Prick-Eared

After Riley was diagnosed with valgus of about 15 degrees turning outward, someone asked if Swedish Vallhunds are achondroplastic dwarfs. Honestly, I don’t know.

Normal German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, virtually all breeds can get valgus too. However dwarfed dogs, especially of achondroplastic variety, are more suspectible to issues with cartilages. Hence why I am reserved wheither or not the Vallhunds are achondroplastic or not since the dog genome haven’t been mapped out, and not all the disorders have been discovered or named– let alone understood. However the little spitzes of the West Goths are functionally medium-sized dogs with reduced limbs. Let assume Vallhunds are one of the achondroplastics.

First off, achondroplasia in dogs is different from humans. Why? We understand how the genes interplay in humans. We still only grasped a small piece within dogs. So, achondroplasia in dogs is a description of the phenotype, not the actual genes at play.

I know the two breeds of Welsh corgis are considered to be achondroplastic. And while discussing with Riley’s breeder, she never heard valgus or varus being an issue in the Vallhunds. No one ever talk about it. It could be that Vallhunds are not widespread enough for these issues to be reported by their owners. However if the corgis are considered as achondroplastic, isn’t it logical to conclude Vallhunds are too?

From what I can find out, dwarfed breeds have fragile growth plates. If the dogs somehow injury the growth plates by exerting too much pressure or force, ie. jumping, getting a limb caught, excessive weight or playing too rough, can cause signs of limb-twisting in puppies. Often these traumas are too small to be noticed, and dogs don’t really express, if anything, if such traumas occurred. Otherwise if there is no damage done to the cartilages between the joints, the puppies will grow to be straight-legged adults. So it is not a bad thing for the dogs to be a dwarf, just they have their own issues like every other classification of dogs.

There are people out there who view achondroplasia as a genetic detect or a fault. However this is rather an absurd viewpoint; because if one has knowledge of evolution, they would know any genes that could be expressed could prove advantageous if the environment pressure the organisms into becoming so. Those with unfavourable genes don’t thrive to breed and are either suppressed or phased out, while those with good genes continue to exploit their niché. When the environment changes, it equalizes the playing field and reshuffle the deck. One would only have to look at insular giantism and dwarfism, both considered as faults by us, but the “faulty” organisms thrive in those environments. So it would be improper view genes with certain consequences as faults.

So I begun wondering: if achondroplastic dogs are not up to speed with their leggier cousins and tire more easily, what’s the point of breeding for these dogs? Surely, in this day and age of companionship, there’s a reason for striving for such look; but many of the dwarfed dogs are much older. What kind of environmental and economic pressures force these dogs to become dwarfs?

Yes, dwarfed herding dogs are supposedly bred to nip at the heel and duck under the kicks of the livestocks; but so can Australian Cattle Dogs and they’re not dwarfed. I am not entirely sold on the idea that short-legged dogs are better for rocky and hilly terrain as there are leggy hunting dogs with gaits to deal with such ruggedness. To say the small dogs are better with small tasks is fallacious in itself since even family farms use the same dogs used on large properties. So what gives?

So, being the amateur historian I am, I wonder if the socio-economic affairs of the ancient Swedes and Welsh was the final nail which caused people to favour these farm curs over other dogs. Otherwise these dwarfs would had not survive into modern times after agricultural practices changed just prior to the Industrial Revolution.

The compass is currently at the economic cost of a dog. My theory is: during tough times, it’s favourable to have a dog who doesn’t take food from the table by hunting too many small games to satisfy its hunger. Perhaps someone else would like a shine a light on the issue to why it’s favourable to have a dwarf of disportional sizes?