Our eyes tell us what a dog appears to be. His pedigree tell us what he ought to be. But the offspring tell us what he is...

In this book of reprints from the Good Dog! magazine column "The Serious Breeder," we will show you how genetics is important to a breeding program and how genetics is also important to the health of the individual dog.

Forty years ago, the best dairy cow produced 2,640 pounds of milk a year. Through genetics and nutritional advances, the average cow today produces 20,000 pounds of milk a year. Because cows have an economic significance, big bucks are invested by the government into university genetic and nutritional research.

Dogs do not have any economic significance, except to the pet food companies. These companies do the best research, but keep the results to themselves. There is precious little independent research done exclusively for dogs.

Genetic research in dogs has typically sought to solve the mysteries of inherited genetic diseases. There is no research being done to genetically improve the quality of each breed. That is left in the hands of breeders who rely on what experience has taught them. The typical rule of thumb for breeders has been "Breed the best to the best and hope for the best."

We'd like you to know enough about genetics to establish a scientifically-based breeding program of your own. Once you know the basics, you'll see how easily this can be accomplished.

What is required to improve a dog?

The goal of breeding dogs is to produce consistent, high-quality animals generation after generation. By high-quality we mean animals without debilitating defects. How, as a breeder, can you achieve this?

First is to have an understanding of genetics, including inbreeding, outcrossing and linebreeding. Second, you must be able to apply that knowledge. Third, you must select appropriate animals for breeding, and cull out those who should not be bred.

We can take our cues from two places: nature, which consistently develops animals based on survival of the fittest, and second, by applying the proven practices of the livestock industry.

In nature, deer live in a herd. Members of a herd breed with each other. This is called inbreeding. Animals with defects are culled by nature because they don't survive long enough to breed.

When a superior individual challenges or fights his way into a herd, outcrossing occurs. A fresh, superior line is brought in to the herd. In dogs, where man controls the breeding, outcrossing is the mating of non-related individuals who have no common ancestors in the first six generations of their pedigree.

Our job, like nature's, is to select the best, have the best reproduce and eliminate animals with defects. Those not worthy of being bred should be spayed or neutered so they cannot reproduce.

Breeders must be careful when selecting dogs for breeding. The dog's health, temperament and structural soundness must be of primary concern. Ignore these fundamentals and you will only create misery and destruction of your breed.

Realistically, there is no such thing as a 100% perfect animal. You can't breed a perfect dog because it hasn't been invented yet. You, the breeder, must decide which defects are acceptable and which must be eliminated.

There is a difference between faults and defects. Faults are aesthetic conformational flaws. These aberrations do not meet the breed standard, which is the guideline written by and for breeders as a goal for the improvement of the breed. A defect, on the other hand, is a genetic malformation or disease which severely affects the dog's health, soundness, structure and/or temperament. Hip dysplasia is a defect, while a fault would be a dog who is too tall when compared to the breed standard.

A breeder must learn to evaluate dogs honestly. The pluses and minuses of each dog must be weighed and considered. The breeder must decide which faults are tolerable, and which defects are unacceptable. In my opinion, no defect is acceptable.

To evaluate faults, divide them into three categories:

1. Cosmetic. These are non-structural faults which are inherited. Color pattern, pigmentation and eye color are examples.

2. Structural. These faults don't conform to the breed standard and would cause failure in the show ring. They will not impair the dog's functioning, however. These faults include size, head type, eye shape, length of the dog's coat.

3. Environmental. These faults are acquired. They include scars and injuries.

These faults are not necessarily desirable or proper. But they are manageable. You can select and manage these faults and still improve the breed.

Defective animals have genetic malformations and diseases. It makes no sense to attempt to include a defective dog in your breeding program. You can't breed a dog with epilepsy, or a cleft palate or hip dysplasia and expect to improve the breed. Dogs with defects should be spayed, neutered or euthanized, depending on the severity of the defect. A dog with a defect may make a wonderful companion, but it absolutely should not be bred.

In the wild, defective animals do not survive, and they do not reproduce. Therefore, it is absolutely ludicrous for a breeder to try to improve a breed with dogs who have defects.

Irresponsible or uninformed breeders, including many commercial breeders of dogs, may be aware that they are breeding dogs with defects. They don't care, praying for a miracle which may result in a "showstopper" of a dog. The probability of failure is high, and their discards and defects get dumped into the pet market, causing heartbreak and expense for the owners. The problem is compounded when the unsuspecting owner of one of these discards decides it is time his dog "with papers" is bred. The dog with genetic defects finds its way back into the breeding program, resulting in the deterioration of a once-great breed by too many inept backyard breeders.

A breeder should never sell a puppy as breeding stock that they would not be proud to breed themselves. Looking for one superior puppy at the expense of many inferior puppies is the epitome of bad breeding. If you want to improve the caliber of your breed, you must control the poor quality puppies which may be produced by assuring that they are spayed or neutered.

A defect can be masked in a healthy line. A previously healthy line can be contaminated if you breed animals with defects into the line. You can never get the defect out. The whole line is dead. Don't breed or allow animals to breed who have defects!

For the sake of the breed, don't mess with defects. Work with dogs who are sound, healthy, and stable. Eliminate those dogs who produce crippling diseases before they get a strong foothold in your breed.

If you breed a defective dog to a sound dog and your puppies appear sound, don't be fooled. You haven't bred out the genetic defect. It is still there, even though you can't see it. What you have created is a walking time bomb. To prove that you have only masked the defect, test the line by breeding two of the pups together. If the defect is there, the time bomb will explode and you will have another litter with defective puppies.

Faults

If you are going to breed dogs with faults, don't think that breeding dogs with opposite faults will cancel out the fault. Genes don't work that way. You can't mix them. For example, if your bitch has an undershot jaw, don't seek out a stud with an overshot jaw. The two faults will not cancel each other out. You will instead end up with a litter full of undershot and overshot jaws, with a few perfect ones thrown in for good measure.

The bottom line is to breed to individuals who are most nearly perfect and whose ancestors were sound in the area you are trying to correct.

If the dogs who result from your breeding program are not helping improve the breed, you have a responsibility to find a new bloodline. You don't want to be producing pups who contribute poorly to your breed. Start fresh, with a better bloodline.

Let's go back to the example with the undershot and overshot dogs. If you take one of the perfect-looking puppies from the litter and add him to your breeding program, all you have done is to continue a contaminated line. You will never be able to produce an equal or better dog from this dog, as all of the animals behind him in the family tree have faults.

Whether you are interested in maintaining a standard of excellence in your breed or are looking to improve upon a particular breed characteristic, you'll find that putting genetics to work for you will make your life as a breeder much easier.

Genetics can give you the tools you need to calculate probabilities. It's simple, once you know how. And knowing the probability is better than gambling without knowing the odds.