Pug Health
The more i learn about Pugs as a breed and their health, the more I realise that some of the health problems the breed suffers with are complex. I do not consider myself an expert by any means, but I am on a learning journey.
The Pug breed is considered by many vets as unhealthy, but what most vets see today and register are cross bred Pugs, not true pedigree. The escalation of unrecognised colours which is cross breeding, just escalated over the last ten years, The reason it escalated was you the buying public. Some wanted something different, others didnt know they were buying non pedigree. Breeders catered for your desires, and because of the public demand for this breed, it altered the health also. They became one of the more unhealthy breeds.
But it says fawn on the paper work, some will say. But this still doesnt mean its pedigree sadly as breeders have lied on paper work. You can not blame the Kennel club as all they are is a registration system, so if breeders give false info, they do not know about it.
The Pug breed is considered by many vets as unhealthy, but what most vets see today and register are cross bred Pugs, not true pedigree. The escalation of unrecognised colours which is cross breeding, just escalated over the last ten years, The reason it escalated was you the buying public. Some wanted something different, others didnt know they were buying non pedigree. Breeders catered for your desires, and because of the public demand for this breed, it altered the health also. They became one of the more unhealthy breeds.
But it says fawn on the paper work, some will say. But this still doesnt mean its pedigree sadly as breeders have lied on paper work. You can not blame the Kennel club as all they are is a registration system, so if breeders give false info, they do not know about it.
We advise anyone purchasing a Pug puppy should take up dog health insurance. For any breed of dog vet bills today are much higher and owners can not afford the vet bills. A Pug can live anywhere from 1-15 years of age. For all the bad press they are a breed which lives a long time. Insurance cover you should find one with maximum cover. Which is approx 15k for any health problem. The cheaper based insurances sadly will not cover much.
Pugs, French bulldogs, English bulldogs and other breeds which fall into the flat faced category are under media scrutiny as it makes a good article that breeders are all evil. Its often celebrities which bring to the forefront sick animals, because they haven’t dont their home work when buying the dog. They have brought off internet websites, often paying ten times more money because they think the more they pay more for a fancy colour it will make good photos, be rare and they own something others dont.
Colours: Pugs are Fawn, Black, Apricot, Silver.
Fawns should have a black mask and black ears. Not pale wishy washy colour. They are short coated, not long hair. If advertised as Fawn and kennel club registered and you get there and you can not see the correct colour, do not buy.
Fawns should have a black mask and black ears. Not pale wishy washy colour. They are short coated, not long hair. If advertised as Fawn and kennel club registered and you get there and you can not see the correct colour, do not buy.
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Pictured left:
2 Fawn colour puppies at 9 weeks of age approx. You can see they have a dark black mask, black ears, yet the coat is fawn. So if you see anything paler in the nose area or ears, it’s not pedigree. Black pugs should have a jet black coat and preferably dominant black parents. If you mate a fawn to a black although you can do this, I spoke to a breed specialist who said she wouldn’t do it as it can dilute the coat colour. Apricot is not seen as often now, but you can have a litter of Fawn, Apricot and Black depending on genetics. But most people mate Fawn to Apricot. As far as I am aware from speaking to experts the colour silver has not been truly seen in years. Often people are mis selling silver colour. But I’m yet to see a good proper silver as they are now quite rare. |
HEALTH
Their are now a long list of health tests you can have done on your adult pugs. A Pug must be 1 years of age for some health tests. By law a dog should not be bred until 18 months of age if you are a licensed breeder which is on the star system. If you are not on the star system then you can breed from the age of 1. Which is a bit ridiculous. So if you pay for more stars you will in fact have to have better welfare.
The important ones are now:
PDE = Pug Dog Encephalitis.
HV = Hemivertabra
Patellar = Luxation Patellar
Boas = Breathing Obstructive Airways Syndrome.
But their are also a long list of other health tests which you dog can have.
When DNA tests are done the results come back as follows:
Clear, or Carrier, or Effected.
Understanding genetics is not as simple as disregarding of all carriers because if we omit carriers we will end up with a smaller gene pool. When you get a smaller gene pool you may of eradicated the health problem you were testing for but you could end up with ten different health problems that their is NO DNA MARKER FOR! When breeders breed dogs they should only breed clear to clear, or clear to carrier. None of the offspring will then develop the health problem. If you mate a carrier to a carrier you will get one clear, one affected, two carriers. If you mated effected to effected the whole litter would be effected. What you must remember is DNA tests are a tool for breeders to use to help create a dog free from what ever health problem they are testing for.
