Pet Breed Focus: The Dalmatian

This month's pet breed is the Dalmatian, a very well known breed with it's distinctive spotted coat.

The breed originates from what was Dalmatia, now part of Croatia, with the oldest references to the breed come from 17th century paintings. They were used as dogs of war in Dalmatia and retain a strong guard instinct. The breed was largely developed in England where their strong guarding instincts were utilised to protect brewers' carriages. In the States they were used alongside horse-drawn fire engines and guarded the expensive horses that were tempting to thieves. They have also been used for hunting and their attractive coat led to their use in circuses. Now they are mainly a family pet that increased in popularity due to the book and later the films 101 Dalmatians. This unfortunately led to much irresponsible dog breeding and ownership resulting in many abandoned dogs although now the numbers of dalmatians being registered has fallen substantially since these surges.

This large muscular dog is predominantly white with black or liver coloured spots although they can be other colours or even tricoloured. They have a short coat that lacks the oils that produce a 'doggy smell' but sheds a lot. As they were bred to run alongside carriages they are a high energy and stamina dog that needs a lot of exercise so they do not get bored and destructive. They are not born with spots but develop them at around 3 weeks old with most spots developed at around a month old; although they can still gradually develop new spots as they age. They usually have large litters of around 8-13 pups but litters can be even larger than this.

They are relatively healthy but there are a couple of problems associated with the breed such as deafness which is linked to the dog's pigmentation; around 30% of dalmatian puppies have some level of deafness.

Another common problem is hyperuricema, where the dogs lack the enzyme uricase and have trouble breaking down uric acid which can lead to gout, and kidney and bladder stones. This is more likely to be present in older males and limiting the amounts of protein in the diet can help as well as always having access to fresh water. Efforts have been made to reintroduce the enzyme to some dalmatians through using other breeds such as pointers but there is a reluctance to accept dogs, even 13 generations removed as pedigrees. Similar to this, dalmatians with larger areas of pigmentation are less likely to have problems with deafness but are disqualified from breed standard to preserve the spotted coat. In later life autoimmune thyroiditis is commonly a problem effecting around 10% of dalmatians.

Temperment-wise they are intelligent, playful dogs that are fond of other animals especially horses and their stamina makes them a great running partner. They have some mild protective instincts so should be socialised well to promote a stable temperment.