Irish Wolfhound Mole UK

13/01/2023

Maybe the UK Kennel Club could follow the AKC's lead and introduce a KC 'Fit Dog' title + encourage clubs to get involved and set up fitness events for Irish Wolfhounds.

08/01/2023

2022 heart test results

It’s always interesting to look at the heart testing results on the IWHG website. This is the official place for breeders to make their results public. Club members are reminded in their Codes of Conduct of this facility to publish heart test on the HG website.

When we looked, there were a paltry 70 results posted for 2022, split between show and non-show dogs. The IWHG estimate that there are approximately 2100 Irish Wolfhounds in the UK, take away 600 from this number as they are under two years of age, and that leaves 1500 wolfhounds. 70 represents just under 5% of this total. 95% of wolfhounds are either not tested or their results not published -there’s no way of knowing.

How do we get a picture of overall breed health with this flimsy data?

Out of interest, we checked the results against the recent Wolfhound of the Year show for 2022 to see how many exhibitors with dogs at that show had published their results. The vast majority had not. None of the owners of dogs in the veteran class had published results, including the winner who is owned by the IWHG heart testing coordinator! In the intermediate class, 4 out of 13 had results published and in the open class it was 3 out of 14 entrants.

The published results show a total absence of support from the leading breeders. Nothing from Sade or Caredig, who have never published a single result for any of their dogs in any year. There’s nothing from Brachan, Killoughrey, Glengail, Hydebeck, Mascotts, Bivarddi, Newdigate, Austonley or Ballyphelan. Random and patchy support from committee members of the two main clubs and the IWHG. Why are they on the HG if they don’t support their own policy?

These breeders maintain that they do test, and the information is available to people who buy puppies from them, but their data is private and nobody else’s business. They do not see it as their responsibility to give anything back to the breed, even though it may contribute to improving overall breed health. In short, they put their own selfish interests (whether that is winning in the show ring, maintaining an image, or simply selling dogs for £££s) above those of their breed.

Top of the pops with 15 dogs on the list is Bonaforte, next is Wolfhouse with 5, Wolvebrigg with 4 (including 2 Wolfhouse dogs) and five other kennels tied on 3.

The average age of the dogs tested in 2022 was 4 years and 8 months.

The Kennel Club’s Breed Health Improvement Strategy Guide focusses on four steps: Lead, Plan, Engage and Improve. This is a continuous cycle that starts with good leadership.

Who provides this leadership?

On these matters it should be Dr M Lyons, the current Breed Health Coordinator backed by the IWHG and the breed clubs. They have failed in this. There is no widespread commitment from the breed clubs to support the BHC and engage their members in improving breed health. The breed clubs will not take this on as they do not have the support of the breeders who are club members. The breed clubs dare not upset their lead breeders in case they walk away from the clubs.

That is the continuous cycle we are stuck in – lack of leadership, lack of planning, lack of engagement, and lack of improvement. The main show breeders will not publish their results, the breed clubs will not encourage them, and the health group will not lead. That is why our wolfhounds continue to die from heart disease.

13/12/2022

𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗕 𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗕𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗗𝗢𝗚 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗦 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗗 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗠𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪

The Kennel Club has organised a free webinar about its Breed Watch programme for dog show judges, breeders and exhibitors. Breed Watch serves as an 'early warning system' which monitors the health of pedigree breeds and provides further information about specific health concerns.

The webinar, taking place via Microsoft Teams on 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟵 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝟲:𝟯𝟬𝗽𝗺-𝟳:𝟯𝟬𝗽𝗺, will serve as an opportunity for those involved in dog showing to refresh their knowledge of the Breed Watch system, and to help ensure only the best health ambassadors are rewarded highly in the show ring. Those interested in attending the webinar can register here.

https://teams.microsoft.com/registration/VSq4OfLlyUiOE_6xpWj17A,4tnb0wolyUe9vlpAW5z9AA,jHzRAyKH1kKIOvujJzN-lg,pElcAUnuGE2U_KS2Df-9qA,55fKl1kSrUyG9Y7eeieF0Q,NQ9S8Yrkr0Chg-Xjgb-BNA?mode=read&tenantId=39b82a55-e5f2-48c9-8e13-feb1a568f5ec

The Kennel Club has also announced its plans to work with judges, vets and dog show exhibitors to enhance and evolve Breed Watch to ensure the system is effective in monitoring, protecting and improving the health and welfare of dogs.

