DQ Magazine Issue 17B by hqmagazine

DIGITAL ISSUE 17B | 2026

SOUTH AFRICA’S PREMIER DOG MAGAZINE

Welcome to issue 17B Many of us know the feeling of standing in a pet shop, holding two items for our dog, and wondering whether to buy the more expensive one, but lately, this quandary has taken on a whole new life… Luxury dog products are on the rise, from dog perfumes to monogrammed kennels worth hundreds of thousands of Rands; suddenly, there’s no limit to what ‘the more expensive one’ can be. In this issue, we look at the trend and ask not whether or not to get the more expensive item, but whether our dogs actually get anything out of these luxury items and who they are really there to serve. We also look at headlines claiming our dogs are getting fatter and find the data far less tidy than the news suggests. Then there’s the uncomfortable truth about breeds that can rarely give birth without a caesarean, and what that means for anyone buying a puppy from one of them. We examine new research from the Dog Ageing Project that helps explain why big dogs live shorter lives, and dive into a study of future assistance dogs that shows puppies don’t get cleverer all at once. Their skills arrive one by one, which will come as no surprise to anyone who has watched a puppy suddenly ‘get’ something after weeks of blank looks. And for those of us forever vacuuming, we look at what science really knows about why dogs shed. As always, AskDQ answers your questions, and with summer heat, ticks and fireworks season discussed in this one, it’s a timely read. What ties it all together is the idea that love and good care aren't always the same thing. We all want the best for our dogs. The trick is knowing what the best actually is, and here we bring you some of the evidence, honestly reported, so you can make the call that’s right for you and your dog. Thank you for reading, and give your dog an extra scratch behind the ears from us!

Lizzie and eam xxx t Q D e h t Dr Lizzie Harrison | Editor

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Designer | Mauray Wolff

DIGITAL ISSUE 17B | 2026

CONTENTS Spoiled, or just well loved? Understanding the rise in luxury brand products for dogs

Big dogs show signs of faster biological ageing New research links shorter lifespans with faster molecular ageing

Are our dogs really getting fatter? The truth behind the headlines

Born by caesarean What every dog owner should know

Puppy brain development A new study suggests skills are acquired stepwise

The root of the problem What science actually knows about why dogs shed

AskDQ Your questions answered

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Spoiled, loved? OR JUST WELL

UNDERSTANDING THE RISE IN LUXURY BRAND PRODUCTS FOR DOGS

ashion houses and fragrance brands have discovered dogs. The love behind the trend is real. The harder question is whether the dog gets anything out of it.

A SHAMPOO WITH A CELEBRITY FACE In September, Jo Malone London launched its first product for dogs. It is an Orange and Cedarwood shampoo, made with the British petcare brand WildWash and sold in a

285ml bottle. The campaign stars the actor Tom Hardy and his French bulldog, Blue. This is not an isolated publicity ‘stunt’. Louis Vuitton sells dog collars, bowls and carriers, and a kennel that costs more than many South African homes. Dolce & Gabbana has a dog perfume. The industry press calls this trend premiumisation, but, frankly, it’s all a bit confusing.

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D O G L U X U RY B R A N D S

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Of course, it is easy to roll your eyes at the huge costs of these items, but it is also easy to understand the desire to treat your dog. Anyone who has stood in a pet shop debating whether their dog deserves the better bed knows the feeling. The impulse is based on love for the animal, it’s just whether the ‘premium’ products we’re looking at here really serve the dog or their owners.

As we all know, love and good care are not always exactly the same thing, so in this article we ask three questions: • Why has this market grown so quickly? • What does the dog actually experience? • And where does the trend quietly cause harm?

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D O G L U X U RY B R A N D S

FROM PET TO DEPENDANT The money being spent by owners is very real. The American Pet Products Association puts US pet spending at $158 billion in 2025, up 3.7% on the year before. It projects $165 billion for 2026. Dog ownership rose from 51% of US households in 2024 to 53% in 2025.

being ‘what does the dog need?’ and becomes ‘what would I buy for someone I love?’ Those two questions have very different price ceilings. Luxury houses understood this long ago. Louis Vuitton's monogrammed dog carriers from the 1970s now trade on the vintage market.

The shift underneath those numbers is about status, though, not spending. In a 2024 Harris Poll survey of American adults, 82% of pet owners said they see their pets as their children. Owners reported spending an average of $4,366 a year on their animals. Younger owners spent far more than older ones.

The headline figures hide a split, though. The same APPA report found that 22% of American owners spent less on their pets in 2025, a 10% rise on 2024. It also noted a shift away from discretionary items towards essential care. This suggests that the top of the market is booming while many ordinary owners are cutting back, meaning luxury dog goods are a story about a small, wealthy slice of owners, not about dog owners in general.

Once a dog is a dependant, the buying question changes. It stops

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D O G L U X U RY B R A N D S

WHAT DOES THE DOG GET OUT OF IT? A dog does not know what a monogram is and most cannot tell a R1 million kennel from a cardboard box with a blanket in it, so the fair question is not whether luxury goods are over-the-top, it is whether they help, harm or simply don't matter to the animal. THE NOSE PROBLEM Scent is where the luxury market and the dog collide most directly. Fragrance houses are built on smell, but dogs live through their sense of it. They use scent to recognise people, other dogs and their surroundings.

When Dolce & Gabbana launched Fefé, a €99 dog perfume, in 2024, it was certified under an Italian pet-cosmetics safety protocol, but some vets still objected to using something that interfered with a dog’s own sense of smell and potentially caused irritation to them. Further to this, the Rome veterinarian Federico Coccía pointed out that vets often use smell when diagnosing health conditions in dogs. The odour of breath, ears or skin can be an early clue to disease, and perfume masks it.

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Vets quoted by the American Kennel Club make similar points. Heavily scented products can be harsh on skin, especially with frequent use. Dogs with existing skin conditions are at greater risk of irritation from these perfumes and a veterinary dermatologist also warned that

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spraying fragrance to cover a smell can make skin irritation worse. None of this means a scented shampoo will hurt a healthy dog, but it does mean the product is designed for the owner's nose, not the dog's.

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TREATED LIKE A BABY A 2021 review in the journal Animals, led by Daniel Mota-Rojas, looked at the welfare effects of anthropomorphism: treating animals as if they were human. The authors found that some of these practices benefit animals while others can be very harmful. Examples of harmful instances include overfeeding, which leads to obesity and joint problems, and clothing that interferes with a dog's ability to regulate its temperature. Carrying of dogs is another concern. Small, baby-faced breeds tend to bring out protective, parent-like behaviour in owners. Researchers have noted that habits such as carrying dogs in bags or arms, and keeping them away from other

dogs, can hold back their social and emotional development. A dog that is always carried is a dog that is not sniffing, exploring or learning to be a dog. It is worth being fair here though as the science is not completely settled. Reviews acknowledge there is no consensus on how anthropomorphism affects a dog's psychological wellbeing. Seeing dogs in human terms also has an upside: one study found that describing shelter dogs in human terms made people more willing to adopt them. Ultimately, the problem is not the affection that comes with treating dogs like babies, but rather when the affection becomes something the dog does not enjoy or benefit from.

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WHEN THE DOG BECOMES THE ACCESSORY The most serious harm in this story happens when the dog himself becomes part of the look. If we look again at the Jo Malone campaign, its canine star is a French Bulldog, one of the flatfaced breeds that vets have spent a decade warning about. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association has described the rise of these breeds as an emerging canine welfare crisis. A Royal Veterinary College study of nearly 2800 French bulldogs found they had a higher risk of 20 out of 43 common disorders compared with other dogs.

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These included obstructive airway syndrome, skin-fold dermatitis and difficulty giving birth. The link between certain dog breeds and fashion is well documented. In a 2017 British Veterinary Association survey, almost half of vets believed clients who chose flat-faced dogs were swayed by social media or celebrities. Only 10% of these owners could recognise their dog's breed-related health problems. Three-quarters had not known these problems existed before choosing the breed. The BVA has even asked brands to stop using flat-faced dogs in their advertising.

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High demand for certain breeds also attracts the wrong kind of supply. The Royal Kennel Club has noted that French Bulldog health problems were made worse by huge demand and disreputable breeders filling the gap. This is where the luxury story has a very dark side. Dogs bought on impulse, for their looks, from careless breeders, are often the dogs that end up with expensive health problems and owners who cannot cope.

However, there is some encouraging news. In the UK, French Bulldog registrations with the Royal Kennel Club fell from a peak of 54,074 in 2021 to 7750 in 2025. Pug registrations collapsed from over 10,000 in 2016 to 834 in 2025. This suggests that awareness campaigns are starting to work, so fashion really can move in both directions!

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THE SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION When Louis Vuitton unveiled its Kennel Trunk in late 2024, South African outlets did the conversion. At around €60,000, the dog house came to roughly R1.19 million at the time. The same collection included a dog collar at about R7700 and a monogrammed water bowl at about R35,700. Among the reactions EWN gathered was the obvious question: why would a dog need this when he is happy sleeping on your bed? Few South Africans will ever buy one of these items, but the forces behind the trends are very much at work here. Trade Intelligence's first South African Pet FMCG Landscape Report puts the local pet care market at R10.4 billion, growing 15.8% in 2025. The report linked that growth to the humanisation of pets, with premium nutrition and wellness products leading the way.

