Dog Health Experts Agree on Action Plan to Breed Away from Extreme Conformations

An international gathering of dog health decision-makers has concluded with broad agreement that extreme conformations should be eliminated from all dogs, that genetic diversity within breed subpopulations must be improved and maintained, and that crossbreeding should be recognised as an accepted and valuable tool in modern dog breeding. The agreements came at the 5th International Dog Health Workshop, hosted by the Finnish Kennel Club in Helsinki, Finland, from June 13th to 15th, 2024, and are now reported in an open access article published in the journal Companion Animal Health and Genetics on April 9th, 2025.

The workshop was organised by the International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD), a nonprofit initiated by several national kennel clubs and other stakeholders, together with a rotating national host organisation. It marked the tenth anniversary of the IPFD and brought participants together face-to-face for the first time in five years, after a hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 106 participants from 16 countries attended, representing breeders, breed club health committees, kennel clubs, breeding advisors, veterinarians, educators, researchers, geneticists, regulators, welfare organisations, industry, media, health campaigners, dog owners, and show judges. The meeting was structured around four themes: ‘Supply and Demand’, ‘Breeding for Health and Well-Being’, ‘Big Data’, and ‘Does the Colour Matter? Defining Breed vs. Variety’.

The first International Dog Health Workshop was held in Stockholm in June 2012, where the need for an international collaborative platform was identified, triggering the development of the IPFD. Subsequent workshops were held in Germany in 2015, France in 2017, and the UK in 2019. Two initiatives from earlier meetings illustrate the workshop model’s reach. The Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs, launched in 2018 after the 2017 Paris workshop, now includes information on more than 80 international genetic test providers, with more than 40 providers across 26 countries voluntarily supplying detailed product and service data. The International Collaborative on Extreme Conformations in Dogs, initiated after the 2019 Windsor workshop, is now leading international actions to eliminate extreme conformations from dogs worldwide.

The ‘Supply and Demand’ theme examined how pandemic-era puppy acquisition reshaped the market. The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals ‘Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report 2022’ estimated that 2.5 million dogs had been acquired in the UK since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Puppy buying behaviours deteriorated from 2020 to 2021, with puppies less likely to be seen with their mothers and more often collected away from where they were bred, increasing the likelihood of buyers supporting poor welfare suppliers and illegal imports. The pandemic puppy boom was followed by escalating costs of veterinary care, husbandry, and feeding during the cost-of-living crisis, and higher levels of behavioural problems due to lack of socialisation have been documented in this generation of dogs, contributing to relinquishments. The illegal puppy trade in Europe has been characterised as a highly organised and lucrative enterprise exploiting well-meaning consumers.

Participants agreed that anyone considering acquiring a dog should be directed towards supply that complies with national animal welfare legislation, and all those present committed to directing puppy and adult dog buyers towards such supply. One proposed step was the development of international certification for responsible breeding. The group also agreed on a clear public message: a dog is not an inanimate consumer product but a sentient animal that can live up to 15 years, whose ownership involves effort and cost. Messaging should highlight how long it takes to responsibly breed a dog, and that puppies not shown with their mothers are known to be associated with poorer health and worse behavioural outcomes. More research into supply and demand trends, including early warning systems for spikes in breed popularity, was also considered necessary, since excessively high popularity of any single breed tends to create questionable supply.

The ‘Breeding for Health and Well-Being’ discussions confronted difficult questions, including whether humans still hold the social licence to continue breeding practices that have been in place for the last 200 years, and whether it is already too late for some pedigree breeds. Extreme conformation, defined by ICECDogs as a physical appearance so significantly altered by humankind away from the ancestral natural canine appearance that affected dogs commonly suffer from poor health and welfare, was described as perhaps the most pressing welfare issue for domestic dogs at present. A key barrier identified is that many owners and breeders fail to recognise health problems, discomfort, and pain related to extreme conformation, instead normalising these as ‘normal for breed’. The group agreed that breed standards containing problematic wording that encourages extreme traits should be changed, and that judges, breeders, and the public all need better education. The UK Kennel Club’s Breed Watch monitoring tool and veterinary checks at championship shows for breeds with exaggerated features were applauded as positive steps.