As part of this, during 2023 The Kennel Club will be working with the Dog Health Group’s Breed Standards and Conformation Sub-group, which includes experienced judges, vets, and exhibitors, to update Breed Watch. Consideration will be given to the following areas:

What veterinary checks are required before and during shows and what Kennel Club guidance and training is required for the vets involved

What educational materials are needed to support judges and exhibitors more effectively

What training would enable judges to recognise breed-specific health concerns

How The Kennel Club receives health information from judges to improve upon its existing reporting and monitoring processes

How The Kennel Club can provide better support to breed clubs, judges and exhibitors with access to health data from shows

How The Kennel Club highlights dog showing as a positive lever for change when considering health and welfare

The process will include engagement with exhibitors and breed clubs.

Ian Seath, Chair of the Breed Standards and Conformation Sub-Group, commented: “We are really pleased to be implementing this important development of Breed Watch, alongside the wider community, to ensure it’s the best possible system for monitoring the health and welfare of dogs. This underlines our commitment to protecting and improving the health of dogs in the show ring specifically. Regular updates on progress will be provided in due course, and I’d recommend all those involved in showing or judging dogs to attend The Kennel Club’s free Breed Watch webinar in February to understand more about how we can all play a part.”

More information about Breed Watch is available at thekennelclub.org.uk/breedwatch.

08/12/2022

More snippets from the Breed Health Conservation Plan -

“A study of electronic patient records of 90,004 dogs examined at the University of California-Davis Veterinary medical Teaching Hospital, USA, between 1st January 1995 to 1st January 2010 found the Irish Wolfhound to be the fourth most frequently affected breed with DCM” (the prevalence for Irish Wolfhounds is 38 times higher than in a mixed breed).

“the breed continue to investigate ways of utilising the data [collected from Dr Serena Brownlie-Sykes] generated to enable breeders to breed in an informed way – with the aim that EBVs may be able to produced based on the data. The breed are (sic) further hoping to launch a new trial to test the efficacy of the NT-ProBNP blood test as a possible diagnostic tool for the breed.”
Is there any news on the trial to test the efficacy of the NT-ProBNP blood test?

Breed Club actions include:
“The breed clubs to investigate the possibility of developing a central database for health conditions in the breed”

Is there any news on this? Are the breed clubs familiar with the BHCP and do they realise what they are supposed to be doing?
Have they started developing a central database for health conditions?

Priorities
“Heart conditions, especially DCM and AF (with particular emphasis on using existing data produced to establish tools for breeders).”
Is there any news on this?

“The Kennel Club to investigate the possibility of developing a formal heart testing scheme for the breed, in collaboration with the Veterinary Cardiologist Society.”

“The Kennel Club to investigate the possibility of the results of the research collaboration between Dr Lewis and Dr Brownlie into DCM being made available.”

Are the IWHG doing anything about this? Are the breed clubs pressing the Kennel Club about developing a formal heart testing scheme? Has it been on the breed clubs’ agendas (no)? Have they even read the report (unlikely)?

All sounds good on paper, but so far very little action.

07/12/2022

The chart below is from the Kennel Club/IWHG Breed Health Conservation Plan 2021.

"Mortality Data
Respondents were asked for the cause of death data for any hounds that had passed away in the last 10 years. Responses were received for 286 dogs, with heart disease and osteosarcoma being the most commonly reported causes of death among deceased dogs, shown in Figure 3 below."

It looks like 28% of Irish Wolfhounds are reported as dying from heart disease. More than 1 in 4!

Do something about it today.

06/12/2022

https://www.change.org/p/1-in-5-irish-wolfhounds-die-from-heart-disease?recruiter=11874157&recruited_by_id=0e4976a0-c05c-012f-b45a-404067ca6a7a&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_35161903_en-GB%3A4

1 in 5 Irish Wolfhounds Die from Heart Disease

05/12/2022

02/12/2022

7) Wolfhound owners and Facebook
Browse through the popular Wolfhound groups on Facebook and what do you see? Wolfhounds on sofas, wolfhound asleep on the rug, wolfhounds lying down. You see cute, fluffy faces on great big shaggy dogs. For every picture of a wolfhound in the fields or woods, there are a dozen wolfhounds lying on the sofa.
What have we done to them? Many people don’t actually want an Irish Wolfhound. They want a great, big shaggy dog with no hunting instinct. A dog that’s easy to look after, that dozes for about 20 hours a day – a big, friendly companion. They are usually referred to as ‘Wolfies’. We like to think as them as WINOs (Wolfhounds in name only). There’s no harm in wanting a giant,shaggy dog and they may be wonderful companions and adorable to look at. But they are not wolfhounds, because when you take the hound out of the wolfhound there is not much left.

