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my2boyz · 12-28-2008, 10:19 AM

I know it sounds like it makes sense to assume that a dog with a bad bite will produce a bad bite in their offspring but that's not neccessarily true. One of my vets is also a Fellow in the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry and he is also a Diplomate in the American Veterinary Dental College, there are only about 100 board-certified veterinary dentists in the world today and he is one of them.

According to him they don't know enough about a dog's bite to say definitely one way or the other if it will be passed on to their offspring. There isn't enough known about the genetics of the jaw and how it grows to predict the outcome of a breeding. It would be just like saying that because you have brown hair your child will too...not always true. You can breed 2 dogs with a perfect bite and a puppy can show up with a bad bite and you can breed a dog with a bad bite that produces puppies with perfect bites. The only way to tell for sure is to completely know your lines and what's behind them.

I know some people will say to never breed a dog with a bad bite...I say if that line continually throws bad bites then don't breed it. It all comes down to personal beliefs and preference. Let's say you have a breeding pair and one of them has a slight underbite but that's their only fault...in their litters you get 5 pups, 4 that are standard and possible breeder/show quality and 1 that has an underbite. Do you stop that line because of 1 bad bite or do you continue breeding them to get the better puppies and sell the one with the underbite as a spayed/neutered pet? I've been told by some big breeders that you use the rule of 3 when selecting a dog to breed...if the dog has 3 faults then they won't breed them but if there are 1 or 2 then you breed them to a dog that will, hopefully, correct those faults.

12-28-2008, 10:19 AM	#3
my2boyz Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: In my house :) Posts: 5,219	I know it sounds like it makes sense to assume that a dog with a bad bite will produce a bad bite in their offspring but that's not neccessarily true. One of my vets is also a Fellow in the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry and he is also a Diplomate in the American Veterinary Dental College, there are only about 100 board-certified veterinary dentists in the world today and he is one of them. According to him they don't know enough about a dog's bite to say definitely one way or the other if it will be passed on to their offspring. There isn't enough known about the genetics of the jaw and how it grows to predict the outcome of a breeding. It would be just like saying that because you have brown hair your child will too...not always true. You can breed 2 dogs with a perfect bite and a puppy can show up with a bad bite and you can breed a dog with a bad bite that produces puppies with perfect bites. The only way to tell for sure is to completely know your lines and what's behind them. I know some people will say to never breed a dog with a bad bite...I say if that line continually throws bad bites then don't breed it. It all comes down to personal beliefs and preference. Let's say you have a breeding pair and one of them has a slight underbite but that's their only fault...in their litters you get 5 pups, 4 that are standard and possible breeder/show quality and 1 that has an underbite. Do you stop that line because of 1 bad bite or do you continue breeding them to get the better puppies and sell the one with the underbite as a spayed/neutered pet? I've been told by some big breeders that you use the rule of 3 when selecting a dog to breed...if the dog has 3 faults then they won't breed them but if there are 1 or 2 then you breed them to a dog that will, hopefully, correct those faults.