On Breeding Better Dogs

Semmes, I always have attributed the decline of certain German breeds to no longer being bred and used for their intended purpose, the gsp, duetch drathar and the jagd are prime examples of German bred dogs being used and bred for their intended purpose that are still high performance dog breeds even though they are bred for type, I do agree breeding for type or color can severely limit the diversity of the gene pool and is never as important as function. the Great Dane, boxer and German Shepard are no longer bred for their intended purpose, the Great Dane and Shepard became trendy and were bred for show and profit to the point today that they are prone to hip dysplasia and a host of other ailments. I don't see this as a direct result of inbreeding or line breeding or being bred for type but a direct result of not selectively breeding for hunt and health etc.

What I was saying about the Dogo was that they either had hundreds or culled hundreds, if you had 25 bitches at 8 pups a litter once or twice a year and only keeping a handful, at the beginning of a breeding project like that involving 6 different breeds it seems to me you would need those kinds of numbers to get anywhere, after a decade or so you could probably have half that many dogs

I agree with you otherwise that breeding dogs is fluid and not necessarily linear, much of the science of breeding is just theory, it fills in some of the gaps for me to read what you more experienced folk have to say, the books I've read leave you with a lot of questions and I only know two people I could call dog breeders

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