Joint disease is highly prevalent and often preventable in companion dogs. Proactive joint health management from puppyhood significantly reduces chronic pain and improves quality of life.
Joint disease in dogs causes chronic pain that reduces quality of life across what should be a dog prime years of active engagement with the world. The welfare cost of hip dysplasia in a large breed dog that develops the condition in early adulthood and lives with pain for a decade or more is enormous. Prevention through appropriate growth rate management, optimal body condition, and exercise planning delivers welfare benefits that far exceed the cost of treatment. Breed selection is also a welfare decision: choosing breeds with lower joint disease prevalence when breed-specific characteristics are not essential reduces the lifetime risk of this preventable welfare harm. Genetic testing of breeding animals and selection against joint disease predisposition is the most powerful tool for reducing population-level joint welfare problems in dogs.