Breeding Basics LIVE with Laura from Pedigrees to Puppies

Host Laura Reeves takes the LIVE audience through breeding basics, reading pedigrees, health testing, phenotype vs genotype and more. This journey through the theory side of breeding, covers important topics for breeders from novice and intermediate to advanced.

• Use the resources of older breeders who knew the dogs and they will also be able to talk about traits that genetic testing and COA does not give you.
• This is an art and a science, and part of the art is finding your mentors and being able and willing to talk to a lot of different people. Not just the same people all the time. Not everybody has all the answers.
• One of the things that makes purebred dogs purebred is a level of inbreeding. That’s what makes it purebred. Having a higher or lower level and how you use that and the healthy genes that you’re doubling up on or the unhealthy genes that you’re doubling up on make an enormous difference in your breeding program going forward.
• We have to think about the process that we intend to follow and it’s ideal if you can create a plan. Is your plan to do consistent inbreeding? Maybe that’s not such a great idea. Consistent line breeding? That’s probably pretty safe. Consistent outcrossing is really safe from a certain perspective. In terms of health, you’re not as liable to double up on a particular recessive, but at the same time, I can tell you from personal experience every single time I go out to get one thing, I get three things I did not want. So, balancing those three breeding theories is absolutely critical to your mission in your breeding program and knowing what you will consider and what you want and how you plan to get where you’re going when you start.
• We’re trying to build on this concept of “I have a stated goal. I have written it down. I have cemented it in my brain.” And I have had a very careful evaluation of the bitch that I’m working with. My foundation bitch. I know what I want to improve upon in her. I know what I will not give on, what I will give on and what is not a concern. Those are the kinds of questions that need to be addressed as you’re getting started deciding if and when to breed your dog, male or female.
• Genotype is the pedigree that’s what talks about the actual genetic involvement in each individual dog. Phenotype is what does the dog look like? When you make breeding decisions, whether you breed on a pedigree or whether you breed on dogs that look alike, no matter what their genetics are, no matter what pedigree is behind them, is, in my opinion, sort of a personal decision. I personally am a genotype freak. I am a pedigree guru. I love it. I research it. I live and die by it. And yet I know there are lots and lots and lots and lots of people out there who breed on phenotype. I want a dog that looks like this. And this is what my dog looks like I think this is what the breed looks like I want another dog that looks just like this.

Hear more of this insightful, targeted conversation by listening to the entire episode above.