as urinary problems.

The issue is that as a 'healthy' breed, you dont get the sort of screening that less healthy dog breeds do. So you cant choose on the basis of good hip scores if the breed isnt screened. Im not sure whether next time I would get a breed with some probs but screened for so I can choose an individual that is very low risk, or keep going for a breed where the chances are good (but you might be unlucky like me).

One frustration is that I am not sure how they work out that breeds have problems. Noone at KC was at all interested in me advising them of the hip diagnosis for my KC reg dog, so how they would work out whether Borders at some point might develop this or other issue I really dont know. Its not in the breeders interests to highlight it (nor was the breeder esp interested when advised).

Thankfully my BT has not had an op on her hips as a combination of hydrotherapy and careful management have brought her right (X rays show the muscles are supporting the joint where the ball and socket partial formation was failing - amazing)
 
The healthier breeds (as a whole) are probably the rare/lesser known ones who are strongly guarded by their breeders. I can't think of a possible single one right now :rolleyes: but they are out there. That's my guess anyway!

I've only ever had cross breeds and I must say I've never called a vet for any reason other than to register & vaccinate :o but they are still just as likely to have problems.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
those fluffy ones which come in all shapes, heights and colors are usually problem free, dont eat much, the odd wash ................... i think you find them in the toy shop.
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This ^^

There are no guarantees and IMO it's very naive to claim that a mongrel will be healthier than a pedigree (what if it inherits all the problems of several breeds?). The best to do is probably to only get a thoroughly health tested dog (with low scores, because the breeder may well have hipscores etc and this doesn't mean the scores are low) and pray!
 
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