Popular Sire Syndrome -- A Plain English Explanation

Linking a really nice, plain-English article from The Institute of Canine Biology that is worth a read, especially if you plan to breed or purchase a puppy through a breeder.

http://www.instituteofcaninebiology.org/7/post/2013/12/the-pox-of-popular-sires.html

I would copy/paste but it's rather long (but a quick read!) and there are graphics which help illustrate the points made in the text.

Just thought the animal husbandry-savvy folks here, and those would like to gain a better understanding, would find it interesting

Thanks for sharing. This sort of stuff is fascinating to me.

This quote made its rounds through one of my FB dog groups. It's amazing that some people still seem to feel this way.

"Linebreeding (breeding relatives) is the ONLY way we know of to set type by revealing all hidden recessive genes and creating a homogenous genotype in the population. Preventing related dogs from procreating means you are doing constant outcrossing and preventing type from being set at all – i.e., keeping the mongrels from actually becoming breeds.

Breeding relatives does not cause any undesirable genetic mutation – it only reveals what is there. Once it has been revealed, a good breeder with a sound understanding of genetics will work to remove it from their lines. All the doodle people and doing is hiding the bad genetics, not eliminating them, and preventing type from actually being set."