Health testing of breeding dogs can dramatically reduce heritable disease prevalence. Understanding which tests matter for your breed empowers better purchasing decisions.
Health testing represents the most effective pre-emptive welfare intervention available to breeders and buyers: identifying and reducing the frequency of heritable diseases before they cause suffering in individual animals. The welfare impact of breed health testing compounds across generations: a population in which carriers of serious genetic disease are identified and managed carefully will, over time, produce fewer affected individuals. The challenge is that health testing is voluntary for non-registered breeders, and demand for puppies from untested parents continues to support breeders who do not invest in health testing. Consumer education — specifically, the expectation that parents of purchased puppies have appropriate health tests — is the most direct market mechanism for improving compliance.