ARE YOU THINKING OF BECOMING A DOG BREEDER?
By Dr.Amit Bhardwaj,
Large &small Animal surgery expert, Pune.
Genetics are the foundation of all heredity and if you want to replicate or remove specific traits from dogs, you have to understand the mechanisms behind genetics and heredity in dogs.
Cells, DNA, Chromosomes & Genes — definitions needed should to know by Dominant & Recessive Genes.
To some of you, this sounds very confusing but this is the essence of breeding dogs or any other species.
When you select what sire will mate with what dam, you are responsible for any wrongdoings and achievements.
➡️ Linebreeding
incorporates and passes on specific traits on a continuous basis to the next generations.
➡️ Inbreeding
will set those characteristics and traits in stone by increasing homozygosity of recessive genes to uniformise litters.
➡️ Back-breeding
Is a form of inbreeding where one dog mates with another dog to then mate with the strongest from that litter.
➡️ Grading up
Allows you to start with an average stock and gradually improve your dogs by bringing quality external blood.
➡️ Outcrossing
introduces new characteristics in your bloodline that will then have to be improved and reinforced.
➡️ Outbreeding
(i.e. cross-breeding) is mainly used to designer breeds.
Having a deep understanding of your program, your dogs and their characteristics are crucial so you can then use the most appropriate breeding styles to see improvements over the very next generations.
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Each litter that you produce is a wonderful occasion for you to spot the best specimens that you will want to keep for the future of your bloodline; this is called the first pick of the litter. You may also grant that right to the stud owner instead of a cash payment for a stud service.
Just a clarification: back-breeding, as defined above, should not be confused with back to back breeding. Breeding a bitch ➡️ back to back⬅️ means making her have a litter over several consecutive heats instead of giving her some rest in between pregnancies. Usually, breeders favoring back to back breeding do so in order to retire the bitch a lot earlier.
☝️Dog breeders must be careful to not practice overbreeding: produce too frequent litters from a given bitch or stud. On the marketing side, you are diluting your great bloodline 🧬 and scarcity disappears. On the health side, overbreeding dogs is a disgusting malpractice that leads to horrible health complications including eclampsia, malnutrition, uterine infections, and weak litters.
💡Understand what dog breeding strategy to adopt.
PEDIGREE ANALYSIS
Pedigree analysis means the thorough research of the ancestors of a given dog in order to establish their weaknesses, strengths, and whether or not we can spot a pattern or repetition of desirable or undesirable traits and characteristics.
Some valuable pieces of information you can quickly find from a dog’s pedigree chart include:
Titles and Awards
Patterns of Desired and Undesired Traits
Temperament
Conformation
Health
Pigmentation
Ancestry
Because we don’t have access to the potential matches’ genome, we must study each dog’s ancestors one by one and go back to as many generations as possible.
Some traits are recessive and can be carried over each generation without showing.
If you only study one generation, you can be tricked; but if you study ten generations, you will see the defect or pattern at some point.
Remember that some flaws are not that serious but may take several generations to be completely out of your bloodline.
Lastly, when you read a pedigree for desired traits, you can tackle a pedigree analysis in two ways:
1️⃣ Selecting dogs that show the desired results, or
2️⃣ Selecting dogs that are proven to have clear measurable physical features that are responsible for a given desired result.
⚠️Note:
Keep a breeding book on hand and write down important notes with each breeding, important dates, pups produced and bitches health.
References:On request.