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Other estimates differ because they measure different things. One analysis values the market at about R8 billion and notes that it kept growing even as half of South African households cut discretionary spending in late 2025. Agrimark reports its pet food turnover rose 28% between 2021 and 2025, with premium ranges performing strongly. The local story looks less like Louis Vuitton and more like everyday premiumisation. Specialist food, supplements, condition-specific diets and grooming products are now on supermarket shelves rather than only in specialist shops, and Shoprite's Petshop Science says its aim is to bring premium food to supermarket prices. Like the American figures, this points to a market that is splitting: a top tier spending freely, and a much larger group trying to do right by their dogs on a tight budget.

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SPOILING WELL The irony is that the best-evidenced ways to make a dog happier cost nothing, and in many cases it involves the very sense the fragrance houses want to cover up. In a 2019 study, the dog cognition researchers Charlotte Duranton and Alexandra Horowitz gave pet dogs two weeks of either nosework, which means searching for scents, or heelwork, which means walking neatly on the lead. They then tested the dogs' outlook using a standard ‘optimism’ test. The nosework dogs approached an uncertain bowl faster than before, a sign of a more positive emotional state. The heelwork dogs did not change. The authors concluded that giving dogs more time to use their noses improves their welfare.

It was a small study of about 20 dogs, and scientists still debate exactly what these optimism tests measure, but it does fit with everything else we know about dogs. Dogs flourish when they get to behave like dogs. None of this makes it wrong to buy your dog something beautiful. A wellmade collar, a good bed or a quality food can be real acts of care. The point is to be honest about who the purchase is for, and then to enjoy it for that purpose. A designer carrier is not really for your dog, but a long, slow sniffy walk where your dog chooses the route is entirely for them.

FIVE WAYS TO SPOIL YOUR DOG THAT YOUR DOG WILL ACTUALLY NOTICE: • Let them sniff. Slow down on walks and let the nose lead. Alternatively, hide treats or a meal around the house or garden. • Skip the perfume. Use a gentle shampoo suited to dogs, and ask your vet before using scented products, as a new smell on your dog can be a health warning. • Keep them lean. Love expressed through extra treats can end in obesity and sore joints so keeping our dogs lean is a real act of kindness. • Let them walk. Carrying a small dog everywhere means less exploring and fewer chances to learn from other dogs. • Choose health over looks. If you are buying a puppy, research the breed's health record and the breeder before falling for a face.

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FINAL THOUGHTS The instinct behind the luxury dog market is a good one. People love their dogs and want to give them the

best. The challenge is to make sure the ‘best’ is measured by the dog, not by the label on the product.

References • Jo Malone London × WildWash launch, PR Newswire, 1 September 2026 • APPA: US pet industry reaches $158 billion in 2025 • Pet Age: APPA dog ownership figures • Harris Poll: The pet economy boom • 1stDibs: vintage Louis Vuitton Sac Chien, 1970s • EWN: Louis Vuitton R1 million dog kennel • AP via ClickOnDetroit: Dolce & Gabbana Fefé and vets' concerns • AKC: Are pet perfumes safe for dogs? • AKC: Why does my dog smell? • Mota-Rojas et al. (2021), Animals 11(11):3263, doi:10.3390/ani11113263 • Encyclopedia entry: effects of anthropomorphism on dog emotions • Butterfield et al. (2012): Anthropomorphism promotes animal welfare • Vet Times: WSAVA warns of brachycephalic welfare crisis • RVC French bulldog study, via Guernsey Press • BVA: #Puglife aspirations survey • Kennel Club: French bulldog breed standard amended • PDSA: decline in flat-faced dog registrations, June 2026 • EWN: SA pet care market grows to R10.4 billion • Business Report: Pet care's evolution to R8bn essential • Bizcommunity: Agrimark pet food sales • Global Pet Industry: Petshop Science • Duranton and Horowitz (2019), Applied Animal Behaviour Science, doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2019.05.004

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DOG RESEARCH

BIG DOGS SHOW SIGNS OF FASTER

BIOLOGICAL AGEING 18

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DOG RESEARCH

NEW RESEARCH LINKS SHORTER LIFESPANS WITH FASTER MOLECULAR AGEING

wners of large breeds have long known that their dogs tend to have shorter lives. Now, a study published in Science has found evidence that larger dogs also undergo faster agerelated changes in DNA methylation, chemical markers that help regulate gene activity. Analysing 1640 methylation profiles from 894 companion dogs, researchers found that larger dogs and males showed accelerated

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molecular ageing. The findings provide a biological clue to differences in lifespan, but do not yet establish why those differences arise or predict how long an individual dog will live. Across the animal kingdom, bigger species usually live longer: an elephant outlives a mouse many times over. Within dogs, the pattern runs the other way. A small terrier can live well into his teens, while many giant breeds are considered old at seven or eight.

DOG RESEARCH

HOW BIG IS THE GAP? The clearest picture comes from a 2024 UK study led by the charity Dogs Trust, which analysed records for 584,734 UK dogs, including 155 recognised breeds and a crossbred group. The median life expectancy across all dogs was 12.5 years. • Small, long-nosed breeds lived longest, with a median of 13.3 years. • Medium-sized, flat-faced males, such as English Bulldogs, had the shortest lives, at 9.1 years. • Large purebred dogs had a shorter estimated median lifespan than small purebred dogs: 11.9 years

compared with 12.7 years. • Females lived slightly longer than males (12.7 against 12.4 years). At breed level, Lancashire Heelers (15.4 years), Tibetan Spaniels (15.2 years) and Shiba Inus (14.6 years) had the highest estimated median lifespans. Miniature Dachshunds were also among the longer-lived breeds, at 14.0 years. The Caucasian Shepherd (5.4 years), Presa Canario (7.7 years) and Cane Corso (8.1 years) had the shortest median lifespans. The data came from UK dogs and did not record causes of death.

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DOG RESEARCH

DO BIG DOGS AGE FASTER, OR JUST DIE SOONER? That question is what researchers at Arizona State University set out to answer. Working with the Dog Aging Project, a long-term study of more than 50,000 companion dogs in the United States, they analysed blood from 894 dogs. About half were purebred and half mixed breed, with repeat annual samples available for some dogs over a period of up to four years.

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The team measured DNA methylation: chemical tags on DNA that help switch genes on and off and that shift in predictable ways with age. From these, they built an ‘epigenetic clock’. An ‘epigenetic clock’ uses age-related methylation patterns to estimate molecular age. Differences between this estimate and a dog’s calendar age can provide information about biological ageing. The ‘clock’ in this study predicted actual age to within about a year on average.

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WHAT THEY FOUND At the same calendar age, larger dogs and male dogs had the molecular profile of older animals. In other words, the two groups already known to live shorter lives were ageing faster. The clock also predicted survival. Each additional year by which a dog’s molecular age exceeded its calendar age was associated with roughly a 15% higher relative risk of death within the following two years, after accounting for size and sex. Two other findings stood out: • The molecular changes measured by the researchers occurred fastest early in life and slowed as dogs grew older, suggesting ageing changes happened fastest early in life and slowed as dogs got older. • ‘Jumping genes’ may play a part. Some stretches of DNA can copy themselves around the genome, and the body keeps them suppressed with chemical tags. In large dogs, those tags fell away about 31% faster with age.

In males, the additional agerelated methylation changes were concentrated on the X chromosome, a different pattern from the size effect.

FOR THE GEEKS LIKE US WHO HADN’T HEARD OF ‘JUMPING GENES’ AND WANT TO KNOW MORE… Jumping genes. Much of a dog’s DNA isn’t genes in the usual sense. Some of it is repeated stretches called transposable elements, nicknamed ‘jumping genes’. Transposable elements are stretches of DNA that can move, or generate copies that insert elsewhere in the genome. Some work through a ‘copyand-paste’ process where they copy themselves and paste the copy elsewhere in the DNA. If they could do this freely at any time, they could disrupt other genes and cause issues, so the body keeps them switched off. Methylation tags. One way the body suppresses their activity is by attaching small chemical tags (methyl groups) to the DNA. As animals age, some of these tags fall off. The significance here: In large dogs, the signs fell off the jumping-gene regions about 31% faster with age than in small dogs. The researchers suspect this could be one reason big dogs age faster, but they only measured the tags. They did not show the jumping genes actually became more active or caused harm, and they call the idea speculative for now.

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DOG RESEARCH

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DOG RESEARCH

WHAT IT DOES NOT SHOW The researchers stress that these are patterns across many dogs, not a forecast for any individual dog. The researchers also followed the dogs for at most four years, and the study measured chemical tags, not what the jumping genes were actually doing, so it remains untested whether

they become more active or cause harm. It is also worth noting that one of the senior authors is named as an inventor on a pending patent for the canine clock. Finally, these are estimates from a US population, not fixed lifespans for individual dogs or necessarily the same estimates that would be obtained in South Africa.

