Double Standards: How Breed Standards Became Breed Disorders | Episode 6

“If God gives you a purebred dog, He’ll throw in a purebred disease too.” That’s the blunt truth — and it’s what this new episode is all about: how our obsession with aesthetic ideals for different breeds has condemned dogs to breed-specific issues and hereditary disorders. I won’t pretend — this episode, and this text, were hard to create. Because I’m furious. It’s an infuriating, cruel topic that doesn't exactly cast humanity in the best light. I tried to keep things calm — but stayed factual. I combed through every corner of the internet: studies, articles, meta-analyses, all of it. Still, it was tough to write. I couldn’t squeeze out anything soft, uplifting, or comforting — I poured all of that into the episode itself. Please give it a listen. It’s a genuinely fascinating (and heartbreakingly grim) topic. Here’s one of the key takeaways: “More than 80 diseases are linked to aesthetic breed standards. That’s roughly a quarter of all hereditary diseases in dogs.” But of course, I’ve also prepared some anchor points from the episode for you: 👑 What King Charles II and King Charles Spaniels have in common (besides royalty!) 🤼 MMA-style scuffles in the field — how Shanti and Riddick learned to speak the same language 🦔 Sonic X, piebaldism, and other English terms that just casually migrated into the Russian version of the podcast 🐁 What Dalmatians and white Bull Terriers share 🌵 Explain your smallness — and why gigantism is just plain inappropriate 🔮 The transparency of knowledge effect — or who are you without your GPT? 🤥 The encyclopedia of obscure breeds: the mythology of the Navarre Pachón and the Andean Tiger Hound 🧬 A thoroughly anti-intellectual tale about how I (tried to) get Riddick’s genetic test results And more stories about how breed standards turn into genetic diseases and structural issues. So with that, I bow out — not wishing you an exactly pleasant listen, but a thought-provoking one. 🩵🩶 Listen, learn, soak up the insights and research from the episode — and don’t forget to drop by the podcast’s Telegram channel: t.me/pyoscast. It’s no longer just tumbleweeds over there — it’s getting more useful (and funnier), I promise. 🩶🩵