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Dogslife project update
Reading Dogs
The Kennel Club / British Small Animal Veterinary Association Purebred Dog Health Survey
Looking after your dog in winter
Prize winners!
Dogslife project update
Dogslife now has 2000 members providing information on over 2000 Labradors. The data Dogslife has recorded to date reveals that over 2000 illnesses have been reported to the study so far: 26% of the illnesses reported were diarrhoea, 23% were vomiting, 12% were lameness, 8% were scratching themselves, 5% were ocular (eye) problems, 2% were an aural (ear) problem, 0.5% were from eating something they shouldn’t (some examples include Easter eggs, stones, whole corn on the cob, and fish hooks!), and 0.4% were involved in an accident.
As we have previously reported certain names appear to be more popular than others, and the most popular names for dogs bear little similarity to those which are popular for children (as you might expect). For male dogs, there are 420 different names registered in the Dogslife project, the most popular being Bailey (with 33 dogs registered with this name), closely followed by Max (28), and Alfie (27). By comparison, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), list the top three most popular children’s names for boys in 2010 as Oliver, Jack and Harry. Alfie was the fourth most popular name, Max was ranked twenty-third, but Bailey was not in the top one-hundred.
For female dogs, there are 387 different names registered. Ruby is the most popular (29), followed by Poppy (28), then Molly (26). Again, by comparison, the top three children’s names for girls in 2010 (reported by the ONS) were Olivia, Sophie and Emily. Ruby was ranked seventh, Poppy sixteenth, and Molly was in forty-second place.
The well-liked names registered in the Dogslife project can be seen as the largest in the image below, and the less widely used names are in smaller writing.
Over 900 Dogslife members have created a scrapbook on their dog’s profile page where they have written comments and uploaded pictures to log their dog’s progress and memorable events. The Dogslife newsletter is also popular, with over 1660 members enlisted to receive it each month. We hope you continue to find the articles helpful and interesting!
The geographical distribution of Labradors participating in the project is extensive. There are dogs from as far north as Shetland, to as far south as Jersey taking part in the study, so we are able to obtain information on the varying environments and lifestyles of Labradors from every corner of the UK.
If you would like to let Kennel Club registered Labrador puppy owners know about Dogslife, please feel free to print off and hand out our flyer which can be downloaded here. Thank you to everyone who continues to support the project and helps to encourage other Labrador owners to take part.
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Reading Dogs
Dogs have many functions in society, but did you know they can be used to improve a child’s literacy skills? Some children feel daunted or intimidated when reading out loud to other children or adults but find that they are not inhibited when reading to a canine companion. Dogs make great listeners since they do not criticise, judge or mock them. Reading out loud to a dog can help to break down barriers and reduce anxiety so children can read aloud with greater ease and build their confidence and self-esteem.
Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ) and the Pets As Therapy’s Read 2 Dogs project take their specially trained listening support dogs into schools to help with child literacy. To support these charities, The Kennel Club launched the Bark & Read Foundation in November 2011 which is funded by the Kennel Club Charitable Trust.
The Bark & Read Foundation and related charities aim to help children overcome their fear of reading out loud so that they can practice their reading skills and become more proficient. Having a dog present can have a calming and comforting effect on children making them less nervous and self-conscious. It also makes reading more fun so children are more eager to participate and begin to enjoy reading aloud. Many children’s reading abilities progress considerably when given the opportunity to regularly read out loud to a dog. Through this work, it is hoped that UK child literacy will improve.
For more information or to get involved in the Bark & Read Foundation, please visit http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/barkandread.
Thank you to The Kennel Club Picture Library (c) for the images in this article
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The Kennel Club / British Small Animal Veterinary Association Purebred Dog Health Survey
With over 2000 dogs registered with the Dogslife project, we thought you might like to know a little about one of the studies assessing the health of Labrador Retrievers in the UK which preceded it. In 2004 The Kennel Club/British Small Animal Veterinary Association (KC/BSAVA) Scientific Committee worked with scientists at the Animal Health Trust to carry out a nationwide survey of UK purebred dogs registered with the Kennel Club and a breed club, to study the types of conditions which affect their health and the causes of mortality in each breed.
The study was “cross sectional” which means that owners of dogs were asked to fill in a questionnaire once, regardless of their dog’s age. Thus the study encompassed dogs of different ages, so the results gave an indication of the types of diseases which Labradors develop in their lives and their relative prevalence (the number of cases of a particular disease in the population surveyed). By comparison, the Dogslife project is "longitudinal", which means we will report the incidence of disease (the number of cases of a particular disease in a given time period, such as at different ages), which in turn is a more accurate measure of the frequency of different conditions. Furthermore, Dogslife also records information from a slightly different population of Labrador Retrievers (dogs registered with the Kennel Club, rather than those registered with the Kennel Club and registered with a particular breed club), and Dogslife also records illnesses not reported to vets (as well as the feeding and exercise regimes and the household status of the owner). So whilst the studies are not directly comparable, the BSAVA/KC survey still makes interesting reading.
Firstly, nearly a third of dogs alive at the time of the study were reported as having developed a health condition (illness). The top ten diseases reported were musculoskeletal (most commonly arthritis, cranial cruciate ligament rupture and hip dysplasia), reproductive (such as difficulties giving birth, and infections of the uterus), skin conditions (infectious skin disease), eye problems (such as cataracts), ear problems (such as ear infections and swelling of the ear), gastrointestinal problems (such as colitis, vomiting and diarrhoea), respiratory infections (such as Kennel cough), benign neoplasia (tumours which can’t spread), cancers (tumours which can spread) and neurological conditions. This is, of course, not a list you should worry about if you own a Labrador Retriever! Most living dogs were not reported to have developed a disease at the time of the survey. Overall, tumours occurred (on average) later in life than the other conditions, and Labrador Retrievers were affected (on average) by disease at a similar time to other dogs.
The information collected on dogs which had died revealed that they died at an average of 12 years and 3 months (with at least one dog having lived to 19 years of age!). The most common causes of death were cancers (31%), old age (23%), heart problems (such as heart failure and heart disease, 7%), a brain problem (such as a stroke, 6%), and combinations of multiple diseases.
If you are interested in the study, you can read more about it here and read about the results from Labrador Retrievers here. The information Dogslife participants report to the project provides much more detail about the potential causes of disease and mortality and in time we hope to add to the information which the KC/BSAVA study has provided.
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Looking after your dog in winter
In cold and snowy conditions, it’s important to be aware of the perils that freezing weather can bring and how best to care for your dog during these wintry periods. To view our previous article on looking after dogs in the snow, please click here.
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Prize winners!
Dogslife are delighted to announce the latest prize winners!
Mrs R from Dorset has won £50 of Pets at Home vouchers, and Mr H from South Yorkshire and Miss C from Kent have both won £25 of Pets at Home vouchers. The following 10 members have each won £10 of Pets at Home vouchers: Mr M from London, Ms P from Merseyside, Miss W from Derbyshire, Mrs B from West Yorkshire, Mrs S from Dunbartonshire, Mr I from Surrey, Miss A from Derbyshire, Mr H from Leicestershire, Mr B from Dumfriesshire, and Mr M from Derbyshire.
Congratulations to all our winners, we hope you enjoy spending the vouchers on your pet! Our next prize draw will take place in March.
Dogslife would like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2012. This year we hope to gain more valuable information from our members on what keeps dogs healthy. Huge thanks go to everyone who contributes to the project.
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Don't forget to come back to Dogslife to update your dog's record www.dogslife.ac.uk
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