Will Universal Health Care Cover the Dog?

Back in January, I wrote a post entitled Obama Is on the Edge of a Canine Mistake:

The word in the newspaper today is that Barack Obama is considering getting a Portuguese Water Dog.

A Portuguese Water Dog? Why??

Answer not said: Because Ted Kennedy has one.

I'm pretty sure that's about as deep as the research went on this one.

It turns out I was right.

Ted Kennedy actually gifted a Portuguese Water Dog to Obama, which pretty much took the decision out of the the Obama family's hands.

You see, there is policy in Washington, and there is politics.

Politics always trumps policy. Barack Obama owes Ted Kennedy a lot, and Ted Kennedy hopes Obama will deliver a lot, such as universal health care.

But will that universal health care include health care for dogs?

Probably not.

Which is too bad for Portuguese Water Dog owners as this is a generally inbred animal, with 80 percent of the gene pool traced back to just six dogs.

As a consequence, this is a breed that carries a heavier-than-normal genetic load, even for an AKC dog.

As I noted in a post entitled Barack Obama, Ordinary Consumer:

In 1981 the Portuguese Water Dog was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the rarest breed of dog on earth. It was just about that time that an American vacationing in Portugal discovered the dog, brought a few back to the U.S., bred them, got them registered with the America Kennel Club, and their number skyrocketed.

What happened next is predictable: the dogs became deeply inbred, and a doubling down of recessive genes resulted in congenital defect and disease bubbling to the surface.

The first disease to rear its head was Gangliosidosis, or storage disease, which attacks the nerve cells of young puppies and causes a loss of coordination and body functions which kills the dog.

No sooner was this recessive gene discovered, than Addison's Disease reared its ugly head -- an endocrine disease in which the dog loses weight, energy and muscle mass.

As bad as these two problems are, more health care problems lie in wait for the Portuguese Water Dog as inbreeding within the American Kennel Club's closed registry system is required for a dog with so few numbers.

Will Portuguese Water Dogs end up being big puppy mills dogs?

No.

They are too large for commercial breeders and, to be honest, they are not a very attractive dog.

The bread-and-butter of puppy mill producers are small dogs like Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (Nancy Reagan), Toy Poodles and Maltese (Jacques Chirac) and small terriers (George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, FDR).

For a visual parade of former White House dogs, see The White House Goes to the Dogs.

As for the Obama's and their new dog, "Bo," (the initials of Barack Obama, we would point out), we wish them good luck and healthy lives.

The odds are still with the dog -- most dogs, even from deeply inbred lines, do not succumb to illness.

That said, the odds are not what they could be or should be. When loading the dice, the idea is not to load them against yourself or the dog. Mother Nature prefers a mutt.

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