In This Issue:
- News & Highlights
IPFD News
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IPFD and the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC), in collaboration with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), are pleased to present the Interactive Symposium on Healthy Dog Breeding: Collective Approaches for the Future on Tuesday, July 12 (1-5 p.m. Eastern Time).
This free, interactive symposium will address the challenges, responsibilities and opportunities related to the health and welfare of dogs with extreme conformation, from the perspective of the breeder, show judge and veterinary community, in addition to the pet industry. The symposium is part of IPFD’s International Dog Health Workshop initiative and represents a key area of focus for the CKC and CVMA to support breed health improvement.
Feature presentations by IPFD Veterinary Science Officer Dr. Brenda Bonnett, Dr. Enid Stiles (CVMA), Dr. Paul Eckford (CKC/IPFD), Dr. Terill Udenberg (CKC), Richard Paquette (CKC), Dr. Jordyn Hewer (Royal Canin) and Dr. Emmanuel Fontaine (Royal Canin). We are also pleased to have CKC Executive Director, Jeff Cornett on board and welcome Dr. Michelle Groleau (CVMA) as our moderator.
Watch IPFD's and CKC's social media accounts for registration details - coming soon!

- IPFD Board Member Prof. Dr. Peter Friedrich, President of the German Kennel Club (VDH) and the member of the FCI’s Breeding & Standards Commissions made an appearance on TALKING DOGS WITH ANTE to discuss the complicated issues around new breeding legislation in Germany. A recording of the webcast is available here.
- On Tuesday, June 14, The European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP) is hosting a webinar titled Ethical Dog Breeding. It has been organized in collaboration with the EAAP Study Commission on Genetics and the EAAP Ethics Working Group.
Blogs
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In her latest post, Kennel Clubs and Responsible Breeding: Examples from Finland, IPFD Acting CEO Katariina Mäki examines the Finland Kennel Club's approach to promoting healthy breeding, and how it could serve as a model for other kennel clubs.
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In Genetic diversity tools in the Finnish Kennel Club's breeding database, Katariina illustrates FKC's advanced capabilities in analyzing data, which is available to breeders and breed clubs.
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In The KC (UK) New Registration Stats for 2021, IPFD Veterinary Science Officer Dr. Brenda Bonnett provides commentary on recent stats indicating that controversial breeds continue to maintain or increase in popularity in pedigree populations in some countries.
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IPFD Contributor Ian Seath has recently posted several articles on dog health:
In his “Best of Health” article for June 2022, Ian discusses our recent workshop on genetic diversity and expands on some of the issues discussed during the webinar.
In his “Best of Health” article for May 2002, Ian asks: Who’s looking at the bigger picture? in the world of dogs.
In, Are some breeds playing catch-up?, Ian addresses the difficulty of finding data or published papers on health differences between show and non-show, or KC and non-KC dogs.
Breeds Resources
Breed of the Month
★ This Month We Feature Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers ★
NEW: Get a GRIHP! on Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers Shepherds is part of a series to highlight the Big Picture of health, welfare, and breeding and to help develop Globally Relevant Integrated Health Profiles (GRIHPs) for many breeds.
Learn more about the Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers in our Pedigree Breeds database.
IPFD Partners in Action
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IPFD Collaborating Partner, The World Small Animal Veterinary
Association (WSAVA), has recently published the latest edition of Dog Breeds: What You Need to Know, a regular feature in their online news
section (and in the WSAVA Bulletin) that highlights IPFD resources on a particular breed with a focus on breed-specific diseases
In the latest edition: Meet the Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers – Update Your Knowledge! You can also view previous editions of Dog Breeds: What You Need to Know in our archive article here on DogWellNet.com.
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The International Collaborative on Extreme Conformations in Dogs (ICECDogs) provides excellent resources for canine welfare/breeding. Updates on their website include two documents on JVR Shelter Strategies for 2022: An annotated bibliography of references and a document highlighting gaps found in some of the scientific journals reviewed.
Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs (HGTD)
Our Growing HGTD Database
- We welcome AnimaLabs as a new Participant laboratory. They are our first GTP from Croatia!
Ask Aimee
Our HGTD Project Manager, Aimee Llewellyn-Zaidi, provides answers to your questions on canine genetic testing in Ask Aimee. If you’d like to submit a question to Aimee, please email her at aimee.llewellyn-zaidi@ipfdogs.com.
Get Involved in HGTD!
We welcome additional participant GTPs, more collaborators from any stakeholders concerned with dog health and welfare, the advice of experts, the participation of breed clubs and other consumer groups. We stand ready to provide more information to ongoing discussions.
Please feel free to contact us as we work together for healthy dogs and to support those who breed and own them: HGTD Project Manager, Aimee Llewellyn-Zaidi.
IPFD and Pedigree Dogs -
You want leadership? We are ready.
On 13 May 2022, Our Dogs newspaper published an Opinion piece entitled: Need for international leadership.
We applaud their weighing in on these dramatic developments. They made several excellent points about recent events relative to dog shows in Germany and other legislative and legal actions against certain breeds of dogs. They mention the potential for IPFD to have a role in promoting pedigree dogs, kennel clubs, and dog shows. This article is our answer to theirs.
IPFD is a multi-stakeholder organization, with a mission to enhance the health, well-being, and welfare of pedigree dogs and all dogs, and to support human-dog interactions. Although forward-thinking kennel clubs (KCs) have been among our main sponsors, we are not simply a pro-KC organization. Our founding sponsors saw the importance of having a multi-stakeholder, evidence-based, a-political, independent organization to collate, present, and advance issues on dog health and welfare. Our response article (link below) briefly outlines what we have done, are doing, and could do to provide international leadership - especially if more KCs and other stakeholders join us.
Certainly, there is a need to lobby legislators and law makers to consider the wider picture in terms of the sources of dogs - with most coming from outside the pedigree community. Added to that - profiling the many KCs - including and beyond our sponsors - that are doing great work and really addressing the health problems - is key. Working collectively, we could certainly highlight and enhance this work. But KCs must be willing to escape some political and historical barriers. As Our Dogs says, the time is NOW!
Our submission appeared in Our Dogs Newspaper on 18 May 2022. The published version is only available to Our Dogs subscribers, but it is reprinted and available as a PDF here on DogWellNet.com.
IPFD is truly a "people driven" service organization. We allocate the bulk of our financial resources to maintain a small but dedicated team of consultants to manage our modest resources and facilitate the activities of our stakeholders, with the aim of achieving our collective goals.
You can specify how your donation is used (support IPFD and its programs and activities OR support the Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs). All donations are handled securely via PayPal.
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