Role of newborn puppies' movement in the development of HD - Page 1

Carole Beuchat of the Institute of Canine Biology found a fascinating article about the development of HD in newborn puppies. One finding points to a factor that hasn't been considered in the debates on HD, the role of how much the newborn puppies move.

The results of the study indicate that there is mechanical damage to joints and surrounding soft tissue when newborn puppies crawl around much, something they may not be physically equipped for yet at that stage. This mechanical damage contributes to joint laxity, and thus ultimately to HD.

The consequence of this finding would be offering smaller whelping boxes that basically allow the very young pups only to move as much as they need to do what they do at that stage: eat and sleep. As they would in a den of a wild canine, I would add.

The article was published in 1966 already. Link to the original publication: https://attachment.fbsbx.com/file_download.php?id=1157415547604963&eid=ASshFd2MLq6ThzsfgGd5IF_habZqbDn9DC4Mgs_TqS9P8YvAHy8iRQ0XZYBZ3sQ2vog&inline=1&ext=1450110639&hash=AStkBDw9xmUXcGX0

The ICB is an excellent resource for breeders, and for everyone committed to the health of dogs. One of the course offerings is on Hip and Elbow Dysplasia. Highly recommended. http://www.instituteofcaninebiology.org/

And yet one of the best predictors of good hips is good (high) muscle mass and muscle needs movement to develop.

With a solo pup I put a soft teddy bear in with him to give him the challenge of going over and around like he would with littermates because solos do NOT move as much as pups in larger litters - no need. I've only known a couple solo's - mine and other folks and interestingly they all came up with HD - tho they also all lived healthy non affected lives until old age. On mine anyway had a pretty solid backwards hip pedigree with a dam who was good and a sire known to produce excellent. Re that a friend made the comment to me one time that excellents seem to be associated with more fairs than a good. Did some research on OFA and it appears to be true. Pedigrees with the occasional excellent seem to have a higher percentage of fairs and dysplastics than a solid good pedigree and yet in this country it's the holy grail to have a dog come back excellent - wh/ physically anyways appears not to promote any additional level of health or athleticism.

There are two models which could account for the above information on excellents. Newer research suggest that HD operates on a threshold model where there are a number of factors involved and a threshold or minimum must be reached before the disease is expressed. This would explain for example why the GSD has had a much tougher time eliminating HD than the Portugeuse Water Dog for example since we know the PWD came from a very limited small uniform gene pool and the GSD incorporated many different styles and types of herding dogs each of which could have had it's own set of factors. It also explains what happens when one highly linebred pedigree line with consistently good hips is bred to another highly linebred line... but the linebreeding is different and the result is often a disaster in the hip department. Much finger pointing ensues w/ each camp accusing the other of fraudulent screening or xrays when in fact the simple answer may be they were each successful in limiting the # of factors w/in a tight linebred pedigree but those factors were different for each linebreeding and when the lines were crossed the # of factors increased meeting the threshold requirement, While the threshold theory makes a lot of sense to me I also think there are major factors (muscle mass, ligamentation which would go to laxity , bone formation etc) and minor factors ( nutrient, vitamin and mineral absorption, environmental factors etc ) which would make the calculation of a threshold much more difficult.

The second model is not one I have ever heard discussed except among a few of my friends. In the GSD missing and extra teeth appear to follow a template model meaning either the correct template is in place and you will not have a tooth problem or the template is incorrect and you will have problems in your lines with BOTH missing and extra teeth as time goes on. ( and then of course there are separate issues of tooth size and softness and likelihood to suffer damage and injury). But under the template model there could be a template for correct hips ( the solid goods with entire family of solid good) and a template for faulty hips ( wide range of variability excellents, fairs, different level of dysplasia). While there is some appeal to this concept I think it is too simplistic THOUGH I think it may be part of the puzzle and work hand in hand with the threshold model for we do know that sibling depth does matter. I personally will take a family of solid goods or a1s over a pedigree with excellent fairs fast normal and noch zuglassen though I am not a hip nut because over the years I have had and seen a number of dogs with crappy hips live long productive pain free lives. I am much more concerned about hemangiosarcoma in the GSD which strikes dogs in the prime of their life.

LF the link does not work.

Also re size of whelping boxes what size are we talking about. Historically what was recommended and used by most people for GSD was a 4 ft sq one w/ rails. I would not want to use one much smaller than this given the size of our bitches and leaving them the ability to get in and out safely w/o landing on pups.

Perhaps what has changed is the flooring? Research shows slick flooring increases incidence while rough uneven and more natural footing lowers incidence - one reason they think spring and summer litters have lower incidence is because pups get out on earth footing sooner and longer.

I see many people today using kiddie pools initially when the litter is young. Very slippery unless one lines it with carpet. Often it is just lined w/ paper or sheets both of which slip on the pool flooring.

