“Breed to the standard. Don’t try to improve it. Respect it.”
population that has changed so much in the last few decades. Have we, as breeders, takenlicensetodeviatefrom the standard to the point of ill health for our breed? Have we, as breeders, caved in to the pet market and ignored the standard? Or have we decided the standard leaves enough room for interpretation that we can take liber- ties? The answer I give is the best ad- vice I’ve been given from a breeding mentor. “Breed to the standard. Don’t try to improve it. Respect it.” Like some other breeds, it is the head of the Maltese that has been most affected by fad, fashion, pet owner preferences, and deviation from the breed standard. The consequences of changing skull shape are complicated and can be devastating. The toy breeds were built using forms of dwarfism. Ateliotic pituitary dwarfism is a deficiency in somatro- pin which results in stunted growth of all somatic cells in the body. This is the form of dwarfism that minia- turizes all part. The two other types
youwill recognize are achondroplasia which shortens the legs, lengthens body and gives a larger head and brachycephalic achondroplasia which shortens the head by shortening the mid face and upper jaw. If either of the last two types of dwarfismare present in the Maltese we have some major problems. All forms have side effects and they are all serious ones. The an- swers for our biggest healthproblem, a neurological disease called MUE (by necropsy can be diagnosed as GME), have yet to be discovered and there is a research project being conducted by Dr. Renee Barber at the University of Georgia (contact: rbarber@uga.edu ). It is impossible to contemplate neuro- logical disorders without considering the effects of skull shape. We’re all aware of the neurological disorders Maltese face today. Head shape has an enormous effect on neurological disorders. The breed standard specifically describes the skull as slightly rounded on top, the stop moderate, the eyes set not too
far apart, the muzzle is of medium length, fine tapered but not snipey. We cannot have healthyMaltese dogs without a healthy skull shape. As im- portant as structure, the head is the neurological control center of healthy life. It is in our breed’s best interest for us all to understand the head de- scribed in the breed standard is not to be reinvented or changed in any way. We can play around with our inter- pretations of silky pure white hair or how high the arch of the tail with its tip lying to the side over the quarter. We can breed for ultra pigment with eye halos as our preference. We can prefer the smaller side of the standard or the larger end. None of these areas of interpretation affect the health of our breed. There is so much to consider when we take on the responsibility of being breeders but our first responsibility is to our breed standard. Always let the breed standard lead you forward. That is where we will find health and type.
“It is in our breed’s best interest for us all to understand the head described IN THE BREED STANDARD IS NOT TO BE REINVENTED OR CHANGED IN ANY WAY.”
T op N otch T oys , M ay 2019 • 55
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