How did we get to breeding for health?
In 2016 the Kennel Club launched the Breed Health and Conservation Plans in which every breed was provided with an evidence base of scientific literature relevant to their breed and a summary of our big data across population analyses and registrations data. Over the course of a decade we continue to review and build this data and share this with each breed, whilst also holding 150 meetings over 10 years with breed clubs and their breed health co-ordinator to discuss this evidence and build a joint action plan together. Throughout we learned a lot, and we want to thank all of those breed representatives who have been involved in that process with us.
A new future for dog breeding
Many people have concerns about the impact of breed-related health problems on canine welfare, so the Royal Kennel Club has carried out a major review of our pedigree dog health work. During 2025 we met with breeders, Breed Health Co-ordinators, vets, geneticists, academic researchers and pedigree dog health campaigners, and asked them for their views on our current health work. We wanted to know what we are currently doing well, where we can improve and what new areas we should focus on in the future.
What did people say to us?
Genetic diversity and inbreeding
We should do more to help breeders support genetic diversity and reduce inbreeding. This is a complicated topic and problems vary greatly between breeds, so we need a flexible approach that addresses these issues in different ways.
Extreme conformation
Although most breeds have healthy body shapes, extreme conformation remains a major issue for some. Canine health experts thought we should do more to address this problem.
Breed-related disease and wellbeing
People explained what works well with our health testing policies and services and what they thought should change. We received very useful feedback across a wide range of topics.
Outreach and communication
We need to work harder to reach different audiences, such as breeders, puppy buyers and veterinary professionals, to explain our health work and promote good practice in dog breeding.
What are we going to do?
This review has shown that we already support breeding for health effectively in some ways, but our health work has some gaps and weaknesses. We need to provide comprehensive and relevant support and governance for all breed communities, even though problems and appropriate solutions differ enormously between breeds. We also realise that we can’t provide separate support for all 225 breeds that we currently recognise.
Therefore, we are launching a new Royal Kennel Club Breeding for Health Framework. This covers all aspects of health and welfare that should influence breeding decisions for any breed or type of dog. The framework considers inbreeding/genetic diversity, conformation, and breed-related disease/wellbeing. This will help us to plan our future health work and gives breeders a clear guide to the topics they should consider when breeding for health.
Using the Breeding for Health Framework, we can group all the breeds that share a certain issue together, so that we can provide targeted support and breed communities can share relevant experiences and expertise. This will help everyone deal more effectively with that issue. The breeds that are grouped together will vary according to the issue, meaning that each breed will have an overall grouping profile that provides tailored support for its needs.
During 2026, we will be prioritising work that addresses the top row of the Breeding for Health Framework:
- We will be developing ways to support genetic diversity in small populations
- We will be developing the Royal Kennel Club Nose-to-Tail Visual Assessment for visible conformation
- We will be improving our approach to testable health conditions in several ways.
Our full report shares comprehensive insights from the review process and explains the Breeding for Health framework in detail. You can download it here.
The dog breeding world faces many challenges and is currently in a time of change. New scientific knowledge about canine health and new social trends mean that dog breeding is largely moving into a ‘post purebred, post pedigree world’, although there are of course still many breeders who aim to breed healthy dogs within closed breed registers (and some breeders who don’t yet prioritise health, unfortunately). At the Royal Kennel Club, we understand that we also need to change if we are to remain a relevant and trusted voice in the future. We are the only national UK organisation that can offer detailed, practical, customised health support and governance for all responsible breeders, and we should provide support for anyone who is breeding dogs with health as their priority.
Throughout our consultation process, people gave us frank and sometimes very critical feedback, which we have shared in detail in the full report. We know our proposals will be too extreme to suit some people and not enough for others. However, everyone we spoke to has supported our move towards more open and effective communication. We promise to continue working in a transparent and collaborative way to drive further effective change that will shape a better future for dog breeding. We are very grateful for everyone’s support and input and look forward to developing our new projects with our communities.
What will happen to our existing Breed Health and Conservation Plan and evidence base?
We have now combined all of the research, literature reviews and evidence from a decade of Breed Health and Conservation Plans into a Breeding for Health Framework evidence bank which the model below show:
This will continue to be an evidence bank we keep updated, underpinning our work within the Breeding for Health Framework, which we will add to and will be available for acess and reporting for breed communities at no cost. The easiest way to access reporting will be to contact your Breed Health Co-ordinator, alternatively for queries you can contact health@royalkennelclub.com.
How does the framework apply to my breed ?
One of the key findings of the review was the huge value in having breeds grouped together to discuss common challenges and shared solutions. In light of this finding our new Breeding for Health Framework operates a grouping system which you can see in the example below.
Breeds are grouped around the framework within the nine topics and will be invited to send representatives to those meetings and discussions to share their views, concerns and ideas. The model below shows how this can work. We would also encourage you to come and speak to the team with any questions about this new arrangement via your Breed Health Co-ordinator or health@royalkennelclub.com
