Health and Breeding

Who is ultimately responsible for overseeing the health, well-being and welfare of specific breeds of dogs? Most national kennel clubs often take the lead to promote ethical breeding of sound and health dogs, in general, by their members. These may take the form of rules, guidelines, and recommendations, directed to breeders, about ethical and breeding practices as well as health and welfare concerns for dogs under their care.

Beyond the care of individual dogs, however, there are concerns for the overall health and well-being of each breed. Many breed and kennel clubs have a long history of evaluating the health status of potential breeding dogs, using various Health and Screening Tests. Increasingly, committed clubs have developed breed-specific programs to describe and evaluate the status of their breed, especially in regard to health, mentality and other indicators of well-being.

Internationally, there is great variation in breed-specific approaches to health in dogs. This section will provide information on and links to various sources and approaches, under the following categories.

Evaluating and screening for health conditions in individual dogs and across breeds is integral to Health Strategies and Programs. However, the challenges and complexities are considerable. In this section we look to provide information, links and expert guidance to breeders and breeding advisors.

The sub-categories include:

The functionality of the website for building community, supporting collaborations, e.g. Expert Panels, Working Groups, etc.

Most national kennel clubs and other cynological organisations have regulations, recommendations and/or guidelines outlining the important ethical principles and strategies that should be followed when breeding pedigreed dogs. Although there are many similarities in content, there are also differences in scope, focus, intent and other issues. Official policies from cynological organizations apply directly only to the members of those organizations. Obviously, there will be overlap with the issues addressed by the various kennel club guidelines, but the focus and scope are generally somewhat different.

Many national, regional and local authorities also have general guidelines and/or regulations or laws addressing health and welfare issues in the breeding and keeping of dogs (pedigreed and other) that are intended for sale.

* Check out the Subcategories (below) and Articles (further below).*

In this section we will present information on issues of breeds and breeding, in general, and present information and links to information about specific breeds. Our first priority is on pedigreed dogs. Much of this information will be cross-referenced with Population Statistics and Breed-Specific Programs and other material on the site.