A Few Deaf Dog “Scare-Stories” and Facts
Introduction
Current versions of the "scare stories" apparently began spreading rapidly soon after BAER tests for Dalmatians and later for other Breeds began to be advertised. Historically, ancient scare-stories for uneducated people and children were usually entertaining and meant to caution or control their behaviors. The Grimm's Fairy Tales about giants, tailors, and such were examples. [See the page "Truth-Science" for more details.]
In more recent examples, marketing and advertising experts created a general public anxious about "ring around the collar", to sell brands of soap. Recent publicity about the mercury-autism scare stronly indicated that the key people and orgnizations used the scare as marketing to advance their personal interests and usually finances [See "Truth-verify" page.] Scare stories about deaf dogs apparently became, were and are still marketing tools for various profitable enterprises, especially perhaps in the US.
---
Scare Story?-Genetic deafness is a suddenly now a "terrible" defect, a social stigma, though deaf dogs probably lived happily with humans for thousands of years without known difficulty from deafness? Fact: Survival and co-evolution of domestic dogs living with humans, according to archeology and ancient sculptures, etc existed for nearly 10,000 years, and by 2010 seemingly lead to the existence of about two deaf dogs per ten thousand (hearing dogs plus deaf dogs) in the US.
Scare Story?-Deaf dogs die in "traffic-vehicle" accidents because they suddenly miraculously become blind, their legs lock-up in rigid spasms, and their nose quits if they get near a car, truck, bus, bicycle, or skateboard? . Fact: Deaf dogs survived with humans for nearly 10,000 years while living among horses, cattle, sheep, goats, horse-drawn carriages, railroad engines and trains, sailing ships and steam boats without dying in noticeable numbers, and certainly there was never any report of deaf dogs lining up like lemmings to throw themselves suicidaly in front of horseless carriages (cars.) However, as a factual basis for a scare-story for marketing BAER tests, and killing puppies, selective killing of deaf dogs can be arranged by raising the deaf puppies in crates, keeping them in fenced yards or on short leashes until they are released in traffic, - thus preventing them from learning to avoid vehicles of any sort. Technically, deaf dogs will die from motor vehicles more often than hearing dogs Only if the deaf dogs are selectively and deliberately trained to be killed.
Scare Story? -Children can’t live with Dogs?. Fact: Some children can be startled, might bite, become aggressive, and sometimes are hard to train, so they often can’t live well in a home with any dog whether deaf or hearing. Babies and poorly socialized children who haven’t learned to treat dogs properly can injure unprotected dogs who are unfamiliar with children: Always Provide Adult Supervision.
Scare Story?-People who believe that Dogs are “Humans in Fur coats” find Deaf Dogs Incredibly Difficult to Train. Fact: Anyone who understands that dogs aren’t kids or adult humans in “fur coats” and seriously wants to train a dog, hearing or deaf or blind or blind-deaf, can almost always succeed. Dogs learn gestures and body-language commands and requests - - non-voice sign-signals easiest.
Scare Story?-Deaf Dogs Must have Special Owners. Fact: Owners of deaf dogs are as varied as their dogs. However, owners ought to be enough special that they don’t mistake their dog for a cute weird furry human.
Scare Story?- Deaf Dogs Need Hearing Aids?. Fact: Genetically deaf dogs have abilities to detect, understand and use mechanical vibrations (sound) by perhaps eight to nine biologics, more than used by most humans. [Reference S Coren, 2004)
Scare Story?- Startled Deaf Dogs are always permanent paranoids? Fact: Popular scare stories had it that a domestic deaf dog living with caring humans is always anxious, fearful and almost instantly bites. A truly always-anxious fearful dog woud starve to death from whirling about to discover what or who’s sneaking up on it. [See page about dog-whirling].
