Kirby Mountain Sporting Dogs
The Breeding of Dogs
The two common practices in dog breeding
are outcross and line breeding. Many people with little knowledge about dog breeding
will ask questions using the phrases pure
bred, well bred, over bred, in bred, or line bred
without knowing what these terms mean. This can lead to a lot of confusion.
Many of the people asking these questions don’t understand the question they
are asking, never mind the answer. Volumes have been written on the breeding of
dogs, so it is impossible to cover every aspect in the contents of a single web
article. However, I will try very briefly to explain what we do and what we do
not do here at Kirby Mountain Sporting Dogs in order to give you an idea of
what we are trying to produce.
Outcross Breeding
Outcross breeding is much easier
to explain so we will start here.
Outcross breeding is when you
take a male and female dog of the same breed but have no relatives that are the
same. It is similar to putting two dogs of different breeds together as they do
not have any relatives. When you mix breeds or outcross in the same breed of
dogs, the puppies could have three different looks. Some may look like the mom,
some like the dad, and some may have neither the mother nor the father’s
appearance. In outcross breeding the appearance (similarities and differences
with the parents) are immediately noticeable. However, the health and
temperament of the outcross breeding takes longer to distinguish.
People often believe that,
because the outcross is a blending of two non related dogs, there is an
averaging of the parents’ characteristics in their offspring. One would think
that more blending of size, shape, coat, ear length, and temperament and health
factors would take place. But this is not true, as I stated before, the puppies
could look nothing like either parent.
One upside to the outcross
breeding is a thing called Hybrid Vigor.
Hybrid vigor means that when you cross breed you get healthier, stronger
specimens. However, not all cross breeding produce hybrid vigor because this is
not a perfect world. Obviously, you need to have two healthy, genetically clean
parents to start—knowing the background of the sires and dams is important in
any breeding. With a dog such as the Labrador Retriever,
the #1 dog in America today, outcross breeding is a good breeding practice.
Why? Because of its popularity, the demand for labs is high; breeding happens
in order to keep up the supply for the demand; and along with all this breeding
comes all the health ailments out there. Outcross breeding and sire/dam
research can reduce the occurrences of these issues.
With outcross breeding there is
a concern with performance. Pointing instinct, flushing instinct, and
retrieving ability can be seriously diminished. It is important to mention here
that diminished performance is a possibility with outcross breeding but with
researching the performance histories of the sires and dams successful dogs can
be produced through this kind of breeding.
Line Breeding
Line breeding means
breeding two animals of the same breed, within the same family. Typical line
breeding practices are to breed a ½ brother to a ½ sister, a granddaughter to a
grandfather, a niece to an uncle, and so on. Some people consider breeding full
brothers to full sisters or fathers to daughters to be line breeding when in
actuality this is called in breeding.
At Kirby Mountain Sporting Dogs,
we use the practice of line breeding, but I will explain what in breeding is in
order to show you why we do not practice in breeding. There are major reasons
for this. Because the breeders using in breeding are looking for a diamond in
the rough, they will forfeit the health and temperament of much of a litter in
order to get one or maybe two great dogs. In breeding may happen by accident
where littermates may accidentally breed. However, some breeders plan such
practices. Breeders of national caliber show and field dogs will partake in
this breeding in order to produce the next national champion or superstar. If
the litter has physical or temperament problems with some or all of the pups, the
breeder is willing to take the risk for the chance of producing the future
national champion. Breeders will often sell the inferior littermates at a
discounted price and will label them as pet quality dogs. Through no fault of
the puppy, it is actually a genetic time bomb waiting for something to go
wrong. At our facility the health and temperament of all our puppies is a
priority. We will not risk an entire litter for one superstar; therefore, we do
not practice in breeding.
Line breeding is a less
judicious process. The key to successful line breeding is HONESTY. You can kid
yourself or be in denial or as we say in the dog world Kennel Blind. Line
breeding has to be done one litter at a time. It needs to be evaluated and a judgment
made as to whether it should be done again.
Line breeding can pass along
physical, temperament, and performance traits: good and bad. If you breed two
dogs with the same physical problems, you will probably have those problems
with the pups. If you breed two dogs that are very timid, that trait will
probably come out in the pups. Breeding two dogs with weak pointing or
retrieving instincts will probably show through in the puppies. The upside in
line breeding is that the puppies will have uniformity in color, shape, and
size. You will have a litter of puppies that look alike.
Some breeders will line breed
once or twice followed by an outcross and then breed back to the line breed
family evaluating the puppies produced in each breeding. It is important to
mention that a breeder should know as much as possible about the history of
both the sire and dam in every breeding.
If this sounds confusing, that’s
because it is!
Best of luck,
John
March 2003
goldy©2003