Popular dog breeds suffer serious health issues linked to appearance

Barriers to change

Scientific advancements have led to some positive changes. Since the advent of genetic testing, breeders have been able to test dogs for levels of inbreeding and certain diseases. Veterinary examinations for common conditions can provide additional information about a dog’s health.

In 2023, a grading tool for BOAS was introduced into the U.S. and Canada. But health testing isn’t utilized by breeders very often, says John Goodwin, senior managing director of the Stop Puppy Mills campaign at Humane World for Animals. A large number of purebred puppies in the U.S. come from breeding mills, notorious for maximizing profit without concern for animal welfare.

Goodwin says a kennel club registration can give buyers a false sense of security about a dog’s health. “The only thing American Kennel Club paperwork means is that the puppy is the offspring of two dogs registered with AKC. That means nothing in regard to the health of the puppy.”

Hess is one of the couple dozen veterinarians in the U.S. and Canada trained to test for BOAS. “I have had very, very few people come to do that test even though I'm the only evaluator in Colorado,” she says.

When Hess began requiring health testing of French and English bulldogs whom her clients wanted to breed, most of the clients left for another veterinarian. “Some of these purebred dogs, the owners care about [coat] color and how much they can make from the litters, and nothing else matters,” says Hess.  

When embraced by breeders, health testing is an important part of improving dog health, says Goodwin.

But it’s not the only step. 

In the U.S., most breed standards are written by breed clubs and approved by the AKC. The French bulldog standard calls for “heavy wrinkles forming a soft roll over the extremely short nose.” The English bulldog standard says that the distance from the point between the eyes to the tip of nose “should be as short as possible.” Chinese shar-peis should have “profuse wrinkles on the forehead continuing into side wrinkles framing the face.”

Dalmatian breed standards are connected to a health issue believed to impact them more than any other breed: congenital sensorineural deafness. The genetics related to deafness aren’t fully understood, but researchers know it’s connected to their white coats and is moderately heritable.   

In the U.S., an estimated 22% of dalmatians are deaf in one ear and 8% are deaf in both. Research has found that dalmatians with brown eyes or patches (which are larger than spots and appear at birth) are less likely to be deaf because they have more pigmentation. Yet the U.S. breed standard disqualifies dogs with patches and allows dogs to have brown or blue eyes.    

When a puppy is born deaf in both ears, the Dalmatian Club of America says “humane euthanasia… may be an alternative to placement,” according to a 2020 position statement.

Efforts to breed only brown-eyed, fully hearing dalmatians have reduced rates of deafness slightly, but it’s still a big problem, says George Strain, a retired professor of neuroscience at Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine who has spent decades studying canine deafness.

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Spots are smaller than patches. They are often clustered together like overlapping coins. Patches are larger than spots, have smooth edges and are visible at birth, where spots are not.

“Unfortunately, the patch is not allowed in the breed standard in the United States,” says Strain. “By not using those dogs, they are sort of breeding away from something that could help decrease the deafness.”   

Strain’s viewpoint echoes that of other researchers who have studied dalmatian deafness. “Because a color patch is undesirable, breeders who select against this trait increase the likelihood of deafness in future litters,” says a 2000 paper in the American Journal of Veterinary Research.   

The UK Dalmatian breed standard says “some patching on ears or head” will not be penalized and does not allow blue eyes. By using hearing tests to guide breeding decisions, the rate of deafness in UK dalmatians dropped by around a third over 26 years. The rate of dogs deaf in both ears was cut in half.     

Experts believe certain standards should be revised to address potential health issues. “Some of the breed standards call for an extreme phenotype and I think that that has to be changed,” says Dr. Jerold Bell, professor of genetics at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and chairman of the Hereditary Disease Committee with the World Small Animal Veterinary Association. In breeds where exaggerated traits associated with health risks are common, he thinks the breed standard should make a statement about avoiding extremes.  

Changing a breed standard a “fraught and political” process, but it does occasionally happen, says Adam Boyko, a professor at Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine and co-founder of dog DNA testing company Embark. The key is to get people to look at the issue scientifically rather than emotionally, he says.

Hess doesn’t think changing breed standards will make a major difference, though. “Changing the perception of what’s cute and educating [the public] about suffering might—might—help.”