Food for thought about whether you should consider breeding a pet dog — especially a bred like Golden Retrievers with their health challenges. Research and advice from Gayle Watkins:
Susan,
I think I found “Higby” on our online golden retriever pedigree database. I found the pedigree, so I have a good idea of what is behind Higby.
I suspect you are not going to like what I have to say but I’ll explain myself as well as I can. If Higby were mine, I would not breed him. My reason is twofold. First, Higby is an inbred golden retriever. That means that your breeder selected a sire who had some similar ancestors, particularly males. This isn’t unusual in dogs. It is the way that breeds were initially established but we have learned much since the 1800s and now know there is a high price for inbreeding. Specifically, inbreeding reduces longevity and increases health issues, which is why there are laws that keep people from marrying their close relatives. In Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, there is a move afoot to make inbreeding unacceptable in dogs. Their kennel clubs are limiting how tightly dogs can be bred, in addition to other things. But, the US has not taken this stand with other animals so inbreeding continues to be practiced by many people, such as your breeder.
However, the cost of this practice for the dogs is high. In golden retrievers, inbreeding has reduced longevity by up to 2 years, reducing lifespan from 12 to 10. For animals that usually live only 12 years, to lose two is a lot, nearly 17% of the dogs life.
We measure the degree of inbreeding by the Coefficient of Inbreeding (http://www.canine-genetics.com/relation.htm). COIs can range from 0 to 100% and tell us the probability that a dog is homozygous or has the same two alleles for any gene. For some genes, homozygosity is fine but for deleterious genes, it is bad news because now the dog only has the bad gene. And unfortunately, we just aren’t far enough along in understanding the canine genome (or the human genome for that matter) to know which bad genes an individual carries except in the case of a few diseases. However, we know that dogs with COIs below 6% tend to show no reduction in longevity while those above, do.
Here is information from Dr John Armstrong, a geneticist that was also a poodle breeder:
Is Inbreeding Necessary?
Many breeders still cling to the idea that inbreeding is the only route to success, and that they can use it as a tool to identify and weed out genetic problems in their line. They will cite the success of certain breeders who inbred extensively, unaware (or conveniently ignoring) that the most successful litters from these kennels were often the least inbred. They also seem to be unaware that many studies on a wide variety of species have demonstrated that highly inbred individuals frequently live shorter lives and have fewer progeny. This is called inbreeding depression.
Inbreeding depression results, in part, from the bringing together of deleterious recessive alleles inherited via both parents from a common ancestor. In humans, where genetic diseases of this type are relatively rare, the frequency of affected individuals is often higher in small populations that are culturally or geographically isolated. In dogs, man has created similar isolated populations by restricting genetic exchange between pure breeds. However, given a sufficiently large and diverse group of founders, there is no reason why the average purebred should not lead a long, healthy life — if responsibly bred.
So, what might responsible breeding look like. To start with, it means selecting for health and this brings me to my second reason for not breeding Higby. The very dogs that he is inbred on are dogs known to produce very high rates of health problems in goldens. You can see Higby’s COI and the dominant dogs in his pedigree at [URL removed for anonymity]. This page shows the top five dogs in Higby’s pedigree. The top two of these dogs are producing very high rates of cancer when repeatedly present in pedigrees. One in five goldens will die of hemangiosarcoma and one in eight will die of lymphosarcoma. Both diseases are starting to kill goldens before two years of age. Both these dogs, one of whom died at only 6 ½, are behind many, many of the dogs dying this young.
Furthermore, the third dog in Higby’s pedigree is the source of a relatively new eye disease in goldens: pigmentary uveitis. You can read about pigmentary uveitis at http://www.grca.org/health/uveitis1.html. The veterinary ophthalmologists that are studying this disease, in particular Dr Wendy Townsend, firmly believe that this dog was its source. So, as we inbreed more and more on him, we are ensuring that more and more goldens get this disease. Nearly 50% of the goldens that get this disease go blind and must have their eyes removed due to the pain of glaucoma. It is not a disease we want more of!
Because Higby has a COI above 6% and that the dogs he is inbred on are known to produce serious health problems, I would not breed him if he were mine nor breed to him if he was offered to me. If he were from a rare pedigree, perhaps there would be a reason to keep those genes in play but his sire produced more than 60 litters. That’s at least 400 pups and more likely closer to 500. As you can see, there are more of his genes around than any dog breed needs, IMO.
I am assuming that you did not buy Higby to breed him, that he was to simply be a wonderful companion. I cannot even tell if you have registered him with the AKC. (If your breeder did not sell him to you on a full registration, Higby’s offspring cannot be registered by the AKC.) Why not just enjoy Higby for who he is and go to a reputable breeder for your next pup?
If despite my arguments, you feel Higby must be bred, here are my suggestions:
1) Get out Higby’s AKC papers and ensure your breeder did not sell him to you on a Limited Registration (http://www.akc.org/reg/limitedreg.cfm). If he did, Higby’s offspring cannot be registered and thus breeding him is for the most part, fruitless.
2) Wait until Higby is at least 9 years old to offer him at stud. He is just now 3 and pigmentary uveitis does not even show up in the average golden until they are 8 ½ years old. In addition, waiting will ensure he has lived a reasonably long life. I will often wait until a dog has reached 10 ½, the average age of today’s goldens, before breeding to them. I have bred to some dogs when they are 4 but they were not inbred.
3) Get all of the required health clearances that goldens need to be bred in the US. Those are:
a. Orthopedic Foundation of Animals (http://www.offa.org/ ) hip and elbow xrays to show he does not have evidence of canine hip or elbow dysplasia.
b. annual eye clearances by a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist
c. A one-time heart clearance by a board-certified veterinary cardiologist
d. annual OFA thyroid tests (http://www.offa.org/thyproc.html)
4) While you are waiting for Higby to reach 9, get him into some events that will attest to his quality. Since there are thousands and thousands of goldens in the US (60,000 are registered by the AKC every year), it is important to all of us that those goldens that are allowed to be bred have all the attributes that the breed is supposed to have. I’d guess that all or nearly all of these thousands of goldens are loved by their owners but that doesn’t make them breeding stock. So, what does? First and foremost, goldens should be hunting dogs. Second, they should be pleasant companions. And third, they should look like goldens. There are events that evaluate each of these characteristics so while you are waiting to breed Higby, have him evaluated at a GRCA CCA (http://www.grca.org/events/cca/index.html), a GRCA WC (http://www.grca.org/events/field/wcwcx.html) and train and qualify him for the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen program (http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/index.cfm).
5) During this waiting time, you should also join the Golden Retriever Club of America and your local golden club so you can learn more about the breed as a whole.
If you are disappointed in my thoughts, I’d just like to leave you with my philosophy. I have spent 30 years breeding golden retrievers and over those decades, I have seen my beloved breed fall prey to more and more interrelated problems–declining lifespans, skyrocketing cancer rates, more severe health issues, decreased intelligence and stability, and increased hair and size. These problems come from one source and only one source — the people that breed their goldens. Many just want one litter but that means 8-9 puppies. If those puppies were not thoughtfully and intelligently produced and some of them are bred, then the problems get passed on over and over until we are in the situation goldens are in today. I truly fear for my breed and hope you will not contribute to its continued decline.
I’m happy to answer any questions you might have or speak by phone.
Gayle Watkins
Gaylan’s Golden Retrievers
Visit us at www.gaylans.com
Enjoy our blog at gaylansgoldens.blogspot.com ?
