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Originally Posted by FlyingNimbus  maybe a recessive gene? would love to meet a 23 pound yorkie. lol. |
I suppose it could be a recessive trait. I doubt it's that simple though. I wouldn't be surprised if it went the other way too - a couple large yorkies might occasionally produce a little 5 pounder. Lol. Who knows.
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Originally Posted by FlyingNimbus Makes me wonder, how the gene pool is kept "Fresh" if dogs are bred to a specific standard and certain lines being used. I mean how many yorkie lines are out there? Do people ever breed lines from different countries to their own for the sake of replenishing the lines and keeping the lines safe? I dont know much about genetics- it's why I ask. |
I think you're touching on one of the issues with purebred dogs. Genetic diversity. Something that I understand is very desirable and can possibly be lacking with purebred dogs. And yes many breeders I believe do breed new lines/pedigrees of a dog from a different country. That can be something done in a breeding program to increase genetic diversity.
There's a number of issues with the breeding of purebred dogs. For example, you'll often see the same dog in tons of pedigrees. It's like a stud dog that is highly desirable, and has been sent all over the country for breeding. All of a sudden those genes are flooding a big part of the gene pool - and that can be dangerous and it also reduces genetic diversity. And then you look at line breeding, and you wonder how related are they. What's acceptable. Keeping in mind that most of the contributed genetic material comes from the first few generations back, I think maybe it can be done without too much genetic overlap. I'm just saying maybe for now because I haven't quite yet gotten around to picking the brain of a geneticist.
Any experts here on yorkietalk that can set me straight? It was years ago I took one course in genetics. I remember how against purebred dogs my instructor was. But I don't think he considered the knowledge of genetics and application of that knowledge that good breeders have. I think a good breeder can pick breeding pairs and match them up in a way to really reduce the issues that exist with breeding purebred dogs.