[quote=coyote]In dogs the "mixing" of "breeds" is how other breeds are produced.
The breed factor has nothing to do with producing congenital defects.
Line breeding is what develops defects, what perpetuates them and what makes them pervasive
within a breed. Very few individuals within a breed have the genetics that make them suitable to produce offspring.
Any dog with
any heritable defect is unsuitable for breeding. No exceptions.QUOTE]
Again, I agree with much of your post. I completely agree that ANY dog with a genetic defect should not be used for breeding under any circumstances. I also agree that many new breeds have been developed by mixing breeds....however, creating a new breed is a long, labor intensive task that is meant to be undertaken by only the most dedicated of breeders, people who take the time to make certain that they begin only with the physically as well as genetically sound and healthy stock possible. What the original poster was asking was NOT something like this. Grabbing your Rott andPit Bull and crossing them just to see what would happen is NOT creating a new breed.
Line breeding in itself, when done PROPERLY, does NOT produce genetic defects, when done for the RIGHT reasons, it helps to lessen them. Keep in mind, there is a BIG difference between LINEbreeding and INbreeding. Again, using hip dysplasia as an example.....hip dysplasia has become rampant in some breeds like Labs, GSD, and Golden Retrievers. If you find a "line" of Labs that has been consistently free of dysplastic animals, why outcross into a line that is unknown? Of course, a GOOD breeder of Labs (or GSDs, or Rotts, or any breed prone to it) would never breed the dog anyway until it has been OFA certified. You can have a fairly wide gene pool and still be "line breeding".
On the other side of the coin......OK, so you cross your Rott and Pit Bull. Again, dysplasia is all too common in Rotts, (and I'm going to bet the original poster here hasn't researched the dog's genetic backgroud, more less has OFA cert XRays done) yet almost unheard of in Pit Bulls. You give away the puppies. One of them looks just like a Pit Bull. Somewhere down the line, someone decides to breed this to another Pit Bull.....and so on.....and people buy them as pure Pit Bulls. Whoops...a generation or 2 down the line....hip dyplasia?? Where did that come from??? Pit Bulls don't GET hip dysplasia...or do they? They do now.
I relaize these are pretty "in the box" situations, but what I'm trying to say is, line breeding is NOT necessarily a bad thing, although mixing breeds CAN have it's benefits in the right situation....unless you know what you are doing, and are doing it for the RIGHT reasons.......SPAY OR NEUTER your dog. Period. Do you have ANY idea how many Pit Bull mixed puppies are killed in shelters every day?
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But it didn't matter in my case of my " best trained " rottie. It was conceived a voice of the person that set my female off on his receiving bite and he wasn't even looking, talking to the dog. Now if that isn't unpredictable behavior, I don't know what would be.
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See...THIS is what I have a problem with as well. ONLY dogs with STABLE temperaments should EVER be bred. I know a LOT of good, quality Rott breeders who have the most even tempered, gentle dogs you've ever seen. Through selective breeding, the overly-aggressive behaviour CAN be weeded out to a great extent, WITHOUT lessening the PROTECTIVE instinct. People who breed dogs with an "unpredictable" temperament are the ones CAUSING the breed to be "unpredictable". Sure, there can be the occasional bad attitude in any dog, of any heritage, but procreating with an animal who will bite just because they don't like the sound of someone's voice is just WRONG.
I know people who have Schutzhund titled Rotts, on the training field or in the Schutzhund exhibition, they look like (and probably could!) take down and eat just about anyone and anything. But off time, they are dogs I would trust above many others, because they KNOW when to bite and when not to.
Blaiming the whole breed as being "unpredictable" and there's nothing anyone can do about it......well, THAT is what gives these breeds their mostly undeserved reputations.