Eight key issues for Dog Breeding
The Advisory Council on the Welfare Issues of Dog Breeding has published a report highlighting the key dog breeding issues.
The report, welcomed by the BVA, has set out eight priority issues and detailed their concerns for each one. Included in the report are recommendations to address each issue, which support routine screening for dogs used for breeding.
The key priorities listed were:
• Ocular problems linked to head conformation
• Breathing difficulty linked to head conformation
• Syringomyelia (SM) and Chiari-like malformation (CM)
• Idiopathic Epilepsy
• Heart disease with a known or suspected inherited basis
• Breed-related and inherited skin conditions
• Limb defects (including hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia), and
• Separation related behaviour: a serious but often hidden welfare issue for domestic dogs.
Within their recommendations, the council has supported the BVA/KC schemes for hip and elbow displasia and syringomyelia and the BVA/KC/ISDS eye scheme. It has also encouraged the use of puppy contracts and a puppy information packs (PIP), as recently launched by the BVA Animal Welfare Foundation and RSPCA.
Carl Padgett, BVA President, commented: "The Dog Advisory Council has covered these high priority concerns in some detail. I am pleased that the recommendations give strong support to screening programmes including the BVA/KC schemes for hip and elbow dysplasia and syringomyelia and that they suggest ocular examination under the BVA/KC/ISDS eye scheme should be regarded as routine for all dogs used for breeding."
The Kennel Club has also broadly welcomed the report, although it states there are still some key areas, such as irresponsible breeders, which must be addressed.
Caroline Kisco, Kennel Club secretary, said, 'The council's recommendations regarding the importance of breeders using health tests, of buyers going to responsible breeders and of breeding from healthy dogs are all crucial'.
To read the report, click here.
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