Scare Story? - A young deaf dog might suddenly "explode" into unprovoked violence? Fact: Tracing the history of this deaf-dogs scare-story myth reached back to a likely origin (in our opinion) as a myth in the DCA Board of Directors' Red Book, 1994 where quite realistic mention was made that any abused old dog suffering from arthritis, possibly tooth aches, and so forth might not be utterly thrilled to be kicked by a human if the sad miserable dog didn't instantly leap to full attention when spoken unto. The next appearance of that myth was probably in a revised (inverted from old age to instead "teen-age") form alleging that a young dog with raging "teen-age" hormones regardless of being deaf or not, might defend itsself if abused suddenly by stangers or even if the abuse was habitual of its owners. The recognized deaf-dogs version of that particular story of course for drama or some other unexplained reason apparently omitted mention that bi-ear hearing dogs were far more likely to do such things, because out of every ten thousand dogs seen in the US there were according to Strain,2011 possibly only perhaps 2 (two) deaf dogs, at Veterinarian Hospitals. And even that hypothetical low rate of events blamed on deaf dogs was unsupported by any discoverable news or research reports for trained, socialized deaf dogs.
Scare-story? "One-ear" dog deafness is only detectable by BAER genetic deafness Tests.
Fact: In some breeds there are two to maybe five times or more puppies who genetically only hear with one ear, than those who are deaf in both ears (bi-ear.) Among Dalmatians on average about 2010, there were reportedly about twenty (20) percent one-ear deaf puppies for ever eight (8) percent who were deaf in both ears. That was a ratio of almost 3:1 of one-ear compared to bi-ear deaf. The marketing scare-story for anxious an insecure owners proclaimed that one-ear deaf dogs can be detected with high confidence only by putting wires in their heads (the BAER test).
Watch their reaction to sudden sounds, to Detect One-ear Deafness. Actually an observant caring person can detect indications, without expensive equipment if their dog has one-ear hearing. If cost doesn’t matter to the owner, or if an official legal proof is needed for Clubs of breeds with known deafness, consider getting an appointment with hearing testing facilities (BAER tests or equivalent) at veterinary schools. Lost pay for time-off from paying jobs, and the travel cost for gas, meals and so on to get to a place that has the equipment would probably be a waste if you don’t need legal proof that the dog can hear perfectly (or doesn’t).
For people who don’t have quick free or low cost access to BAER equipment, it’s fairly easy to be sure if a puppy or young dog probably has one-ear hearing, by watching her react to a sudden sharp noise from one side and then the other behind them. [1] One-ear hearing deaf dogs typically can’t instantly be positive where a sudden sound (such as a bark or pans clashing together) came from, and so can look the wrong way, as ours did.
Commonly they will react to a sharp noise at one side behind them, by looking almost exactly in the wrong directions - forward (reverse). Also, reports suggest that their people might because of that, wonder if the dog is ignoring their calls or wonder if the dog’s hearing was “off.” An observant person can watch to see if a dog looks promptly in the wrong direction to find the maker of a sound.
IF your favorite Veterinarian says your dog’s ears seem healthy, and it’s hearing is a bit whiff but you’d rather not kill the dog (or pay someone else to kill and dispose of it) - - then most folks can easily learn to teach their dog a few key basic hand-gestures (sign language) for “Come”, Sit, stay and so on as a “second language” for the dog. Then your dog can take a quick look at you to be sure you meant what she thought she heard you say? Our experience indicated that most dogs (both those deaf and those hearing) enjoy learning such new things with their folks; playing gesture games and adventures on rainy days can beats game like chasing a dirty ball in the mud or digging in the yard.
As Dr Strain said [2] dogs are adaptable. As they grow up and gather experience, most uni-ear deaf dogs can learn better techniques for roughly estimating where sounds came from [See other pages]. Uni-hearing persons also can become skilled.
Fact: If there is uncertainty whether a dog has one-ear human-like hearing and it is important and affordable to have “proof”, a BAER Test or equivalent should be considered.
[1] Dr Stanley Coren, “How Dogs Think”, 2004, Free Press
[2] Dr Strain; Presentation to Australian Cattle Dog Club, 2004
Scare-story: “Dog-Deafness is a virus, fungus or bacterial contagious disease controllable by killing all the deaf animals?”
The scare-story that dog deafness can be cured by killing all the deaf puppies and adults harked back possibly deliberately or accidentally to the almost pre-modern primitive years[i] of human agriculture with its ignorance of viruses, bacterial diseases, fungus diseases and genetics. Modern genetics indicated by 2010 that to eliminate all risk of genetic-dog deafness, seemingly shared among all animals that have a back-bone, it was apparently necessary to kill all dogs, which would be generally unacceptable.
