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Originally Posted by QuickSilver  Isn't this true of any breeding program, though? Breeding for any trait besides health reduces the gene pool, and makes the breed less robust. Even in breeding for health, you might reduce the chances for one disease and accidentally increase the chances for another. In fact, simply breeding pure breds at all by definition indicates you are working with a limited gene pool.
Personally, I'm curious as to whether the parti coloring is controlled by one gene or many. It would appear to me to most likely be the later. Any opinions? |
If your desire is truly to bread only for robustness, then you should probably take man out of the mix. Nature breeds for robustness. Put 100 dogs together let them decide with whom to mate, and let them settle the arguments, and find their food. In 100 years or so, the remaining dogs will probably be very robust, but I doubt if anybody would want them as a "pet." Well, maybe Michael Vick. There's nothing wrong with breeding for certain traits if you
really know what your doing. Unfortunately very few do.
From what I understand, the parti trait that is seen in many animals is controlled by one gene that is recessive. Some people believe a second gene causes the spotting you see on Biewer. These views were obtained from Yorkietalk, and haven't been throughly researched.