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DOG RESEARCH

WHY IT MATTERS The work gives owners of large breeds a biological explanation for a familiar heartbreak. For researchers, it offers a way to measure how fast a dog is ageing, rather than waiting to see how long he lives. Noah SnyderMackler, the study's senior author, told Earth.com that the team's next step is to use the project's detailed

records to ask which life experiences speed up or slow down molecular ageing, even among dogs of the same size and age. The clock could also prove useful in practice, because it reads age from blood so it might one day help vets estimate the age of dogs with no recorded birth date.

References • Mariner, B.L., McCoy, B.M., Snyder-Mackler, N. et al. (2026). Epigenetic aging and transposon dysregulation reflect size-related lifespan compression in dogs. Science 394, eaeb2986. DOI: 10.1126/science.aeb2986 • McMillan, K.M., Bielby, J., Williams, C.L., Upjohn, M.M., Casey, R.A. & Christley, R.M. (2024). Longevity of companion dog breeds: those at risk from early death. Scientific Reports 14, 531. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-50458-w • Dog Aging Project (2026). Scientific results: epigenetic aging and transposon dysregulation. Project summary, 23 October 2026. • Earth.com (2026). Large dogs age faster, and scientists have found a clue in their DNA. 25 October 2026. Source of the interview material.• Dogs Trust (2024). New study confirms flat-faced dogs have 40% increased risk of shorter lifespan. Press release, 1 February 2024.• Liverpool John Moores University (2024). Which dogs live longest? Breed-level figures.• Dog Aging Project (2025). Dog Aging Project enrolls 50,000 dogs. Enrolment figure.

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D O G H E A LT H

getting fatter? ARE OUR DOGS REALLY

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE HEADLINES

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D O G H E A LT H

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D O G H E A LT H

ew statistics in companion animal health travel as far, or as fast, as those on canine obesity. Every year a fresh figure arrives, usually from the United States, and the message rarely changes: more dogs are overweight than ever before, and the problem is getting worse. It has almost become accepted wisdom, which is why it deserves a second look, and when we go back to the studies behind the headlines, the picture is more complicated, and in some ways more useful, than the soundbites suggest. THE CLAIM Two sources dominate the conversation. Banfield Pet Hospital,

one of the largest veterinary chains in the United States, reported that the proportion of dogs diagnosed as overweight or obese at its practices rose from 16% in 2011 to 34% in 2020, an increase of 108% (Banfield, 2021). The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), a US non-profit, reported that veterinary professionals classified 59% of the dogs they evaluated in 2022 as overweight or obese (APOP, 2022). Taken together, they appear to support the headlines, but if you look at them more closely, they don’t really agree with each other or with studies done elsewhere.

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WHY THE NUMBERS DISAGREE The first problem is what is being counted. Banfield’s trend reflects diagnoses recorded in clinical notes. APOP’s figure comes from vets actively scoring the dogs in front of them. These are not quite the same thing. The UK shows how wide that gap can be. When the Royal Veterinary College’s VetCompass programme examined the records of 22,333 dogs under primary veterinary care, just 7.1% had been recorded as overweight during 2016

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(Pegram et al., 2021). The authors were candid that this was likely to be an underestimate, because not every overweight dog is noted as such. When vets at 47 practices across Great Britain scored every dog at each consultation, the national figure came out at around 25% (Courcier, 2013), and an earlier study at five Glasgow practices put it at 59% (Courcier et al., 2010). On Gran Canaria, researchers who examined 93 dogs found 40.9% were obese, not merely overweight (Montoya-Alonso et al., 2017).

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None of this means the researchers got it wrong. It just means that the scoring method, the sample and the definition of ‘overweight’ all move the number, and that figures from different studies cannot simply be lined up and compared against each other.

It also means a rising diagnosis count could reflect two things at once: more overweight dogs, and vets who are more willing to record it. Obesity has received far more professional attention over the past decade, and a climbing diagnosis rate is partly what success in that campaign would look like. Sadly, clinical records alone cannot separate the two.

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IS IT ACTUALLY RISING? Where the same organisation has used broadly similar methods over time, the trend looks real but modest. APOP’s 2022 figure of 59% was only about three percentage points higher than its 2017 and 2018 results. What shifted more noticeably was the balance within that group, with a larger share of dogs classed as obese rather than overweight (APOP, 2022). APOP’s surveys also rely on clinics that choose to take part rather than a random sample, so they may not represent the wider dog population. The largest recent study adds a further twist. Montoya and colleagues analysed the records of around 4.9 million dogs seen at Banfield practices between 2020 and 2023 (Montoya et al., 2025). Overweight and obesity increased in most life stages from 2020 to 2022, then fell significantly in some life stages in 2023. The pandemic, with its

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WHO FUNDS THE NUMBERS? Much of the large-scale data on canine obesity comes from the pet food industry. Banfield is part of Mars, which also owns Royal Canin and the Waltham Petcare Science Institute. The landmark caloric restriction study was funded and run by Nestlé Purina. None of this makes the findings wrong, and industry data sets are often the only ones large enough to answer these questions at all, but companies that sell weightmanagement diets have a stake in how the problem is framed, and readers deserve to know where the numbers come from.

disrupted routines, is one plausible explanation for the bump, although the study did not test this. Either way, the trend is not the relentless upward line the headlines imply.

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WHATEVER THE TREND, THE LEVEL IS HIGH Having said all of this, scepticism about the trend should not become complacency about the problem. Even the more cautious figures suggest that a large share of adult dogs carry more weight than is good for them. In the Banfield data, half of mature dogs were overweight, and a further 12.6% were obese (Montoya et al., 2025).

And the extra weight really does matter. In a study of more than 50,000 neutered, middle-aged dogs across 12 breeds, those recorded as overweight had shorter median lifespans in every breed (Salt et al., 2019). The gap ranged from about five months in male German Shepherd Dogs to two and a half years in male Yorkshire Terriers. This was a study of association, drawn from clinical records, and it cannot prove that extra weight alone shortened those lives, but the direction of the finding was the same in all 12 breeds.

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D O G H E A LT H

LEAN, NOT STARVED The research most often cited on caloric restriction as a wellness tool is the Purina lifespan study, which followed 48 Labrador Retrievers from puppyhood (Kealy et al., 2002). Littermates were paired, and one dog in each pair was fed 25% less than the other. The restricted dogs lived to a median of 13.0 years, compared with 11.2 years, and developed chronic disease later (Lawler et al., 2008). It is a genuinely important study, but it is often presented as proof that cutting a dog’s calories will

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extend his life. That is not quite what the study showed in reality. For the first three years, the control dogs ate as much as they wanted at each daily feeding and ended up with more body fat than their restricted littermates (Kealy et al., 2002). The comparison was then really between lean dogs and heavier dogs, not between wellfed dogs and underfed ones. The message is to keep dogs lean, not to feed them below what they need. With only 48 dogs of a single, obesity-prone breed, the study also cannot tell us how other breeds would respond.

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THE REAL PROBLEM: WE CANNOT SEE IT If one finding holds up across countries and methods, it is this: owners consistently underestimate their dogs’ weight. In APOP’s 2023 opinion survey, only 17% of dog owners said their dog was overweight. In its 2025 survey, 37% described their dog as above ideal weight, still well below the rate vets report (APOP, 2023; APOP, 2025). Both were small opinion surveys (527 owners in 2023, 174 in 2025) that asked slightly different questions, so the change between them should not be read as a firm trend. However, in Britain, owners of overweight dogs were more likely to describe them as an ideal shape (Courcier, 2013), and earlier US

work found owners of Labradors and Golden Retrievers especially likely to see an overweight dog as normal (APOP, 2010). Part of the difficulty is that our sense of a ‘normal’ dog is shaped by the dogs around us. If many Labradors are overweight, an overweight Labrador simply looks like a Labrador. Breed matters in its own right too. UK data found Pugs, Beagles and Golden Retrievers at between two and a half and three times the odds of being overweight compared with crossbreeds (Pegram et al., 2021), and Cambridge researchers have linked genetics to a stronger appetite in some breeds. For owners of foodobsessed dogs, managing weight is harder, but it can be done.

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D O G H E A LT H

WHAT ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA? We looked for published data on how many South African dogs are overweight, and found none. The closest is anecdotal: in 2013, local vets were quoted as saying that around half the pets they saw were

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overweight (Davids, 2013). We cannot simply borrow American figures. Feeding habits, popular breeds, climate, exercise patterns and access to veterinary care all differ here, and the gap in local data is itself worth noting.

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BODY CONDITION SCORING AT HOME An owner can carry out three quick checks, using hands as well as eyes, particularly with long- or thickcoated breeds: • Ribs. Running flat hands along the chest, the ribs should be easy to feel under a thin layer of fat, without pressing. • Waist. Looking down from above, there should be a visible narrowing behind the ribs. • Tuck. From the side, the belly should rise from the chest towards the hind legs. If the ribs are hard to find or the waist has disappeared, a vet can score the dog properly and help set a realistic target, which matters because safe weight loss is gradual and depends on the individual dog. Weighing a dog regularly and noting his score at each vet visit makes changes far easier to spot early.

