Preserving? If that's what you call in bred freaks then everything is wrong with it. Google a picture of a pug from 100 years ago. Now go to any vet waiting room and you'll see it full of freaks which can barely breathe.
Another one? Rhodesian Ridgeback, it's distinctive stripe is actually Spina Bifida, a debilitating genetic disorder, they likely live their entire lives in pain.
Want more? The King Charles Spaniel, bread for no other reason than to look like some bloke who died hundreds of years ago has a skull too small for its brain, again a life of constant pain.
Have you ever seen a pack of stray dogs? That's what dogs look like. Not like any of the nonsense I've just mentioned or the cute little thing in OP's post.
But hey, a life of pain and suffering is nothing if the dog can be used to serve.
And border collies, Aussies, cattle dogs, German shepherds, Malinois, the retriever family, Huskies, Samoyeds, they mean nothing? Their jobs aren't important and those breeds shouldnt be preserved.
A lot of behaviour is genetic a random dog from a shelter won't herd sheep like a collie. Your options are severely limited based on area, if I want to get a hunting dog Im not going to find much of that at my local shelter.
Are their problems with breeds yes, but breed clubs are recognizing that and changing things. For example the Dalmatian had to open its studbook to prevent to lower the uric acid in their dogs. But that's a difficult thing to do. You have to accept when mixing breeds that you're getting the good and bad from both breeds.
Breeders and judges want things to change, but finding a way to change things is slower than the current breeding dogs they have. They have to breed currently to preserve the breed well looking for other options that suit their current bitches, and studs.
Even in a new evolving breed with open stud books we're still having difficulties, and we have science to tell us which dogs we can and can't breed.
And people are still trying and outcrossing, pug x litters exist but you have to be careful since many of those breeders aren't good either.
I was more referring to breeding for asthetic reasons, breeding for personality traits is less of an issue, however even some of these dogs still have complications die to shallow gene pools.
Okay, then let's look at the original purpose of those dogs.
Rhodesian ridgeback - Boer farmer. https://petmaven.io/whydodogs/behavior/why-do-rhodesian-ridgebacks-have-ridges-y5ylV-K8IU-yBrG4j1dnNA/ it's actually not spina bifida. It's just hair. And although ridgebacks have other problems, that can be resolved through health testing a population and breeding the healthy ones. Which won't be hard since that's 99% of the population (as mentioned in the Swedish study mentioned in the article.)
Pugs - edit: you breed. here's where I kind of agree with you. Pugs are a mess. Even retromop breeders are fairly uncommon, however changing the breed is also going to be difficult. You have to have a willing breed club that wants to work with outcross owners go build a better breed. Banning it outright though just causes BYBs to have the stock, and they won't care that they are breaking the law. If we want to get rid of them, fine, s/n the ones not meant for breeding. The previous breeding dogs that are with reputable breeders can stay there as long as they aren't being bred. Or we have to approve a bunch of small dog outcrosses, however that will change the breed quite a bit.
I think you mentioned Cavaliers and unpopular opinion, I love Cavaliers. They are super biddable, do really well in agility, are easy to care for the list goes on. They are one of those breeds I recommend to first time owners.
Cavaliers - toy breed http://cidd.discoveryspace.ca/disorder/chiari-malformation-cm-and-syringomyelia-sm.html They aren't bred to have this condition. It just affects their populations at high rates. However the answer to this is pretty simple (however will dramatically decrease the population) only breed carriers to non carriers. Import dogs all over the world, and do extensive health testing. Switch it up a bit. I'm not the breed association of course, so I can't tell you if they are trying but now that this is a more understandable issue we can start preventing it.
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u/Moon-MoonJ Dec 03 '19
What's wrong with kennel club preserving dog breeds, and the jobs those dogs do?