Below are just a few DWN resources that may be of interest to those of you on Health Committees or interested in resources on health.

What are 'Breeding Strategies'?   

... documents developed as substantive breed-specific educational resources, to provide management guidance to clubs, breeders and owners with the aim to ensure the future health and welfare of breeds.

Breeding Strategies include health data and its analysis. Each Breed Club Health Committee's role in defining a workable breeding strategy model involves identifying breed specific health issues and establishing achievable short and long term priorities for addressing health concerns that impact their breed's length and quality of life. The heart of Club Health Committee's work is challenging. Identifying which health conditions are of greatest importance to the breed through development of well conceived health surveys and questionnaires, establishing effective communications channels that engage breeders, owners, veterinarians and researchers and working with breed education committees who provide meaningful, understandable information, advice, tools and resources to the broad audiences of dog owners is no small task.

Where do I find information on Breeding Strategies?

Health Committee chairs and groups are encouraged to take a look at English translations of The Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian Kennel Clubs' Breeding Strategy Templates and breed-specific Breeding Strategy documents.

• Swedish Breeding Strategy (RAS) Documents (English Summary) -- Breed-specific breeding strategies
• Finnish Breeding Strategy (JTO) documents (English Summary) +  Finnish JTO and Pevisa documents in English.
• Norwegian Breeding Strategies - English Summaries + RAS Template

Informed Breed Strategies need DATA!!

In Sweden, Breed Clubs include an analysis of Breed-Specific Health Statistics from the Agria Insurance company.  These stats are available on DogWellNet.com to Breed Club Representatives from Partner kennel clubs. 

The Agria Djurförsäkring (Agria Animal Insurance) Agria Dog Breed Profiles provide comprehensive statistics on health and disease in dogs, based on 200,000 Swedish dogs each year between 1995 and 2002. Data is organized by year, by age, by gender, survival statistics and more for each breed - and for all breeds combined.

Another source of data - health surveys.  How do you get good data?

General Principles of Health Surveys

This article contains links to IPFD's Partner's resources and articles describing the general principles that should be considered before deciding to do a breed health survey, as well as best practices.

Examples of breed health surveys can be found in our Breeds Database for many breeds.

IPFD's Dog Health Workshops (DHW) - Presentations

Recommended reading for Health Committees - 3rd Dog Health Workshop presentations:

• Ian J Seath, Chairman Dachshund Breed Council: A total package for breed health

• Sofia Malm, PhD; Geneticist, the Swedish Kennel Club:  

            Show me the numbers - Integrating information from various sources for breed health strategies

Inherited disease is a challenging part of breeding strategies!

DWN - April 2018: NOW ONLINE! Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs.

Other resources on DWN:

The Kennel Club: "Breed Health Co-ordinators are individuals working on behalf of breed clubs and councils who are advocates for the health and welfare of their chosen breed." 

TOOLKITS FOR BREED HEALTH COORDINATORS

TOOLKITS FOR BREED HEALTH COORDINATORS

• Website Content Toolkit 
  • Internal - pre -2020 pdf website_content_toolkit.pdf
• Website Enhancement Toolkit
  • (internal - pre-2020 pdf website_enhancement_toolkit.pdf
• BREED HEALTH IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
  • (internal - pre-2020 pdf) bhcbreedhealthimpstrat.pdf

• Website Content Toolkit (Current webpage)

Genetic Testing and Genetic Counseling in Pet and Breeding Dogs

"With so many new developments in the study of canine genetics we find owners, breeders and breed clubs engaged in exploration of best management practices and making decisions to 'improve' individual dog's and breed's health based upon results of genetic tests and evaluations. This article is a starting point for consideration of what genetic counseling is - who needs it, and when and how is it delivered."

Increasing Longevity with Estimated Breeding Values

Breed-specific - Bernese Mountain Dogs - a presentation by Katarina Maki

Gregoire Leroy's Blog contains thoughtful articles on management of breed health concerns.

A respected published researcher with expertise in management and conservation of animal genetic resources based on breeders surveys, meta-analysis, and population simulation, the blog posts that he has written for DWN offer scientifically sound concepts and ideas worthy of any Health Committee's time and consideration.

• Improving dog health: what actions for breed associations?

Over time we hope to add to this list of resources.