Didn't know these reports existed, Breed Population Analyses  http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/vets-researchers/publications-statistics-and-health-results/breed-population-analyses/ just going through the one for my breed.

Why don't the KC say these are available rather than announcing take your dog to  work day or similar.

"It  should  be  noted  that,  while  animals  imported  fro
m  overseas  may  appear  completely  unrelated,
this is not always the case. Often the pedigree ava
ilable to the Kennel Club is limited in the number
of generations, hampering the ability to detect tru
e, albeit distant, relationships. "

Copy/paste didn't entirely work, but these are the final couple of sentences to do with my main breed in the information to be found in that KC link, which kind of negates most of the graphs and information given, especially in terms of the gene pool!!   I know many of the recently imported hounds, mine included, came originally from UK bred hounds.  So much for statistics.   I have often wished there was a means of letting the KC know when a dog dies.  But I suppose not everybody wants to be bothered to do that.  For me, longevity within a breed /bloodline is important.

At least your breed is a British one, my breed we are regularly importing and always have done.

Fro example I have travelled abroad on two occasions to mate my bitches ending up with COI' of below 0.5% but I can trace common ancestors in both cases in no more than a couple more generations.

Surely it cannot be beyond the whit of man to import entire pedigree databases between kennel clubs.

That would be a lot to ask as well known dogs in our breed are misspelt in the MYKC data, yet all the data is there in BRS records, which is reproduced in our club journals each year.

For example a dog born late 1980's who became a champion here, then exported to Ireland, re-imported and exported to USA appears with a correctly and incorrectly spelt affix.

IT'S BETTER THAN NOTHIGN I SUPPOSE

> At least your breed is a British one, my breed we are regularly importing and always have done.

Actually much as the breed has been in Britain for a long time now, it's actually French!!   And in recent years, there have been a lot of imported hounds, but again basically bring back those hounds that were exported from the UK in the late 70s and 80s.   The irony of all this is at the time we returned from Canada with our then 7 hounds, we were getting 'we don't want that foreign **** here (this despite, or probably because?  we were very successful with one of those we took into the ring here, making her up in 3 straight shows so becoming the first Canadian-bred bitch in the breed, to manage this).   Now everybody is rushing to import from Europe and America.

I thought the modern Basset was developed here in UK, and that it's the Artesian that is the French version.

Nope.  Originally the Bassets here came from France.   The Artesian Normand is another cousin of the Basset - just like the PBGV, the GBGV and the Fauve de B.   The AN being 'drier' than the Basset today.   There is a well known Artesian Normand who came into the UK at the time when new blood was needed.   Check the Breed History on this website.

http://www.champdogs.co.uk/breeds/basset-hound

have to say I really like the Artesians, like a Basset without the loose wrinkles.

Interestingly in the UK we (meaning the KC really) is trying to get the breed back to where it should have been - NOT EXAGGERATED.   Unfortunately at a time when many of the older established breeders were either retiring, stopping breeding, or simply dying, so many new people arrived on the scene, perhaps with a 'win regardless' attitude which meant going to 'more is better' and all the wrinkles, heavy and low to the ground look we started seeing in the ring.   This perhaps wasn't helped by the importation from Holland of a bitch who produced the most successful, still, male Basset of all time - his record still stands.   Because of his success, all the newer people flocked to and were allowed to use him which can often not be 'the best' for any breed.  And it did tend to take the breed down a 'more' road!   In Europe there are separate classes for the AN which to some extent I believe has taken the Basset in another direction - bigger, heavier and more wrinkled.   A 'sensible' hound I sold to another breeder in the UK (two actually) went out to Europe very much behind my back and was bred 5 times, each time to a different stud dog, and she still threw herself in her puppies, which were NOT exaggerated.   They weren't appreciated by her then breeder-owner, lacking any excess (she was by a visiting Am.Ch hound who had done 2 seasons with an American pack before taking his American conformation title, bred to my Canadian-bred UK Champion bitch).   She might have done well in the AN ring!!!

There's a fine balance between retaining typical Basset features, and not going OTT.   We in the breed had to fight to retain this, or we might have been looking at shorter backs, more leg length, shorter ears = A BEAGLE!!! has some people had their way......

Must say at Crufts this year I thought many of the hounds had less of that unattractive bagginess underneath.