26/05/2025
My first blog post for the Neverending Dog Project website delves into a shocking practice that I find difficult to believe breeders still engage in. This practice is the primary reason behind my initiation of this project.
Recently, I came across a White Swiss Shepherd litter announcement that piqued my interest. While such announcements are not uncommon, I decided to investigate this particular pair further.
My approach involves consulting www.pedigreedatabase.com to locate the parents of the dogs. This allows me to trace their ancestry and understand their genetic lineage. When breeding specific breeds, especially your aim is to breed with unrelated dogs, it becomes crucial to comprehend pedigrees. Over the years, I have developed a keen eye for identifying bloodlines, particularly those associated with apparent genetic diseases.
Once I have confirmed that the dogs are in the pedigree database, I can perform a ‘mating outcome’ analysis on the announced pair. This analysis provides insights into the level of relatedness between the dogs and their shared ancestors.
The pairing in question can be found here: https://www.pedigreedatabase.com/white_shepherd/breeding.result?father=3205673&mother=3287378.
Upon reviewing the analysis, I was immediately struck by the high inbreeding coefficient of 12.5%. This coefficient is calculated and not based on DNA test results like the COI of EMBARK (eCOI).
A coefficient of inbreeding of 12.5% is equivalent to the genetic equivalent of a dog produced from a grandfather to granddaughter mating or the mating of a half-brother/sister. In this case, both parent dogs share the same father.
Crossing related dogs can lead to increased homozygosity of genes and an increased risk of producing genetic diseases. This pairing contributes to the problem of reduced diversity and heightened inbreeding, which have severe health consequences.
But the most shocking aspect of this pairing is that the same ancestor, the shared father
(https://www.pedigreedatabase.com/white_shepherd/dog.html?id=2889371-mig-iz-beloy-brigady?_v=20241127150008), is a descendant of a male dog known to produce offspring with the genetic disorder Cerebellar Hypoplasia (CH).
CH is a neurological condition where the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for balance and coordination, fails to develop properly. This can cause puppies to exhibit a wobbly gait, balance issues, and other signs of incoordination. While CH won’t worsen over time, and dogs can lead relatively healthy lives, it restricts the dog and its owners from fully enjoying their lives together.
Since both parents are at risk of being carriers of this genetic disease, the puppies are even more vulnerable to becoming sufferers of CH. Even when both parents are tested and are not carriers, high inbreeding can still cause (recessive) genes to surface.
This is why it’s crucial to avoid breeding with closely related dogs. By doing so, a so-called breeder might inadvertently create a generation of puppies that will either suffer from CH, be carriers of at least pass on these “bad” genes to their offspring when used as breeding stock themselves.
In the past, practices like this might have been common because breeders didn’t have as much information available. However, there is no excuse for such practices in the present day.