UK dog owners prefer crossbreeds and imports to domestic pedigree breeds, study finds

According to the research, the UK genealogy dog ​​population decreased by an annual decline of 0.9% between 1990 and 2021. Published In Fellow animal genetics and healthThe study has highlighted an increase in population of crossbrids and imported genealogy dogs since 1990, but found that only 13.7% of registered domestic genealogy dogs were used for breeding between 2005 and 2015.

There are more than 400 breeds of dogs globally, characterized by various appearances and behaviors. While the overall population of pet dogs in the UK has increased from 7.6 million in 2012 to 12 million in 2021, a limited genetic variety of pedigree (or porbred) dog population has increased the risk of inherited diseases, which is supported by accumulating evidence for race-specific diseases.

Joanna Ilsas and colleagues analyzed demographic data for 222 dog breeds from the electronic database of the Kennel Club, including breed, parent and original countries. The ten most popular genealogy dog ​​breeds represented 44% of the entire lineage population, with Labrador Retriers, French Bulldogs and Cocker Spaniels the most common.

Researchers found that the lineage population has clearly decreased since 2010. Yorkshire Terriers saw the biggest decline in the population of 10.6% from 1990 to 2021, while the French Bulldog saw the biggest growth of 22.1%.

Meanwhile, trends for imported genealogy dogs increased rapidly after 2010, importing more than 3,000 dogs each year between 2011 and 2019. Ireland exported 11,577 dogs to Britain between 1990 and 2021, Russia exported 4,396 dogs, and Poland exported 3,905 dogs.

Authors suggest that the genealogy population drop can be linked to a negative attitude towards dog breeding, mixed by regular neutrings of dogs – it is estimated that 44% of dogs in the UK are neutrized. They note that the decline in the number of genealogy dogs can also reflect mixed and crossbrede dogs such as the changing approach to Cockpos.

Ilusa and co-author suggests that management strategies for genealogy dogs should be responsible for the decline in population and in line with the circumstances of individual breeds, with the increasing number of imported dogs used in potentially benefiting the overall genetic diversity of the dog’s population.