Canine body shape assessments - Can the IHA and the RKC's new Veterinary Conformation Assessment tip the balance against extreme conformation?
An open discussion with the developers of the APGAW Innate Health Assessment (IHA) and the Royal Kennel Club’s Veterinary Conformation Assessment (VCA), exploring how these new approaches to assessing body shape can help address the varied challenges of extreme conformation in dogs.
The session will compare and contrast these two new tools and examine their standalone and shared potential to improve understanding, communicate welfare consequences, challenge the normalisation of extreme body shapes, and influence breeding, ownership, showing and promotion. Crucially, the discussion will move beyond “Can we assess extreme conformation?” to ask: “What do we do with what we now know?”
With robust debate encouraged, the session will explore the opportunities, limitations and potential unintended consequences of conformation assessment — and whether and how these tools can help drive a positive shift in the cultures surrounding what we consider desirable and acceptable in dogs.
- By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- 1.Describe the purpose and key features of the APGAW Innate Health Assessment (IHA) and the RKC Veterinary Conformation Assessment (RKC VCA).
- 2.Compare and contrast the aims, structure, scope and potential applications of the IHA and RKC VCA.
- 3.Critically reflect on the role of veterinary professionals in moving beyond recognition of the health and welfare consequences of extreme conformation towards prevention and wider societal meaningful change.
- 4.Identify opportunities to appropriately apply, use or signpost the IHA and RKC VCA within clinical practice and wider professional contexts.
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