Breeding programmes can no longer disregard canine well-being

The breeding of pure-bred dogs is based on the concepts of breed qualifications and breed purity, which means that dogs are only bred with other dogs of the same breed.

The prevailing method of breeding dogs is often presented as natural and without alternative.

However, the history of pure-bred dog breeding is only about a little over 150 years old. It was not until the 2000s, at the latest, that people have begun to realise what consequences it has for dogs.

Dogs are bred in a human-centred fashion to meet cultural preferences which emphasise, among other things, a focus on appearance and submissiveness to human control. Dogs are humans’ best friends because humans have bred them to be just that – and dogs have very limited room for other types of behaviour. Instead of blindly repeating the idea that dog is human’s best friend and thus hiding our one-sided power relationship with them, it would be more important to ask what kind of friends we humans are to dogs.

Limited gene pool is problematic for many breeds

For pure-bred dogs, problems are often caused by exaggerated features – that is, their breed-specific characteristics – as well as their limited gene pool. Veterinary knowledge about the status of different breeds is now increasingly available, and in this light, the breeding and obtaining of breeds such as the English bulldog, the French bulldog, and the Cavalier King Charles spaniel, which suffer severely from their breed-typical features, appears as a questionable cause of suffering.

These dogs suffer from what they are because of human-controlled breeding. 

For example, the two bulldog breeds generally have many severe health problems related to their breed-typical appearance: breathing difficulties, spine deformations, joint-related problems, as well as skin and eye diseases. In addition, they are often incapable of giving natural birth, and a large proportion of their puppies are born by Caesarean section.

A large-scale Swedish study published in 2021 found that the average inbreeding rate for pure-bred dogs was nearly 25 percent, which corresponds to breeding between a parent and an off-spring or between two off-springs. In many breeds, the inbreeding rate is even higher.

For humans and wild animals, an inbreeding rate of ten percent is viewed as the limit after which the negative effects of inbreeding start to emerge. 

Inbreeding increases health problems, reproduction difficulties, puppy death rates, and deformity.

A high inbreeding rate is primarily the result of the fact that only a small number of dogs were originally selected for the breeds, and breeding has favoured individual dogs that have been successful in dog shows or trials.

Restrictions have already been placed on dog breeding in Finland

Along with growing veterinary knowledge, people have become better aware of the harm caused by inbreeding and dogs’ hereditary diseases.

Kennel organisations have taken action against, for example, the overuse of particular dog individuals in breeding. 

In Finland, the health of pure-bred dogs is studied extensively, and there are restrictions on the use of dogs for breeding, which has proven successful in addressing the health problems in many breeds, such as epilepsy in the Finnish spitz.

The essential elements of the production of pure-bred dogs – breed purity and breed qualifications – are still strongly present. These cause undue harm and suffering to numerous dogs and also pose a risk to breeds that do not yet suffer from any major problems.

There are alternatives to the current method of breeding dogs

Pure-bred dogs and different dog breeds are cultural phenomena. In the long mutual history of humans and dogs, they are quite recent notions, however, tracing back to less than two centuries ago.

Cultural aspects always involve randomness as well – things could also be different. Moreover, culture is changing all the time. 

Although the position of pure-bred dogs is strong in Finland, there are alternatives to the current way of dog production.

Ethically more sustainable dog production calls for structural reforms in the production of pure-bred dogs. We must move from strict requirements for breed purity and pure-bred populations closed off by cultural choices towards more porous boundaries allowing genetic exchange between different breeds.

In recent years, kennel organisations have launched cross-breeding projects for some of the most problematic breeds. However, the effect of these projects remains limited, and they do not change the overall picture of pure-breed dog production.

We must start somewhere, but dogs do not have time to wait any longer. The pure-bred dog production must undergo extensive and profound reform, and its regulation and oversight can no longer be left solely to kennel organisations with their insufficient self-regulation; rather the government and authorities must step in to address the problems in dog breeding.

Ate Tervonen

The writer works as a researcher at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä. He has studied, for example, Finnish dog culture and the impacts of culture on dogs in terms of pure-bred dog production, dog training and images of popular culture.