Post date: Apr 05, 2012 3:23:17 PM

The Dachshund Breed Council's Dachs-Life 2012 Health Survey asked owners to track the health of their dogs between January 1^st and March 31^st 2012. One week after the end of the survey over 1000 health reports have been recorded.

Roger Sainsbury BVM&S, MRCVS is Chairman of the Breed Council's Health and Welfare Sub-committee. He said: “The 2004 Kennel Club Breed Health Survey and our current on-line survey tool are very useful sources of health data, but with knowledge of the population that the dogs in these surveys come from, the data goes into a different league. This is why Dachs-Life 2012 asks for information on all healthy Dachshunds too – this will allow us to see just how common any health conditions really are.”

Ian Seath, Chairman of the Breed Council, said: “We have worked really hard to encourage a wide range of UK Dachshund owners to participate in Dachs-Life 2012 and have received responses from owners of single pets, to 20+ reports from some of our leading breeders/exhibitors. It looks like we will have data from at least twice as many dogs as in the KC's 2004 survey (509 dogs) and we would like to thank everyone who has contributed so far. Dachs-Life 2012 is a key part of our Breed Health Improvement Strategy, along with education of breeders and judges to ensure Dachshunds are bred and shown fit, healthy and with sound temperaments.”

Dachs-Life 2012 is already providing some interesting insights into Dachshund health, for example the prevalence of back disease is approx. 6% which is significantly lower than the 20-25% rates typically reported in veterinary research papers. More than 8 out of 10 owners describe their Dachshund as always or often “Outgoing and Friendly” and fewer than 1 in 20 have had problems house-training their Dachshund. It is hoped that an initial report on the survey results will be available at the Breed Conference to be held on April 22^nd.

Surveys can be submitted on-line at: http://kwiksurveys.com/?u=DachsLife2012 and the closing date for receipt of surveys is 15^th April.