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BSAVA held a press briefing this morning on inherited diseases in dogs and cats the theme of which was some of the great new science around to investigate and track these problems, much of it being showcased at BSAVA Congress.

For me though the star of the show was the little spaniel making a guest appearance. This little dog wandered around making friends, wagging its tail and making people smile. For me the star presence reinforced a comment made by Professor Sheila Crispin, Chair of the Advisory Council on the Welfare Aspects of Dog Breeding.

It's great that recent publicity has moved this issue higher up the agenda but Professor Crispin made the point that we have focused on whether particular traits are inherited and how, rather than on which traits are a welfare problem. According to Professor Crispin the last thing you'd want as a dog is acute closed angle glaucoma. But are some of the other traits welfare problems?

I don't know whether this little dog had any defective genes or not, but if it did have them I'd have to forgive it because it was such a cute dog...and even in a crowd at BSAVA it obviously had a great temperament.