Staying up to date with common, let alone rare, health risks in susceptible dog breeds can be difficult. In this regular feature, our Educational Partner, International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD) signposts resources on a particular breed and highlights breed-specific diseases.
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Meet the Finnish Spitz – Update your knowledge!
A beautiful, national breed. An admirable regional effort to support breed health strategies. A commitment to openness and sharing of statistics on individual dogs and the breed. A collaborative approach involving breeders, breed clubs, kennel clubs, veterinarians, and researchers. This month we present the Finnish Spitz, which stands as a model of how to manage sustainable development of a breed, especially one of limited numbers. And – did we mention how beautiful they are?
We often get bogged down in the challenged breeds and big problems. This month we celebrate a healthy breed of dog. Granted, the kennel clubs in Scandinavia are well-prepared to support breed health strategies – with open, public registries of dogs, sires and dams, including their status on health tests, and provision of breeding statistics. But this shows – it can be done!
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The Finnish Spitz is the national dog of Finland, and the country’s pride comes to bear on efforts to protect this breed for the future. The Finns work to ensure temperament as well as health and structure. We challenge other countries to share information with IPFD on similar work you are doing for your national breeds – we will be happy to profile your efforts!
Overall a healthy breed, the Finnish Spitz has faced challenges with inherited conditions of patellar problems, diabetes, and epilepsy. See the statistics and programs that are keeping these problems under control in Get a GRIHP! on Finnish Spitz. And access templates of breed specific health strategies that can be used for other breeds.
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The International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD) is a non-profit working for dog health, well-being, and welfare. This article has been prepared by its CEO, Dr Brenda Bonnett, DVM PhD
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More resources to help you:
- IPFD Get a GRIHP on the Finnish Spitz
- Breeds with summaries of Swedish KC, Finnish KC or Norwegian KC Breeding Strategies
- Breeds with Swedish Insurance Data
- Founder representation and effective population size in old versus young breeds—genetic diversity of Finnish and Nordic Spitz;M. Kumpulainen, H. Anderson, T. Svevar, I. Kangasvuo, J. Donner, J. Pohjoismäki; Animal Breeding and Genetics Volume 134, Issue5; October 2017, pp 422-43