Their are now a long list of health tests you can have done on your adult pugs. A Pug must be 1 years of age for some health tests. By law a dog should not be bred until 18 months of age if you are a licensed breeder which is on the star system. If you are not on the star system then you can breed from the age of 1. Which is a bit ridiculous. So if you pay for more stars you will in fact have to have better welfare.
The important ones are now:
PDE = Pug Dog Encephalitis.
HV = Hemivertabra
Patellar = Luxation Patellar
Boas = Breathing Obstructive Airways Syndrome.
But their are also a long list of other health tests which you dog can have.
When DNA tests are done the results come back as follows:
Clear, or Carrier, or Effected.
Understanding genetics is not as simple as disregarding of all carriers because if we omit carriers we will end up with a smaller gene pool. When you get a smaller gene pool you may of eradicated the health problem you were testing for but you could end up with ten different health problems that their is NO DNA MARKER FOR! When breeders breed dogs they should only breed clear to clear, or clear to carrier. None of the offspring will then develop the health problem. If you mate a carrier to a carrier you will get one clear, one affected, two carriers. If you mated effected to effected the whole litter would be effected. What you must remember is DNA tests are a tool for breeders to use to help create a dog free from what ever health problem they are testing for.
HV = Hemivertabra
Any breed which has a screw tail can potentially have HV. It is not yet fully understood if it is actually hereditary or not yet. But by a x-ray done on the spine before breeding, you can send to Dick Whites Referrals, and they will look at the x-ray and tell you if your dog is affected or clear. By breeding only through clear dogs it is thought to avoid HV. The problem is no one will know for sure for several generations if this has in fact been the case.
Luxaxtion Patellar
Small toy breeds can develop Patellar luxation. The patellar is the knee cap on the back legs of the dog. They can simply slip out from the socket. They are graded by each hip 0:0 or 1:1 which is desirable to mate dogs from these scores. You also have 2:2 and 3:3 and 4:4 which is not desirable to mate your dog. 4:4 would be the worst case scenario where the dogs knee caps slip out and do not go back in. Most of these cases would need veterinary intervention to fix the knee caps.
Pug Dog Encephalitis
BOAS
This is relatively new and when you have new tests no one understands them as well as they should do. Even vets are learning about boas, what could cause boas? Research is being done by Cambridge university to try and understand boas better. For many years it was thought flat nose dogs have boas. But then they realised their are more factors to boas than a flat face. They discovered body condition score also has an influence which is a nice way of saying, “How fat your dog is”, Dogs thin and lean seemed to have less problems than over weight dogs. So one bit of advice is never allow your Pug, French bulldog or English bulldog to become over weight. But the flat faced breeds of dogs should all in theory have boas to some degree. Their is no long snout.
I firmly believe a scientist, a vet, the KC representative, and a breed club should sit around the table and think how to go forward in breeding these dogs. It can not be done with out a scientist.
As well as weight they look at Nostrils, and nose just the nose hole, but the slit they call the dorsal fin should be wider. I know of one male Pug who has these features which we have planned to use on Sabrina but its very hard to find these dogs. Because the scores on paper aren't always correct. When you see the dog in person you can have a shock as to why it even passed the health test.
So why is this? Im told some kennels now pay vets to come in and grade their dogs, they are given excellent results with a nice fat wad of cash. This came direct from a veterinary surgeons mouth, whilst I was standing there trying to think what I had just heard.
They listen to the dog before and after exercise, but a warm day can ruin your dogs score. As if a dog pants its a score against it. Of course they will pant. Even my Vizsla pant on a hot day.
We are years away from understanding everything about boas. Vets know very little about it. They are compiling information about the grading.
So what can breeders do ? Improve improve improve. Choose male dogs which have features your bitches lack. Then keep a puppy that may have the feature you are looking for. That is what true breeding is all about.
We are desperately trying to breed healthy dogs as possible. When I look back at the first Pug I had, I have already made huge improvements. If your dog has a score your not happy with, then keep going until you've got what you want.
Humans are not perfect and neither are dogs
Boas is graded as 0;0 1;1 2;2 3;3 4;4. The combination of nostril size, listening to the throat, lungs, and watching the dog exercise concludes the results. But the twist is each vet is different and where as one vet will grade a dog as zero it could get 3:3 with another vet. Also we have learnt this week through a well respected researcher that some vets are connected to larger kennels and are putting through false results. So what ever we do, we as human beings will always do something it seems to falsify results.