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D O G H E A LT H

THE BOTTOM LINE Is canine obesity rising? Possibly, modestly, and not in a straight line. The evidence for a dramatic, eversteepening epidemic is weaker than the headlines suggest. What the evidence supports far more firmly is that a large proportion of dogs are

heavier than they should be, that this is linked to shorter lives, and that most owners cannot tell when their dog is overweight. The more useful question is not whether a global number has gone up, but whether the dog at our feet is lean.

Sources • APOP (2010). National Pet Obesity Awareness Day Study 2009. Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. • APOP (2022). State of Pet Obesity, United States, 2022 edition. Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. petobesityprevention.org • APOP (2023). 2023 Pet Weight and Nutrition Opinion Survey. Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. • APOP (2025). 2025 Pet Weight and Nutrition Opinion Survey. Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. • Banfield (2021). New data reveals pet obesity epidemic existed long before quarantine. Banfield Pet Hospital press release, 21 June 2021. • Courcier, E. (2013). Investigating the epidemiology of companion animal overweight/obesity in Great Britain. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow. • Courcier, E.A., Thomson, R.M., Mellor, D.J. and Yam, P.S. (2010). An epidemiological study of environmental factors associated with canine obesity. Journal of Small Animal Practice, 51(7), 362–367. • Davids, N. (2013). It’s do or diet for SA pets. TimesLIVE, 5 September 2013. • Kealy, R.D. et al. (2002). Effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 220, 1315–1320. • Lawler, D.F. et al. (2008). Diet restriction and ageing in the dog: major observations over two decades. British Journal of Nutrition, 99(4), 793–805. doi:10.1017/S0007114507871686 • Montoya, M. et al. (2025). Overweight and obese body condition in ~4.9 million dogs and ~1.3 million cats seen at primary practices across the USA: prevalences by life stage from early growth to senior. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 235, 106398. doi:10.1016/j.prevetmed.2024.106398 • Montoya-Alonso, J.A. et al. (2017). Prevalence of canine obesity, obesity-related metabolic dysfunction, and relationship with owner obesity in an obesogenic region of Spain. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 4, 59. doi:10.3389/fvets.2017.00059 • Pegram, C. et al. (2021). Frequency, breed predisposition and demographic risk factors for overweight status in dogs in the UK. Journal of Small Animal Practice, 62(7), 521–530. doi:10.1111/jsap.13325 • Salt, C. et al. (2019). Association between life span and body condition in neutered client-owned dogs. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 33(1), 89–99. doi:10.1111/jvim.15367

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BORN BY CAESAREAN WHAT EVERY DOG OWNER SHOULD KNOW Some canine caesareans are emergencies, but for a handful of breeds, they are booked weeks in advance. This article addresses what the research says about when and why they happen, what they mean for mothers and puppies, and why the question matters in South Africa. meaningful minority of others, puppies arrive through the abdominal wall rather than the birth canal.

ost of us picture whelping as something a bitch largely manages on her own, with an anxious owner hovering nearby holding a pile of towels. For most dogs, that picture is broadly right. Difficult birth, which vets call dystocia, affects roughly 5% of canine pregnancies overall. In some breeds, though, the figure approaches 100% (Scully, Merck Veterinary Manual, 2026). For those dogs, and for a

Caesarean sections in dogs get very little public attention, yet they raise questions that every dog lover should be able to answer, including those of us who would never buy a puppy. When are caesareans planned and when are they emergencies? Which dogs need them? What do they mean for the puppies, and for the mother the next time she is pregnant? And how many caesareans are too many for one bitch?

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PLANNED OR EMERGENCY? Both. The emergency caesarean is the familiar scenario: labour starts, then stalls. The most common cause of dystocia in dogs is uterine inertia, in which the uterus fails to contract strongly enough to deliver the puppies (Scully, 2026). Other causes include a puppy lying in the wrong position, a puppy too large for the mother's pelvis, and a narrowed birth canal, for example after an old pelvic fracture. The most urgent signal is a falling foetal heart rate. Healthy puppies in the uterus have heart rates of around 200 to 250 beats per minute (Scully,

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2026), and a rate below 150 is treated as an emergency calling for surgery as soon as possible (Traas, 2008). This is one reason a vet will often want to scan a bitch in difficult labour before deciding what to do. It is worth noting that not every dystocia ends in surgery. Where nothing is physically blocking the way, drugs such as oxytocin and calcium can sometimes restart contractions. In a study of 701 dystocia cases seen at 50 UK emergency clinics, just under half (48.6%) ended in a caesarean (O'Neill et al., 2019); other estimates put the figure at more like 60 to 80% (Traas, 2008).

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Elective, or planned, caesareans are a different matter. Vets distinguish between a ‘parturient’ caesarean, performed once labour has begun but before any sign of distress, and a ‘preparturient’ caesarean, performed at term while the cervix is still closed (Schrank et al., 2022). Timing is everything in whelping. Puppies cannot be born early and survive:

the substance that keeps their lungs inflated, surfactant, is produced in large amounts only from around day 57 to 60 of pregnancy (Scully, 2026). Vets therefore combine ovulation timing from the bitch's season, the sharp fall in blood progesterone that precedes whelping, and examination of the cervix to choose the moment to intervene.

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WHEN TO CALL THE VET DURING WHELPING These are veterinary rules of thumb, not hard limits (Scully, 2026). If in doubt, phone sooner rather than later. • No puppy within 24 to 36 hours of the bitch's temperature dropping. • Strong, visible straining for more than 30 minutes without a puppy. • More than two hours between puppies with no sign of contractions. • Active or weak labour for more than four hours with no puppy born. • Whelping lasting more than 24 hours in total. • Dark green or foul-smelling discharge before the first puppy, or heavy bleeding at any stage. • Pregnancy lasting more than 70 days from a known mating. • The bitch seems unwell, weak or distressed.

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WHICH DOGS NEED THEM MOST? The most widely cited figures come from a UK Kennel Club health survey of more than 22,000 litters. In three breeds, more than four in five litters were born by caesarean: the Boston Terrier (92.3%), the Bulldog (86.1%) and the French Bulldog (81.3%). Five of the ten breeds with the highest rates were brachycephalic, or flat-faced (Evans and Adams, 2010). The usual explanation is a mismatch between the broad heads of the puppies and the size of the mother's pelvis. A separate analysis of UK veterinary records found that French Bulldogs had nearly 16 times the odds of dystocia of crossbred bitches (O'Neill et al., 2017). Flat faces are not the whole story, however. The Mastiff (64.6%) and the Scottish Terrier (59.8%) also had very high rates in the UK survey (Evans and Adams, 2010), and a 2022 study of breeders found the Norwich Terrier at 51.6%, compared with just 4.8%

for the Gordon Setter (Schrank et al., 2022). Two figures from the UK survey may interest DQ readers: Dachshunds came in at 31.2%, Rhodesian Ridgebacks at 6.4%. These numbers deserve some caution, as the UK survey drew on breed club members recalling litters over the previous ten years, only about a quarter of those approached responded, and the data date from 2004. They are the best broad figures available that we could find, but they are indications rather than precise rates. We could not find any equivalent breed-by-breed data for South Africa. Breed is also not the only risk factor that should be considered. Caesareans are more common with very small litters of one or two puppies, and with very large ones (Schrank et al., 2022). Age at first litter also matters: in the same study, the caesarean rate in first-time mothers rose from 12.2% in bitches under two years old to 50% in those aged six to eight.

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WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE PUPPIES The clearest finding in the research concerns timing. In the 2022 breeder study, 20.5% of puppies delivered by emergency caesarean were stillborn, compared with 4.3% of those delivered by planned caesarean. Delay made things worse: when the emergency surgery happened after the first puppy had already been born, stillbirths rose to 26.8%, against 18.2% when the vet intervened before the first puppy arrived (Schrank et al., 2022). Prolonged dystocia lasting more than about four and a half to six hours has long been associated with more puppies dead at birth (Traas, 2008).

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Dystocia itself is dangerous for both generations. Among the 701 UK emergency cases, a quarter of the puppies and 1.7% of the mothers died (O'Neill et al., 2019). Caesarean puppies also begin life having received some of their mother's anaesthetic. Vets choose drug combinations that can be reversed in the newborns and work to keep the time between anaesthetising the mother and delivering the last puppy as short as possible. Each puppy is then dried, has its airways cleared and is kept warm while it wakes up (Traas, 2008). The mother may be groggy and clumsy for some hours afterwards, which can delay her caring for the litter, so good pain relief and close supervision matter.

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What about longer-term effects? In people, there is a large literature on how birth by caesarean shapes a baby's early gut bacteria. In dogs, the evidence is thin and mixed. One Slovenian study found that the bacteria in a mother's first milk differed after an emergency caesarean, and that puppies born without detectable bacteria in their first faeces gained weight more

slowly (Kajdič et al., 2021). A 2025 study, by contrast, found that delivery method was not the main driver of differences in puppies' gut bacteria, and that wiping caesarean-born puppies with vaginal fluid did not change them (Animals, 2025). Whether being born by caesarean affects a dog's health over his lifetime has, as far as we can establish, not been studied.

