We’re starting to hear quite a lot about crossbreeding these days. Suddenly it’s no longer so horrifying, deplorable or socially unacceptable. Of course, human nature being what it is, in many quarters we see the flip-flop effect. Some naive souls now think it’s some sort of instant panacea, a silver bullet to kill the genetic crisis in purebred dogs. Wrong. It’s only another breeding tool. Being a long-disused one, it has gone all rusty and few people have any idea how to use it any more. Those of us who dare to touch it at all are going to have to gain experience in its use — slowly and painfully, the hard way, as always.
Nobody can tell you "how" to use crossbreeding to increase genetic health in your breed. There’s no handy-dandy detailed manual on the subject. Only a few very general guidelines of the common-sense variety. Let’s summarise them; that won’t take long.
If you think you need to try a real outcross (meaning another breed as opposed to another more-or-less-related bloodline), unless you don’t care at all what type the offspring display, you had better choose a breed that is phenotypically similar (in temperament as well as physique) to your root breed. Example: the Beauceron is similar enough to the Dobermann to be a reasonable outcross choice. Not surprisingly, from what I’ve seen on the web, backcrosses following this cross have produced some very nice-looking dogs. Show Dobes they’re not; obviously good solid working-type dogs.
http://llewellynsecurity.com/noframes/nfourown.htm - Llewellyn’s Own Breed of Guard Dog
Another commonsense rule is, don’t introduce what you know you don’t want. Avoid outcrosses with traits that are going to cause problems. If you are outcrossing, it only makes sense to outcross to something that is strongest where your rootstock is weak.
Don’t be surprised if your outcross progeny display a different temperament from what you expected! Breed crossing can sometimes produce radical alterations of temperament by re-joining long-separated gene complexes. If this happens, you may have to try a less radical breeding plan.
Finally, don’t expect miracles. Crossing two highly-inbred, genome-stripped purebreds doesn’t mean that you automatically restore the full natural canine genome. Far from it. Both breeds may be stripped in the same way. This is particularly true of northern breeds. Outcrossing between arctic breeds doesn’t mean you will cure eye problems, because the same eye problems are found in all the arctic breeds! Just an example...
I think a handful of people who breed guard dogs are following a breeding plan in which a different breed is used in each successive generation. This is an interesting concept, and one way of eventually restoring a reasonably full canine genome without going the problem-fraught route of outcrossing to a wolf. I’d be interested in knowing what these people are experiencing, because I’m sure that they are going to accumulate some very interesting and valuable knowledge. I wouldn’t want to try it with sleddogs, though. Maybe we can talk about that another time.
Posted by jjeffrey at July 30, 2003 05:13 PM