CANINE EUGENICS - help please for A level student

[SouthDevonDelight]

In the vein of a thread on CHAT asking for some ideas for coursework .... my daughter has just called me at work and she's almost in tears - completely stuck and brain-fatigued about how to find statistics on the subject of CANINE EUGENICS.

She's looked at RSPCA, Kennel Club sites etc but can't find actual stats about problems caused by in-breeding to achieve "perfect specimens" or anything for the opposing view.

I have a huge report to get out, so not much help at researching right now - any ideas please?

Maybe she could use something like the BVA/Kennel club hip dysplasia scheme statistics? www.bva.co.uk/CHS_Hip_Scheme_Breed_Mean_Scores.pdf
www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/313

Haven't got time to look into the papers listed for stats but might be worth investigating here.

It's a difficult one - because good stats are so hard to come by. Even the hip scoring schemes may be skewed because often a vet will find a dog has really obviously poor hips when the xrays for scoring are taken, and therefore the owner will decide against submitting them for scoring. As a result the population of dogs who are scored isn't necessarily representative of the breed in general.

one of the breed clubs might have something or this might help? Purebred dog Health Survey

Thanks to all - daughter now has some good staring points for research (and I'm picking up interesting snippets of info) !!!

The full text of the Bateson report into dog breeding, published in January, is available online - dogbreedinginquiry.com/

The wrinkly-faced dogs are interesting because they can have breathing problems. Personally I adore pugs, boxers and bulldogs, but you can see how they might not be able to breathe too well with those squashed up faces.

It is actually v interesting - could your dd focus on her fave type of dog, then have a look at what its problems are?