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SPAYING AT THE SAME TIME For an owner who never wants another litter, the obvious question is whether the vet can spay the bitch during the caesarean. The answer is often yes, but it is not without risks. Removing the pregnant uterus adds to blood loss and to the drop in circulating fluid volume during surgery, so the vet will consider whether the mother is stable enough for a slightly longer operation. Reassuringly, spaying does not stop milk production: lactation is driven by hormones from the pituitary gland, not the ovaries, provided the mother's pain and fluid intake are well managed afterwards (Traas, 2008). One technique, called en bloc surgery, removes the whole uterus with

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the puppies still inside and hands it to assistants who then free them. The evidence for it is limited to a single 1994 study with no comparison group, in which 75% of puppies survived, and it is generally reserved for situations such as an infected uterus, a critically ill mother or a litter already known to have died (Traas, 2008). A small 2025 study of seven bitches in each group suggested more pain at 18 and 24 hours when a spay was added to a caesarean, though it found no other significant extra risk to mother or puppies (Frelih and Jerala, 2025, a small student survey). The best approach is to discuss the decision with the vet in advance when a caesarean is planned, and leave it to the vet's judgement in an emergency.

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This question is not only one for breeders. Accidental matings still happen, and rescues regularly take in pregnant dogs. A Polish study of 914 dystocia cases over 39 years found that conservative treatment failed, and a caesarean was needed, in 88.2% of bitches with unplanned pregnancies. Almost

half (46.6%) of their puppies were dead, compared with 26.4% in planned pregnancies, and 18.4% of the affected bitches were under a year old. The authors credited the marked fall in such cases over the study period to wider sterilisation and greater public awareness of its importance (Dejneka et al., 2020).

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT TIME? A caesarean does not appear to harm a bitch's fertility. In a German study of 261 breeding bitches, 93% fell pregnant at the next attempt after an emergency caesarean, against 91% after a natural birth, and litter sizes were similar (Conze et al., 2022). What a caesarean does predict is another caesarean. In the same study, only 53% of bitches gave birth naturally after a caesarean, compared with 86% after a natural birth. The breeder study found that a previous caesarean raised the risk of another roughly four-fold (Schrank et al., 2022). The reason is mostly not the surgery itself. As one review puts it, in most bitches needing a second caesarean, the cause is the underlying condition, such as uterine inertia, rather than the earlier operation (Traas, 2008). One caesarean does not automatically mean every future litter

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will need one (Scully, 2026), but the problem that caused it often comes back. Owners sometimes ask about uterine rupture, a recognised risk in women who have had a caesarean. In dogs, we could find almost no evidence either way: a single case report of a fatal rupture after caesarean, published in 1977, and one owner-reported rupture in the German study (Traas, 2008; Conze et al., 2022). One specialist reported that in bitches needing repeat surgery, the old uterine incisions were usually no longer visible, even when the bitch had been bred at her next season (Traas, 2008). The human figures do not transfer, because dogs are operated on differently and their placentas are structured differently. The honest answer is that the risk appears to be low, but that it has not been properly measured.

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THE SOUTH AFRICAN PICTURE Several countries now limit how many caesareans a bitch may have. Since 2012, The Royal Kennel Club has refused to register further litters from a dam who has already had two litters by caesarean (The Kennel Club). The Irish Kennel Club adopted the same limit in 2018. Scotland goes further for licensed breeders: no mating after a single caesarean if the surgery was needed because of the conformation of the bitch or her puppies (Scottish Statutory Instrument 2021/84). Denmark's 2025 rules, which apply to every breeder, bar a bitch from further breeding after two caesareans.

In South Africa, KUSA's registration regulations set limits on breeding from very young and older dams, on litters in close succession and on a sixth litter from the same dam (KUSA Schedule 02, effective 1 November 2026). A bitch's caesarean history is not currently one of those criteria. At least one South African breed club addresses it in its own code of ethics. Any such rule would also depend on reliable reporting: in the UK, more than 95% of caesarean reports to the Kennel Club still come from owners rather than vets (Llewellyn, BVA).

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South Africa is also home to some of the most detailed research anywhere on planned caesareans. Dr Kurt de Cramer of Rant en Dal Animal Hospital in Mogale City and his colleagues have published a series of studies on timing preparturient caesareans precisely. In the most recent study, which covered 385 planned caesareans and more than 2800 puppies, 99.5% of live puppies delivered before labour began had normal vitality scores, and every mother survived to discharge (De

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BUYING A PUPPY? QUESTIONS WORTH ASKING A responsible breeder should be comfortable answering all of these. • Was this litter born naturally or by caesarean? If by caesarean, was it planned or an emergency, and why? • How many litters has the mother had, and how many of them were caesareans? • How old was she when she had her first litter? • How did the mother's own mother and sisters fare when whelping? • For breeds where caesareans are routine, what is the breeder doing to select for dogs that can whelp naturally?

Cramer and Joonè, 2025). Boerboels accounted for 222 of those 385 operations. In an earlier paper, Dr de Cramer noted, as a clinical observation not yet reported in the literature, that Boerboel bitches left to whelp naturally often develop uterine inertia (De Cramer and Nöthling, 2019).

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This work makes caesareans safer for mothers and puppies whose owners have already decided against a natural birth. It also highlights a question the veterinary world is starting to ask openly. A Danish team analysing 35,121 pedigree litters warned that if planned caesareans allow the continued breeding of bitches who cannot give birth naturally, dystocia is likely to become more common, and suggested that limits on caesareans, combined with breeding guidelines that take breed and reproductive history into account, may help reverse the trend (Secher et al., 2026). Good surgery

solves the problem on the day, but only breeding decisions can solve it for the next generation. For those of us who adopt, this still matters. Understanding why some breeds so rarely give birth unaided helps us ask better questions, support better breeding standards and recognise that a dog's shape can shape his whole life, starting from the day he is born. Any owner with an intact bitch, and any rescue caring for a pregnant one, should talk to their vet well before the due date about what to watch for and when to call.

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Sources • Conze T, Büttner K, Wehrend A (2022). Parameters in canines after cesarean sections. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9:886691. doi:10.3389/ fvets.2022.886691 • De Cramer KGM, Joonè CJ (2025). Validation of a point-of-care serum progesterone cut-off for caesarean section timing in the bitch and its effect on neonatal outcomes. Theriogenology 248:117630. doi:10.1016/j.theriogenology.2025.117630 • De Cramer KGM, Nöthling JO (2019). Curtailing parturition observation and performing preparturient cesarean section in bitches. Theriogenology 124:57–64. doi:10.1016/j.theriogenology.2018.10.010 • Dejneka GJ, Ochota M, Bielas W, Niżański W (2020). Dystocia after unwanted mating as one of the risk factors in non-spayed bitches: a retrospective study. Animals 10(9):1697. doi:10.3390/ani10091697 • Evans KM, Adams VJ (2010). Proportion of litters of purebred dogs born by caesarean section. Journal of Small Animal Practice 51:113–118. doi:10.1111/j.1748-5827.2009.00902.x • Frelih E, Jerala M (2025). Comparison of the influence of surgical extent on the performance of caesarean section in bitches. Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana (student research thesis). • Kajdič L, Plavec T, Zdovc I, Kalin A, Zakošek Pipan M (2021). Impact of type of parturition on colostrum microbiota composition and puppy survival. Animals 11(7):1897. doi:10.3390/ani11071897 KUSA (2026). Schedule 02: Regulations for the classification, registration and transfer of the registered ownership of dogs, effective 1 November 2026. Llewellyn A. Reporting caesarean sections is key to protecting pedigree dog health and welfare. British Veterinary Association. • O'Neill DG et al. (2017). Canine dystocia in 50 UK first-opinion emergency-care veterinary practices: prevalence and risk factors. Veterinary Record 181:88. doi:10.1136/vr.104108 O'Neill DG et al. (2019). Canine dystocia in 50 UK first-opinion emergency-care veterinary practices: clinical management and outcomes. Veterinary Record 184:409. doi:10.1136/vr.104944 • Schrank M, Contiero B, Mollo A (2022). Incidence and concomitant factors of cesarean sections in the bitch: a questionnaire study. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9:934273. doi:10.3389/fvets.2022.934273 • Scully CM (2026). Dystocia in small animals. Merck Veterinary Manual (reviewed July 2023, updated July 2026). • Secher JBM, Nielsen SS, Pedersen ST, Kristiansen EF, Sandøe P, Proschowsky HF (2026). Increased use of caesarean sections in pedigree dogs: a study based on data from the Danish Kennel Club 2013–2022. Theriogenology 249:117663. Traas AM (2008). Surgical management of canine and feline dystocia. Theriogenology 70:337–342. doi:10.1016/j.theriogenology.2008.04.014 • The Kennel Club (UK). Litter registration rules (Form 1) and welfare standard; Irish Kennel Club Rule 233 (2018); The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Scotland) Regulations 2021, Schedule 6; Danish notification 2025/0101/DK to the European Commission.

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Puppy brain development A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS SKILLS ARE ACQUIRED STEPWISE

uppies do not simply get cleverer all at once. A study involving 113 future assistance dogs, including 91 tested every two weeks, found that different cognitive skills emerged at different ages and developed at different rates.

Anyone who has raised a puppy knows the moment he suddenly ‘gets’ something. Researchers at Duke University wanted to know whether those moments follow a pattern. Their answer, published in Animal Behaviour, is that a puppy's mind develops piece by piece.

