Live data from Hacker News

Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

ucdavis.edu

11–20 of 193 posts

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#11
The UK kennel club allows you to calculate the inbreeding coefficient for either a registered (pedigree) dog or for future puppies of two potential mates:

https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/search/inbreeding-co-effici...

This kind of information is used by responsible breeders and buyers, thus my dachshund has 0% inbreeding going back 5 generations.

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#13

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

Because people are disconnected from what matters in nature and self-centered. French pugs are at the top of breed popularity, facepalm.

Inbred dogs for shallow purposes is a reflection on our species.

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#14
We have a cross between a purebred momma English Spring Spaniel and a purebred daddy Black Lab. They were an accidental happening and we got our boy for cheap. One of our friends got one of his sisters. The variety in those pups is pretty wild. The coloring is similar, black body with white tuxedo stripe along the belly. Our boy is nearly identical looking to the purebred flat coated retrievers we had growing up, he has soft long fur and fully webbed feet. His sister looks like a runt black lab with short coarse fur, our boy is twice her size in weight and stature. I love our mutt!

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#17
post #6

Going on 30 years, I have had a pack of working hounds, usually from 4 to 12 strong. We have rural land surrounded by large plots of more rural land, 4,000 acres+ of tree farm and private hunting preserve, so our hounds are necessary for keeping coyotes and etc off livestock and other pets. In that time we've had many litters of puppies, usually trading them with neighbors to improve the local landrace and pass aroun…

Really interesting, thanks for posting. What do you practically do with the psychopath dogs/pups? Presumably the 'insane effort' required to keep them in line doesn't square well with all the other hard work your farm requires. Are you essentially forced to give the mentally unstable ones to a shelter?

I put the effort into the first one i met; she was named "Rascal" and one of the best dogs evar! (as they all are, of course :)

I had her when the next one decided she needed to try to be boss; and then that pup left to run a wild dog pack for a couple years. they were decent neighbors but didnt thrive. We'd put out food at their corner of the place and they'd sometimes accept some, she set and respect boundaries otherwise.

I tried to keep one of the great dane ones, she came after me at about 9mo old and >100lb; i still have scars. I put that one down then.

I had one other of the danes i wasn't sure about, so I placed it with a guy who does "police / guard dog" training and heard it responded well.

One of the more notional of the bluetick crosses got a job as a junkyard dog, where he didn't have to worry about people too much and vice versa.

We've got a local "no kill" shelter we've been to several times, they have several dogs i classify as "psycho" too. None of mine, and I haven't tried adopting any of them (though i have helped take them to the vet sometimes).

My view is that kind of dog can't be happy without a job and care and is unsafe to let roam where there may be humans for it to hurt. Shelter or dead and I can argue either side of "which is better". Having fostered the birth of a dangerous animal, I feel some responsibility to see it doesn't present a risk to others; and finding jobs for them, keeping them in a jail, or putting them down is a burden.

Re: Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred

#19

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

That makes complete sense.

However a well recognized scientist specializing in dog breeding gave a talk at a conference for a particular breed. They had done extensive genetic analysis of that breed and had some recommendations. Among other recommendations, they recommended mixing in a few animals from the European variant of that breed into the American breeding population. The crowd went quiet, all future talks/panels for the scientist were cancelled. They were uninvited from the conference.

Sad that many breed enthusiasts and even the AKC (who sets the breed standards) are damaging the breeds they care so much about.

Post reply on HN