Peter Pan Pups: Unveiling Lifelong Health Risks in Canine Breeds with Persistent Puppy Behaviors

Peter Pan Pups: Unveiling Lifelong Health Risks in Canine Breeds with Persistent Puppy Behaviors

Have you ever noticed certain dog breeds retain their playful puppy-like behaviors well into their adult and even senior years? But for some of these "Peter Pan" breeds, that also means they retain the possibility of certain kinds of injuries or health issues. In fact, there's data that supports this. When Nationwide's Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr. Jules Benson, analyzed the data (drawn from more than 22 million pet insurance claims) being used to build the Nationwide Pet HealthZone, he noticed a surprising trend.

"When we looked at the results for the highest-risk conditions across the life stages of certain dog breeds, we noticed the data was telling a particular story," said Dr. Benson. "Some dog breeds continue to submit claims for what we might think of as 'silly puppy' conditions - including trauma, foreign body ingestion, and toxicity - well into their mature and even senior life stages."

The list of "Peter Pan pups" includes some usual suspects, but others may be surprising to those expecting to see only Labradors on the list:

Top 3 breeds most likely to submit a foreign body ingestion claim as mature adults:

1. English Bull Terrier(2.6x more likely than all other dog breeds)
2. Bernese Mountain Dog(1.9x)
3. American Bulldog(1.6x)

"Most improved" for foreign body claims might go to the Samoyed, who is a whopping 10x as likely to submit a claim as a puppy, but seems to mature well, going down to average risk as a mature adult.

Top 5 breeds most likely to submit a trauma claim as mature adults:

1. Greyhound(3x more likely than all dog breeds)
2. Belgian Malinois(1.9x)
3. Airedale Terrier(1.8x)
4. German Shepherd(1.6x)
5. Weimaraner(1.6x)

For trauma, the Shetland Sheepdogfinds their feet more aptly, going from high risk (5.8x) as a puppy to a slightly below average risk as a mature adult.

Cats in Contrast
Interestingly, the Nationwide team did not see this "eternal youth" trend continue among felines. While some breeds did have foreign body ingestion on the list as young adults (the Siberiantook first place with risk 2.8x greater than other breeds, closely followed by the Maine Coonwith 2.1x risk), no cat breed had foreign body, trauma, or toxicity listed beyond the young adult life stage. They didn't rank at all for any life stage among British Shorthair, Persianor Sphynx- which could earn them the title of most sensible of felines.

"Could we draw the conclusion that cats seem to be more sensible (or risk-averse!) in general? Perhaps," said Dr. Benson. "At the very least, the Pet HealthZone can inform those breeds' pet parents that they can likely focus on other concerns. We hope that by making these pet health insights free and easy for everyone to understand, we can impact the way pets receive care, both at home and in the veterinary clinic."

The Nationwide Pet HealthZone is free for all users and can be accessed by visiting ThePetHealthZone.com.