The Scary Reality of Dog Genetic Disease

The prevalence of genetic disease in dogs today can only be described as alarmingly common which is bad news for dog owners and dog lovers alike. The following is a list to illustrate the magnitude of the problem:

1. On average all dogs carry at least 4-5 defective genes.

2. Over 500 genetic diseases have been identified in dogs.   

3. Hip Dysplasia (HD) (an inherited orthopedic disease that may result in the dog becoming lame) commonly occurs in 60 dog breeds and occurs less frequently in another 110 breeds; thus this disease is seen in over 170 breeds of dog.

4. 119 dog breeds are commonly afflicted with progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), a disease that quite often leads to blindness in the affected animal.

5. Of all the dog breeds the Poodle suffers from the most number of genetic diseases…145! The reason why the Poodle is predisposed to so many genetic diseases is because not only are there 3 distinct sizes of Poodle in this breed, the large count of disease is a reflection of the popularity of this dog breed. By and large a good rule of thumb is, the more popular a dog breed the greater the number of genetic diseases inherent in that breed.

6. Several popular dog breeds are linked to over 100 genetic diseases.

7. These days dog breeders spend well over $500,000,000 annually in an effort to address this disturbing trend of genetic disease in man's best friend.

As it is all the various dog breeds that exist today were artificially created; in other words each and every dog breed was selectively bred for a particular trait, be it coat color, coat length, sniffing ability, shortness of stature (miniatures), facial appearance and so forth…the list is virtually endless. The means by which those desired traits were obtained was to selectively breed that population of dogs that most strongly exhibited the desired trait; a breeding strategy that is otherwise known as inbreeding!