Facts 1: Dog one ear (uni-ear) and two-ears (bi-ear) deafness can happen because of any of several causes, none of which are curable by killing puppies or deaf adults:
1) medical illnesses (many are treatable, such as ear mites, etc)
2) accidents, “mechanical” accidents, medical reactions to antibiotics (often treatable)
3) genetic causes that ranged in severity from one breed to another; in many breeds and among mixed breed perhaps as rare as one deaf dog per hundred thousand births, to as many as thirty percent or half of of the pups in some litters.
Dog breed health concerns in 2010 were often badly confused on the Internet by mingling with information about virus, fungus and bacterial diseases in the summaries of the breed situations. On the Internet in 2010, for many dog breeds inherited deafness was listed along with medical treatable conditions such as old-age deficiencies, epilepsy, kidney stones, hip dysplasia, diabetes and so forth.
The main reported cause of genetically deaf dogs in the US during 2010 was selective breeding under [1] accepted breed standards to get or retain special coat colors and patterns, achievable by creating many births of genetic deaf puppies. An unfortunate “poster-children” of ancient selective [2] breeding, that apparently resulted in uniquely high rates of deaf puppies, were the Dalmatians. Data were too scarce to decide if the Catahoula were a similar case. The situation of white Great Danes was likely to be comparable, but too complex and the data too scarce for a clear judgment in 2010. Genetically deaf dogs were victimized by vicious stories that arose parallel with the invaluable, commendable, research initiated by the Dalmatian Club of America (DCA) to understand the causes of genetic deafness of dogs.
From a world-wide scientific viewpoint, all breeds of dog benefited from the research initiated by the DCA, despite inadvertent misunderstandings and probably some misrepresentations by a few organizations and individuals. The research and lessons-learned were extended by other people and groups to other breeds. Progress continues, although sporadically and often unclearly reported on the Internet. Progress could be more rapid if sponsors of other breeds equaled the invaluable “transparency” of the the DCA and Dalmatian owners.
We traced the deaf-dogs superstitions to sources. During over 20 years since the scare-stories were "formalized" during the widespread introduction of BAER genetic deafness testing, many people were apparently misled by other folks who were possibly only ignorant or in some instances had a financial motivate. The origins of the deaf dogs’ are vicious stories and superstitions were entangled with the history of BAER genetic deafness testing of US dogs. Recent research on genetics and dog-behavior made it possible to seriously address several of the marketing scare-stories for the first time.
Facts 2: Genetic deafness is a trait linked to coat patterns and colors. Until dogs recently were required to live primarily as single individuals with humans, one-ear deafness was probably rarely recognized by their humans, and even two-ear deafness of individuals dogs living in packs with other dogs was unimportant and likely often unrecognized.
During more than 10 years, research investigating the genetics of dog deafness identified at least three or more of the primary genes that control or influence the typical numbers of (frequency) deaf puppies per litter (percents) and severity of deafness (uni {one}- or bi {both}-ear). Linkages [3] to exotic fur and coat patterns, such as those of “double merles”, Great Danes, Dalmatians and double dapple Dachshunds were apparently conclusive.
Evolution, plus approved breed standards, lead to deafness as apparently reported by Dr Strain [4], with a “natural” frequency reported by US veterinarians hospitals, of only about 2.5 to about 6.5 per ten thousand (roughly 0.04 percent) among dogs that were taken to veterinarians. That contrasted to the nearly 30 percent (one-ear+ both-ears) reported by Dr Strain of Dalmatians. The average percentage of deafness of the AKC registered breeds whose data were reported by Dr Strain appeared to be, based on statistics, about 0.4 percent for groups in the range of 5,000 to 6,000 dogs; i.e. about ten times more severe than a likely US average including dogs of mixed ancestry.
Of fundamental importance, deafness-genes were reported from research to probably extend to (exist in) all dog breeds, cats, other mammals, and some or all reptiles. That indicated the biological evolution origin of genetic deafness (and some forms of genetic induced blindness) may have reached back to before the separation of the evolution of mammals from the reptiles (dinosaurs), i.e. millions of years. A readable discussion of the evolution of modern domestic dogs during at least 10,000 years was provided by Adam Miklosi [5], 2007.
