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Canine degenerative myelopathy (DM) is an adult-onset, chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disease reported in multiple canine breeds, including the German Shepherd Dog (GSD). Clinical signs include progressive motor neuron paralysis, which begins in the pelvic limbs and eventually leads to respiratory distress, which may necessitate euthanasia. A common DM-associated mutation is a single nucleotide substitution that causes an amino acid substitution (c.118G>A, p.E40K) in the canine SOD1 gene. This SOD1 mutation and the clinical progression rate of A/A risk genotype in the Japanese GSD population have not been analyzed before. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the frequency of the mutated allele and analyze the clinical progression rate in the Japanese GSD population. We studied 541 GSDs registered with the Japanese German Shepherd Dog Registration Society between 2000 and 2019. Genotyping was performed using real-time PCR with DNA extracted from the hair roots of each dog. The study revealed 330 G/G dogs (61%), 184 G/A dogs (34%), and 27 A/A dogs (5%), indicating a frequency of the mutant allele of 0.220, which are in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. We analyzed the clinical signs in A/A dogs with an age limit of 10 years based on information obtained from the dogs’ owners. Of the seven A/A dogs older than 10 years, owners reported DM-related clinical signs, indicating a clinical progression rate of 100%. These results, further genotyping, and thorough clinical examinations of SOD1 A/A risk genotype will help control and prevent DM in the Japanese GSD population.

Objective—To design and test a motion analysis protocol for the gait analysis of adult German Shepherd (GS) dogs with a focus in the analyses of their back movements. Animals—Eight clinically healthy adult large-sized GS dogs (age, 4 ± 1.3 years; weight, 38.8 ± 4.2 kg). Procedures—A six-camera stereo-photogrammetric system and two force platforms were used for data acquisition. Experimental acquisition sessions consisted of static and gait trials. During gait trials, each dog walked along a 6 m long walkway at self-selected speed and a total of six gait cycles were recorded. Results—Grand mean and standard deviation of ground reaction forces of fore and hind limbs are reported. Spatial-temporal parameters averaged over gait cycles and subjects, their mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variance are analyzed. Joint kinematics for the hip, stifle and tarsal joints and their average range of motion (ROM) values, and their 95% Confidence Interval (CI) values of kinematics curves are reported. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—This study provides normative data of healthy GS dogs to form a preliminary basis in the analysis of the spatial-temporal parameters, kinematics and kinetics during quadrupedal stance posture and gait. Also, a new back movement protocol enabling a multi-segment back model is provided. Results show that the proposed gait analysis protocol may become a useful and objective tool for the evaluation of canine treatment with special focus on the back movement.

Hereditary eye diseases occur to varying degrees in all dog breeds. Individual purebred breeds have specific predispositions to various eye disorders. The German Shepherd is diagnosed mainly with chronic superficial keratitis/pannus, but also with: distichiasis, plasmoma/atypical pannus, corneal dystrophy, persistent pupillary membranes, cataract, cone degeneration, retinal dysplasia, optic nerve hypoplasia/micropapilla, and limbal melanoma. Individual ocular abnormalities are manifested by characteristic clinical manifestations and ophthalmological findings. Some eye diseases can lead to blindness, others affect the comfort of life or work use of the dog to varying degrees. A thorough knowledge of individual ocular pathologies in a particular breed leads not only to the identification of the diagnosis but also to the correct assessment of the dog’s breeding usability.

Pituitary dwarfism (PD) in German Shepherd dogs (GSD) is a rare endocrinopathy. Cause and inheritance of the disease are well characterized, but the overall survival time, presence of concurrent diseases, quality of life (QoL) and influence of different treatment options on those parameters is still not well investigated. The aim of this study was to obtain data regarding the disease pattern of GSD with PD and to investigate the impact of treatment. 47 dogs with dwarfism (presumably PD) and 94 unaffected GSD serving as controls were enrolled. Data were collected via a standardized questionnaire, which every owner of a participating dog had completed. Dogs with PD were grouped based on three categories of treatment: Group 1 (untreated), group 2 (treated with levothyroxine), group 3 (treated with thyroxine and progestogens or with growth hormone (GH)). Groups were compared using One-Way-Anova, Kruskal-Wallis test or Wilcoxon-rank-sum test. Categorical analysis was performed using Two-Sample-Chi-Squared-test. Dogs treated with thyroxine and gestagen or GH were significantly taller and heavier compared to all other dogs with PD. Quality of life was best in dogs with PD treated with thyroxine and similar to unaffected GSD. Treatment increased survival time in dogs with PD independent of the treatment strategy. Dogs receiving thyroxine and progestogens or GH did not develop chronic kidney disease (CKD). GSD with PD should be treated at least for their secondary hypothyroidism to increase survival time. Additional treatment with progestogens or GH improves body size and seems to protect against the occurrence of CKD.

