What genetic traits to watch out for ...

[slowandeasy]

Jeff,


I wish I could answer that. I have never been fortunate to own anything like that. And there are hundreds of stud advertisements claiming to be able to breed to poodles and get super stars. I believe this to be fairy tale talk. Never have seen this to be true.


But for what ever reason it is absolutely possible with females. I have never had the pleasure of owning one. But I have no problems recalling females that others were blessed to own that fit that description. So for what ever reason, it is as we have always found. Females have an awful lot to do with the out come of pups. But no matter what, the next generations will struggle immensely in the reproducing department.


I am not an antique by any means. But the ship has set sail as far as me trying to do any serious breeding. But I would sure love to have one of those type females fall in my lap. Probably have enough decent pups to last my life time. And teach the grand kids a little something.So that they could tackle the line breeding program for a few decades. But will make sure they know where the real priority's are.


Take care, Willie

[JTG]

Jeff, this is quite common, the problem is that the offspring, will not continue to produce their like and there will be a wide variation within the offspring. If you wanted to breed for one dog , you can get a very good hound, but in the long run, you are setting yourself up for failure.

“It’s is not unusual to produce an excellent quality dog from an outbred litter. The abundance of genetic variability can place all the right pieces in one individual. Many top winning show dogs are out bred, consequently, however, they may have a very low inbreeding coefficients and may lack the ability to uniformly pass on their good traits to their offspring.” Dr. Bell

John and Willie I got one I'd like to hear from both of you on, (Now don't get me wrong I think in/line breeding is the way to go ) A friend of mine had a Walker bitch that it didn't matter what he bred her to hound or cur the little suckers hit the ground run cat ,bear, lion and fox (well above avg. dogs some superstars). What was it about her that made this so ? Don't know if it will play into your answer at all but he was told she was Loose Bruce bred just how close or if line bred on him is not know as far as how close she could of been she just died a week ago at 13 or 14yrs old so I'm pretty sure he didn't sire her. Why was she able to be crossed with so many different males with success ? ( John this is the one I pm'ed you about last week )

[Jeff Eberle]

Thanks

[dwalton]

Line breeding or inbreeding is the way to perfect a dog if you have some good enough to try it with. Without it there would be no American breeds. We would have fox hounds and some breed of blood hound from the old country. It is the way to improve or eliminate traits. Most people don't have the time or money to do so effectively. Willy is right on with what he said. I have seen heart failure in mix breeds. Liver and kidney failure in crossed hounds. Most kidney failure that I have seen comes from lack of water in the heat of summer and frozen winters. Liver failure is one of the things that shows up with heat stroke. If your dogs are sound inbreeding will not cause them. As said know the back ground before you try. In or line breeding can show you what you have. I feel a lot gets blamed on tight breeding because of folk lore. We always heard it so it must be true. I was raised on a lot of it which most was untrue. As a kid I was told to give tobacco for deworming a dog. Have you ever tried to give a plug of Days Work to a hound and make him eat it. I bet most of you kids don't know what Days Work is. Breed what you have to what you want and you will get what you get. If it works for you hunt it. But remember there is always a better hunter and a better hound out there. As a young person you will save yourself a lot of time and money seeking them out. Good hunting Dewey

[Big N' Blue]

We'll said Dewey. When I was young and by the way that was not that long ago! Lol I thought I could become a dog breeder of superior hounds. Was handed my ass, and am still holding it! I hunt what I like! and try to hunt with people that have better dogs than me. It really is sad that by the time you half ass have things figured out, there is not enough time to do anything about it!! I feel very blessed to have met or talked to a lot of the people on this thread and hope and pray that all of you are blessed with at least a half a dozen barn burners!

[Riverbottom]

Whenever the subject of linebreeding or inbreeding comes up people always say you have to cull hard. Why don't they give that advise for any kind of breeding?

I spose I've probably put more than 1000 puppies on the ground and I'm not done yet, I don't know much but here's what works for me.

SELECTION.

Think what happens in nature. Lots of young are born every year. Not many live long enough to reproduce. After a few thousand generations they all look and act the same. Plants and animals inbreed and outcross all the time. If a fault shows up it is eliminated from the gene pool. Right away. Nobody keeps track of the pedigrees.

I don't worry much about pedigrees or anything else. I try to select for (and against) the same traits, over and over and over. Selection is by far the most important breeding tool.

The only hard part is knowing what to select for. You can't learn that on the internet or from magazines or gossip. You have to learn it the hard way. It takes years.

I've always had the best luck when I forget about what everyone says and use my own head.

Some guys keep whole litters and it works for them. It's a good thing to do. I don't do that.

I keep pups from different litters. Sometimes littermates. But I try to keep something different so I'll have something to breed to in the future. Never had much luck breeding closer than half brother/half sister. Not saying you can't, just that I don't. I keep about 20 dogs and don't go outside my kennel anymore, so I try to keep different, related lines going and cross them back on each other and only keep the best ones to breed to.

But don't listen to me or anyone else. We aren't going to feed your dogs. Forget what everyone tells you and do what you think is best and learn from your mistakes. There are no rules or absolutes in breeding dogs.