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Post by FlatCoatedLover on May 19, 2004 17:42:23 GMT -5
I am adding my imput on the health of mutts vs. pure breed from my standpoint of a geneticist.
There is no bases for any assertion that any individual dog will be healthier then another. But looking at the population as a whole mutts will tend to have less genetic based problems than pure breed dogs.
The basis for this is simple when speaking from a purely genetic stand point. The smaller the gene pool of a breeding population the more likely it is that two dogs with the same deliterious mutation (but with no expression of the trait) will mate passing the gene to offspring causing manisfestation of that trait.
It is the same reason that many countries have laws against marriage between relations. With inbreeding comes defects many of which can be severe and even life threatening. So, some breeds like German GSD still have a fairly large breeding population many purebeeds are being bred from a population of less than 30 individuals (which statistically is gentically dangerous) will eventually being to have more and more problems until the death of the breed.
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Post by GSDRottiePeiGirl on May 19, 2004 18:01:40 GMT -5
I just wanted to say, I love the GSD breed, and I happen to be owned by one, and I'm happy to say he's got a straight back, none of that slanted BS
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Post by Nicole on May 20, 2004 14:13:28 GMT -5
many purebeeds are being bred from a population of less than 30 individuals (which statistically is gentically dangerous) will eventually being to have more and more problems until the death of the breed. Which breeds are you referring to so we know to stay clear of them. Are you referring to a single breeder doing this or that the entire breed population is being bred from this small pool. Shame on the breeders who do this without considering the problems that will develop. I know there is a strategy to line breeding but even too much of that results in a "wrongly wired" dog. With only 30 dogs there has to be a great deal of inbreeding I would think. And welcome to the board!!
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Post by Aussienot on May 20, 2004 18:02:15 GMT -5
Interesting point. Small gene pool is one of the problems serious professional breeders of "rare" breeds face here in Australia.
Porteguese Water Dogs and NS Duck Tollers are two breeds that come to mind. I have only seen one PWD here -A Grand Champion, in fact - until I knew the breed I thought it was an ugly standard poodle with a long tail.
There are so few here (around 50 PWDs from just a couple of spreciality breeders) that to avoid interbreeding sperm has to be imported from overseas.
The process of importing breeding stock to diversify the bloodlines is time consuming and costly and Quarantine Services don't condone the importation of dogs for breeding stock so you have to say it's a pet.
Hence puppies from these breeds are very rare and expensive, so not likely to grow in popularity anytime soon.
Kind of a vicious circle.
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Post by FlatCoatedLover on May 20, 2004 22:05:05 GMT -5
In general most breeds of dogs from professional breeders come from small breeding stock. To have a viable breeding population, with sufficient genetic variation to stay that way requires at least 30 breeding pair to begin with and instiution of random breeding. This means not breeding 2 individuals to bring forward a single trait or sets of traits. This practice of selective breeding to meet a breed standard is in no way "bettering the breed" but inheriantly damaging it.
The best way to choose a dog, if you are going to get a pure breed is to get the pedigree and verify that the parents have no common ancestors closer than 3 generations. The further away the better.
As a owner of both pure breeds and "mutts" in my experience the mutts have been better tempers, easier to train and at least equally as beautiful. (My pure breed have all come to me by accident as I would never and I mean ever pay the crazy prices for them.) Very few people actually use dogs for the purposes they were breed for so what is the point??
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