BreedQuest › Glossary
Pet glossary
The words on the food label, the breeder's health-test list and the vet's notes — defined plainly, with what each one means for your pet.
Health
The conditions and screening terms that come up at the vet, on a breeder's health-test list, and in breed-club literature.
BOASThe breathing disorder that comes with a flat face — narrowed nostrils, an overlong soft palate and a cramped throat that together make ordinary air hard to move.Hip dysplasiaA hip joint that formed loosely, so the ball and socket grind instead of gliding — one of the most-screened inherited problems in medium and large breeds.Elbow dysplasiaAn umbrella term for several developmental faults in the elbow joint that leave the surfaces mismatched and cause front-leg lameness in growing dogs.IVDDSpinal discs that harden early and rupture into the spinal cord, causing pain, wobbling or sudden paralysis — the classic long-backed-breed emergency.Progressive retinal atrophyAn inherited disease in which the light-sensing cells of the retina die off gradually, taking night vision first and ending in blindness.GDV (bloat)The stomach fills with gas and then twists on itself, cutting off its own blood supply — a deep-chested dog's most urgent emergency.Luxating patellaA kneecap that slides out of its groove, making a dog skip a step or hold a back leg up for a stride before carrying on as if nothing happened.Hypertrophic cardiomyopathyThe most common heart disease in cats: the muscle of the left ventricle thickens, so the chamber holds less blood and fills less easily.Dilated cardiomyopathyThe heart muscle stretches thin and the chambers balloon, so each beat pushes less blood — mostly a large-breed dog disease, with a diet-linked form under investigation.EntropionAn eyelid that rolls inward so the lashes and coat rub against the eyeball — painful, common in loose-skinned and heavily wrinkled breeds, and fixable with surgery.
Nutrition
Label vocabulary and feeding terms — what the regulated words mean, and which ones mean nothing at all.
AAFCOThe US body whose nutrient profiles decide what a pet food may call itself complete — it writes the model rules, it does not test or approve foods.FEDIAFThe European pet food industry federation whose nutritional guidelines play the role AAFCO's profiles play in the United States.Complete and balancedA regulated claim that a food supplies every nutrient a pet needs, in the right proportions, as its only diet — the one label phrase that carries real weight.KibbleDry pet food shaped by extrusion — dough cooked under pressure, forced through a die, cut, dried and sprayed with fat and flavour.TaurineAn amino acid cats cannot make in useful amounts and must eat — the reason a cat cannot live on dog food.By-product mealRendered animal parts other than skeletal muscle — organs, mostly — cooked down and dried into a concentrated protein powder.Guaranteed analysisThe small table of minimum and maximum percentages on a pet food label — crude protein, fat, fibre and moisture — and the most misread panel on the bag.Novel proteinA protein the individual animal has never eaten before, used in food-allergy work-ups because the immune system cannot react to something it has not met.Body condition scoreA hands-on scale, usually one to nine, for judging whether a pet is too thin, right, or overweight — more useful than the number on the scales.
Behaviour & training
The words trainers and behaviourists use, defined plainly — including the ones that get used to mean their own opposite.
Positive reinforcementAdding something the animal wants immediately after a behaviour, so the behaviour happens more often — the R+ of training, and a technical term rather than a synonym for kindness.Socialization windowThe early period when a puppy or kitten accepts new things readily, and after which the same things start to be treated as threats.Resource guardingDefending food, a toy, a spot or a person from someone approaching — normal animal behaviour that becomes a problem when it escalates in a living room.Redirected aggressionAn animal worked up by something it cannot reach turns on whoever is nearest — the classic cat-at-the-window incident.Counter-conditioningChanging what something predicts, so the animal's feeling about it changes — the nail clippers stop meaning restraint and start meaning chicken.DesensitisationExposing an animal to a trigger at an intensity low enough to stay calm, then raising it in steps small enough that calm never breaks.Trigger stackingStress that has not been given time to clear adds up, so a small final trigger produces a reaction wildly out of proportion to it.Calming signalsSmall, easily missed gestures — lip licks, head turns, a slow blink, a yawn — that animals use to defuse tension rather than because they are tired.Clicker trainingUsing a distinct sound to mark the exact instant an animal does the right thing, then paying it — the sound buys you the seconds it takes to get the treat out.
Wild & genetics
Terms from conservation and population genetics that decide what counts as a wildcat, a wolf, or a breed at all.
HybridisationBreeding between two distinct populations or species — the main threat to wildcats, because a wildcat that breeds with a domestic cat leaves offspring that are neither.IntrogressionGenes moving from one population into another and staying there, carried in by hybrids that go on to breed back with the parent population.TNRHumanely trapping free-roaming cats, neutering and ear-tipping them, and returning them to where they were found instead of removing or killing them.FeralA domestic animal living wild — descended from domesticated stock, unsocialised to people, and genetically still a domestic animal rather than a wild species.LandraceA local population shaped over generations by climate, terrain and the job it does, rather than by a written standard and a closed studbook.DomesticationThe long genetic change that turns a wild population into one adapted to living alongside people — distinct from taming, which happens to an individual.Coefficient of inbreedingThe probability that an animal inherited two identical copies of a gene from a shared ancestor — a single number for how closely related its parents were.
Breeds & registries
How breeds are defined, recorded and judged — the registry acronyms and the coat-colour genetics behind them.
FCIThe international federation of national kennel clubs, which recognises breeds, sorts them into ten groups and lets each breed's country of origin write its standard.AKCThe main US registry, which keeps its own studbook, recognises a shorter list of breeds than the FCI and sorts them into seven groups.Breed standardThe written description a registry holds for a breed — proportions, coat, movement, temperament — and the document judges score against in the ring.MerleA coat pattern that dilutes patches of pigment into a mottled marbling — and a gene with real consequences when two merles are bred together.BrachycephalicShort-headed — a skull bred shorter front to back, producing the flat face of Pugs, French Bulldogs and Persians.PedigreeA registered record of an animal's ancestors — a family tree issued by a registry, not a guarantee of health or quality.OutcrossingBringing in unrelated animals — sometimes from another breed entirely — to widen a gene pool that has become too narrow to breed out of.