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THE STUDY The team worked with 113 Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers and crosses, all bred to become assistance dogs. Most came from the US charity Canine Companions. Ninety-one puppies were tested every two weeks from about eight to 20 weeks old, spanning a period of rapid brain development and the weeks immediately afterwards. Another 22 were tested only once, at a similar age, so the researchers could see whether practice alone was making the difference. The puppies were also raised in two very different ways. Most lived with a single volunteer family.

The rest were raised at a campus ‘puppy kindergarten’, cared for by rotating student volunteers and meeting hundreds of new people. Each session was a set of foodfinding games. Puppies had to follow a marker next to a bowl, remember where food was hidden after 20 seconds, find food by sound or smell, walk around a clear tube without bumping into it, and figure out that a raised cloth probably hides something. A further test measured how much eye contact a puppy made with a person when the food was sealed away, and the problem could not be solved.

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WHEN SKILLS APPEARED AGE

SKILLS FIRST DETECTED AT GROUP LEVEL IN THESE TESTS

8 to 9 weeks

Follow a marker, remember a hiding place, tell where food was by sound or smell

10 to 11 weeks

Show self-control (going around the clear tube), look to a person for help

12 to 13 weeks

Reason about a hidden object (the raised cloth)

14 to 15 weeks

Switch to a new solution when the old one was blocked

Not demonstrated during the study

Choosing the indicated location above chance after a brief pointing gesture had been withdrawn.

The pace differed too. Self-control, following a marker and eye contact improved rapidly and levelled off before 16 weeks. Memory and reasoning kept creeping up and were still improving at the end of the study. Performance on the

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sound- and smell-based food-finding tasks actually declined across testing. However, this does not imply worsening hearing or smell; rather, changes in strategy or responses to repeated testing may have contributed.

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THE TWO REARING APPROACHES PRODUCED SIMILAR COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT The two rearing styles produced almost identical results. Most tested skills developed similarly in home-raised and campus-raised puppies, despite large differences in their exposure to people and other puppies. Both groups received structured, positive socialisation, so this was not a comparison

between socialised and unsocialised puppies. Practice did matter for some skills. Puppies tested every fortnight made far more eye contact than those tested once, about 5.3 seconds compared with 3.1 seconds. They also did better at self-control and at switching strategy. Yet the oncetested puppies were better at the memory and sound tasks, so repetition is not a simple shortcut.

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WHAT IT MEANS FOR PUPPY OWNERS The findings suggest that expectations for tasks requiring inhibitory control should take a puppy’s age into account. However, the study did not establish an optimal age to begin training or show that puppies below a particular age cannot learn. The authors suggest that training which demands self-control is likely to go better after about 12 weeks, and after about 14 weeks for reversal training,

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where a puppy switches away from a previously successful response. Memory-based skills may improve only gradually. At the final assessment, repeatedly tested puppies made longer eye contact with the experimenter during an unsolvable food task, about 5.3 seconds compared with 3.1 seconds in puppies tested once. Whether this experience improves everyday attention or bonding was not tested.

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In practice, this points to a couple of sensible expectations: • Do not expect reliable impulse control from a nine-week-old. The ability is still arriving. • Different skills mature on different timetables, so a puppy can be quick at one thing and slow at another.

One caution: this study measured problem-solving, not temperament or behaviour. It does not suggest socialisation is unimportant. Earlier research has linked how puppies are raised to their adult behaviour and bonding, and the authors note both rearing styles may have their own benefits.

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THE LIMITS All the puppies were retrievers from assistance-dog lines, which are known to differ from pet dogs, for example in being unusually friendly towards strangers. The patterns may

not hold for other breeds or for pet puppies. Follow-up work is examining whether early cognitive performance predicts later success as an assistance dog.

Sources • Salomons, H., Ferrans, M., Cusato, C., Moore, K., Woods, V., Bray, E., Kennedy, B., Block, T., Douglas, L., Roberts, A., Gruen, M. & Hare, B. (2026). Longitudinal evidence for the emergence of multiple intelligences in assistance dog puppies. Animal Behaviour 232, 123410. DOI: 10.1016/j. anbehav.2025.123410 • Preprint used for figures: Salomons, H. et al. (2024). Longitudinal evidence for the emergence of multiple intelligences in assistance dog puppies. bioRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.26.615218 • Background: Bray, E.E. et al. (2020). Cognitive characteristics of 8- to 10-week-old assistance dog puppies. Animal Behaviour 166, 193 to 206. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.05.019

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THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM WHAT SCIENCE ACTUALLY KNOWS ABOUT WHY DOGS SHED

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very owner knows the drifts of hair under the sofa, but far fewer of us know how thin the research behind popular explanations for shedding is, or that most of it was done on dogs living in climates and situations very different from our own. Ask almost any grooming website why dogs shed, and the answer given is something along the lines of ‘lengthening days in spring trigger a hormonal shift, the winter undercoat ‘blows’, and a second moult follows in autumn’. It is the traditional story, and parts of it are certainly true. However, when we went looking for the dog studies behind it, we found a much smaller and more interesting body of evidence than that standard

line suggests, and very little of it comes from anywhere resembling South Africa. HOW A DOG’S COAT ACTUALLY WORKS A dog’s hair does not grow continuously. Each follicle cycles through a growth phase (anagen), a short transition (catagen) and a resting phase (telogen), during which the finished hair sits anchored in the skin. In dogs, the old resting hair appears to be released mainly once the follicle begins growing its replacement, a step known as exogen. Even here, though, the science has gaps: detailed data on how guard hairs and undercoat hairs are shed in dogs are still lacking (Welle, 2023a).

TWO COATS IN ONE A dog’s coat is made of two kinds of hair, each growing from a different type of follicle. Guard hairs form the outer coat. They are longer and coarser than the hair beneath; they give the coat its colour, and they shed rain and dirt. Each one grows from a primary follicle with its own oil gland and a tiny muscle attached. When a dog raises his hackles, that muscle is what lifts the hair. Undercoat hairs are the short, soft, woolly hairs closest to the skin. They trap air and do most of the insulating. They grow from smaller secondary follicles that have no muscle, and they far outnumber guard hairs: up to 85 per cent of a dog’s follicles produce undercoat (Welle, 2023).

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Dogs also have an unusual follicle arrangement. Dog hair grows in compound follicles: groups of 10 to 30 follicles share a single opening, with up to 85 per cent producing undercoat (Welle, 2023a). Puppies are born with simple follicles and only form these compound groups from roughly 12 weeks of age, which helps explain why the adult coat can look and feel so different

from the puppy coat (Welle, 2023a). Just as importantly, each follicle cycles independently, even within the same group (Welle, 2023a). A dog never replaces his whole coat at once; he is always renewing it in a patchwork. What the seasons can change is the proportion of follicles at each stage.

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WHY SOME DOGS LEAVE MORE HAIR BEHIND The biggest difference between dogs is how long each hair grows before it rests. In Poodles and other breeds that need regular clipping, around 98 per cent of follicles are in the growth phase, so each hair grows for a long time and relatively few are released at once (Welle, 2023a). In most other breeds, a review in Veterinary Pathology puts the average share of follicles in the resting phase at about 30 per cent (Welle, 2023a). To add to the confusion, the figures regarding how much of a coat is resting at any moment depend on

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how researchers measure the state of the hair. Studies that pluck hairs and examine the roots have reported more than 80 per cent of hairs in telogen (resting phase) in Labradors (Diaz et al., 2004) and around 90 per cent in Boxers and Labradors (Favarato and Conceição, 2008). A biopsy study of Beagles, by contrast, classed 27 per cent of follicles as telogen, with 35 per cent impossible to assign to any stage (Müntener et al., 2011). The figures are not directly comparable. The summary is that the share of resting hairs varies with breed and with the method used to assess the phase, so nobody can yet say precisely how large it is in a typical coat.

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THE SEASONAL STORY The idea that day length drives the coat cycle comes largely from work on other mammals, particularly sheep and rodents, in which changes in light act on the pineal gland and alter hormones including melatonin and prolactin (Favarato and Conceição, 2008). In wild mammals, coat growth peaks in late autumn and spring are well documented. In

domestic animals, however, a recent review in Veterinary Pathology notes that seasonal moulting occurs only to a minor degree and is never as pronounced as in wild species. The same review points out that no study has yet shown how factors such as hormones and season regulate the hair cycle in dogs specifically (Welle, 2023a).

THE PINEAL GLAND The pineal gland is a small gland deep in the brain that acts as the body’s calendar. It releases the hormone melatonin in darkness, so the length of melatonin release each night tracks the length of the night. As nights grow longer in autumn, the melatonin signal lasts longer; as they shorten in spring, it shortens. Melatonin appears to influence the hair cycle indirectly, by regulating the release of a second hormone, prolactin, from the pituitary gland at the base of the brain (Favarato and Conceição, 2008). Prolactin is best known for its role in milk production, but it also helps set the timing of the hair cycle. When mice were bred without prolactin receptors, the timing of their hair growth cycles changed (Craven et al., 2001, as summarised by Favarato and Conceição, 2008). Most of this pathway was worked out in sheep and rodents. Exactly how these hormones act on the follicle is still unknown, and no study has yet traced the pathway in dogs (Favarato and Conceição, 2008; Welle, 2023).