Also there are some dangers about going back to the early research. First is understanding what their definition of HD was. In the early days it was all about subluxation ( the complete dislocation of the hips). DJD and remodeling of the hip as a screening method came later. Secondly a lot of the early research relied on false premises. For example numerous studies were done cross breeding greyhounds (who brought the muscle mass part of the equation) with populations of either dysplastic GSDs or a mixed normal/dysplastic population of GSDs and from these studies came the pronouncement that HD was dominant because the PREMISE was that greyhounds did NOT carry HD. We now know better. Granted they have a very very low incidence of it but yes they can get it. So all those cross breedings do not necessarily indicate a dominant trait they may have simply been adding more and different factors so that different thresholds were reached,

Also an area of research that I feel has been sadly neglected is the functionality of dogs with HD. I only know of one study by the army done to see if HD limited the working life of their dogs. The conclusion was no.

I have known guide dogs, herding dogs, obedience dogs and schutzhund dogs all w/ HD and all who had long working lives. The same can not be said of dogs w/ epilepsy, heart, immune problems and often can not be said of dogs w/ pano, fistulas, epi or allergy problems. And cancers such as hemangio will often take a dog in the prime of their life - and there does appear there may be a family linkage for this in some cases even if we have not yet discovered a genetic link. So to me I'd rather work on eliminating some of these issues.

Most HD problems are human created. Humans have taken puppies out of the environment they were designed for, fed them the wrong diet, and forced them to live an unnatural life style. Puppies and dogs are creatures that naturally live primarily outside and have free choice exercise and room to play. Puppies were designed by nature and the environment to eat a primarily meat diet based on animal proteins and fats with little to no carbohydrates. As the puppies grow in a natural way they play and interact with their litter mates and family members of all ages getting all the exercise and physical training they need. Puppies and dogs are social creatures and they will interact with their family, other dogs, humans, and other animals not of their species ( Border Collie, Livestock Guardians, and retrievers ). Puppies and dogs will run until their tongues hang out and they are exhausted, lie down, rest, eat, drink, and get up and run some more. Most of the time they rest, guard and sleep ( 16 hours a day or more ). Humans take puppies out of the environment they need with other dogs and litter mates at 8 weeks in many cases, feed them a corn and grain based diet high in nutrients they do not digest or assimilate easily, and force the to live like prison inmates in a small yard, pen, kennel or human house. The exercise that most puppies and dogs get is not the type that the puppies and dogs need, it is not of sufficient quantity, and it is not of the correct type or quality. Born and reared in the proper environment, fed an appropriate and species correct diet few dogs will develop HD. HD was created in many breeds of dog because the dogs were bred and selected based on appearance. The dogs often did not need to use their legs in the way a dog is supposed to in a natural environment thus dogs with HD were allowed to reproduce because of appearance before they became lame at older ages. Humans are selecting for dogs that can tolerate a grain based diet, poor exercise options, living in close contact with humans, and a poor habitat for dogs. Is it any wonder that dogs are suffering diseases and maladies which they should not be afflicted with?? Human stupidity and meddling have created the problems for dogs and their health and I sincerely doubt that more human medicine, foods, and manipulation of dog genetics will make the problems less or more tolerable. If you want strong healthy dogs give them what they need and not what is best for humans.

Bubba, this answer is too easy.
I have seen too many HD free / A1 dogs that were raised in kennels, trained early, living on concrete, fed with cheap kibbles....
On the other hand I have seen young dogs missing almost the complete femoral head, or their acetabulum was almost non existant. That´s not "nurture".
There must be a reason why some dogs develop HD and some don´t - can´t be nurture "only".

Thank you for this excellent topic of "Role of newborn puppies' movement in the development of HD." I have learned so much from all of you since I joined this database. Living Fence - I enjoyed and learned much from reading http://www.instituteofcaninebiology.org/

Apologies for the dead link.The article is available for free to registered users of PubMed and ResearchGate. ResearchGate has the abstract online for everyone:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/17235762_Hip_Dysplasia_Coxofemoral_Abnormalities_in_Neonatal_German_Shepherd_Dogs

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5949552

PubMed lists links to articles of related topics in the right hand column, among them the works that TIG cited on HD in greyhound/GSD crosses.

I have been reading the blog post related to this topic and it states that puppies as soon as 4 months old can be palpated to check for joint laxity. How would one even go about checking for the joint laxity by palpating? I was always under the assumption that the only way you can tell anything about the hips is to have them xrayed.

Your point about the kind of movement, rather than the amount of movement, is excellent, TIG. Over at ICB breeders are bringing this up as well. Slippery surfaces in the whelping box make for a 'swimming' movement of the pups, and that movement seems to be damaging to the joint tissues of the newborns. The pups need traction.

The plastic kiddie wading pools turned into whelping boxes are slippery, so is vinyl and other slippery flooring in traditional whelping boxes.
They are low cost and easy to clean, but...


TY for the excellent information, TIG. I'll be back tomorrow.