64 Saber Tails Summer 2017
Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America
other health considerations when planning a breeding or
acquiring a pup, we need more data, not less.
For your average non-athletic PBGV, hip dysplasia may
not have health consequences until the dog’s senior
years, when joint degeneration can lead to painful ar-
thritis. The only data we have in PBGVs comes from the
2011 Health Survey, which showed bone/joint problems
in 11.6% of the dogs. But that survey does not allow us
to correlate an earlier hip dysplasia evaluation with later
arthritis. Fortunately, we can glean some information on
this matter from the Swedish dog population. This is pos-
sible because 75% of Swedish dogs are covered by health
insurance and these health records can be mined for as-
sociations between hip status and veterinary care. Toward
that end, Malm et al. (2010) studied the health records
of 30,000 dogs of 5 prevalent breeds in Sweden (one of
which was the Labrador Retriever, which is ranked #92
in the U.S., right next to PBGVs). They found that the “ef-
fect of hip status was highly significant (P<0.001) for both
life and veterinary claims related to HD [hip dysplasia] in
all five breeds with increased hazard ratio for deteriorat-
ing hip status. Dogs with moderate or severe hip status
at screening had a markedly increased hazard of HD-re-
lated veterinary care and mortality compared with dogs
assessed as free or mild.” In other words, they found that
dogs who were graded with moderate or severe hip sta-
tus were more likely to need veterinary care than those
graded as free or mild. From this article, I learned that the
Swedish Kennel Club takes hip dysplasia very seriously.
Malm (2010) writes, “Genetic control programs imple-
mented by the SKC [Swedish Kennel Club] in many breeds
require screening of all breeding animals and in several of
these breeds only dogs with normal hip status (FCI grade
A or B) are accepted for breeding. The use of dogs graded
as dysplastic in breeding is unusual in most breeds and
the Swedish breed clubs for breeds included in this study
recommend to use for breeding only dogs with normal
hip status.”
For athletic PBGVs and couch potatoes alike, it is impor-
tant to breed away from dysplastic hips. At this time, the
OFA database shows that only 3 PBGVs have moderate
dysplasia and 12 have mild. But we must keep in mind that
Keller et al. (2011) showed that when the sire and dam
have fair hips, 20% of their progeny will have dysplastic
hips. At this time, we have 211 PBGVs with fair hips! Mat-
ing a dog with fair hips to one with good or excellent hips
reduces the chances of dysplasia in offspring. Without the
appropriate data, whether a prospective mate’s hips are
excellent, good, or fair cannot be entered into the mate
selection equation.
When PBGVs were a CHIC breed, no one was forced to car-
ry out hip dysplasia evaluations on their dogs, but a dog
could not get the special CHIC stamp of approval without
that evaluation. Being part of CHIC was an incentive to do
the test. There is no question that hip evaluations are ex-
pensive, but those dollars help us to keep hip dysplasia a
minor health concern in the breed.
In their decision to withdraw from CHIC, the Club Board
noted that other breeds participating in CHIC do not in-
clude hip testing as a requirement. The implication being,
why should we have to do this if they don’t. I must say that
I tried that argument with my mother a lot when I was
a teenager and it never worked. One example that the
Board gave of a breed without a hip evaluation require-
ment was the Basset Hound. When I asked Dr. Bell about
this, he said it would be great if the Basset Hound club
asked for hips to be included as a CHIC test, but all they
asked for was the eye exam and gonioscopy (for glau-
coma). Even with those few requirements, only 14 Basset
Hounds currently qualify as CHIC dogs. By comparison,
over 300 PBGVs qualify as CHIC dogs. We should be proud
of that! Given the prevalence of hip dysplasia in the Basset
Hound (ranked #12 with 39.5% dysplastic), this should be
a required test for Basset Hounds and, indeed, the Bas-
set Hound Club of America lists radiographs of hips and
elbows as tests that Basset Hound breeders should use
in their selection of dogs for breeding. As another com-
parison, the OFA database shows that, over the years,
hip evaluations have been submitted for only 135 Bas-
set Hounds, as compared to over 700 PBGVs. I think that
we should aspire to be a breed club with strong health
consciousness, not one that merely meets the minimum
requirements.
As noted above, PBGVs have hip dysplasia but it is not a
paramount problem in the breed, like POAG is; however,
that could change quickly under the influence of a popu-
lar sire with fair or mildly dysplastic hips. It is too late to
evaluate a dog’s hips after he has become a popular sire.
One cannot grade a hip just by watching the dog gait.
Without ongoing hip evaluations, we will have no way to
know what is happening in the breed over time.
On a side note, there was another issue raised in Dr. Bell’s
seminar that I wish the Club’s Board had been present to
discuss; that is, we are a shrinking breed. Dr. Bell showed
that 323 PBGVs were registered with AKC in the year 1995,
273 in 2000, 289 in 2005, 186 in 2010, and 132 in 2015.
He explained that healthy breeds require expanding, or
large stable, populations so that breeders have increased
choices for selection. Unfortunately, the PBGV population
is contracting. One consequence of population contrac-
tion is a loss of breed diversity. In other words, there is
the potential to lose superior breeding dogs. In his recent
analysis of the Bearded Collie, which is also suffering from
population contraction, Dr. Bell advised, “it is very impor-
tant that breeders increase their matings and that new
breeders are recruited to halt the genetic drain on the
gene pool” (Bell, 2017). Dr. Bell gave the same advice to
his audience at the 2016 PBGVCA National. This is an im-
portant issue that should be addressed.
Many PBGV owners who trot around the conformation
ring, run the agility course, and chase after hounds on
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