Presentation webinar for the Danish Kennel Club (DKK) on Breed Health Strategies. Why? What? How? Plus UK Dachshund case studies.

1. Breed Health
Improvement
Strategies:
Why, what and how?
Ian J Seath
Chairman: Dachshund Breed
Council UK
& Founder: Dog-ED
16th December 2021
Slides online at:
https://www.slideshare.net/Dog-ED

2. Who am I – in the dog
world?
 Chairman of the UK Dachshund Breed
Council
 Director, UK Kennel Club
 Founder, Dog-ED
 Trustee, Dachshund Health UK
 Lived with Dachshunds since 1980
 Judge Dachshunds at championship level
 Speaker and Facilitator at 3rd & 4th
International Dog Health Workshops (IPFD)

3. Published papers:
as a co-author
DachsLife 2015: an investigation of lifestyle associations with the risk of intervertebral disc
disease in Dachshunds
Neuter status as a risk factor for canine intervertebral disc herniation (IVDH) in dachshunds: a
retrospective cohort study
Nationwide genetic testing towards eliminating Lafora disease from Miniature Wirehaired
Dachshunds in the United Kingdom
Moving from information and collaboration to action: report from the 3rd International Dog
Health Workshop, Paris in April 2017
Moving from information and collaboration to action: report from the 4th international dog
health workshop, Windsor in May 2019

4. Who am I –
in the real
world?
BSc (Hons.) Chemistry
Post-graduate Diploma in Human Resources
Management
Career in Manufacturing (R&D, HR, Marketing,
Commercial) & Management Consultancy
Run my own
Management
Consultancy business
Performance
improvement
Change management

5. Agenda
Part 1
 What is a Breed Health Strategy?
 Why every breed needs one
 A process for developing one
 The role of human behaviour change in
breed health improvement
 Q&A
Part 2
 2 UK case studies
 Dachshund Breed Council Health Strategy
and achievements
 Lafora Disease in Miniature Wirehaired
Dachshunds
 Q&A

6. What is a
Breed Health
Strategy?
“A Strategy is an Action Plan with a rationale.”

7. “Plans are
nothing,
planning is
everything.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
A Breed Health Improvement
Strategy document is the
tangible output of the work
done by a breed to define its
position, identify improvements
and set out its plans

8. We now have plenty of good examples of Breed
Health Strategy documents
JTO RAS RAS BHCP

9. In the UK
we have
BHCPs
113 breeds have Breed Health and Conservation Plans,
covering 79% of KC registrations

10. Definitions
 A breed health improvement strategy may include any, or
all, of the following:
 disease, genetic diversity, conformation, temperament, working
ability
 A breed health improvement strategy is broader than a
plan for addressing a particular health issue
 These may be called “breeding strategies”
 A breed health improvement strategy includes plans for
implementation, including:
 Changing owners’ and breeders’ behaviours
 Data collection, analysis and monitoring

11. What’s
included in a
strategy?
Breed History
Function
Conformation &
appearance
Registration trends
Current state of the
breed
Diseases
Temperament
Exaggerations
Genetic diversity
Plans
Objectives
Priorities
Research projects
Guidance
Recommendations
Advice for breeders,
judges, owners

12. Why does
every Breed
need a Health
Strategy?
“If you don’t know where you are going, any
road will get you there.”
Lewis Carroll

13. The challenge today is not:
“Are you improving?”, but…
“How fast
are you
improving?”
“Can you
prove it?”

14. 2 drivers for Breed Strategies
Breed-
specific
Health
Strategy
Pressure for change
Vision for change

15. Proactive or Reactive?
Breed-
specific
Health
Strategy
Pressure for change
Vision for change
Do it
because
you
want to
Do it
because
you are
told to

16. Who is driving the need for Breed Strategies?
Breed-
specific
Health
Strategy
Pressure for change
Vision for change
• Governments/Legislators
• Kennel Clubs
• Breed Clubs
• Veterinary Surgeons
• Scientists & Researchers
• Breeders
• Owners & Buyers
• Campaigners
• Media

17. “For many years, lecturing about
breed-specific issues in dogs, even
before the existence of IPFD, in
discussions with the breeding
community, veterinarians and others, it
was becoming self-evident that if
concerns were not addressed by the
dog community, society would likely
impose 'solutions' on them. This is
coming to fruition in many areas, and
society and the media wants to move
at a much faster pace than many in the
pedigreed dog world.”
Brenda Bonnett,
CEO, IPFD

18. A process for
developing a
Breed Health
Strategy
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

19. Without a
strategy, it
can all look
rather random
and hard to
know where
to start

20. What do “good breeds” work at?

21. What would
a “good”
Breed be
doing?

22. Breed Health Strategy Cycle
Data &
Evidence
Lead
Plan
Engage
Improve

23.  My 2 Golden Rules for Breed Health
Improvement are:
 There should be no action without
evidence
 There can be no evidence without
data
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

24. Breed health
improvement is not a
conformation problem,
or a genetics problem,
or a veterinary
problem…
It’s a Change
Management and
Continuous
Improvement problem.
IDHW3 – Paris 2017

25. Breed Health Strategy Cycle
Change
Manage-
ment
Lead
Plan
Engage
Improve

26. Some
examples…
Improve Engage Plan Lead

27. The trouble with plans…
 “Eventually, plans must degenerate
into hard work.”
 Peter Drucker

28. Human behaviour
change
“We need to stop trying to change people’s minds.”

29. Diverse voices & polarised opinions

30. When it
comes to
behaviour
change, we
need to
answer 2
questions…
“Can people
change?”
“Will people
change?”

31. COM-B Model for behaviour change
Behaviour
Capability
Motivation
Opportunity
Michie et al 2011

32. Michie et al 2011
Capability & Opportunity
= “Can people change?”
Motivation
= “Will people change?”
Sources of behaviour
Intervention functions
Policy categories
The Behaviour
Change Wheel

33. Q&A
Followed by a short break

34. Agenda
Part 1
 What is a Breed Health Strategy?
 Why every breed needs one
 A process for developing one
 The role of human behaviour change in
breed health improvement
 Q&A
Part 2
 2 UK case studies
 Dachshund Breed Council Health Strategy
and achievements
 Lafora Disease in Miniature Wirehaired
Dachshunds
 Q&A

35. The Kennel
Club
Dachshund
Breed Council
15 Dachshund
Breed Clubs

36. Lead
Plan
Engage
Improve

38. • 9 people:
• 1 vet
• 3 pet advisors
• 4x 3 yearly
• 2x KC
• Continuous
• Epilepsy
• Strategy
• Health Fund
• Annual Plan
• Annual Report
• Top 3
• Watch List
• Conferences
• Seminars
• Screening Sessions

39. • 9 people:
• 1 vet
• 3 pet advisors
• 4x 3 yearly
• 2x KC
• Continuous
• Epilepsy
• Strategy
• Health Fund
• Annual Plan
• Annual Report
• Top 3
• Watch List
• Conferences
• Seminars
• Screening Sessions
• Pet Shows
• Buyer’s Guide
• Owner’s Guide
• Infographics
• Monthly Newsletter
• Facebook
• Website/Blog
• Health website
• IVDD website
• DachFacts
• A-Z of Health
• KC
• Cambridge University
• RVC
• Referral Vets
• Other breeds
• KarltonIndex winner 2011, 13
• Open Registries of results
• Improvement trend graphs

43. GISID: Asher et al 2009

44. Example Data for Planning

45. Genetic Diversity

46. Engagement examples: Social Media

50. Lafora Disease
“A Miniature Wirehaired Dachshund success story.”

52. Lafora Disease in Miniature
Wirehaired Dachshunds
 Buyers
 education: ask for test results, “Dach-Facts”
 Owners
 education: recognise the symptoms
 persuasion: campaigns by affected owners
 Vets
 education: recognise the symptoms & how to
test, diagnose and treat
 Breeders
 incentivisation: subsidised screening &
donations to human Lafora research
 enablement: screening sessions
 education: seminars, “Dach-Facts”, RAG
breeding charts
 modelling: “I support Lafora testing” badges
 restriction: ABS scheme requirement
 coercion: “advisory/warning” letters
 persuasion: stories by owners of affected dogs
 Breed clubs/council
 environment: fund-raising

53. Tackling Lafora Disease in Miniature
Wirehaired Dachshunds adopted 8 of
the 9 categories of intervention and 6
out of 7 policy categories
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓

54. IVDD is our
current
challenge

55. In summary…

56. There are 4
requirements
for a
sustainable
Breed-
specific
Health
Strategy
Lead
Plan
Engage
Improve

57. Breed-
specific
Health
Strategies
need more
focus and
effort
here…
…in order to
get better
and quicker
results here

58. “The ‘tell, sell, yell’ strategy for
Change Management never
works.”
“Culture change happens in
units of 1.”
“And that is how change
happens. One gesture. One
person. One moment at a time.”
Some final thoughts…

59. Q&A
Slides available at:
dog-ed@dog-ed.org.uk

60. Thank you!
 ian@sunsong.co.uk
 www.dachshundbreedcouncil
.org.uk
 www.dachshundhealth.org.uk
 www.dachshund-ivdd.uk