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Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

ucdavis.edu

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Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#31

Post by azemetre »

green-eclipse wrote: post #2

This is interesting, but not exactly news. Has been known for decades.

I do think it's news because some breeds suffer terribly at the end of their life, like golden retrieves typically getting cancer at 60% rates. [1] Would you get a golden retriever if you knew that at 7 years-old it's very likely to get a brain tumor?

The same can be said for many breeds that suffer from breathing problems (pugs) or spinal issues (german shepherds) because someone decided that a german shepard should have a certain angle arc in its back because it was "visually" pleasing.

It's honestly disgusting, the UK kennel club bares the majority of this suffering because they somehow declared themselves the defacto authority figure during the late 1880s.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-do-so-many-golden-retriever...

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#33

Post by sktrdie »

What I find interesting is that dogs are way better adapt at living a “city life” or an “apartment life” than we ever will be (unless we start breeding for those traits ourselves). People think “ah dogs are animals and should live in nature and not in closed doors of a city apartment”. Nope, from a genetic point of view some dogs are way more naturally fit to live indoors (look at Maltese for instance who’s bread to be a lap dog).

I also wonder: doesn’t the genetic diversity between different breeds help account with defeating illness? What I mean is that if some sort of disease pops up it might kill a % of breeds, but another % might survive because, well, they’re a different breed with a trait that helped defeat that disease.

Us humans on the other hand have stopped evolving and are quite genetically the same (much more similar than dogs). So from that perspective I wonder whether a disease would be much more dangerous for us & whether actual breeding might be good overall for their species.

Of course inbreeding is a separate issue that hurts the life of the individual. But our apparent need to want different kind of dogs might actually end up saving their species in a doomsday scenario.

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#35

Post by Geezus-42 »

zaroth wrote: post #30
nyanpasu64 wrote: post #3

Why not cross different dog breeds to increase total diversity instead of trying to protect what's left?

I’m not personally a big fan of “purebreds”, but breed was important to me because I had small children and needed an extremely predictable and fairly easily obtained behavior profile. Specifically, I wanted a dope of a dog that was a living, breathing stuffed animal but with enough intelligence to be trained on the basics easily. So I bred my goldendoodle with a bernedoodle and got exactly what I was looking for! Yo…

Doodles already aren't purebred.

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#36

Post by zdw »

todd8 wrote: post #7

From the featured article: > The average inbreeding based on genetic analysis across 227 breeds was close to 25%, or the equivalent of sharing the same genetic material with a full sibling Full siblings would actual share approximately 50%.

It's been a while since I took biology, but doesn't this depend on the genders of the siblings?

Two male brothers have XY, and the Y would have to be shared with the father, and same with two sisters (X from father), but a brother and sister would get a minimum of 50% different as the X and Y from the father would be different?

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#37

Post by thih9 »

bArray wrote: post #25

This is well known. Sometimes people breed the grandfather with the bitch or even the father. I think 'Pedigree certificates' has a lot to answer for in this regard. It doesn't encourage any kind of genetic diversity and people are actively discouraged and punished for trying to introduce new blood into lines. Another group to blame are 'puppy farms', people who breed merely to make money and take no responsibility f…

> not so smart that it's getting bored or trying to figure out how to escape.

This could be understood as if the most intelligent dogs were always bored or trying to escape. To clarify: intelligent dogs do need more stimulation, this is very true. But as long as they get it, they're happy.

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#38

Post by ethbr0 »

Side note: you can get a pretty robust genetic panels (health + breed) for dogs for about $150 now.

We did it recently on two of our pups (both mutts), and it was neat seeing the various possible lineages.

Our tiny terrier / beagle mix came back with >10% Chow & Siberian Husky. Never would have guessed that!

https://embarkvet.com/

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#39

Post by goda90 »

nyanpasu64 wrote: post #3

Why not cross different dog breeds to increase total diversity instead of trying to protect what's left?

One of our dogs is from farmers who specifically bought a giant working breed from across the country to sire puppies with their other giant working breed dogs. The two breeds make a good mix, and it ensures some genetic diversity. They actually use dogs on the farm, so they have more of an interest in cultivating health and good temperament than designer looks like some breeders do.
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