the right idea gone wrong
Say what you will about breeders who do not health test and admit it, at least they are not hiding anything. The breeders you should truly fear are those who perpetrate consumer fraud under the guise of legitimate and truthful canine health testing, either misrepresenting or misusing health results on a spectrum that ranges from ignorance to fraud:
Breeders who DO NOT perform health tests but claim they do
Breeders who DO NOT accurately represent health-test results
Breeders who DO NOT educate their customers on health-test standards, terminology, and use
Breeders who DO NOT intelligently leverage the knowledge from health-testing results to properly manage breeding programs
As breeders, we are increasingly witnessing these phenomena. This negligence and greed inspired us to write this post with a sense of urgency.
From a health perspective, the Boerboel is healthier than many breeds, especially most large or Mastiff dogs. But the Boerboel is still susceptible to a number of health issues. By far the core health concerns for the Boerboel are orthopedic (hips and elbows) and heart health. For the sake of simplicity in this post, we will use joint and heart health in our examples.
Internationally, there are a number of recognized, certifying bodies that evaluate and report health results (e.g. PennHipp, OFA, FCI, and many more). For practical purposes and the sake of simplicity in this post, we will focus on the largest and most commonly used organization in the United States, OFA (the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals). OFA is widely used by breeders for joint (hip and elbow) and heart testing.
examples of fraud in health testing
If health testing has been conducted, how can it be wrong or bad? The following are common examples, many of which have overlap, and are applied together as an overarching strategy to deceive consumers. Some examples are methods of deception. Others pinpoint root causes. All are valuable for consumers in the context of understanding or interpreting health results.
Claiming Health Testing without Proof
Too often we see breeders claiming health testing has been conducted. But where is the proof? We know far too many people, consumers and other breeders, who have taken a breeder’s word, only to find out later that the health testing was never conducted or the results were not as claimed. A breeder mentioning health testing alone is not necessarily lying. But do you know if the health testing was actually conducted?
Example: Health testing has been mentioned casually or extensively promoted by the breeder. But at no point has any health-testing documentation been offered or verified.
Not Providing Health Documentation When Asked
This point is an extension of example number one. Any good breeder should happily provide the health-testing results that they worked so hard to achieve, paid so much money to conduct, and which prove the good health of their dogs.
Example: Over a phone conversation, the breeder states the dogs are health-tested. But when you arrive in-person and ask to confirm the certifications, you are told that the certificates are lost or they will send the copies to you later.
Misrepresenting Dog Health to Owners
It is easy for breeders to talk circles around prospective dog buyers, given the esoteric knowledge and medical terminology associated with breeding. Just because someone says something is true does not make it so.
Example: Anytime a breeder plays down your concerns about the dog’s health, it should be a red flag. The breeder should empower you with data and resources to back up claims. A dog may have suffered from an injury that caused a poor health certification; ask for the documentation that corresponds with this claim.
Advertising Bad Health Results
How could I be deceived by a breeder if they even openly post the health results?
Example: A dog’s elbow certification is made public on a breeder website and the results reveal two Grade III elbows. As a purchaser, you may not know that Grade III is the highest level of elbow dysplasia. Boerboels are front-heavy dogs and the quality of the elbow joint is especially important for the comfort and soundness of the dog. Instability in the elbow of a large dog can be a difficult to impossible situation, depending on the severity of disease. It may not be possible to overcome such an issue with diet, exercise, or surgery. Why did the breeder make the choice to breed a dog with unfavorable health results? It can be speculated that at least some and potentially all of the puppies may have the misfortune of inheriting this condition from the parent.
Using Unqualified Doctors
Not all veterinary professionals are qualified to perform all health tests. Your regular DVM (doctor of veterinary medicine) is not the same as a specialist. In particular, with OFA the joint and heart tests are exclusively evaluated through specialists, and that in large part is what gives the certification credibility. Joint tests are only evaluated by OFA-appointed veterinary orthopedists (the x-rays may be made by a DVM, but only the specialist is qualified to interpret the meaning of the images). Moreover, OFA only recognizes advanced heart certifications performed by veterinary cardiologists.
Example: A breeder says the dog is listed as clear of joint disease, but a copy of the official OFA certification is not provided. The breeder may have decided not to submit the x-rays to the specialists employed by the OFA, and alternately used the opinion of their general vet for screening the dog for joint disease. Using the general vet’s statement of health certification would be illegal and misleading because a specialist of orthopedics that is licensed in the subject of joint conformation did not certify the health results.
Doctor-Shopping
As the saying goes, if you do not get the result you want the first time - try, try again. Doctor shopping is not limited to humans with prescription-drug addictions. While it is true that it can be harder to shop for canine health testing, given that many organizations like OFA use their own clinicians, some evaluations are conducted locally and present opportunities for this fraud.
Example: You may never know that doctor shopping occurred, but you should be aware that it can and does happen. There are times when dogs receive unfavorable health certification. Some people may try different methods to change the outcome of the health testing so that they receive a better result with a second test. This strategy could be undertaken by retesting the dog with a different vet or by a different method to gain a favorable result.
