Surgical correction of brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome provides significant welfare improvement but does not fully normalise breathing in severely affected dogs.
BOAS surgery represents a meaningful welfare intervention that reduces respiratory compromise, improves exercise tolerance, and enables more normal behavioural expression including play. However, surgery does not restore normal airway anatomy — operated dogs remain disadvantaged compared to mesocephalic breeds. Early surgical correction before secondary airway changes — enlarged tonsils, everted laryngeal saccules — produces better welfare outcomes. The fundamental welfare solution remains breeding toward less extreme conformations so that surgery is not required at all.