The 2010 published research reports left little or no plausible hope that genetic deafness can or should be soon eliminated from the modern ecology of domestic dogs and humans. The existence of genetic deafness in other mammals and even reptiles suggested that the genes probably or possibly served a critical evolutionary value, at least during “bottle-neck” population crashes in environments where patched and spotted patterns were vital [Ref. Scientific American]. The well known affiliation of “blue-eyes” with deafness further endorsed an evolutionary advantage for groups with a small percentage of deaf dogs, possibly because of their likely or potential specializing in sight-hunting and immunity to noise distractions. Stanley Coren, 2004; blue-eyed dogs lacking the reflective eye-layer were likely to possess superior accuracy and resolution of vision at the expense of poorer night vision, as compared to ordinary dark-eyed dogs
Facts: Genetic deafness traits were apparently conclusively linked to genes that control or regulate “fancy” exotic patchy, spotted, or other unusual coat colors. Eliminating the deafness genes from the US dog population is probably impossible and undesirable, until we have a full understanding of their survival value. Deliberate selective breeding for dog coat colors and patterns that by policy demand euthanizing (killing) as large as half (50 percent) of some litters of some breeds is probably an unacceptable economic and humanitarian burden on the US rescue and shelter organizations, donors and taxpayers [6]
Old-age deafness of some dogs will continue to happen, as well as occasional accident-caused deafness, and deafness resulting from use of certain medications.
[1] Consistent with AKC policies, the reported Dalmatian Club of America (DCA) policies in 2010 required euthanizing (killing) deaf Dalmatian puppies):Ref www.thedca.org/deaf1.html) According to reports by the DCA, and Dr Strain of LSU, www.lsu.edu/deafness/incidenc.htm, adult two-ears deaf and one-ear deaf (uni-ear) deaf Dalmatians will probably continue to be a trait of nearly 30 percent of future Dalmatians, despite euthanizing an undisclosed number of puppies each year as policy. Where deafness was listed on the Internet as a problem of a breed, often coat and eye colors probably related to deafness were part of the breed’s required or permitted conformation (shape and colors). Thus pure-breed standards approved and indeed could seem to mandate a high birth rate of deaf puppies and some blind from registered breeds. For example: double-dapple Dachshunds, Harlequin Great Danes, English Setters, English Cocker Spaniels, Australian Cattle Dogs, Dalmatians and other breeds.
[2] Public data, posted on the Internet concisely suggested that humans influenced and strongly determined the genetic driving factors that probably made Dalmatians deafness uniquely prevalent compared to almost all other modern dog breeds. Two major human decisions were probably: 1) Initially as long ago as the Middle ages, selective breeding of dogs whose black dot-spots on white coats (inexpensive) resembled “ermine”(expensive) worn by royalty, and 2) Use of “Royal” Dalmatian packs to escort and guard coaches of the elite royalty and aristocracy, with selective breeding for guard-dog attributes and pack activities under road conditions of extreme noise and accidental risk of deafness. Only when Dalmatians in modern history began to be available and living as individual dogs in the homes of “common people” did their genetic deafness become an unfortunate social stigma, banned despite perhaps 700 years during which their inherited deafness was unimportant in the breed because they lived and worked in packs of hearing and deaf dogs.
[3]THE DALMATIAN DILEMMA; White Coat Colour and Deafness;Dr. Bruce M Cattanach, MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit, Harwell, Oxfordshire, UK; www.steynmere.com/DALM_DEAFNESS.html
[4] www.offa.org/index.html
[5] Adam Miklosi, 2007, “Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition”, Oxford Biology
[6] Humane Society of the United States; The State of the Animals 2001; edited By D J Salem and A N Rowan.
[i] As recently as the 1920s attempted slaughter of all infected animals was a nationally accepted disease control practice for domestic animals and wildlife in the US, as reported in the classic book, “Microbe Hunters,” 1926, by Paul de Kruif, Harcourt Brace, Inc. Recently in the UK all of the detected hoof and mouth infected cattle were slaughtered to end an infection.
