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from the Pugs-prefer-"gaited"-communities dept.
Pug owners putting down their dogs due to common gait problems
Pugs, along with British and French bulldogs, already suffer from breathing difficulties due to their airways being obstructed. A team of Swedish researchers asked 550 owners of pugs whether their dogs had any gait problems, such as inability to jump, and abnormal wearing of the nails and the skin on their paws, and if so, how long these had been going on.
They were also asked about their dog's general health, and encouraged to send in video footage of their pet walking slowly back and forth on a leash, including a side view.
A prevalence of gait problems was found in just under 31 per cent of the dogs. On average, pugs were 2 years old when the gait abnormality first started, with front leg problems tending to show up earlier than problems with the back legs. But gait abnormalities were strongly associated with older age.
They were also associated with breathing problems and excessive scratching around the neck, ears and head. And pugs with abnormal gait were more likely to have incontinence issues.
Some 47 owners said their dogs had been put down with abnormal gait the single most frequently cited cause.
High prevalence of gait abnormalities in pugs (open, DOI: 10.1136/vr.104510) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:17PM (3 children)
Pffft, maybe try doing some research on tiny dogs and why they were bred. Not every breed was cultivated out of vanity, and that aside it is only in the last 50 years that the general public has started to actually understand genetics and even then most people still don't beyond the couple of months they spend on it in high school biology. To be clear, after those few months most people purge all but the most basic knowledge.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:37PM (2 children)
Given that you didn't actually purvey any information except your lack of a sense of humor and your (apparent) ignorance of Mendelian Genetics* [wikipedia.org], I'm not exactly sure what point you're trying to make.
Perhaps a little elucidation on your part would be useful.
*While understanding of DNA is relatively recent, the concepts of selective breeding [wikipedia.org] and inheritance are both directly relevant and much, much older (on the order of millenia) than DNA research. Perhaps it's you who need to brush up on your genetics, friend?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @07:40PM (1 child)
He said the "general public", not that no one understood anything even remotely related to genetics before about 50 years ago.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday February 07 2018, @07:51PM
Given how many more folks were farmers, ranchers and the like, with numbers getting significantly larger as we go back in time, I suspect that the "general public" knew much more about selective breeding and inheritance than you (or other AC) say.
Selective breeding and knowledge of inheritance goes back millenia and given that most societies were primarily agrarian up until the last 100 years or so, that makes little, if any, sense.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr