Paedomorphism

Paedomorphism

Paedomorphism, also known as ‘Neoteny’, is the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood. That is, those features that we associate with infants and babies is carried through into adulthood and do not mature as would normally be expected. It is these features which we focus on when we are describing someone or something as being “cute” “baby-faced” or “adorable.” All words which are warm and fuzzy and get our maternal and paternal emotions heated up. Below is a diagram which summarises the main features that are considered paedomorphic. Large eyes in relation to face size and a large domed head disproportional to the body are what I would consider the most obvious features that can be recognised in paedomorphic individuals.

Anything can be paedomorphic, from humans, animals to even inanimate objects such as toys. A very interesting article I recently read has shown that paedomorphism has been influencing toy makers. The old ‘Barbie’ dolls and ‘My Little Pony’ toys used to look very similar to adults and mature horses, in terms of their proportions and features. In today’s world however paedomorphosis has taken over and now we are seeing dolls such “Bratz” which have enormous eyes, tiny mouths and large heads in comparison to their bodies. This is the same with the modern “My Little Pony” toys who also have the exaggerated large eyes and domed foreheads.

It seems the toy makers have found a money maker in getting the “cute factor” in their products. Studies have shown that humans find paedomorphic features more attractive whether that be in humans, animals or even teddy bears and we will subconsciously choose to look at that face over a mature face. This is mostly put down to the infantile features tickling our subconscious need to care for a younger individual. If you want to look up more about the history of Neoteny then do a good old wiki search and you will come across a very interesting and useful page explaining pretty much everything you need to know. What I will be doing here is relating paedomorphism to our good old canine companion.

If any of you have watched the BBC Horizon programme on dogs (It was a couple of years ago. But I’ve found a youtube link for anyone interested in watching..) paedomorphism or neoteny in domestic dogs was mentioned and it was this that first sparked my interest in this topic. It has been documented that our domestic dog species exhibit a large amount of paedomorphism and are likened to juvenile wolves. This can be in their behaviour as well as their aesthetics. The best examples of neoteny are the dogs in the toy group e.g. the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Chihuahua, Pekignese, Yorkshire Terrier, and Pug to name a few. This can be seen quite clearly; Lets take the pug for example,

When you compare their faces with the cartoon above you can see that they have a large domed head, large eyes and small noses and mouths (so small infact that they have difficulty breathing, but that’s another topic..). And that is exactly the reason why dogs like the pug, and those others listed are considered the “cutest” of the dog breeds and are specifically companion dogs rather than working dogs, because they are reminding us of human infants. They are ticking all the boxes in terms of replacing a human child and that is why they are nutured so much. Perhaps a little more than they need to be at times…

So our dog breeds are very cute, and we love them. That I do not deny. But what happens when you select of paeodmorphism? What happens when you selectively breed an animal to retain infantile or juvenile features. In turns out there are a lot of inadvertant results from producing something adorable. But I’d like to start this by first reversing the question, which takes me to one of my favourite studies in canids:

The silver foxes of Russia. Scientists in Russia wanted to learn more about the domestication of canines and so took a population of silver foxes and began selectively breeding them. They took the tamest foxes and bred them, and selectively only breeding from the next generation who were also tame. As generations continued they did produce a population of foxes who were extremely tame and began showing very dog like behaviours such as wagging their tails when a human approached etc. This was very exciting as it was the first evidence that there is a “tame” gene. To confirm this was not by chance they also selectively bred from the most un-tame or aggressive foxes and produced a completely opposite population of foxes who would not accept any human contact and were even described as “Dragons” by the scientists. How this links to paedomorphism is the tame foxes began to change in their appearance. They stayed looking like fox cubs for longer and even began developing features we most often relate to dogs such as patchy coats, and big floppy ears.

This fascinates me. It seems that by selecting for a tame gene you have inadvertatly produced a paedomprhpic individual. Or if you look at it from a different angle, you get tame individuals by choosing animals who have degrees of paedomorphism to start with….So paedomorphism has a link to tameness. This is supported by other behavioural studies who have shown that the more paedomorphic breeds like the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels have fewer behavioural repertoires and were more likely to approach unknown dogs in a playful manner like puppies compared to dogs like the German Shepherd who approached with more caution and showed a wider range of behavioural repertoires. Whats more, the communication between the dogs is affected by paedmorphism, and this can be visually observed. Just take a moment to think about the amount of subtle body language us humans are capable of.. Dogs have this too. Or more to the point, wolves are capable. A wolves body language can range from a slight twitch of the upper lip, a complete snarl, an ear pinning back against the skull, ears perked forward, tail up and bushy etc. etc. And this is extremely important in the pack to settle hierarchy and communicate with other wolves. But our paedmorphic breeds lack the features to do this. The pug cannot erect its tail, a springer spaniel cannot perk its ears up, a pekignese would struggle with a lip twitch due to its condensed face etc. So by selecting for paedomorphism, while they are aesthetically pleasing out beloved dogs have lost the ability to communicate as successfully as their ancestors would.

Is behaviour the only thing altered by the loveable faces? Sadly no. There is a great deal of evidence that almost all of us know by now is that changing the morphology of dogs in the way paedomphism does can have devastating consequences on their health. The pug and its breathing is just the start, there are eye problems, dental problems, and the one close to my heart, neurological disorders that occur from the infantile head.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel suffers from Chiari-like Malformation (CM). This is a condition where the occipital bone of the dogs skull forms too quickly and fuses too early, so the cerebellum of the brain grows too big for the skull and herniates. From this Syringomyelia (SM) can develop which is fluid filled vesicles collecting along the spinal cord. These can result in devastating clinical signs causing the animal horrendous pain and suffering. And why does it occur? Because we have changed the Cavaliers skull shape to benefit our visual desires. In order to get a paedomorphic head the skull needs to change in a way that the skull remains domed and doesn’t grow with the skeleton as in normal maturation. In the Cavalier this has resulted in CM and SM.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is an amazing breed of dog, which the best temperament and is an extremely sweet looking dog. But it has all come at a terrible cost, to which I would even say the breed should not exist at all…I am very interested in paedomorphism and would love to find out more about how using it as a selective pressure can alter our dogs, in hope that we can find ways to reverse the adverse consequences. My dissertation has excitingly shone light upon the idea that gait may also be affected in paedomorphic breeds and I am hopefully on the next few steps to publishing this data. But we will have to wait and see for that.. 

Summer of 2012

A very long gap between my posts I'm aware. So much has been going on, and at times I'm just overwhelmed by whats been happening that I just don't think to sit back and write it all down. Well tonight is one of those nights where I feel I have some time and energy to reflect the past few months.

So I did it! I got a First Class Honours in my Bioveterinary Science degree which means I met my conditional offer at the Royal Veterinary College to study Veterinary Medicine. Words cannot describe my emotions when I found out. How are you supposed to react when the thing you've wanted since you were 3 years old is given to you! Needless to say I was and still am over the frickin moon!

Graduation was a lovely day and was made all the better knowing that in 4 years time I will be sitting in that room once more, but this time getting the degree that really means the world to me. Yet again very emotional, for me but also my parents. We soon cheered up though once we went back to a family BBQ and party.

The rest of my summer was spent collecting what my college calls AHEMS. That is Animal Husbandry Extra Mural Studies. Basically we have to do work experience at different animal practices (12 weeks in total) to learn about the different species and mainly the UK farming industry. I spent 2 weeks on a my favourite dairy farm, which was lovely. The family really make me feel at home and the cows are brilliant. Lorne was friendly as ever and wouldn't move into the milking parlour until she had a good fuss most mornings and afternoons.

I also spent some time at a riding school which wasn't fantastic as they used me as a glorified babysitter most of the time and I got very little hands on with the horses, but I did still manage to count it towards my AHEMS. I feel confident with handling horses anyway from my experiences when I was younger so it wasn't a terrible thing. I only hope I don't get a bad placement when I'm looking for a pig farm, as I have never worked with them before and need to learn a lot.

As well as working sporadically through the summer I was also given the task of re-writing my dissertation. Not for my degree, but to make it a publishable paper. While my results are interesting in a clinical perspective what it of more value is the observation that the gait the cavaliers suffer could be another result of neoteny. Neoteny is the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood such as large eyes, a large head in relation to body, high flat foreheads, and small noses and mouths. All quite typical of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel aesthetic. I will write a post concentrating on this for those that are interested. Its still not finished but it is very exciting working to get something I have done published for the world to see.

In terms of the dog world. Well Freya, our beautiful bitch from Sweden arrived over the summer and what a star she is!

We travelled a total of 1,919 miles in only 30 hours to get her. But she is worth it! She is a completely unique bloodline to the UK and is the start of our breeding line. I sometimes think "poor little thing doesn't know how important she is!" when shes bombing around enjoying life and diving into muddle puddles during our forest walks. She is a typical Kooiker through and through but we love her for it. As she is my mums dog, they have been going to dog training classes together and she is doing very well. Shes already got her Bronze Good Citizen Award and this was when she was only 5 months old. This is quite funny when we've seen some 2 year olds failing. Her first show is the 17th of October and we are very nervous! We are hoping she gets at least a 3rd place, as then she will be qualified to Crufts 2013, which I know will make my mum extremely happy.

She is not the only import this year. I have heard of two other puppies coming into the UK this year. One a bitch from Belgium and another boy pup from Finland. This is great as that's 3 separate bloodlines coming into the UK population. I only hope these puppies are kept away from the dogs who have already bred, or don't turn into excessive breeding stock like a few certain individuals I could name in the Kooiker UK population. If that happens it has completely counteracted the time and energy put into bringing in new bloodline. Yes its difficult and the process is long, but if we are to ensure the Kooikerhondje is a sound and well bred breed in the UK it needs to be done. There aren't the numbers to be the "top breeder"..

Next week will be good for me, as I haven't been in the show scene for much over the summer and need to get back into whats happening etc. I'm sure my next post will fill in any gaps which may have occurred during the very rainy British summer.

Dissertation gone!

Hello world!

I am aware that I have been terrible and haven't posted in absolutly ages. Excuses are coming;

So my dissertation really kicked off and my supervisor was superb at giving me back tons of really constructive feedback. So I have spent the time since my last post tweaking my 10,000 word project.

I am happy with it, but I really hated handing it in. My offer for the Veterinary Medicine course in conditional on a 2:1 and I have worked my arse off in this degree to ensure I get this. The handing in of the project was kind of like "Thats it. You can do know more to prove yourself anymore. Its all done and you won't have another chance to try and scrape some more marks." Bloody scary! I got a bit emotional and everything. Being a vet just means so so much to me.

So dissertation aside what else has happened. Well my beautiful boy won Best of Breed at his last dog show! I was so so happy. Although mum laughed quite a lot because I was so confused about what to do, where to stand etc. Its been 2 years since he won BoB!
Here is the champion :)

I have also spent a bit of time looking more closely into the UK gene pool. I knew it was bad, but the UK Kooikerhondje population is shocking! All the dogs create such a perfect circle, all because the only 3 breeders in the UK insist on breeding with eachover rather than bringing in the very VERY much needed new bloodlines from overseas. Its not like they don't know Kooikerhondje breeders in mainland Europe. I'll never understand it, and it made me very upset actually...

Although emotion like this is good because it will drive me to make a difference all the more. Bring it on dog world!

A good ol' coffee

So today was a very good day.
Not only am I getting on top of my dissertation, in terms of getting all my data. But the Chairman of the Kennel Club came to my college campus with four of his lovely dogs to help add to my study group. After filming was done I took the opportunity to grab a coffee with him and ask him some questions.

He is a very lovely man, and he gave me some fantastic advice on how I can go about working with the Kennel Club as a vet. We shared some opinions too which I think he was pleased to hear just as much as me. Judges seem to be the priority to make changes to the show world rather than the breeders. I also took the time to talk vet, and was interested to see that although the development and veterinary medicine advances are cool and exciting, they are not necessarily better than what was around before. Vets and vet students seem to be getting very excited with all the new diagnostic techniques that are available and rather than using their skills, they are relying on tests. It can be described as "throwing hundreds of tests at the animal and seeing what sticks." Not only does this reduce the skill of the vet, but certainly contributes to the large increase in vet bills. Vet bills which dogs owner in particular are concerned about as of late.

We also spoke about vets and their relationships with their clients. Too often I think vets assume that a client just owns a pet, but knows very little about it. And dog breeders in particular are becoming very disheartened when they are not listened to. Vets can very easily become patronising by adopting a very simple consult manner, which pet owners, and myself do not appreciate. My family has left a veterinary practise in the past for that exact reason. Even when we told them that we have had dogs for years, that I'm a veterinary science student and that my mother is a dog groomer they still insisted on trying to simplify everything too much. At the same vet practise, even after I had told them my passion for dogs one of the vets came up to me with an Irish Wolfhound, looked down on me with a smug smile and said "Do you even know what this is?" Of course its an Irish Wolfhound. You really think a doggy person wouldn't know what the biggest dog breed is, let alone recognise one! I didn't return for work experience needless to say.

The chairman was very helpful, and even gave me his personal contact details offering to help me whenever he can, and even invited me to shadow the vets at Crufts next year. A chance I absolutely snatched up and I am going to make certain I use. It may seem like little steps compared to my ultimate goal, but how else do you start?

Life is about grabbing opportunities, not shying away from them or expecting them to come to you. Its very easy to say "I want to do this," but unless you act on your desires they will not become reality. I have a massive passion for dogs, veterinary medicine and science. A passion which is going to drive me to an ultimate goal. All my life people have made fun of me, called me a geek or a boffin for having this attitude. Because it is this attitude which means you work that little bit harder than average, you take the time to talk to the teacher after class, put yourself up for student representative, go out and volunteer in research labs, vet practises or grooming parlours etc.. All of which you can be made fun of for doing, but what does individuals don't understand is there is a much bigger picture surrounding all of those things. Some people may call it sneaky, but I call it taking the initiative and fighting for your place to be heard. People remember you, and this can be invaluable in times of career building.

Go from strength to strength, and don't be knocked back. Positive thinking guys! :)

Judging Study

So I was going through my iphone today deleting some of my notes etc. And I came across a rough idea for a study involving judges and breed standards. I sometimes write things down on my phone when I am somewhere unable to write my thoughts down. Good thing too, as I had forgotten about this so I'm going to write it now so I don't lose it.

How subjective is the judging at dog shows? If veterinary medicine is anything to go by, subjective analysis of animals has a huge amount of error and lack of reliability. I should know, I am currently doing a gait analysis and observation study and I can already see plenty of reasons for someone to say the study is biased etc. Which is why we are using computer programmes etc. to reduce error.

But anyway, back to the dog shows. The judge is meant to select a dog out of the line up that most closely resembles the breed standard. But this can be very subjective. Especially with some of the language used in the breed standards. For example "Muzzle should have a moderate stop." There are two words in bold that are extremely subjective and can be taken in many ways depending on the person. Moderate to one judge could mean it is very visible whereas to another judge he/she may take this to mean you can just about see it as it is not definite. The 'should' can also be taken literally by the judge meaning they will require to see it whereas others may take to completely ignore this point. Very subjective and will result in an extreme lack in consistancy. This can always be seen in the dog shows. For example the Kooikerhondje that won Best of Breed at Crufts 2011? Didn't even get placed in Crufts 2012... Hmm...

But its very easy for me to go tut tut.. mm.. aaa.. etc. I am a scientist and thus I would like to study this properly rather than just make comments. A study I propose would involve taking a breed standard description, followed by 10 photos of the breed it is describing. I would then show this picture to 10 judges and ask them to place the top 5. I would then do the same with 10 vet students (so they have an aspect of anatomy) who are not judges and who do not own the breed (again to reduce bias). I hypothesise that the results would be completely random and you would not be able to tell the difference between the judges choices and the publics choices. Yes I know I'm going to get arguments saying "Oh, but the judge needs to run his hands over the animal first etc. etc. Its not just looks etc. etc." Thats fine. But as said in my last post, a dog was placed that the judge couldn't run his hands over at Crufts?

Perhaps the study will highlight the bias in judging. And the common saying of "Its not what you know, but who you know." I am still surprised to this day that judges are trained by members of the breed club who conveniently do the best in the show ring.

Perhaps more descriptors should be required by the judges. Such as body condition scoring, can you get a comb all the way through the coat, or a training day once a year where each descriptor is explained clearly and consisely without involvement of the breeders. For example, explain precisely what is meant by a square head.

I would be very interested to do this study. But I should probabaly wait until my dissertation is done first eh? :)

Crufts 2012

So me and my beautiful boy went to Crufts on Friday 9th for Gundog day. He was competing in the dog showing, and was in the Open Dog Class for the Kooikerhondje. Sadly we didn't walk away with a rosette but he was very well behaved and I am very proud of him. I spoilt him with a nice new leather collar and myself with a new coat :) Here is a picture of my gorgeous boy;

In terms of the main interest of this blog it was a very interesting day, with lots of truth being revealed and realisation of the true extent of my breed clubs behaviour;

First of all the showing itself raised my eyebrow more than once. I was shocked to see the judge place a dog above two others who he could not put his hands over. Not even a little bit. The dog was nice enough but if you cannot run your hands over the dogs body how do you know his conformation is correct, if he is the right weight, even if he has two descended testicles which is always spoken about in the breed standards for every breed. If a judge cannot feel the dogs body, how on earth does he have the right to decide if that dog is healthy? Or at least healthier than the other dogs? Yes its very unlucky if your dog does shy away from a judge but I do believe it should have an impact on the placing.

Secondly I was appalled to see more than once the judge place a very obese dogs. Now you don't have to be a vet student or even a medical student to understand that obesity is a health condition and has a negative impact of the lifestyle of the person or animal. In otherwords, an obese dog is not a healthy dog. Why then was the dog arrowed with the red arrow (see picture below) placed above the other dog in the photo? Some may argue, "but the other dog may have been a lot skinnier which may have brought upon more concern." Thats very true, but I have run my hands over the other bitch and she feels fine to me. The second photo shows a different dog from the same breeder who was placed 3rd out of five dogs, looking as fat, if not fatter than the bitch in the first photo. The little dog you see on the left of the second picture? Came last.

I was extremely shocked and you could even here from the audience the shock in the judges decision. But as you hear many a time at dog shows "Well.. It is down to the judge on the day." I see, so sometimes its ok to have a very obese dog, but other days it isn't? I'm pretty sure obesity should never be rewarded, not matter what the situation. How are we going to improve dog welfare if things like this are being allowed to slide?

I also took the opportunity at Crufts to question something, or a lack of something on the Kennel Club website. On the website, you can look up and get information on a particular breed and there has been a large emphasis on educating the public on the problems associated which each breed and tests that are avaliable. Now the Kooikerhondje is known to suffer Patella Luxation and Von Willebrands Disease. Both which can be tested, and are being tested in Europe. But when you click on health information on the Kooikerhondje you get this..

I questioned the Kooiker Club at Crufts and asked them why they haven't spoken to the Kennel Club about this and suggested arranging a Von Willebrands screening scheme or even informing the public about the condition? The response is a very blunt one about "I am a good breeder and none of my dogs have the disease so why should I advertise that the breed is susceptible?" Oh I don't know, so that people are aware that there is a risk? To show people that breeding initiatives and testing do work? Yes we should be very proud that no Kooiker in the UK has it, but that does not mean that the risk isn't there. Currently dogs in the UK are tested but need the send the samples to Europe to discover test results. Why wouldn't you want something set up in the UK? Asking a different member of the Kooiker club apparently they are trying to do something about it but the Kennel Club is slow in responding. Why am I getting two different answers, from different people belonging to the same club and apparently discuss everything and make decisions together?

The same conversation also highlighted that the breed club is not as close as they may at first appear. I will quote one man "I should say I am the best breeder in the country. There are only 3 breeders in the UK and I am the only one who does it right. I'm not going to say names but two of the breeders are in this room. Hahahaha" Nice to see everyone working together for the breed..

This was then followed by "One breed for money and the other breeds because she has the dogs." .... And what do you breed for? This being the same person who sold his 2 year old "beloved dog" after she had an undershot jaw and thus wouldn't be a good breeding bitch.

There was some good conversations too however. We bumped into one lady who saw Elliot and came to us to say she had always wanted one, but after looking at the gene pool in the UK she decided against it. So it is not just me and my family who are worried about the genetics. It has gone so far as to worry the general public wanting to buy the breed! Something needs to be done. The lovely lady finished by saying how she loved the way Elliot looked and not the smaller foxier look that the show dogs seem to be turning, and that she would love to get into contact with us when we start breeding. Getting the contacts already you see? :) And she does agility etc. Perfect for our first or second litter.

I will finish up with an example of our gene pool in the UK. At Crufts 2012 there were 38 dogs entered. 11 come from one breeders bloodline. 7 from the second breeders bloodline. and 5 from the third breeders bloodline. Leaving only 15 dogs not directly related to eachover.

Furthermore, one of the dogs has sired 6 dogs in the showring, all from seperate litters. And one bitch produced a litter in 06, 08, 09 and 10. 3 of those litters were using the same bitch and the same sire, from UK bloodline 1 and 2 mentioned above.

Oh and I also forgot to mention! The dog who sired the six litters that are in the showring? Has also produced two dogs in the show ring that have now developed Epilepsy. And even knowing this, they are still breeding from him.

Its all happening today

Well I wasn't planning on posting everyday, but since PDE:Three Years On there seems to be a lot happening.
So I've worked closely with several people during my time at university, during research projects, and like to think I've made good friends with all of them. Which is why I was so surprised when I received a very direct email telling me I should watch PDE:2 and take something from it. Now this person knows I love dogs, she also knows that I haven't bred dogs, but that I want to do so the right way in the future. She also knows my opinion on certain dog practises. So why did she send me an emailing including quotes such as "No need to breed a specific breed." and "There is no other explanation( than being selfish) for dog/cat breeding….mix is as cute as pure" ending with she just thought she should say this to me and I need to "keep my eyes open."
I'm sorry. I was under the impression I was keeping my eyes open, and that you agreed with a lot of the things I had spoken about on the topic when we were working together. I don't think I need to say I was a little taken aback and quite frankly angered by the email.
I have no responded to the email, not wanting to get into a huge debate that could last a lifetime. Instead I leave with the opinion that, not once did PDE2 say that pedigree dogs should not exists (except those that are past saving due to 100% of the population suffering) and was trying to emphasise the point that we can go back to what the breeds used to look like and move away from disorders and diseases. So I am confused as to why this person has said "No need to breed a specific breed."

Personally I think it is good that we have dog breeds. Knowing a breed is useful as we know relatively how large the animal will get, their temperament, their grooming needs, their exercise needs etc. And we still use certain breeds for very specific jobs. I love a mix breed, and think they are very cute! I have just ended up with pedigree dogs over the years. Yes Elliot was a choice, but for the exact reason I just mentioned. I liked how big he got and his exercise tolerance matched well with what I am capable of. Buying a breed is excellent and good but for those with very distinct needs and requirements or in certain situations have the benefit with pedigree dogs in that they can choose a dog well suited to them. So no I think we should have specific breeds but that should never be taken in a way that means I think we shouldn't have mix breeds. Mix breeds are lovely but you don't always know what your going to get, especially with size, shape and coat type. The amount of labradoodles I have seen in a grooming parlour with matted coats because the breeders assumed the next batch of puppies would have coarse coats and not the soft downy coat that can sometimes occur.

Finally if there should be no specific breeds then you should be willing to argue the same point in regards to every domesticated animal in the world today. Cows, horses, sheep, pigs, cats etc. Breeds were created for a reason and I don't believe we should get rid of them.

Me with a rosette winning Holstein Friesian. A lovely breed of cow bred for robustness, milk yield and reliability in the dairy farming industry.