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D O G H E A LT H

The dog studies that do exist point in different directions. Indoor dogs. When researchers followed Labradors housed indoors that had been clipped for surgery, the hair took roughly 14 to 15 weeks to grow back regardless of the time of year, and the balance of resting and growing hairs did not differ significantly between seasons (Diaz et al., 2004). The authors suggested that stable indoor light and temperature may explain the absence of a seasonal effect. With 37 dogs of a single breed, it is a small study, but it is one of the very few to test the question directly. Outdoor dogs in the southern hemisphere. The study most relevant

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to South African owners comes from Viçosa in Brazil, at a latitude of 20°S. Researchers sampled hair from Boxers, Labradors and Schnauzers living outdoors every month for a year (Favarato and Conceição, 2008). Day length there ranged from about 10.9 to 13.3 hours over the year, strikingly close to Johannesburg’s range of roughly 10.5 to 13.8 hours. The Boxers and Labradors had more resting hairs in the hottest months and more growing hairs in the coldest, and both temperature and day length tracked the change. In the Boxers, temperature appeared to matter more than day length, the reverse of the conventional textbook view. The Schnauzers, with their longer-growing coats, showed no seasonal shift at all.

D O G H E A LT H

This, too, was a small study: 21 males, sampled at the shoulder only. More importantly, it measured follicle condition, not the amount of hair that ended up on the floor. As far as we could find, nobody has directly measured how much hair dogs shed across the year. If shed hair is mostly released as new growth begins, as the limited canine evidence suggests, the Brazilian findings would point to the cooler months, rather than spring, as the busier time for coat turnover and shedding. That is an inference worth testing, not an established finding.

NOTE Johannesburg gains just over three hours of daylight between midwinter and midsummer, and Cape Town about four and a half. Much of Europe and North America, where most shedding advice is written, experiences a far larger swing in the number of daylight hours across the seasons. Older northern hemisphere studies add to the uncertainty rather than settling it. A study of Greyhounds found almost no hair growth in late winter and late summer, with peak growth in midsummer, and suggested that low temperatures depressed growth (Butler and Wright, 1981). An earlier study of Beagles reported twice-yearly peaks in yet another pattern (Al-Bagdadi et al., 1977, as summarised by Favarato and Conceição, 2008).

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D O G H E A LT H

HORMONES PLAY A PART TOO Season is not the only influence on the hair cycle. In the Greyhound study, oestrus (the time when she is ‘in season’) appeared to suppress hair growth in entire bitches, while spayed bitches grew hair well through most of the year (Butler and Wright,

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1981). Thyroid hormone supports the growth phase, which is why hair loss is among the most common signs when thyroid levels fall. Glucocorticoids, whether produced in excess or given as medication, tend to prolong the resting phase, so hair is lost without being replaced (Vet Times).

D O G H E A LT H

LESS HAIR ON THE SOFA IS NOT LESS ALLERGEN For households with an allergic member, shedding is often a real worry. Here the evidence is quite clear. The major dog allergen, Can f 1, is a protein found in saliva and dander rather than something made by the hair itself. A Dutch study comparing so-called hypoallergenic breeds (Labradoodle, Poodle, Spanish Water Dog and Airedale) with other dogs found higher allergen levels in the coats of the hypoallergenic group. Settled floor dust levels were lower in Labradoodle homes, but airborne allergen levels did not differ between

breeds (Vredegoor et al., 2012). A US study of 173 single-dog homes found no difference in household allergen between homes with and without hypoallergenic breeds (Nicholas et al., 2011). Interestingly, bathing does help with allergen levels, albeit briefly. Washing reduced the allergen recovered from dogs’ hair by 84 per cent, yet levels could return to baseline within about three days. The researchers concluded that a dog would need washing at least twice a week to maintain the reduction (Hodson et al., 1999).

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D O G H E A LT H

WHAT ABOUT SUPPLEMENTS AND TOOLS? Omega-3 fatty acid supplements are widely marketed to reduce shedding. The most rigorous trial we found gave 24 dogs with poor-quality coats either fish oil capsules or a placebo for 90 days. Coat scores improved in the treated dogs from day 60 and had returned to baseline by day 180, three months after the supplement stopped; total lipids on the hair shafts also rose in the supplemented dogs (Combarros et al., 2020). That is genuine evidence for improving

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coats that were poor to begin with. It is not evidence that omega-3s reduce normal shedding, which the trial did not measure, and we found no study that did. The same applies to de-shedding brushes. We could not find a single independent study of how much they reduce shedding; the figures quoted come from manufacturers. Brushing will not change the biology, but it does mean more loose hair ends up in the brush than on the furniture, which is what many of us want.

D O G H E A LT H

WHEN WE NEED THE VET Normal shedding, however impressive, leaves a full coat behind. Thinning, bald patches, broken hairs, itching, redness or a change in coat texture are a different matter, and so is hair loss alongside changes in thirst, appetite, weight or energy, which can point to an endocrine problem such as hypothyroidism or Cushing’s Syndrome (Nagata, 2011). Certain breeds, including Pomeranians, Siberian Huskies, Malamutes, Samoyeds, Keeshonds and Toy and Miniature Poodles, are also prone to a hair cycle disorder known as Alopecia X (Nagata, 2011).

One pattern catches many owners by surprise. After a significant stress on the body, such as illness, fever, surgery or pregnancy, large numbers of follicles can fall into step and release their hairs at the same time, a condition called telogen effluvium (Vet Times). It typically appears a few months after the event. It is uncommon in dogs, and accounts differ on how severe it gets: one clinical review describes diffuse thinning rather than baldness (Nagata, 2011), while a more recent pathology review notes that dogs can be temporarily bald until the replacement hairs reach the surface (Welle, 2023b). Either way, it generally resolves once the cause has passed.

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D O G H E A LT H

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SUPPORTS • Shedding is a normal, continuous part of the hair cycle, and dogs renew their coats in a patchwork rather than all at once. • How much a dog sheds depends heavily on coat type; long-growing coats such as the Poodle’s release fewer hairs at a time. • Seasonal shifts in the hair cycle have been measured in outdoor dogs, but the canine evidence is small and mixed, and the one indoor study found no seasonal effect. • In the one southern hemisphere study, temperature mattered at least as much as day length. • No breed has been shown to be truly hypoallergenic. • Omega-3s can improve poor coats, but there is no evidence that they reduce normal shedding. • Thinning, bald patches, itching, or heavy shedding a few months after illness or surgery warrant a vet visit.

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D O G H E A LT H

For those of us standing over the vacuum cleaner during the coming months, the reassuring answer is that our dog is almost certainly doing something entirely normal. The less

tidy answer, and the more interesting one, is that science has only partly mapped when and why he does it, and almost none of that mapping has been done here.

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D O G H E A LT H

Sources • Al-Bagdadi FA, Titkemeyer CW, Lovell JE (1977). Hair follicle cycle and shedding in male beagle dogs. American Journal of Veterinary Research 38: 611-616. (Cited as summarised by Favarato and Conceição; not read directly.) • Butler WF, Wright A (1981). Hair growth in the greyhound. Journal of Small Animal Practice 22: 655-661. • Cadieu E, Neff MW, Quignon P et al. (2009). Coat variation in the domestic dog is governed by variants in three genes. Science 326: 150-153. Combarros D, Castilla-Castaño E, Lecru LA, Pressanti C, Amalric N, Cadiergues MC (2020). A prospective, randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled evaluation of the effects of an n-3 essential fatty acids supplement (Agepi 3) on clinical signs, and fatty acid concentrations in the erythrocyte membrane, hair shafts and skin surface of dogs with poor quality coats. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids 159: 102140. • Diaz SF, Torres SMF, Dunstan RW, Lekcharoensuk C (2004). An analysis of canine hair re-growth after clipping for a surgical procedure. Veterinary Dermatology 15: 25-30. • Favarato ES, Conceição LG (2008). Hair cycle in dogs with different hair types in a tropical region of Brazil. Veterinary Dermatology 19: 15-20. • Hodson T, Custovic A, Simpson A et al. (1999). Washing the dog reduces dog allergen levels, but the dog needs to be washed twice a week. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 103(4): 581-585. • Müntener T, Doherr MG, Guscetti F, Suter MM, Welle MM (2011). The canine hair cycle: a guide for the assessment of morphological and immunohistochemical criteria. Veterinary Dermatology 22(5): 383-395. • Nagata M (2011). Clinical approach to alopecia in dogs. World Small Animal Veterinary Association World Congress Proceedings. • Nicholas CE, Wegienka GR, Havstad SL, Zoratti EM, Ownby DR, Johnson CC (2011). Dog allergen levels in homes with hypoallergenic compared with nonhypoallergenic dogs. American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy 25(4): 252-256. • Vet Times. Alopecia in companion animals: from hair cycles to hormones. vettimes.co.uk. • Vredegoor DW, Willemse T, Chapman MD, Heederik DJJ, Krop EJM (2012). Can f 1 levels in hair and homes of different dog breeds: lack of evidence to describe any dog breed as hypoallergenic. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 130(4): 904-909. Welle MM (2023a). Basic principles of hair follicle structure, morphogenesis, and regeneration. Veterinary Pathology 60(6): 732-747. • Welle MM (2023b). Canine noninflammatory alopecia: an approach to its classification and a diagnostic aid. Veterinary Pathology 60(6): 748-769. • Day length data for Johannesburg and Cape Town: sunrisesunset.io (accessed October 2026).

