"Most Dog Breeds"

There is no quicker way to get me to anger than to spit out the phrase "Most dog breeds".  The reason is that every, and I mean EVERY time someone says that it is 1.ALWAYS in regards to health issues and 2.ALWAYS followed by examples of COMMON breeds -OR- the Neapolitan Mastiff and Dosa Mastiff on the rare occasion.  There has never been a general dog owner or dog loving person who has spit out this phrase followed by a rare breed other than the Neo or Dosa.  Serious dog people will talk about the health of various rare breeds, but I absolutely can not recall any one of them ever using the phrase "Most dog breeds".

I have then asked people who use the phrase to tell me how many breeds are there.  They never respond to the question.

In regards to health, most of the general public then throws out some of the most common breeds there are, like...German Shepherds.  Boxers.  Dachshunds.  These are the breeds they use as examples for the over 300 different breeds and land races out there.  The FCI recognizes 332 breeds officially with 11 more provisional breeds.  This may not even come close to all that is actually out there.  As more and more areas become connected to the internet, more and more people are popping up out of seemingly nowhere with a "Hey, this breed exists". 

It is important to realize the number of breeds, because when you start talking about health, it gets muddy.  You can't use a handful of popular breeds as examples of "purebreds" having health problems.  And you sure as hell can't judge a book by it's cover, appearance is only a part of health in dogs. 

Do you realize how many people are disabled but don't look like it?  Various auto-immune diseases, heart problems, visual and auditory impairments, cystic fibrosis, etc.  The wide scope of genetic diseases in humans, both visual and not? 

I've come across far too many people who start talking about health in dogs and they go straight to physical appearance.  People point out the Boxer's short muzzle, but two of the biggest problems are cancer and cardiomyopathy.  Things that aren't obviously visual from the start.  It's backwards thinking, to believe, that you can judge health on appearance.

The fact remains, however, that they still point out popular breeds that they refuse to research because they believe them sickly.  Why not do more research?  For whatever reason, they want answers given to them on a silver platter, and they accept the first ones they're given because it's dressed up in a neat little, simplistic package.  They are given these handful of examples and reasons and use them to wipe the entire dog world with the same brush.

Fact is...no, most breeds aren't that badly off.  Yes, all breeds can have genetic diseases occur.  However, there is a popularity issue at play.  The more popular a breed is, the more likely it is that there's questionable people breeding them, and breeding unhealthy examples. 

At the same time, the rarer a breed is, the harder it is to breed away from genetic problems, and this is especially true in breeds that had almost been wiped out, creating a genetic bottleneck.  Some of the middle of the road breeds are decently off, but it's not always the case.  There's some rare breeds who are quite healthy, there's some popular and middle-road breeds that are as well. 

When vets get involved, things get even more absurd.  They run a business, they went to school to learn to deal with health related issues.  They're not geneticists, they're not often involved in breeding any more, they deal mostly with....health problems.  And, again, this becomes a popularity thing....the rarer a breed is, the less likely anyone is going to see it, including vets.  So if they're using the examples of "purebreds are unhealthy because German Shepherds"......they haven't dealt with even a large number of breeds.  You'd think they'd be more wise to the whole situation.

For the most part, from my crazy research and interest in the vast number of breeds.....most....aren't seriously unhealthy.  Problems do occur, there are things to watch for, there may be a few common-ish problems, but typically the issues are not nearly as common as a handful of example breeds.

20 breeds out of over 300 isn't even a quarter of the breeds and landraces out there.  On top of it, most breeds aren't "extreme" physically, so, there really is no reason to complain or say that phrase I hate so much..."Most dog breeds". 

So stop saying it.