And my question was why are people still supporting the breeding of suffering dogs?
I just don’t think a thread on a condition endemic to pretty much all small dog breeds and present in larger ones too really necessitated such a reply.
Sure ignore that if you like, but trying to suggest that the risk of patellar luxation (and the risks of surgery to fix it) is distinct from all of the other issues this breed faces is disingenuous. It is absolutely related to extreme confirmation
But the OPs dog’s Patella luxation is probably not related to its confirmation...
Sometimes PL can be a result of bowed legs and yes, Frenchies are often a little bow legged but the breeds with the highest rates of PL are not bow legged. Nor heavy set. Infact, apart from being small, they are not extreme at all really.
PL is very common in small breeds, just as hip dysplasia is very common in large breeds.
It’s genetic, partly environmental (like dysplasia) and we don’t know the mode of inheritance and while I get that Frenchies are not particularly healthy overall, I really don’t think you can blame PL on their build here.
If you don't consider miniaturisation of dog breeds to be extreme then that's up to you. But has it never occurred to you that there's a common reason that medial PL occurs disproportionately in toy breeds?
Right, and the high rates of hip and/or elbow dysplasia in larger dogs?
Are they all extreme too?
I don’t actually as it happens support ‘extreme’ breeding.
I’m opposed to flattened brachycephalic faces. And overly short legs. And overly long backs. And sloped backs. And droopy eyes. And excessive wrinkling. And so on.
I sought out a working line for my first dog purely because they tend to be healthier and for my second I chose a puppy out of parents bigger than average and with less pronounced/extreme heads than the breed standard ‘norm’ again out of health concerns.
I’m not denying any of what you’ve said re the health issues of the French bulldog.
What I am saying is that just as hip/elbow dysplasia is endemic in many medium to large breeds and can’t really be tied down to any one cause, patella luxation also is endemic in small breeds and also can’t be tied to any one cause. Aside from both being ‘genetic’ but we don’t actually know what gene/s and how either disease is inherited.
The only real common factor for PL is small size (usually) and the only real common factor for H/ED is medium to large size (usually).
The build of the dogs doesn’t really come into it, Yorkies for example are very different to Frenchies in confirmation, they are light weight, proportional and not normally bow legged.
Yet PL is common in both.
The breeds you mention are all extreme conformations in terms of size
Because patella luxation is almost exclusively seen in little dogs!
Just as Hip/Elbow dysplasia is almost exclusively seen in medium and bigger dogs.
Are Labradors extreme in size?
What about Springers?