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Introduction
Current versions of the "scare stories" apparently began spreading rapidly soon after BAER tests for Dalmatians and later for other Breeds began to be advertised. Historically, ancient scare-stories for uneducated people and children were usually entertaining and meant to caution or control their behaviors. The Grimm's Fairy Tales about giants, tailors, and such were examples. [See the page "Truth-Science" for more details.]
In more recent examples, marketing and advertising experts created a general public anxious about "ring around the collar", to sell brands of soap. Recent publicity about the mercury-autism scare stronly indicated that the key people and orgnizations used the scare as marketing to advance their personal interests and usually finances [See "Truth-verify" page.] Scare stories about deaf dogs apparently became, were and are still marketing tools for various profitable enterprises, especially perhaps in the US.
---
Scare Story?-Genetic deafness is a suddenly now a "terrible" defect, a social stigma, though deaf dogs probably lived happily with humans for thousands of years without known difficulty from deafness? Fact: Survival and co-evolution of domestic dogs living with humans, according to archeology and ancient sculptures, etc existed for nearly 10,000 years, and by 2010 seemingly lead to the existence of about two deaf dogs per ten thousand (hearing dogs plus deaf dogs) in the US.
Scare Story?-Deaf dogs die in "traffic-vehicle" accidents because they suddenly miraculously become blind, their legs lock-up in rigid spasms, and their nose quits if they get near a car, truck, bus, bicycle, or skateboard? . Fact: Deaf dogs survived with humans for nearly 10,000 years while living among horses, cattle, sheep, goats, horse-drawn carriages, railroad engines and trains, sailing ships and steam boats without dying in noticeable numbers, and certainly there was never any report of deaf dogs lining up like lemmings to throw themselves suicidaly in front of horseless carriages (cars.) However, as a factual basis for a scare-story for marketing BAER tests, and killing puppies, selective killing of deaf dogs can be arranged by raising the deaf puppies in crates, keeping them in fenced yards or on short leashes until they are released in traffic, - thus preventing them from learning to avoid vehicles of any sort. Technically, deaf dogs will die from motor vehicles more often than hearing dogs Only if the deaf dogs are selectively and deliberately trained to be killed.
Scare Story? -Children can’t live with Dogs?. Fact: Some children can be startled, might bite, become aggressive, and sometimes are hard to train, so they often can’t live well in a home with any dog whether deaf or hearing. Babies and poorly socialized children who haven’t learned to treat dogs properly can injure unprotected dogs who are unfamiliar with children: Always Provide Adult Supervision.
Scare Story?-People who believe that Dogs are “Humans in Fur coats” find Deaf Dogs Incredibly Difficult to Train. Fact: Anyone who understands that dogs aren’t kids or adult humans in “fur coats” and seriously wants to train a dog, hearing or deaf or blind or blind-deaf, can almost always succeed. Dogs learn gestures and body-language commands and requests - - non-voice sign-signals easiest.
Scare Story?-Deaf Dogs Must have Special Owners. Fact: Owners of deaf dogs are as varied as their dogs. However, owners ought to be enough special that they don’t mistake their dog for a cute weird furry human.
Scare Story?- Deaf Dogs Need Hearing Aids?. Fact: Genetically deaf dogs have abilities to detect, understand and use mechanical vibrations (sound) by perhaps eight to nine biologics, more than used by most humans. [Reference S Coren, 2004)
Scare Story?- Startled Deaf Dogs are always permanent paranoids? Fact: Popular scare stories had it that a domestic deaf dog living with caring humans is always anxious, fearful and almost instantly bites. A truly always-anxious fearful dog woud starve to death from whirling about to discover what or who’s sneaking up on it. [See page about dog-whirling].
