Dr Dan O’ Neill, Associate Professor in Companion Animal Epidemiology at Royal Veterinary College, joins us to discuss the latest research from VetCompass on comparing three ‘designer’ cross breeds namely the Cavapoo, Cockapoo and the Labradoodle on whether they are healthier than their ‘pure bred’ parts. Revealing to some surprise that these three mixes are indeed no healthier than their pedigree parents, we chat about bias, stigma and trends that influence dog owners. We discuss the shift in dog ownership towards these new ‘breeds’, in the wake of much discussion on the health limiting over-exaggerated features of some pedigrees that has caused a shadow to fall across all purebreds. Dr Dan is passionate about ‘Innate Health’ which simply means dogs should be able to express themselves as dogs being able to breathe, run, and communicate as a dog is meant to! We discuss the work that Vet Compass is doing to paint a picture, a Demo-graph, on all aspects of modern post-pandemic dogs and their owners, including husbandry, which is coming soon!

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Music and production by Mike Hanson for Pod People Productions

Cover art by Jaijo

Cover photo by Rhian Ap Gruffydd at Gruff Pawtraits

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