Self-Reporting
Sometimes breeders skip the veterinary professionals altogether and proclaim their own interpretations as legitimate medical results. This phenomenon is madness on several levels. Representing yourself as a licensed veterinary, medical professional is illegal. Breeders are often very smart and medically informed. But unless that breeder is a DVM, or a veterinary specialist qualified in a specific discipline, they do not have the training, knowledge, skills, or equipment to make a medical diagnosis. Health tests have very specific terminology to describe the graded results, and often when breeders “self-report” they will employ terminology that is similar but different to test organizations, which should be a red flag.
Example: A dog is listed as free of ectropion or entropion disease. This claim should be backed by an examination verifying that conditions of the eye were ruled out by a veterinary professional. The techniques and knowledge needed for ruling out health conditions cannot be replicated with certainty by the general public.
Not Disclosing Line Health History
The parents of the litter, the sire and the dam, are the immediate health history. But what about the extended health of the lines, all of the dogs in the litter’s pedigree? It plays an equal role in the health outcomes for the puppies. Sometimes it is not a case of the breeder hiding line health, they may simply be unfamiliar with the line history, which is also unacceptable.
Example: Ask about the life spans and causes of death in antecedents and relatives of the dog you are considering to purchase. The breeder should be the most informed person about the health and temperament of their dogs and the dogs in its lines.
Kennel Blindness
Found often in purebred programs, kennel blindness is a breeder’s inability or refusal to admit to the failings in their own lines of dogs, whether they relate to shortcomings in standard, temperament, or health. Kennel blindness sometimes is not intentional, and can also extend to breeders who do not understand the qualities set out in the breed standard.
Example: Puppies are listed under the guise of “rare colors or markings.” Each breeder has the ability to breed dogs that feed their own desires and egos. But in this example, the colors the breeder prefers may not be the preferred or even allowed colors in the breed standard. It is important to familiarize yourself with the breed and its recognized traits, so that you can make an informed purchase. If you need help interpreting the written standard, your breeder should be able to point you to a reliable source.
Greed
Anytime you mix the welfare of living beings with a profit-motive, you are bound to find individuals who will cut every corner to make money, damn the consequences for the unfortunate creatures, people or animals, suffering the fallout. People have wild misconceptions about the profitability of dog breeding. The short answer is that financially, breeding is not a very attractive endeavor, especially when you consider the amount of labor invested in a breeding program. The longer answer is that those breeders who are doing the right thing are re-investing any income and more back into improving the dogs. If you’ve found a good breeder, you have likely found someone who is not in it for the money, but rather has a passion for improving the breed and connecting people with it.
Example: Ask the breeder if they have ever excluded a dog from their breeding program and pay attention to their answer. If they have not, and the only reason a dog did not produce offspring is because it was unable to become pregnant, then greed may be a factor in the breeder’s motivation to breed dogs. It is costly on both a financial and emotional level to remove dogs from a breeding program because for some reason - health, temperament, or type - they do not qualify. But it is a necessary task for a responsible breeder.
Gaslighting
Gaslighting refers to manipulating a person by psychological means so that the person questions their own sanity. If you catch someone pulling any of the antics described in this post, do you think they are going to admit it? Or perhaps they will waffle, dissimulate, and turn it back on you?
Example: You are dismissed by the breeder for your questions regarding specifics on health certifications. They turn your questions back on you, switching the conversation to pure emotion and your judgement of their character, instead of providing you with tangible proof of their health claims.
Virtue Signaling and #Activism
Social media allows everyone to claim reward without risk and achievement without sacrifice. Sadly it extends to the dog world.
Example: Some breeders do all the things described in this article while simultaneously being the loudest and most abrasive voices about the importance of health testing in public outlets, like social media or breeder forums. Always remember the official health certifications speak for themselves.
buyer beware
The consumer sphere has never been a safe space. Unfortunately, this truth is profoundly applicable to the world of dog buying, which is fraught with more pitfalls and perils than most purchases. It is an infrequent and unknown shopping experience for most consumers, full of technical details and minutiae they do not understand. A bad breeder will take advantage of such things.
There is no way to guarantee you a healthy puppy. But there are ways to help protect yourself and mitigate your risk.
First and foremast: caveat emptor. Or in plain English: buyer beware! Above all, vigilance is your first tool and line of defense.
However, vigilance alone is somewhat empty. As a first step, educate yourself. Do research. Call multiple experts and breeders. Ask questions. Take notes. Visit forums. Think actively. Be engaged in the process.
Once you start narrowing down your choice of breeders, get more specific. Ask for copies of the health-testing certifications. If the breeder does not want to provide them, be willing to walk away from doing business with them. No matter how badly you want a dog, it is not worth the risk of buying an unhealthy animal. There are almost always reputable breeders in every breed. It just might take time to find one and wait for the right puppy. So patience is another sage strategy.
Also, remember that there is no such thing as a professional breeder certification. Some of the people you are turning to as experts might have been exactly where you are now, looking for a puppy a year or two ago. Listen to your instincts.
While all these things can help, some of the practices and problems described in this post are opaque, and even difficult or impossible for another professional breeder to identify. Your relationship with your breeder may be more intimate and trust-based than you might imagine. Just like any relationship, the possibility of getting burned always exists. When you depend on someone else, there is always a leap of faith at some point. Just remember to wait and only take that leap once you have done your homework and the breeder has fulfilled their own due diligence.