Scare Story? - A young deaf dog might suddenly "explode" into unprovoked violence? Fact: Tracing the history of this deaf-dogs scare-story myth reached back to a likely origin (in our opinion) as a myth in the DCA Board of Directors' Red Book, 1994 where quite realistic mention was made that any abused old dog suffering from arthritis, possibly tooth aches, and so forth might not be utterly thrilled to be kicked by a human if the sad miserable dog didn't instantly leap to full attention when spoken unto. The next appearance of that myth was probably in a revised (inverted from old age to instead "teen-age") form alleging that a young dog with raging "teen-age" hormones regardless of being deaf or not, might defend itsself if abused suddenly by stangers or even if the abuse was habitual of its owners. The recognized deaf-dogs version of that particular story of course for drama or some other unexplained reason apparently omitted mention that bi-ear hearing dogs were far more likely to do such things, because out of every ten thousand dogs seen in the US there were according to Strain,2011 possibly only perhaps 2 (two) deaf dogs, at Veterinarian Hospitals. And even that hypothetical low rate of events blamed on deaf dogs was unsupported by any discoverable news or research reports for trained, socialized deaf dogs.
Scare-story? "One-ear" dog deafness is only detectable by BAER genetic deafness Tests.
Fact: In some breeds there are two to maybe five times or more puppies who genetically only hear with one ear, than those who are deaf in both ears (bi-ear.) Among Dalmatians on average about 2010, there were reportedly about twenty (20) percent one-ear deaf puppies for ever eight (8) percent who were deaf in both ears. That was a ratio of almost 3:1 of one-ear compared to bi-ear deaf. The marketing scare-story for anxious an insecure owners proclaimed that one-ear deaf dogs can be detected with high confidence only by putting wires in their heads (the BAER test).
Watch their reaction to sudden sounds, to Detect One-ear Deafness. Actually an observant caring person can detect indications, without expensive equipment if their dog has one-ear hearing. If cost doesn’t matter to the owner, or if an official legal proof is needed for Clubs of breeds with known deafness, consider getting an appointment with hearing testing facilities (BAER tests or equivalent) at veterinary schools. Lost pay for time-off from paying jobs, and the travel cost for gas, meals and so on to get to a place that has the equipment would probably be a waste if you don’t need legal proof that the dog can hear perfectly (or doesn’t).
For people who don’t have quick free or low cost access to BAER equipment, it’s fairly easy to be sure if a puppy or young dog probably has one-ear hearing, by watching her react to a sudden sharp noise from one side and then the other behind them. [1] One-ear hearing deaf dogs typically can’t instantly be positive where a sudden sound (such as a bark or pans clashing together) came from, and so can look the wrong way, as ours did.
Commonly they will react to a sharp noise at one side behind them, by looking almost exactly in the wrong directions - forward (reverse). Also, reports suggest that their people might because of that, wonder if the dog is ignoring their calls or wonder if the dog’s hearing was “off.” An observant person can watch to see if a dog looks promptly in the wrong direction to find the maker of a sound.
IF your favorite Veterinarian says your dog’s ears seem healthy, and it’s hearing is a bit whiff but you’d rather not kill the dog (or pay someone else to kill and dispose of it) - - then most folks can easily learn to teach their dog a few key basic hand-gestures (sign language) for “Come”, Sit, stay and so on as a “second language” for the dog. Then your dog can take a quick look at you to be sure you meant what she thought she heard you say? Our experience indicated that most dogs (both those deaf and those hearing) enjoy learning such new things with their folks; playing gesture games and adventures on rainy days can beats game like chasing a dirty ball in the mud or digging in the yard.
As Dr Strain said [2] dogs are adaptable. As they grow up and gather experience, most uni-ear deaf dogs can learn better techniques for roughly estimating where sounds came from [See other pages]. Uni-hearing persons also can become skilled.
Fact: If there is uncertainty whether a dog has one-ear human-like hearing and it is important and affordable to have “proof”, a BAER Test or equivalent should be considered.
[1] Dr Stanley Coren, “How Dogs Think”, 2004, Free Press
[2] Dr Strain; Presentation to Australian Cattle Dog Club, 2004
Scare-story: “Dog-Deafness is a virus, fungus or bacterial contagious disease controllable by killing all the deaf animals?”
The scare-story that dog deafness can be cured by killing all the deaf puppies and adults harked back possibly deliberately or accidentally to the almost pre-modern primitive years[i] of human agriculture with its ignorance of viruses, bacterial diseases, fungus diseases and genetics. Modern genetics indicated by 2010 that to eliminate all risk of genetic-dog deafness, seemingly shared among all animals that have a back-bone, it was apparently necessary to kill all dogs, which would be generally unacceptable.
