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About this blog

Deep thoughts from IPFD's Veterinary Science Officer

Entries in this blog

Why do people choose the dogs they do - and what is the impact on dog health and welfare?

Why do people choose the dogs they do and how does that influence the health and welfare of dogs? What do we know – and don’t know – about these complexities inform our efforts to educate people and safeguard the well-being of our canine companions? A new open access article is an excellent, comprehensive review of published evidence about factors influence dog acquisition: Acquiring a Pet Dog: A Review of Factors Affecting the Decision-Making of Prospective Dog Owners By Kat
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Brenda's blog

Why do legislators address the supply side and not demand?

Why do legislators address the supply side and not demand? There continue to be reports of legislative and legal approaches and other actions related to the issue of brachycephalic (short-nosed) dogs.  The international dog community is closely following the Norwegian legal action against kennel and breed clubs, and individual breeders.  A ruling is expected by the end of the month.  Issues in the Netherlands are ongoing. [links below].  As I work closely with various groups on the is
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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What we can learn from each other: Show Greyhounds

Many of our colleagues, collaborators, members and readers have a special interest in their own breed(s) and on DogWellNet.com we try to provide extensive breed-specific content.  However, a key underlying tenet of IPFD and our platforms is that there is great deal of information and experience that is relevant across breeds, across activities and across regions.  Therefore our emphasis on sharing. Thanks to Barbara Thiel who recently shared a presentation on Actual challenges in breeding s
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Brenda's blog

We Need to Focus on Breeding Healthy Dogs While We Await Technological Advances

We Need to Focus on Breeding Healthy Dogs While We Await Technological Advances   This blog is stimulated by, but is not really a review of this paper:  Advancing Genetic Selection and Behavioral Genomics of Working Dogs Through Collaborative Science, Frances L. Chen,  Madeline Zimmermann, Elinor K. Karlsson, et.al.  Front. Vet. Sci., 06 September 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.662429. The authors make it clear that their focus is on working dogs, and the need to i
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Veterinary Record: "Brachycephalic tipping point: time to push the button? "

Health and welfare issues continue to be in media, with a comment  in the latest issue of The Veterinary Record entitled "Brachycephalic tipping point: time to push the button?" and a report: "It's now time to curb advertising using flat-faced dogs, say vets".  The latter has comments from industry representatives, researchers, vets and others.  Many in the UK are alarmed at the burgeoning popularity of these dogs.  As Caroline Kisko, of The Kennel Club states, for all breeds, less than a third
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Brenda's blog

Veterinary Cancer Glossary - Help for Tough Discussions

Veterinary Cancer Glossary - Help for Tough Discussions   Veterinary-client communication is key to good care for our pets, and a new resource to support owners and vets is now available from IPFD partner World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA).  Let's face it - cancer/neoplasia can be a complex subject to discuss and even harder to comprehend when one is faced with the emotional aspects of a challenging diagnosis. The Veterinary Oncology Glossary provides an understand
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Brenda's blog

Veterinarians and Brachycephalic Dogs - Ethics and Reality

Veterinarians and Brachycephalic Dogs - Ethics and Reality   I have been starting to read the new textbook, Health and Welfare of Brachycephalic (Flat-faced) Companion Animals - A Complete Guide for Veterinary and Animal Professionals, Edited By Rowena Packer, Dan O'Neill; Copyright Year 2021 (ref below). This book has two parts.  The first part offers a group of articles on the backgrounds, history, ethics, international developments, and other aspects that define and impinge on the heal
Brenda's blog

Vet Information Network (VIN) Article: Banning brachycephalic breeds is unrealistic

On September 16, 2021 this article of mine was published on the Veterinary Information Network (V.I.N.):   Veterinary Information Network (VIN) Article: Banning brachycephalic breeds is unrealistic   It was written in response to a previous article on V.I.N. about veterinarians signing a breed banning petition and legislative actions against breeders in Norway. In my article, I discuss the complex nature of challenges around dogs with extreme conformation and stress the indiv
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Brenda's blog

Trends in the Pet Industry - Interesting or Troubling?

