No, 67 dog breeds are not being banned, here’s what is actually happening

Hello, and welcome back to Everyday Science.

Have you heard the claims that 67 dog breeds are to be banned in the UK, including pugs, dachshunds and – in a move that would have broken the late Queen’s heart – the Pembroke Welsh corgi?

Fear not. Those stories seem to be based on a mix-up. But experts do have a plan for changing the shape of several modern dog breeds that have health issues. In fact, the truth is more interesting than the shaggy dog tales in circulation today.

Here are the breeds that are likely to face a makeover – and how the scheme is supposed to work.

Why might dog breeds need tweaking?

Dog breeders and animal welfare groups have long been in conflict over certain breeds that often suffer serious health conditions.

There are three main problems with anatomy, which organisations such as the Royal Veterinary College call “extreme conformations”. Perhaps the best known is when dogs have a very short muzzle, leading to the flat faces of bulldogs and pugs.

This interferes with their breathing, especially if they exercise, when owners can often hear their noisy panting and grunting. They may also have folds of skin around their face, which can lead to infections unless they are carefully kept clean.

“Breathing difficulties can be extremely distressing for animals as it means every breath takes effort. The animal may feel like they’re suffocating,” says the RSPCA.

Another concern is dogs with very short legs, like dachshunds, corgis and basset hounds. These are more prone to back problems and arthritis and can injure themselves when jumping.

I have always hankered after a dachshund, but I was alarmed to recently discover, when my friend acquired one, that their backs are so fragile, they have to be carried up and down stairs.

A lesser-known concern is dogs bred to have no tail or a very short stumpy tail, such as French bulldogs. Tail wagging or raising is a natural form of communication, says the RSPCA.

Breeds developed to help humans

These traits are common, with over a fifth of all pet dogs in the UK having a flat face, according to figures from a 2024 Dogs Trust study. And more than a quarter of dogs have at least one of the extreme conformations, according to figures from the Royal Veterinary College.

A common defence is that humans once had good reasons for creating the many different breeds, for vital jobs such as hunting, herding and protection. The huge variation is certainly impressive, considering that they all arose from similar wolf ancestors

Little corgis, for instance, were used to herd cattle; their height supposedly helped them to be able to run under the cows’ legs and nip at their heels.

Less appealingly, bulldogs were bred with flat faces so they could be used for baiting bears – their pronounced underbite meant that they could clamp on to a bear’s nose with their powerful jaws.

But for various reasons, including modern fashions for pets that look striking, the traditional characteristics of the breeds have become more pronounced, said Professor Dan O’Neill of the RVC. “Dachshunds that you look at now are totally different from how dachshunds looked 50 years ago,” he said.

Now, a campaign to discourage people from buying dogs with these extreme characteristics has been launched by a coalition of groups including the RVC, the RSPCA and MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare.

“Thousands of dogs are struggling to function normally, including being able to breathe with ease, run and play, and even sleep and eat owing to extreme features such as flat muzzles, short legs, excessive skin folds and many other traits,” the MPs have said.

The campaign is not, as was claimed today, proposing to ban any breeds. But they do want owners and breeders to work together to reduce the extreme characteristics over time. This would be done by breeding only from dogs with less extreme characteristics – in other words, pugs with less squashed faces, or Pekinese with slightly longer legs.

Central to the campaign is an online tool that lets anyone rate a dog on a 10-point assessment of issues such as snout length, leg length, leg shape, skin folds and so on. Dogs pass the test as long as they fail on no more than two criteria.

The campaigners want breeders to use the tool when deciding which animals to mate together. And they want councils to refuse to give licences to breeders who continue to sell puppies from adults that fail the test. However, this is still at a voluntary stage.

Despite the headlines over corgis and dachshunds, these two breeds would not fail the test overall, because they only have one issue – short legs – and dogs need to fail on three points for an overall black mark, said Professor O’Neill.

In fact, dogs who are members of only 10 out of the 225 breeds recognised by the UK Kennel Club would be at risk of an overall fail, depending on how extreme they are. These are: pugs, shih tzus, French bulldogs, English bulldogs, Pekinese, basset hounds, Boston terriers, dogue de Bordeaux, Brussels griffons, and Japanese Chins.

Why did people think breeds would be banned?

The origin of the claims that 67 breeds would be banned is unclear.

Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today and founder of the Union of Good Dog People, was reported in The Times as saying the plans were “the most shocking thing to happen to dog lovers in this country. People will rightly be outraged at being told they can’t have the dogs they want”. The i Paper was unable to reach Cuddy for comment.

O’Neill said that if breeders and the public started following the new guidance, breeds such as bulldogs and pugs would improve quickly. “The dogs already exist within the breeds,” he said. “They’d be mating the ones with the good innate health. You could literally do this within a decade.”

That would be an even more impressive change than the creation of all those different breeds, centuries ago – and to my mind, a more worthy one too.

I’ve also written

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I’ve been watching

The internet is raving about the latest Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, showing on Now TV.

The six-episode series takes a while to get going, but over the first two or three episodes I warmed to the characters. Highlights include colourful demonstrations of how nasty, brutish and short life was in the time of knights and peasants.

My main grumble is that there is not one major female character – a disappointment from the writer who once gave us the unforgettable Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons. Perhaps a woman will turn up in Season 2.