Facts 1: Dog one ear (uni-ear) and two-ears (bi-ear) deafness can happen because of any of several causes, none of which are curable by killing puppies or deaf adults:
1) medical illnesses (many are treatable, such as ear mites, etc)
2) accidents, “mechanical” accidents, medical reactions to antibiotics (often treatable)
3) genetic causes that ranged in severity from one breed to another; in many breeds and among mixed breed perhaps as rare as one deaf dog per hundred thousand births, to as many as thirty percent or half of of the pups in some litters.
Dog breed health concerns in 2010 were often badly confused on the Internet by mingling with information about virus, fungus and bacterial diseases in the summaries of the breed situations. On the Internet in 2010, for many dog breeds inherited deafness was listed along with medical treatable conditions such as old-age deficiencies, epilepsy, kidney stones, hip dysplasia, diabetes and so forth.
The main reported cause of genetically deaf dogs in the US during 2010 was selective breeding under [1] accepted breed standards to get or retain special coat colors and patterns, achievable by creating many births of genetic deaf puppies. An unfortunate “poster-children” of ancient selective [2] breeding, that apparently resulted in uniquely high rates of deaf puppies, were the Dalmatians. Data were too scarce to decide if the Catahoula were a similar case. The situation of white Great Danes was likely to be comparable, but too complex and the data too scarce for a clear judgment in 2010. Genetically deaf dogs were victimized by vicious stories that arose parallel with the invaluable, commendable, research initiated by the Dalmatian Club of America (DCA) to understand the causes of genetic deafness of dogs.
From a world-wide scientific viewpoint, all breeds of dog benefited from the research initiated by the DCA, despite inadvertent misunderstandings and probably some misrepresentations by a few organizations and individuals. The research and lessons-learned were extended by other people and groups to other breeds. Progress continues, although sporadically and often unclearly reported on the Internet. Progress could be more rapid if sponsors of other breeds equaled the invaluable “transparency” of the the DCA and Dalmatian owners.
We traced the deaf-dogs superstitions to sources. During over 20 years since the scare-stories were "formalized" during the widespread introduction of BAER genetic deafness testing, many people were apparently misled by other folks who were possibly only ignorant or in some instances had a financial motivate. The origins of the deaf dogs’ are vicious stories and superstitions were entangled with the history of BAER genetic deafness testing of US dogs. Recent research on genetics and dog-behavior made it possible to seriously address several of the marketing scare-stories for the first time.
Facts 2: Genetic deafness is a trait linked to coat patterns and colors. Until dogs recently were required to live primarily as single individuals with humans, one-ear deafness was probably rarely recognized by their humans, and even two-ear deafness of individuals dogs living in packs with other dogs was unimportant and likely often unrecognized.
During more than 10 years, research investigating the genetics of dog deafness identified at least three or more of the primary genes that control or influence the typical numbers of (frequency) deaf puppies per litter (percents) and severity of deafness (uni {one}- or bi {both}-ear). Linkages [3] to exotic fur and coat patterns, such as those of “double merles”, Great Danes, Dalmatians and double dapple Dachshunds were apparently conclusive.
Evolution, plus approved breed standards, lead to deafness as apparently reported by Dr Strain [4], with a “natural” frequency reported by US veterinarians hospitals, of only about 2.5 to about 6.5 per ten thousand (roughly 0.04 percent) among dogs that were taken to veterinarians. That contrasted to the nearly 30 percent (one-ear+ both-ears) reported by Dr Strain of Dalmatians. The average percentage of deafness of the AKC registered breeds whose data were reported by Dr Strain appeared to be, based on statistics, about 0.4 percent for groups in the range of 5,000 to 6,000 dogs; i.e. about ten times more severe than a likely US average including dogs of mixed ancestry.
Of fundamental importance, deafness-genes were reported from research to probably extend to (exist in) all dog breeds, cats, other mammals, and some or all reptiles. That indicated the biological evolution origin of genetic deafness (and some forms of genetic induced blindness) may have reached back to before the separation of the evolution of mammals from the reptiles (dinosaurs), i.e. millions of years. A readable discussion of the evolution of modern domestic dogs during at least 10,000 years was provided by Adam Miklosi [5], 2007.