There’s nothing wrong with wolfhounds being spoilt and lazing about. But all the time? Really? These big, soft couch potatoes suffer the same problems as humans who sit around all day do - poor health.

Facebook has increased the popularity of these big chocolate-box dogs who enjoy a sedentary life and never get regular hard exercise. This lazy lifestyle does nothing for the health of these hounds.

You might not agree with the conclusions we’ve reached. In fact, you may not agree with anything we’ve written. But we hope you realise that something must be done. We can’t keep going like this for another 50 years or there will be no breed left. Maybe we’re completely wrong and someone reading this may come up with better solutions or call a breed seminar to look for solutions. Maybe it’s time for an expanded IWHG, an alternative HG or a new science-based group to work with the existing groups and clubs.

02/12/2022

6) The Kennel Club

The KC could stop the very worst Irish Wolfhound puppy farmers at a stroke, simply by refusing registrations from them. All good breeders should be working together to lobby the KC for this.

Or if that is too difficult (agreeing on a definition of a puppy farmer) then they could impose certain conditions on all breeders – such as making sure testing of the sire and dam has taken place before a mating takes place. No test evidence = no registration. The good breeders should already be carrying out these checks and all they would have to do is upload evidence, whereas the rogue breeders would either have to up their game or sell their puppies as unregistered which would affect the selling price.

Why don’t the KC do it? The registrations and transfers of ownership are income to the KC – and the KC is a business after all. Money talks louder than ethics.

The KC could follow advice from their own geneticists who realise that a closed gene pool, with everyone doing their own thing and an extremely high level of inbreeding, is a highway to disaster.

Irish Wolfhounds are very highly in**ed. A paper by Dreger et al 2016 reports on levels of heterozygosity (inbreeding) for pedigree dogs. The study calculated genomic inbreeding using DNA analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms as well as whole genome analysis. Irish Wolfhounds were 15th on the list out of 112 dog breeds with an inbreeding coefficient of over 40%.

Opening up the gene pool through outcrossing -though still using selective breeding – before returning to the pure breed was one of the options Dr Lewis considered.

We all want wolfhounds that are healthy dogs, with great temperaments that can do the job they were bred to do. Wolfhounds that have been selectively and carefully outcrossed to bring in more genetic diversity and reduce inbreeding coefficients would look identical (if that is what we wanted) to the hounds we have now, but they would be healthier.

Dr Lewis looks at other solutions too, including increasing the number of breeding animals, breeding restrictions, and excluding dogs with high average mean kinships. All of these solutions require some kind of a shake up in the way breeders work.

The first steps though, are for breeders to recognise the problem, to want this to happen and be willing to work together – less competition and more collaboration. Can it be done? Is there a willingness among breeders?

02/12/2022

5) IWHG
We’ve written about the IWHG previously. We understand that they are (mostly) genuine individuals who give up their own time to try and improve the health of the breed.

But let’s look at what they do as a group. The IWHG consist exclusively of show people. Either former breeders or exhibiters. There’s no one with a different perspective on things, no one from a non-show background, no one who challenges their ideas. Because of this they act as an echo chamber.

The IWHG is a non-elected body, so there is no prospect of changing their makeup and no accountability within the group. They share the same ideas, the same influences, they are only exposed to people who agree with them and the evidence they use is one that supports their views.
They have little interaction with people who are not on the show scene.

Bizarrely the IWHG has a code of conduct of which they are very proud. But to whom does it apply? They have no members and none of them are active breeders. When the IWC secretary, Mrs Treadwell, broke the code of conduct by breeding non-heart tested dogs, the IWHG stayed silent.
Why? Because the folks on the IWHG are friends with Mrs Treadwell.

It’s the same reason that they do not speak out about the appalling breeders who are part of the dog show circuit. They are part of the same group; one hand washes the other.

They are also way behind on the science – or at least being open about the science.
Heart screening was in place before the IWHG was set up. In its day heart screening was a great step forward.

But it is abundantly clear that we will never test our way out of the health problems we have. We are fighting against ever dwindling genetic diversity in a breed that is carrying a huge burden of disease. There is a huge body of scientific evidence to support this.