Pituitary dwarfism (PD) in German Shepherd dogs (GSD) is a rare endocrinopathy. Cause and inheritance of the disease are well characterized, but the overall survival time, presence of concurrent diseases, quality of life (QoL) and influence of different treatment options on those parameters is still not well investigated. The aim of this study was to obtain data regarding the disease pattern of GSD with PD and to investigate the impact of treatment. 47 dogs with dwarfism (presumably PD) and 94 unaffected GSD serving as controls were enrolled. Data were collected via a standardized questionnaire, which every owner of a participating dog had completed. Dogs with PD were grouped based on three categories of treatment: Group 1 (untreated), group 2 (treated with levothyroxine), group 3 (treated with thyroxine and progestogens or with growth hormone (GH)). Groups were compared using One-Way-Anova, Kruskal-Wallis test or Wilcoxon-rank-sum test. Categorical analysis was performed using Two-Sample-Chi-Squared-test. Dogs treated with thyroxine and gestagen or GH were significantly taller and heavier compared to all other dogs with PD. Quality of life was best in dogs with PD treated with thyroxine and similar to unaffected GSD. Treatment increased survival time in dogs with PD independent of the treatment strategy. Dogs receiving thyroxine and progestogens or GH did not develop chronic kidney disease (CKD). GSD with PD should be treated at least for their secondary hypothyroidism to increase survival time. Additional treatment with progestogens or GH improves body size and seems to protect against the occurrence of CKD.

Abstract Dogs were the first animal to become domesticated by humans, and they represent a classic model system for unraveling the processes of domestication. We compare Australian dingo eye contact and socialization with Basenji and German Shepherd dog (GSD) breeds. Australian dingoes arrived in Australia 5,000–8,000 BP, and there is debate whether they were domesticated before their arrival. The Basenji represents a primitive breed that diverged from the remaining breeds early in the domestication process, while GSDs are a breed dog selected from existing domestic dogs in the late 1800s. We conducted a 4-phase study with unfamiliar and familiar investigators either sitting passively or actively calling each canid. We found 75% of dingoes made eye contact in each phase. In contrast, 86% of Basenjis and 96% of GSDs made eye contact. Dingoes also exhibited shorter eye-gaze duration than breed dogs and did not respond to their name being called actively. Sociability, quantified as a canid coming within 1 m of the experimenter, was lowest for dingoes and highest for GSDs. For sociability duration, dingoes spent less time within 1 m of the experimenter than either breed dog. When compared with previous studies, these data show that the dingo is behaviorally intermediate between wild wolves and Basenji dogs and suggest that it was not domesticated before it arrived in Australia. However, it remains possible that the accumulation of mutations since colonization has obscured historical behaviors, and dingoes now exist in a feralized retamed cycle. Additional morphological and genetic data are required to resolve this conundrum.

Atopic dermatitis is one of the most common skin diseases in dogs. Pathogenesis is complex and incompletely understood. Skin colonizing bacteria likely play an important role in the severity of this disease. Studying the canine skin microbiota using traditional microbiological methods has many limitations which can be overcome by molecular procedures. The aim of this study was to describe the bacterial microbiota of the skin and ear canals of healthy non-allergic and allergic German shepherd dogs (GSDs) without acute flare or concurrent skin infection and to compare both. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence data revealed no differences of bacterial community patterns between the different body sites (axilla, front dorsal interdigital skin, groin, and ear canals) in non-allergic dogs. The microbiota at the different body sites of non-allergic GSDs showed no significant differences. Only for the samples obtained from the axilla the bacterial microbiota of allergic dogs was characterized by a lower species richness compared to that of non-allergic dogs and the bacterial community composition of the skin and ear canals of allergic dogs showed body site specific differences compared to non-allergic dogs. Actinobacteria was the most abundant phylum identified from the non-allergic dogs and Proteobacteria from allergic dogs. Macrococcus spp. were more abundant on non-allergic skin while Sphingomonas spp. were more abundant on the allergic skin. Forward step redundancy analysis of metadata indicated that the household the dogs came from had the strongest impact on the composition of the skin microbiome followed by sex, host health status and body site.