She looks great... but I think the whole point is that a dog can look great and have
underlying health issues.
In other words,
health issues that are not visible to the naked eye.
My guess is that you resent people's attitudes toward BYB dogs, because your dog isn't from health tested lines and she is fine, so now you want to defend BYB mastiffs.
There are a number of issues with untested e.g. heelers :
- It's about probability, or the incidence of health problems... just because one dog is fine doesn't mean the rest of the litter isn't crippled.
- Dogs can have problems and still look great.
- Dogs can get problems later in life.
That said, people have been breeding working dogs (hard) for centuries and producing reasonably healthy animals. Could they be doing it better, by testing, yes, but am I really that worked up about it? No. I think we're in agreement there.
But should we apply system to all dogs, considering (in addition to the problems listed above for a relatively healthy breed):
- Large and giant breeds are more likely to get e.g. hip dysplasia.
- Some breeds have more prone to health issues than others.
- Dogs from non-working lines are arguably more prone to health issues.
I mean I think you'll agree that there are breeds that are just riddled with health problems... how do you think they got that way? How are people supposed to make them healthy again?