Now we know: "the leading health issue of cavaliers is obesity"

I just took a look at a heavily advertised USA Cavalier breeder website which claims that:

"In our experience the leading health issue of cavaliers is obesity."

Unbelievable! I could have sworn that the leading health issue might be MVD or maybe CM/SM! Does this mean that if our Cavaliers just lose some weight, all of the real health problems in the breed will go away?

Is this an example of the kind of false information that some Cavalier breeders are dishing out to the American public?

One might call obesity the leading owner-induced health problem I suppose. But surely this is true of every breed and mix...:?

For a breeder to make such a statement has about the same level of honesty as the BYB and miller sites so many breeders (rightfully) complain about.

Such a statement is disappointing because while I do think overfeeding is an important issue for breeders to discuss with puppy buyers -- and fat dogs are more at risk from the MVD they will almost inevitably get -- to set this up in this way is very misleading to buyers (hmmmmmm) and deflects from a serious and open discussion of real breed-related health issues that are directly connected to breeding practice.

It's an interesting statement. Consider that this breeder probably offers some form of health guarantee, but then they can add a clause that the pet can't be overweight in order for the guarantee to be valid. Most dogs won't develop or be diagnosed with mvd or sm until they are a few years old...just look around to see how few dogs are 3-5 years old and at a healthy weight.

It could serve as loophole that gets them out of honoring their side of the sales contract in most cases.

Sneaky and unethical, but perfectly legal.

It could serve as loophole that gets them out of honoring their side of the sales contract in most cases.

Click to expand...

Interesting point.