It's the Dachshund Breed Council's Breed Conference in Staffordshire today and a timely moment to once again congratulate the breed on its progressive health policy with Council Chairman Ian Seath at the helm.
Speakers today include Ron James from the Kennel Club and Philippa Robinson from the Karlton Index who recently awarded the DBC the top honours in her survey of breed club performance on health.
So what makes the DBC so good? According to the Karlton Index it is the following:
Just look at this grab from the home page on the Council's health website:• Setting objectives and measures to help gauge progress• Communicating this far and wide using a dedicated website, regular press releases and social media• Organising regular health related events and campaigns• Involving a wide range of people in the health agenda, including pet owners• Regularly surveying the breed on health matters and publishing the results• Developing very strong partnerships across the relevant breed clubs and with the KC and veterinary/scientific profession• Being very generous in sharing information and practice.
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It is terrific, particularly, to see the open invitation to report a health problem and a death.
Meanwhile, the Council's health survey - Dachs-Life 2012 - has just closed with over 1400 returns, almost three times the 509 survey forms submitted to the KC Health Survey in 2004.
Preliminary data suggests that the rate of back disease is 6% in the breed - much lower than veterinary estimates of up to 25%, although with some difference between the varieties. Spinal problems are still the number one reported health problem in the breed, though.
The survey IS self-reporting, which may skew the data somewhat, but nevertheless 1400 returns in three months is incredibly impressive and absolutely cannot be dismissed.
What we need now is an Association of Breed Health Coordinators with Ian Seath at the helm, bringing both his commitment to health and his benchmarking/presentation/communication skills to the party.
The speakers' presentations being given at today's conference are downloadable from here (and how good is that, too?)
The speakers' presentations being given at today's conference are downloadable from here (and how good is that, too?)