New Innate Health Tool available to assess dog’s suitability to breed

19 November 2025

A new Innate Health Assessment (IHA) tool for dogs has been launched by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) to tackle issues around extreme conformation in dogs.

The IHA Tool was developed in partnership with PetProov* and is based on research from the Royal Veterinary College. The Tool is a 10-point checklist intended to assist dog breeders, licensing officers and prospective dog owners to carry out a visual check of any dog in assessing their innate health characteristics. The 10 criteria aim to capture the most common and serious extreme conformations in dogs today with an overall aim of achieving physically healthier dogs. The criteria may change over time in response to new evidence.

The Tool is supported by a number of animal welfare charities and associated organisations. BSAVA is supportive of the principles underpinning the IHA Tool which builds on the ‘CFSG Guidance on Canine Conformation and Breeding‘ launched in 2020 for which BSAVA took the lead to conceive and develop as part of CFSG. These principles ensure there is a focus on any dog or breed. The IHA Tool further builds on these foundations and as the preliminary results of IHA pilots appear promising, BSAVA will be interested to see the outcomes resulting from the new Tool as it is used more widely. As a member of both CFSG and APGAW, BSAVA recognises we are on a journey to improve dog breeding and physical conformation therefore, we anticipate the IHA Tool is a further step towards achieving this.

Innate health describes a dog’s capacity to carry out the natural functions and behaviours that any normal dog should be able to do, such as being able to blink, breathe, communicate, exercise, eat, hear, reproduce and sleep. A dog with good innate health will be able to carry out all these functions without limitations caused by its physical conformation. The IHA tool can be accessed here.

*Information about PetProov is available here: https://www.petproov.com/