You can breed dogs with 0;0, 1;1. 2;2 if for example your dog had a 2:2 you would look to find a female with 0;0 or 1;1. By selectively breeding the hope is to change the way the breed will be in another few years. I was once told it takes 3 generations to change a breed of dog. Having a 3:3 dog doesn't mean it wont produce a 0:0 dog. Do not look at numbers, this is for breeders as a tool not categorically a pet owners problem. I took my Frenchie to the vets and she snorted, the vet looked at me and said your dog wont be a 0! Of course no Brachycephellic head shape will never snore, or snort. The design of the scull needs improving all these dogs will snore, and snort. Funnily enough the dog she said that too has never snored in her life and is the most active Frenchie ive ever seen. I do think some vets HATE certain breeds and really like to score badly to prove a point. The dog I had passed lol. But I imagine many wont.
Their is only a small percentage of breeders trying this new scheme. We are in the minority so no true average can be expected yet. A lot of data has to be compiled, and stored for years to get a true representation of these dogs health. It will not be done over night. Many assured breeders in 2021 are going to drop from the scheme simply because of boas testing as they know its an impossibility to have zero scores on every dog. We are just going to keep breeding to health tested dogs, stud dogs will be chosen based on not just looks but health tests results
This is relatively new and when you have new tests no one understands them as well as they should do. Even vets are learning about boas, what could cause boas? Research is being done by Cambridge university to try and understand boas better. For many years it was thought flat nose dogs have boas. But then they realised their are more factors to boas than a flat face. They discovered body condition score also has an influence which is a nice way of saying, “How fat your dog is”, Dogs thin and lean seemed to have less problems than over weight dogs. So one bit of advice is never allow your Pug, French bulldog or English bulldog to become over weight. But the flat faced breeds of dogs should all in theory have boas to some degree. Their is no long snout.
I firmly believe a scientist, a vet, the KC representative, and a breed club should sit around the table and think how to go forward in breeding these dogs. It can not be done with out a scientist.
As well as weight they look at Nostrils, and nose just the nose hole, but the slit they call the dorsal fin should be wider. I know of one male Pug who has these features which we have planned to use on Sabrina but its very hard to find these dogs. Because the scores on paper aren't always correct. When you see the dog in person you can have a shock as to why it even passed the health test.
So why is this? Im told some kennels now pay vets to come in and grade their dogs, they are given excellent results with a nice fat wad of cash. This came direct from a veterinary surgeons mouth, whilst I was standing there trying to think what I had just heard.
They listen to the dog before and after exercise, but a warm day can ruin your dogs score. As if a dog pants its a score against it. Of course they will pant. Even my Vizsla pant on a hot day.
We are years away from understanding everything about boas. Vets know very little about it. They are compiling information about the grading.
So what can breeders do ? Improve improve improve. Choose male dogs which have features your bitches lack. Then keep a puppy that may have the feature you are looking for. That is what true breeding is all about.
We are desperately trying to breed healthy dogs as possible. When I look back at the first Pug I had, I have already made huge improvements. If your dog has a score your not happy with, then keep going until you've got what you want.
Humans are not perfect and neither are dogs
Boas is graded as 0;0 1;1 2;2 3;3 4;4. The combination of nostril size, listening to the throat, lungs, and watching the dog exercise concludes the results. But the twist is each vet is different and where as one vet will grade a dog as zero it could get 3:3 with another vet. Also we have learnt this week through a well respected researcher that some vets are connected to larger kennels and are putting through false results. So what ever we do, we as human beings will always do something it seems to falsify results.
You can breed dogs with 0;0, 1;1. 2;2 if for example your dog had a 2:2 you would look to find a female with 0;0 or 1;1. By selectively breeding the hope is to change the way the breed will be in another few years. I was once told it takes 3 generations to change a breed of dog. Having a 3:3 dog doesn't mean it wont produce a 0:0 dog. Do not look at numbers, this is for breeders as a tool not categorically a pet owners problem. I took my Frenchie to the vets and she snorted, the vet looked at me and said your dog wont be a 0! Of course no Brachycephellic head shape will never snore, or snort. The design of the scull needs improving all these dogs will snore, and snort. Funnily enough the dog she said that too has never snored in her life and is the most active Frenchie ive ever seen. I do think some vets HATE certain breeds and really like to score badly to prove a point. The dog I had passed lol. But I imagine many wont.
Their is only a small percentage of breeders trying this new scheme. We are in the minority so no true average can be expected yet. A lot of data has to be compiled, and stored for years to get a true representation of these dogs health. It will not be done over night. Many assured breeders in 2021 are going to drop from the scheme simply because of boas testing as they know its an impossibility to have zero scores on every dog. We are just going to keep breeding to health tested dogs, stud dogs will be chosen based on not just looks but health tests results