Breeding and Breeding Myths

Here we will cover the difference in Out cross breeding, Line Breeding and Inbreeding. The reason to and not to. It may be way more different then you were ever taught to think.

To many people are breeding and have no clue as to genetics and what breeding is all about they only think put two dogs together and sell puppies. Wrong ! Breeding is years of research and knowing the lines that make up your dog. I am not talking about title CH, or BOB. I am talking about the genetic make up of your dog.

The most important thing to remember is, You try to breed to improve your lines ( and the Breed ) look for a sire or dam that has something your dog is lacking that they can contribute to your breeding program. This should be your goal !

When you

IN-Breed. You are breeding 2 very close related dogs.

LINE Breed- Dogs that are distantly related.

OUT-Cross- Dogs that are in no way related.

What does each mean to the genetic make up of your dog ?

In breeding

Inbreeding is something  that is Mother to son, father to daughter brother to sister

One of the biggest breeding myths is inbreeding. While it must be done with careful and precise genetic make up. This is were you will double you strengths and faults. One must truly understand the genetic make up of their breeding stock.

Yes Inbreeding is done.
Yes there are reasons to do it.
Before you can understand why its done you have to have a true understanding of genetics. it is done to better the breed, get it more pure, to weed out the bad qualities and keep the good.

If you have a dog that is pretty tightly bred, you go "out" with that sire/dam, and then you can come back into to your line with the offspring

This is how you get consistency in your litters. That is to say you can look at the pups and know they are all related cause they look alike.

 Again I caution, Only a very experienced breeder should inbreed. You have to know what you
are trying to get. You have to know your lines. You will pull good forward as well as bad.

Line breeding

Line breeding is important if you want to keep the good things about your breeding program. Finding the distant relative Grandfather to Grand daughter, Cousins to Cousins. Picking the greatness in the line and expounding on it with the like greatness.

Tight line breeding will really magnify the faults so you better be confident with what's in your dogs back ground.

Same rule of thumb will apply here as in Inbreeding. Caution must be used in knowing your dogs genetic makeup faults and positives.

Out Crossing

If you only breed unrelated dogs, Do you loose the good things in your dogs?

When a breeder only out crosses and never line breeds or inbreeds you will loose consistency in your litters.
When you look at the variation of the looking and build of the mastiff breed this is why. Many do not resemble a mastiff at all.

A good breeder will tell you why they chose the breeding type for their program.

There is not as much to fear in the dogdom world as one may have thought.

Work Closely with your breeders and let your future plans be known so that may help you on the right path of choosing a puppy.