Allergies is a tricky one. I have seen dogs with allergy problems that it is hard to say if it came down a line. On the other hand, in my pet grooming business I had, there were about 3 pups of small mixed breed breedings, same parents, that these 3 had allergy problems but the other sibs didn't. I think of the two litters there were about a total of a dozen puppies something like that out of two sisters.
Now, the father was a poodle/maltese/lhasa/cocker cross and was a little guy about 4 lbs. He was bred to two sisters, females, that were cocker/poodle/lhasa crosses that were about 8 lbs. I don't believe any of the parents had allergies but the one female had a disc problem and they had to put her down by the age of six years. One of her pups that I know of had a slight back problem but not bad. Some of the pups had knee problems and had to have both knees operated on. So much for 'hybrid vigour'.
#2,3,4 are hereditary for certain. With the cotton coats, you can try a silk sire and see what you get but without knowing what is in the parentage further back, you run a high risk of cotton coat. You would also need to know the pedigree of the sire and whether there is any cotton coat there.
If you breed a cotton coat, get a silk, that silk can still produce a cotton cotton in the next generation or further down the line.
As Tri, party and chocolate is not considered to be desirable, I would not breed for these colours. A friend of mine ended up with a chocolate in a litter, could figure out where it came from, made sure she never did that again and gave the chocolate pup to a friend of a friend. She didn't want to sell it as the colour was so incorrect. He got an excellent home and the owner was delighted with him as a pet puppy, neutered. |