Healthy and tasty as they are, a diet of carrots would have little impact on the plague of inherited disease affecting Cavaliers. The same could be said of metaphorical “carrots”: incentives used to encourage participation and compliance. When it comes to helping these most loving and lovable of dogs, health testing and following breeding guidelines are key. However a report published this month (January 2017) confirms that while that breeding protocols work, compliance among breeders is poor.
The report was the work of researchers including the cardiologist Simon Swift. It deals with Degenerative Mitral Valve Disease (DMVD or what many refer to as MVD) and looked at 8,860 UK Cavaliers over a nine-year period. It is an interesting read . It is also depressing if one considers the only real positive it can point to is that the age of onset of MVD has only improved by six months, only in bitches and only in examinations done by GP vets rather than cardiac specialists.
Not new is the assertion that Cavaliers are more badly affected than any other breed by MVD, which is a disease of old age in most dogs. Numerous studies have shown it hits Cavaliers in far greater numbers, at a younger age and more aggressively than other breeds. It is also, as this report states, “highly inheritable and selection against the disease should be successful”.
Hence, for years experts have been calling on breeders to heart test their Cavaliers and follow breeding guidelines; in essence not breeding at too young an age and ensuring the parents’ own parents are still heart clear at five years old. Amid all the complex science that surrounds this condition there is one very simple truth: not enough breeders do this.
Some figures from this latest study illustrate this clearly: in the period 2006 to 2010, for example, only four per cent of Cavaliers followed the breeding advice. Throughout the nine years of the study, never more than 31 per cent of dogs examined were over five years old, despite the importance of knowing the heart status of older dogs.
This brings us back to carrots. When it comes to health testing, asking breeders to do this, pretty please, just isn’t working. Denmark has compulsory heart testing and the risk of Cavaliers developing MVD has fallen by a whopping 73 per cent. In November the Kennel Club in the UK announced that it plans to introduce an official heart scheme along the Danish model that would “dramatically” improve Cavaliers’ heart health. Yippee! But wait– it has no plans to make it mandatory.
Does the Kennel Club have some secret plan to offer breeders a £1,000 bonus or some other “super carrot” for every litter bred within guidelines? If not, it’s going to need something, well dramatic, to see its “dramatic improvement” because whatever they may say, the actions of Cavalier breeders of all types – from puppy farmers to top show kennels and breed club committee members – prove that most will not health test and/or follow guidelines voluntarily.
Given that compliance is poor with the extremely inexpensive and simple heart testing currently offered at Cavalier Club shows and health days (and credit must go to the Club for facilitating this), why does the Kennel Club think take up will be better with the more expensive and complicated scheme it proposes?
An oft-heard argument peddled by breeders against mandatory testing is that it reduces genetic diversity. Popular-sire syndrome is rife already as this January report highlights: “In recent years, the top three stud dogs have produced 145, 125 and 85 litters”.
Another argument frequently levelled is that many breeders would forfeit KC registration to avoid the health schemes, as has happened in some countries. However, at least puppy buyers in countries with mandatory testing schemes know that KC registration and breed club membership stands for something and represents a gold standard.
Later this week the Kennel Club is holding a meeting with Cavalier Breed Clubs to discuss Health and Conservation Plans for the breed. Let’s hope this is constructive and is about what can actually be DONE, not simply about issuing meaningless statements and devising more stalling devices and elaborate excuses for not doing the right thing.
Not being afraid to stand alone is an admirable trait in most circumstances but not when it comes to Cavalier health. The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Slovenia, Finland and Estonia are among the many European countries with mandatory breed club or Kennel Club heart schemes for Cavaliers.
So, our call to the UK Kennel Club and Cavalier Clubs is, ditch the carrots and the foot dragging: do the right thing for our little dogs.
If you agree that health testing for Cavaliers should be compulsory (no health tests – no KC registration!) please sign our petition