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YOUR DOG QUESTIONS ANSWERED

How hot is too hot to walk my dog?

There is no single safe temperature, because it depends on the dog, the humidity and how hard he is working. What the evidence does make clear is, however, that exercise is the biggest danger that the hot weather poses to our dogs. In a UK study of more than 900,000 dogs, 74% of heat-related illness followed exercise, compared with 5% linked to vehicles (Hall et al., 2020). Young male dogs were at higher risk during exercise, and flat-faced breeds had higher odds of heat-related illness from all causes. On hot days, walk early in the morning or late in the evening, keep outings short, seek shade often, carry water and let your dog set the pace. Ideally, skip the ball games if the temperatures are very high. For protecting paws, a useful rule of thumb is to hold the back of your hand on the tarmac for

several seconds: if it is uncomfortable for you, it is too hot for your dog’s paws. There is surprisingly little formal research on this, but dark surfaces in full sun become far hotter than the air around them so we just need to be careful. Heavy panting, drooling, wobbliness, vomiting or collapse can signal heatstroke. The current advice is ‘cool first, transport second.’ Immerse a young, healthy dog in cool water. For an older or unwell dog, pour cool water over him and keep air moving with a fan or breeze. Wet towels are the most common method UK owners use to cool their dogs, but they cool a dog much less effectively (Hall et al., 2023) than the methods listed above. As soon as you have implemented basic cooling measures, get your dog to the vet. Even if he seems okay after you’ve cooled him down slightly, he needs to be checked over by a professional. DQ|17B

Q&A

Guy Fawkes night is next week, and my dog is terrified of fireworks. What can I do now, and how should I prepare for New Year?

You are far from alone in worrying about this issue. In a UK study, a quarter of nearly 3900 owners said their dog was afraid of loud noises, such as those caused by fireworks, but when a smaller group were interviewed in detail, almost half (49%) described at least one sign of fear in their dogs. Fewer than a third of owners had sought advice about the issue (Blackwell et al., 2013). An international survey of 1225 dogs found that 52% were afraid of fireworks, and in nearly half of those, the fear had begun before the dog’s first birthday (Riemer, 2019). Among dogs whose owners had not sought advice, the fear stayed the same or worsened in 70% of cases and improved in only 30%. For this week, walk your dog well before dusk, close windows and curtains, and play the TV or music to blunt the bangs. Set up a den in an inner room and let him hide wherever he chooses. Check that his ID tag and microchip details are current, because frightened dogs can bolt, even through electric fences. During any incidents, if your dog comes to you for

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MEDICATION If your dog is particularly anxious, visit your vet and ask them about medication, even for next week. Prescription medication can help many dogs a great deal. Just note that some options are best trialled in advance, so may not be suitable for next week. Medication also tends to work best alongside training, so it is likely that the maximal impact of the drugs will only be seen once you’ve had a chance to work on the counterconditioning or relaxation cues with your dog. reassurance, comfort him calmly. Fear is an emotion, not ‘attention seeking’ so calm comfort doesn’t make the behaviour worse or ‘reinforce the fear’ as some posts online currently state. Fireworks rules differ between municipalities, so it is also worth checking local by-laws and reporting illegal use. New Year, on the other hand, is about eight weeks away, which is enough time to start making a difference. In Riemer’s survey, dogs whose owners used training were more likely to improve. Owners rated counterconditioning, which pairs the sound of bangs with something the dog loves, and teaching a relaxation cue as the most effective approaches. Pheromones, herbal remedies and homeopathy were rated no more effective than would be expected from a placebo effect.

Q&A

Q A

Is biliary only a summer problem?

No, although summer is definitely the peak season. Biliary, which many owners call tick bite fever, is officially known as canine babesiosis. In South Africa, it is caused mainly by Babesia rossi, a parasite of red blood cells and one of the most virulent forms of the disease anywhere (Penzhorn, 2011). B. rossi is spread by the southern African yellow dog tick, Haemaphysalis elliptica, named for its yellowish shield. This tick occurs in the eastern half of the country, including Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West, with pockets in the Eastern and Western Cape. It prefers higher-rainfall areas and is most common on dogs on smallholdings, farms and large plots, because its early stages feed on rodents (Afrivip, n.d.). Town dogs are not off the hook: the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, spreads a milder Babesia species and ehrlichiosis. Adult yellow dog ticks are present yearround, with numbers peaking from winter through

spring to late summer (Afrivip, n.d.), and biliary cases are reported year-round, though they peak in summer (Collett, 2000). Tick control therefore needs to be a year-round consideration, not just a summer investment. The disease is serious, with a mortality of around 12% for B. rossi infections (Schoeman, 2008). Signs include lethargy, loss of appetite, fever, pale gums and sometimes red or brown urine. A dog showing these signs should see a vet as an emergency, where a simple blood smear can often confirm the diagnosis. Between treatments, check your dog daily, paying particular attention to the head, neck and shoulders where the yellow dog tick prefers to attach, and remove any ticks promptly. Transmission of the infection usually takes more than a day of feeding, so prompt removal of the tick genuinely helps (Lavan et al., 2018). DQ|17B

Q&A

My dog comes back perfectly in the garden but ignores me at the park. How do I fix his recall?

This is completely normal, and lots of owners struggle with the same problem! The garden is familiar and less interesting for your dog, while the park is full of smells, dogs, and people competing for his attention, so recall is naturally more challenging there. Recall has to be built up gradually, from easy settings to harder ones, and it’s great news that you’ve got the garden situation sorted already, so you can start to increase difficulty from there. A few principles make the biggest difference to achieving recall: • One cue, used only for recall. Pick a word and keep it special, i.e. only for recall purposes. • Pay well. Use food or a game your dog truly loves when he gets the response right, especially in distracting places.

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NOTE The evidence favours rewards over punishment for teaching our dogs. Specifically in the case of recall, in a UK study of 63 dogs with poor recall, those trained by professionals focusing on positive reinforcement responded better and faster to ‘come’ and ‘sit’ than dogs trained with electronic collars, and needed fewer commands to get there (China et al., 2020). • Raise the difficulty slowly. Practise in the garden, then a quiet field, then busier spaces like the park. Don’t leap too many stages too quickly! • Use a long line to begin with in distracting environments. This keeps him safe while the skill is still developing. • Make coming back the best decision. Never call your dog for something unpleasant, and never tell him off when he arrives, no matter how long he took to get to you. Call him in, reward him and often send him straight back to play.

Q&A

What should I do if my dog is bitten by a snake?

Get to a vet immediately, and phone ahead so the team can prepare. In a study of 155 dogs treated for snakebite at Onderstepoort, 57% were bitten by puff adders and 43% by cobras, mostly snouted cobras, and 10% of the dogs died (Lobetti & Joubert, 2004). Interestingly, most of those bites (56%) happened in autumn, between March and May, so this is not a risk that is unique to summer-time. Different snakes cause different problems (Leisewitz et al., 2004). Puff adder bites cause painful, spreading swelling. Snouted and Cape cobras, like mambas, have venom that affects the nerves, causing weakness, drooling and difficulty breathing, and can kill quickly. Spitting cobras,

such as the Mozambique spitting cobra, cause swelling and tissue damage more like a puff adder bite. Boomslang bites cause bleeding. Keep your dog calm and still, carry him if you can, and go to the vet. Do not try to catch or kill the snake, but if possible get a photo of it from a safe distance to help with identification. Avoid the old remedies: the African Snakebite Institute’s first-aid guidance warns against tourniquets, cutting or sucking the wound, ice and electric shock, and there is no reason to think any of these help dogs either. If a spitting cobra or rinkhals has sprayed venom into your dog’s eyes, rinse them with plenty of clean water on the way to the vet. DQ|17B

Q&A

MYTH OR FACT My dog knows when he has done something wrong. You can see it on his face.

VERDICT: MYTH.

In a well-known study, 14 dogs were told to leave a treat alone while their owners left the room. When the owners returned, they were sometimes told, falsely, whether their dog had eaten it. The ‘guilty look’ behaviours, such as ears back, looking away and a lowered tail, depended on whether the owner scolded the dog, not on whether the dog had actually eaten the treat. In fact, the look was strongest in dogs who had obeyed but were scolded anyway (Horowitz, 2009).

This does not mean dogs feel nothing. It means the look is better understood as a response to our tone and body language than as proof that a dog understands his ‘wrongdoing’. Telling a dog off after the event therefore teaches him very little, if anything at all. Preventing the problem, managing temptation and rewarding the choices we want are far more effective.

SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS Is there something about your dog’s health, behaviour or training you have always wanted answered? Send your questions to us via our WhatsApp channel, Instagram or Facebook messages, or email lizzie@dqmagazine.co.za, and we will answer a selection in each issue. We cannot diagnose or advise on individual medical cases, so if your dog is unwell, please contact your vet.

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