A new future for dog breeding
The modern idea of purebred dogs has come under increasing critical scrutiny over recent decades. In light of this critical focus and other developments in society, some new trends in how companion dogs are bred and acquired have emerged. This means a diminishing influence from traditional kennel cl...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Animal Welfare |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728624000666/type/journal_article |
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| author | Helle Friis Proschowsky Maja Louise Arendt Brenda N Bonnett Camilla S Bruun Irena Czycholl Merete Fredholm Dan O’Neill James A Serpell Peter Sandøe |
| author_facet | Helle Friis Proschowsky Maja Louise Arendt Brenda N Bonnett Camilla S Bruun Irena Czycholl Merete Fredholm Dan O’Neill James A Serpell Peter Sandøe |
| author_sort | Helle Friis Proschowsky |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The modern idea of purebred dogs has come under increasing critical scrutiny over recent decades. In light of this critical focus and other developments in society, some new trends in how companion dogs are bred and acquired have emerged. This means a diminishing influence from traditional kennel clubs with more dogs being sold without a pedigree, stricter legal restrictions on dog breeding, growing popularity of deliberate crosses of established breeds (i.e. so-called designer breeds) and growing hype around the benefits of mixed-breed dogs. We give an overview of these trends and discuss to what extent they will serve to promote dogs that are innately healthy, have good welfare and function well in their various roles in today’s world. We argue that newly invented designer breeds and mixed breeds also have worrying health and behavioural problems, and that the predictability of purebred dogs with respect to body size, basic behaviours, known need for grooming, disorder profiles and other attributes may well offer some benefits for a satisfying human-dog relationship seen from both sides. The optimal future seems to lie in the middle ground, where the future organised dog world (i.e. kennel and breed clubs or their successor organisations) will need to re-open the breed registries, remove wording from breed standards that currently promotes extreme conformation, support selection against disease-predisposing genotypes and phenotypes and refocus dog showing and breeding to promote health and appropriate behaviour. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6bb45ba0eb38483a96fa54c24d50196f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0962-7286 2054-1538 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animal Welfare |
| spelling | doaj-art-6bb45ba0eb38483a96fa54c24d50196f2025-01-16T21:50:02ZengCambridge University PressAnimal Welfare0962-72862054-15382025-01-013410.1017/awf.2024.66A new future for dog breedingHelle Friis Proschowsky0https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4116-9749Maja Louise Arendt1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1404-172XBrenda N Bonnett2https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7163-1331Camilla S Bruun3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3665-0016Irena Czycholl4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9365-7495Merete Fredholm5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3563-7648Dan O’Neill6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1115-2723James A Serpell7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2826-1187Peter Sandøe8https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0397-3273Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, DK-1870, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkDepartment of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Dyrlægevej 16, DK-1870, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkB Bonnett Consulting, Georgian Bluffs, ON, CanadaDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, DK-1870, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, DK-1870, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, DK-1870, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkPathobiology and Population Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield, Herts AL9 7TA, UKSchool Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USADepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, DK-1870, Frederiksberg C, Denmark Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, DK-1958, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkThe modern idea of purebred dogs has come under increasing critical scrutiny over recent decades. In light of this critical focus and other developments in society, some new trends in how companion dogs are bred and acquired have emerged. This means a diminishing influence from traditional kennel clubs with more dogs being sold without a pedigree, stricter legal restrictions on dog breeding, growing popularity of deliberate crosses of established breeds (i.e. so-called designer breeds) and growing hype around the benefits of mixed-breed dogs. We give an overview of these trends and discuss to what extent they will serve to promote dogs that are innately healthy, have good welfare and function well in their various roles in today’s world. We argue that newly invented designer breeds and mixed breeds also have worrying health and behavioural problems, and that the predictability of purebred dogs with respect to body size, basic behaviours, known need for grooming, disorder profiles and other attributes may well offer some benefits for a satisfying human-dog relationship seen from both sides. The optimal future seems to lie in the middle ground, where the future organised dog world (i.e. kennel and breed clubs or their successor organisations) will need to re-open the breed registries, remove wording from breed standards that currently promotes extreme conformation, support selection against disease-predisposing genotypes and phenotypes and refocus dog showing and breeding to promote health and appropriate behaviour.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728624000666/type/journal_articleAnimal welfaredesigner breedextreme conformationhealthy breedingmixed breedpurebred dog |
| spellingShingle | Helle Friis Proschowsky Maja Louise Arendt Brenda N Bonnett Camilla S Bruun Irena Czycholl Merete Fredholm Dan O’Neill James A Serpell Peter Sandøe A new future for dog breeding Animal Welfare Animal welfare designer breed extreme conformation healthy breeding mixed breed purebred dog |
| title | A new future for dog breeding |
| title_full | A new future for dog breeding |
| title_fullStr | A new future for dog breeding |
| title_full_unstemmed | A new future for dog breeding |
| title_short | A new future for dog breeding |
| title_sort | new future for dog breeding |
| topic | Animal welfare designer breed extreme conformation healthy breeding mixed breed purebred dog |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728624000666/type/journal_article |
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