The 2010 published research reports left little or no plausible hope that genetic deafness can or should be soon eliminated from the modern ecology of domestic dogs and humans. The existence of genetic deafness in other mammals and even reptiles suggested that the genes probably or possibly served a critical evolutionary value, at least during “bottle-neck” population crashes in environments where patched and spotted patterns were vital [Ref. Scientific American]. The well known affiliation of “blue-eyes” with deafness further endorsed an evolutionary advantage for groups with a small percentage of deaf dogs, possibly because of their likely or potential specializing in sight-hunting and immunity to noise distractions. Stanley Coren, 2004; blue-eyed dogs lacking the reflective eye-layer were likely to possess superior accuracy and resolution of vision at the expense of poorer night vision, as compared to ordinary dark-eyed dogs
Facts: Genetic deafness traits were apparently conclusively linked to genes that control or regulate “fancy” exotic patchy, spotted, or other unusual coat colors. Eliminating the deafness genes from the US dog population is probably impossible and undesirable, until we have a full understanding of their survival value. Deliberate selective breeding for dog coat colors and patterns that by policy demand euthanizing (killing) as large as half (50 percent) of some litters of some breeds is probably an unacceptable economic and humanitarian burden on the US rescue and shelter organizations, donors and taxpayers [6]
Old-age deafness of some dogs will continue to happen, as well as occasional accident-caused deafness, and deafness resulting from use of certain medications.
[1] Consistent with AKC policies, the reported Dalmatian Club of America (DCA) policies in 2010 required euthanizing (killing) deaf Dalmatian puppies):Ref www.thedca.org/deaf1.html) According to reports by the DCA, and Dr Strain of LSU, www.lsu.edu/deafness/incidenc.htm, adult two-ears deaf and one-ear deaf (uni-ear) deaf Dalmatians will probably continue to be a trait of nearly 30 percent of future Dalmatians, despite euthanizing an undisclosed number of puppies each year as policy. Where deafness was listed on the Internet as a problem of a breed, often coat and eye colors probably related to deafness were part of the breed’s required or permitted conformation (shape and colors). Thus pure-breed standards approved and indeed could seem to mandate a high birth rate of deaf puppies and some blind from registered breeds. For example: double-dapple Dachshunds, Harlequin Great Danes, English Setters, English Cocker Spaniels, Australian Cattle Dogs, Dalmatians and other breeds.
[2] Public data, posted on the Internet concisely suggested that humans influenced and strongly determined the genetic driving factors that probably made Dalmatians deafness uniquely prevalent compared to almost all other modern dog breeds. Two major human decisions were probably: 1) Initially as long ago as the Middle ages, selective breeding of dogs whose black dot-spots on white coats (inexpensive) resembled “ermine”(expensive) worn by royalty, and 2) Use of “Royal” Dalmatian packs to escort and guard coaches of the elite royalty and aristocracy, with selective breeding for guard-dog attributes and pack activities under road conditions of extreme noise and accidental risk of deafness. Only when Dalmatians in modern history began to be available and living as individual dogs in the homes of “common people” did their genetic deafness become an unfortunate social stigma, banned despite perhaps 700 years during which their inherited deafness was unimportant in the breed because they lived and worked in packs of hearing and deaf dogs.
[3]THE DALMATIAN DILEMMA; White Coat Colour and Deafness;Dr. Bruce M Cattanach, MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit, Harwell, Oxfordshire, UK; www.steynmere.com/DALM_DEAFNESS.html
[4] www.offa.org/index.html
[5] Adam Miklosi, 2007, “Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition”, Oxford Biology
[6] Humane Society of the United States; The State of the Animals 2001; edited By D J Salem and A N Rowan.
[i] As recently as the 1920s attempted slaughter of all infected animals was a nationally accepted disease control practice for domestic animals and wildlife in the US, as reported in the classic book, “Microbe Hunters,” 1926, by Paul de Kruif, Harcourt Brace, Inc. Recently in the UK all of the detected hoof and mouth infected cattle were slaughtered to end an infection.
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