{"id":722,"date":"2026-03-07T21:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T21:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/?p=722"},"modified":"2026-03-07T21:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T21:30:20","slug":"circular-logic-the-iha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/circular-logic-the-iha\/","title":{"rendered":"Circular Logic &amp; the IHA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You know what\u2019s interesting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we calmly point out that the\u00a0<strong>Innate Health Assessment (IHA)<\/strong>\u00a0may be\u00a0<strong>too blunt a tool<\/strong>\u00a0and should have been\u00a0<strong>sanity-tested on healthy dogs as well as obviously exaggerated ones<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 just to make sure it doesn\u2019t produce false fails \u2014 we\u2019re immediately accused of all sorts of things.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" data-src=\"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-at-21.22.42-1024x1024.png\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-723 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-at-21.22.42-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-723\" srcset=\"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-at-21.22.42-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-at-21.22.42-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-at-21.22.42-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-at-21.22.42-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-at-21.22.42-12x12.png 12w, https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-at-21.22.42.png 1120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apparently we&#8217;re using\u00a0<strong>\u201cmedia privilege\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0to unfairly defend small ethical breeders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or we\u2019re&nbsp;<strong>\u201cscaremongering\u201d<\/strong>, because there is supposedly&nbsp;<strong>nothing to fear<\/strong>.<br>Healthy dogs won\u2019t fail.<br>The tool is&nbsp;<strong>\u201conly voluntary.\u201d<\/strong><br>Corgis, Scotties and Dachshunds will all&nbsp;<strong>\u201csail through.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And if they don\u2019t?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well then breeders can&nbsp;<strong>simply cross them with something else. Problem solved.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re also told we\u2019re&nbsp;<strong>\u201con the wrong side of history.\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;That dogs are suffering everywhere and that rescue centres prove it\u2019s the breeders\u2019 fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One IHA supporter put it like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat would be lovely is if those who are against the IHA and say it is not a useful tool actually came up with their own solution and way of tackling this problem\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words: criticism isn\u2019t welcome unless you produce an entirely new system first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there&nbsp;<em>are<\/em>&nbsp;other approaches. The&nbsp;<strong>Royal Kennel Club\u2019s Nose-to-Tail health framework<\/strong>, for example, looks far more like a veterinary MOT \u2014 a nuanced assessment done by vets rather than a quick visual tick-box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then there\u2019s the other argument:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYour breeders have nothing to fear from the IHA and if dogs fail the test then you have to recognise this is because the dogs have welfare problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So apparently breeders have&nbsp;<strong>nothing to fear<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Except if they fail \u2014 which proves the dogs were suffering all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even when experienced breeders are pointing out that&nbsp;<strong>perfectly healthy dogs could fail a crude measurement.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s the circular logic critics are worried about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The irony is this: the people raising these concerns are&nbsp;<strong>the same small ethical breeders who already health-test, study pedigrees, and provide lifetime support for their dogs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They weren\u2019t meaningfully involved when the tool was created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And now when they ask reasonable questions about unintended consequences, they\u2019re told they\u2019re hysterical, scaremongering, or defending suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But asking for&nbsp;<strong>evidence, testing and scrutiny<\/strong>&nbsp;is not hysteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s how good policy is made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So here\u2019s the real question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Is it the critics\u2019 fault if a welfare tool wasn\u2019t properly sanity-checked before being promoted as the solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMedia privilege\u201d? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just a responsibility to ask questions when policies could shape the future of our dogs.<br><br>The Union of Good Dog People wants to help make the dog world better &#8211; we need to have a seat at the table to do that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know what\u2019s interesting? If we calmly point out that the\u00a0Innate Health Assessment (IHA)\u00a0may be\u00a0too blunt a tool\u00a0and should have been\u00a0sanity-tested on healthy dogs as well as obviously exaggerated ones\u00a0\u2014 just to make sure it doesn\u2019t produce false fails \u2014 we\u2019re immediately accused of all sorts of things. Apparently we&#8217;re using\u00a0\u201cmedia privilege\u201d\u00a0to unfairly defend small [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campaigning","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":724,"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionofgooddogpeople.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}