Trends in the Pet Industry - Interesting or Troubling? As the New Year begins, I am pondering several topics that have been raised through various channels. This morning I received this (link below):  7 Pet Industry Trends To Know (2021-2025).  Essentially this is about where people are spending their money on pets - and just how much money that is.  It would confirm what we know about people treating their pets more and more like humans, for better or for worse!  This includes toys an
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Thoughts inspired by our newest partner...

We are so excited to welcome the Irish Kennel Club as our latest Partner.   Their pride in their national breeds and long history is wonderful to see. When visiting them earlier this spring, President Sean Delmar shared with me some stories about their founder. It seems that the development of the IKC to some extent mirrored the challenges that were being faced by the country as a whole. Here is an excerpt from the History section of the IKC website.   "The freedom fighters who drove the club’
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Those Fabulous Finns!

The Finnish Kennel Club continues to inspire us!   Finland is a country of about five and half million people and with the highest ratio of dogs to people.  They are fiercely proud of their historical association with dogs - and so they should be.  It is a country where a high percentage of dogs are still used for their original purpose.  The dog continues to be integrated closely with Finnish culture.     And that wonderful, deep, and long history is now celebrated online wi
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Brenda's blog

The Relatedness of Breeds - A fun, interactive resource with some cautions

The Relatedness of Breeds - A fun, interactive resource with some cautions ...see references below... The Guardian has come out with an interactive tool for looking a the relatedness between breeds.  Based on 'clades' (genetic groupings) research and genomic work by by Heidi Parker and Elaine Ostrander's team, it is an interesting resource.  Click on your breed - see what others breeds it is related to.  Fun! But there are a couple of cautions that apply: This is great wor
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Brenda's blog

The KC (UK) New Registration Stats for 2021

The KC (UK) New Registration Stats for 2021   We recently published an article "How many are there? French Bulldogs, English Bulldogs and Pugs in Kennel Club Registries from 10 Countries" comparing registration statistics inlcuding numbers and relative percentages of the newly registered populations, and then popularity ranking.  These are simply for kennel club registrations, and the degree to which they reflect country wide numbers of pedigree and look-at-like dogs is unknown.  
Brenda's blog

The Great Divide -  Responses to Challenges in Extreme Breeds

The Great Divide - Responses to Challenges in Extreme Breeds Last week (Oct 2021) saw postings of two initiatives related to brachycephalic (flat-faced) and other extreme breeds.  One was information on legal questions being put forward to demand that the UK Kennel Club not register ‘non-standard colours’ of certain breeds. The second was posters erected in, I believe, subway stations warning people of the problems of various breeds. The first is essentially a complaint about colours t
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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The Brachycephalic Issue: Evidence, Emotion and Challenged Beliefs

I look forward with interest to see how the discussions and collaborations develop on this important issue.  Brachycephalic – flat-faced dogs – are a hot topic. As has been said elsewhere, there are intense emotions and strongly-held opinions on all sides.  There continue to be opposing views expressed on the internet and social media - not always in a respectful manner; some rather confrontational. In my experience, people at opposing poles (of this and other issues) often share some similarit
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Brenda's blog

The Big Picture - in the Dog World as a Whole and for your next Breeding Decision

The Big Picture - in the Dog World as a Whole and for your next Breeding Decision Note: This topic was prompted partly by IPFD's participation in the Canine Health Summit (videos available) put on by Embark Veterinary. See our Q&A article on breeding and genetics topics here. My last blog in 2020 was on the Big Picture in the dog world - it was about Reframing Discussions, globally.  Based on our document...the blog describes a webinar and links to presentations discussing all the
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Rhinos in Vietnam: Messaging that doesn't impact the target audience

