Deaf Dog US Populations
(Blind Dog US Populations: in April 2011 our "best guess" was over 300,000. Data are very sparse)
Demographics, 2010: From Internet sources and other data, the estimated probable values were:
1. Deaf dogs in the US in 2010 Both-ears deaf about 35,000; One-ear deaf about 120,000
2. US both-ears deaf dogs that might be represented by the public Five to ten percent
3. Upper bound deafness percentage of the total of all breeds of AKC registered dogs was estimated as about 0.2%, i.e. 2 per ten thousand dogs. [Compare to 28% for Dalmatians, and an average of about 0.4% for six other AKC breeds; see item 4 following from Dr Strain’s data.]
4. Lower bound of deafness among US mutts. Probably slightly over 0.0%
Baseline Information and Estimates: Official census data of US totals, frequency and severity of deafness per dog breed were apparently not available in 2010. Web search data follows:
References
[1] http://www.ohmidog.com/2009/08/11/american-dog-population-rises-to-77-5-million; / The complete 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey covering the past two decades and retails for $1,695
[2] “The State of the Animals 2001,” Humane Society Press, edt D.J. Salem, A.N. Rowan [Maybe avilable thru a local Library]
[3] http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/genetics.htm; {…… reported to be 2.56 to 6.5 cases per 10,000 dogs seen at veterinary school teaching hospitals,…} Actual-real values were almost certainly less, because of absences from the totals healthy dogs which would not have been brought to veterinary hosipital, which probably created what statisticians call a "selection bias," - namely the known omission of part of the baseline group consisting of "all" dogs of the US.
[4] American Veterinary Medical Assc, "U.S. PET Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook", Center for Information Management, 1997
Other Information
http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/incidenc.htm
Strain, G.M., B.L. Tedford, and R.M. Jackson. 1991. Postnatal development of the brainstem auditory-evoked potential in dogs. Am. J. Vet. Res. 52:410-415.
Strain; Presentation to Australian Cattle Dog Club, 2004
Dr Stanley Coren, “How Dogs Think”; 2004; Free Press
1. Deaf dogs in the US in 2010 Both-ears deaf about 35,000; One-ear deaf about 120,000
2. US both-ears deaf dogs that might be represented by the public Five to ten percent
3. Upper bound deafness percentage of the total of all breeds of AKC registered dogs was estimated as about 0.2%, i.e. 2 per ten thousand dogs. [Compare to 28% for Dalmatians, and an average of about 0.4% for six other AKC breeds; see item 4 following from Dr Strain’s data.]
4. Lower bound of deafness among US mutts. Probably slightly over 0.0%
Baseline Information and Estimates: Official census data of US totals, frequency and severity of deafness per dog breed were apparently not available in 2010. Web search data follows:
- Total number of dogs in US in 2010 (AKC registered plus mutts) 77.5 Million [1]
- Data from sources [4] and analysis suggested that AKC registrations were about 20 percent of the US dog total population. The 2001 Human Society 50 years review book [2] suggested implausibly that there was one mutt per each AKC registration.
- Dr Strain of LSU published[3] estimate data from veterinarians that the deafness of US dogs was in the range of about 2.5 to 6.5 deaf dogs per 10,000 (hearing plus deaf) dogs; i.e. about 0.02 percent to nearly 0.07 percent. The estimate was probably applicable to bi-ear (total) deafness.
- Dr Strain’s Web published data for six AKC breeds, excepting Dalmatians, averaged roughly 0.4 percent deafness when mathematically extended for large populations. The investigated breeds were thought to probably have higher than average deafness frequency. Thus the likely average deafness across all AKC breeds was probably less than the average for the six investigated breeds.
- Percentages of deafness and the population numbers must be greater than zero. The basic equation to describe the elementary weighted average of percentages and population sizes: %g*G=%a*A+%m*M ; where G means the total number of AKC +Mutt dogs, A means the AKC registered dogs population, and M means the mutts population; the subscripts of the % symbols respectively designate the corresponding g=>G, a=>A, and m=>M.
References
[1] http://www.ohmidog.com/2009/08/11/american-dog-population-rises-to-77-5-million; / The complete 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey covering the past two decades and retails for $1,695
[2] “The State of the Animals 2001,” Humane Society Press, edt D.J. Salem, A.N. Rowan [Maybe avilable thru a local Library]
[3] http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/genetics.htm; {…… reported to be 2.56 to 6.5 cases per 10,000 dogs seen at veterinary school teaching hospitals,…} Actual-real values were almost certainly less, because of absences from the totals healthy dogs which would not have been brought to veterinary hosipital, which probably created what statisticians call a "selection bias," - namely the known omission of part of the baseline group consisting of "all" dogs of the US.
[4] American Veterinary Medical Assc, "U.S. PET Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook", Center for Information Management, 1997
Other Information
http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/incidenc.htm
Strain, G.M., B.L. Tedford, and R.M. Jackson. 1991. Postnatal development of the brainstem auditory-evoked potential in dogs. Am. J. Vet. Res. 52:410-415.
Strain; Presentation to Australian Cattle Dog Club, 2004
Dr Stanley Coren, “How Dogs Think”; 2004; Free Press