The ‘Big Data’ theme addressed how phenotypic and genomic data on canine health, longevity, and inbreeding, held by kennel clubs and in veterinary electronic records, can be harnessed for breeding healthier dogs. Country-specific big data are already used to develop estimated breeding values for hip and elbow dysplasia, spinal problems, and behavioural traits by kennel clubs in Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. Challenges discussed included a lack of assessment standardisation across countries and organisations, such as different hip dysplasia grading systems, varying diagnostic coding in veterinary software, non-standardised microchip methods, and privacy legislation such as the GDPR in Europe. Participants decided to launch a pilot project to test data collection and analysis, ideally in a small breed with regular gene flow between countries, and set up a working group to identify which traits currently have estimated breeding values and to produce training materials on their use in breeding.

The fourth theme explored ways to increase genetic diversity, including routine crossbreeding between varieties of the same breed, which the Fédération Cynologique Internationale accepts although many breed clubs have stricter rules. A proof-of-concept came in 2006, when the Finnish Spitz and its Russian sister breed, the Karelo-Finnish Laika, were declared the same breed, broadening the gene pool of the Finnish Spitz. Crossbreeding with distinct donor breeds has so far been undertaken in only a few breeds with serious health issues; Finland, Norway, and Sweden have all started such projects for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, selecting donor breeds free of the breed’s typical hereditary diseases and of similar size. Participants decided to send a questionnaire to representatives of different countries to gather information on their crossbreeding rules, with a summary to be published on DogWellNet.com. They also emphasised that diversity will not be restored with one or two crossed litters, but requires ongoing crossbreeding on a regular and continued basis.

In the plenary session, participants agreed that a wide divide remains in the relative focus on dog health across organisations, and that all interested parties must work to be inclusive and concerned with all dogs, not just the pedigree subset. Some groups remained absent or poorly represented, including legislators and the FCI, which was not formally represented at the workshop. A common challenge across all four themes was how to engage more people in education, particularly puppy buyers and unorganised breeders, since many dogs elsewhere outside the Nordic countries are not on any formal register. Key agreements from the workshop were that organisations must comply fully with relevant national animal welfare legislation, must work to eliminate extreme conformations from all dogs and to improve and maintain genetic diversity within subpopulations, and should recognise and support crossbreeding as an accepted and valuable tool for modern dog breeding. Better education of puppy buyers, breeders, show judges, and other relevant parties was recurrently identified as a priority across all four themes. Progress on the action plans will be reviewed at the 6th International Dog Health Workshop, tentatively scheduled for 2026 in conjunction with the World Dog Show and the FCI’s International Judge’s Congress in Bologna, Italy.

Subject of Research: Outcomes and agreed actions from the 5th International Dog Health Workshop on canine health and welfare

Article Title: Moving from information and collaboration to action: report from the 5th International Dog Health Workshop in Helsinki, June 2024

Article References: Mäki, K., Llewellyn-Zaidi, A., St. Louis, D., Ralsky, M., O’Neill, D. G., Hedhammar, Å., Packer, R. M. A., Ekenstedt, K. J., Bell, J. S., Murphy, B., Seath, I. J., Courtin, A., Montonen, M., Nygård, A., & Reunanen, V. (2025). Moving from information and collaboration to action: report from the 5th International Dog Health Workshop in Helsinki, June 2024. Companion Animal Health and Genetics, 12(1), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40575-025-00143-0

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40575-025-00143-0

Keywords: dog health, dog breeding, extreme conformation, genetic diversity, crossbreeding, International Dog Health Workshop, International Partnership for Dogs, kennel clubs, animal welfare legislation, big data, puppy trade, estimated breeding values