Our colleagues at Human Behaviour Change for Animals posted this on their Facebook page: "Fantastic work exploring the demand for rhino horn with the aim of creating campaigns with messaging that is more likely to work than current messaging.  At HBCA we believe that it is vital that we don't make assumptions about why people do or don't do things and  that we find out for ourselves so we enjoyed reading this article and the papers it links to." And directed us to: We asked people in V
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Brenda's blog

Responsible Breeding and Sourcing of Dogs - Bonnett Swedish Vet Congress Oct 2020

I was honoured to participate - virtually - in the Swedish Veterinary Congress in October. This talk, as requested by the organizer looks primarily at the veterinarian's responsibility in issues related to responsible breeding, current legislative and regulatory actions, and various controversial issues in dog health and welfare - including extremes of conformation.  It also addresses concerns about how importing of dogs might impact the situation. Sweden historically has a population
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Brenda's blog

Reframing Discussions - What is needed for progress?

Reframing Discussions - What is needed for progress? A webinar sponsored by the All-party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group (APDAWG), the UK Centre for Animal Law (A-LAW) and Our Dogs Magazine. December 1st, 2020 saw well over a hundred concerned and committed dog people joined virtually in discussions with IPFD CEO Dr. Brenda Bonnett. Organized and spearheaded by Marc Abraham, BVM&S MRCVS, and Lisa Cameron, MP. In September, IPFD published an article entitled: Re
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Reaching out to the Behaviour Community

I am issuing invitations to join the community to numerous experts in the behaviour field. Hoping to get some participation before the Canine Behaviour and Genetics meeting in London 26-29 June. At least I hope to spark a little interest.   The greatest challenge is that everyone is too busy. It is easy to say that we can collaborate and share on DogWellNet.com - and I do believe there is a great potential for success and efficiency and reducing redundancy of efforts - but it has to start with
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Brenda's blog

Q&A from Embark Summit

I will answer questions here Follow numbers below:     #3- As I understand it, part of the reluctance to using panel tests is the law in Sweden - e.g. if a dog tests positive (e.g. a false positive) for a condition known NOT to occur in the breed it can render the animal 'un-breedable'.  IF that is the reasoning,... I can't help. In general, use of panel tests is okay, as long as results are interpretted as appropriate for the breed - i.e. using our IPFD Breed Rele
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Pets, Perception, and Personal Preference

  I recently participated in the educational and thought-provoking conference on brachycephalic breeds presented by the Swedish Kennel Club, 27 February 2016.  More on that later …   Something that arises in all discussions of problems in dogs – especially those with exaggerated physical characteristics – is the fascinating issue of personal preference and people’s attraction, devotion, and attachment to certain br
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Paris in the Spring!

I am in Paris working on arrangements for the IPFD 3rd International Dog Health Workshop, hosted by the French Kennel Club (SCC).     The format will be similar to previous workshops: from Friday evening until Sunday at noon   125-150 stakeholders representing all aspects of the global dog world - including decision-influencers from major kennel clubs, cynological organizations, breeders, judges, veterinarians, researchers, welfare groups and more -  will build collabor
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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Brenda's blog

Pandemic Puppies - Research Confirms the Challenges

Pandemic Puppies - Research Confirms the Challenges   The first phase of the Pandemic Puppies 2020 project has led to one publication already, with another two under review. PACKER, R. M. A., BRAND, C. L., BELSHAW, Z., PEGRAM, C. L., STEVENS, K. B. & O'NEILL, D. G. 2021. Pandemic Puppies: Characterising Motivations and Behaviours of UK Owners Who Purchased Puppies during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic. Animals, 11, 2500. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/9/2500   As we h
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett in Brenda's blog

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Owners' perception of 'responsible dog ownership'

Our colleagues at Human Behaviour Change for Animals (HBC) posted an interesting article today.  The original paper is: The Responsible Dog Owner: The Construction of Responsibility from Carri Westgarth and others at the University of Liverpool, UK. The research article is published here. Their key message is: While “responsible dog ownership” has considerable appeal as a concept, how it is perceived and interpreted varies so extensively that simply telling owners that they
Brenda Bonnett

Brenda Bonnett

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