There is a paucity of health information released by breeders. They hide behind their ‘privacy’ – which is shorthand for ‘the results show how bad we really are’ and like Dorian Gray’s portrait they are hidden away, never to see the light of day. Most breeders refuse to release their results because they do not want people to see them. What clearer message do you need?

Heart screening certainly helps provide valuable information only when its readily available. It is important for the individual hound who is tested and essential before a mating, but it will not eradicate heart disease in our breed. Not on its own and not in the ad-hoc way in which breeders use it.

For anyone who wants to read further about eradicating disease, here's a link to a chapter of a book published in 2017 by two scientists with expertise in the genetics of pedigree dogs - Dr Tom Lewis, who was the geneticist at the UK Kennel Club, and Dr Jack Windig, who is on the Animal Breeding & Genomics faculty at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

http://bit.ly/2BN44wH

Many people continue to look to the IWHG for guidance and information, but they’ve been asleep for the past year. Their last newsletter was in 2021, their latest news on their website is October 2021. Their leaflets haven’t been updated in years and their seminar has been delayed again.

It’s high time that a new group was formed – one that reflects the interests of all wolfhound owners, and which includes experts and advisors. A group with energy, vision and dynamism rather than a tired and failing group that only represents show people.

Shared with Dropbox

02/12/2022

4) Show judges
Have you been to a show in the past few years? The wolfhounds are huge. Much bigger than the breed standard. Dogs of 37 and 38 inches are common. Dogs that are 34 or 35 inches look small. The dogs are getting bigger and heavier every year. No longer long and lean, they look more like giant mastiffs than hounds. No curves, no finesse, no fitness.

Many of these dogs have incredible strength and would certainly be able to overpower a wolf. But they would never be able to hunt one. They can’t run, and sometimes it’s hard to tell if the dog or its septuagenarian owner is puffing more after they’ve jogged around the ring.

Some of these dogs must weigh 190 pounds or more. This is 50lbs above the target weight that Capt. Graham envisaged. The extra weight carries consequences – extra strain on their organs, extra work for the heart. They look nothing like Captain Graham’s idea of a wolfhound. These are heavy-boned, overweight barrels of lard.

The fundamental definition of breed type should focus on the original function of the breed. We want our breeds to look like they can do the job for which they were bred. These big, heavy, ponderous show dogs that are being lavishly praised by judges are not capable of functioning as wolf hunters. Very few of these show dogs could purse a wolf for any distance. Very few of them are ‘fit for purpose’.

And yet judges still award them top prizes. ‘Wonderful line up’, ‘great quality throughout’. It’s not just single breed judges either, the all-rounder type judges sing their praises too.

The show dogs have moved away from their own breed standard, the judges are ignoring this, the breeders are breeding more massive dogs. And many of these dogs are being kept alive with medication.

02/12/2022

3) Non show breeders
𝗪𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗳𝗮𝗿𝗲. The people who keep dogs isolated and use them to produce multiple litters a year, letting the puppies go to new homes as soon as they are weaned. The ones who put in no effort and extract maximum fees. The stories you have heard about these breeders are true. These people will never put in any effort to change. They are worse, much worse, than the worst of the show breeders. You will have read about them elsewhere and we don’t need to rehash all through all the horrors they put people through on here.

But there are a wide range of breeders who do not breed exclusively for the show ring. They are not just one homogenous group as some would have you believe.

There are some non-show breeders who do consider health, who do keep their dogs in good conditions, who complete all the health tests and who follow their pups and support people who buy from them. Why are they demonized in the same way as the puppy farmers? Pushing them aside is not helping.

The real divide is between good breeders and bad breeders regardless of whether they breed for the show or the pet market.

Continuing to promote a culture of condemning those who do not breed for the show ring or those who breed more regularly than some would like is not producing any positive results. As long as they do all the right things and provide the correct after sales service, what is the problem? People who want an Irish Wolfhound puppy are going to get one from somewhere, after all.

There is a market - an unmet demand – from people who want an Irish Wolfhound but don’t want to show it. They just want a pet. This demand will never be met by the show breeders so why not work with the best of the non-show breeders?

Ridiculing them, condemning all non-show breeders as puppy farmers, and telling people that if you don’t breed for the show ring then you are not a proper breeder, is not helping. It damages the overall health of the breed and drives people into the hands of the real puppy farmers and scammers.

The best of the non-show breeders need to put clear blue water between them and the puppy farmers, scammers and non-show breeders who don’t test, don’t offer support to puppy buyers or are solely motivated by the income from the litters.