On the subject of inbreeding and linebreeding

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      "Inbreeding/Linebreeding was once a valuable tool in shaping today’s breeds. As these have now reached a high degree of homogeneity, it has lost its importance and turned into a fatal and disastrous habit."

      Hellmuth Wachtel, PhD   Quotes below are excerpts from this article

   
   

   I will share a quote from the Great Tess Hensler - (quote)Remember; it is better to marry the worst member of a good family than the best member of a bad family.(quote) Pedigree is important in the animal kingdom..  ADPEF.org
   

   
   

   "Their breeding theories were a reflection of social attitudes of the times. It should also be kept in mind that these individuals were mostly wealthy men whose human pedigrees were considered better than those of "common" people. As pedigrees became more important, so did the regular appearance of significant names in those pedigrees. Eventually registries were established to keep official records. At some point, virtually all dog registries became closed. Most of this occurred before breeders had even a rudimentary knowledge of genetic science."

   I am not sure Herr Dobermann was rich - beings he had 3 or 4 jobs - Tax collector, dog pound and landlord at least part of his job was collecting rents for someone - that tends to make me think he was a workng man. The rich tend to sit in their castles and look down on everyone else and usually had someone who worked for them who actually did the work and study.
   
   How would anyone have a rudimentary knowledge of genetic science when it has not been discovered yet??? What they had was specific traits and looks that they were seeking and without all this knowledge they quickly accomplished it. While they may not have known the far reaching results they accomplished quickly the traits they desired. This in and of itself was brilliant. They learned it by careful study of the resulting progeny and IMHO they were amazingt in what they accomplished without all this science. In fact they GAVE science the road to follow with the proof of results the careful following of lines - In other words they pointed the path for science to follow. We must work hand in hand and breeders are making adjustments as then learn more and they are taking the necessary steps to proceed with caution so as not to destroy all that they have built up to this point.
   
   As I see it science job is to help find the answers that arise as we progress down the road. Or give us a better way through DNA to safely eliminate the undesirables while maintaining the original purpose or dog breed. Breeders job is to keep a gene pool to draw from while protecting the standard.
   
   Pedigrees were and are important because the people developing them had specific traits that they were looking for and because science or genetics was not developed to the point it is today they had to study and follow the results of what they were producing. I agree that there are too many today breeding with out the understanding of this knowledge base to follow. They get two dogs and they are going to breed them with little thought or understanding of where they want to go beyond just breeding.
   
   I agree science is new, but that does not equate to better necessarily. Science has been wrong a time or two and that is the problem with the johnny come latelies in the dog world. They seems to think they know better and that they don't need to study the history with understanding to know where we came from and where they should then try to go with these new found revelations. For sound breeding tactics we have to find the correct way to apply science along with the solid breeding practices of old. Genetics is all too new to throw out everthing.
   
   For the most part inbreeding has faded into the background as the breed became more fluent, but I will say this - you can't compare what happens in nature to what happens in the world of purebred dogs because purebred dogs is a manipulation of man so by the very nature to start a new species you must inbreed in the beginning and bring in enough outside dogs in the original creation to hopefully develop a strong gene pool as you narrow the gap. Once you have dogs breeding true with the results you were looking for you close the gene pool.
   

   
   

   "Each individual within a breed also carries it’s own kind of load — four or five genes for potentially fatal diseases or defects. These are called "lethal equivalents." In most cases they will not affect the individual carrying them because a single allele, or form of the gene, will be insufficient to cause the problem. But when relatives are mated, the odds of matching up those alleles increases and as does the frequency the disease.
   Every population must deal with genetic load and lethal equivalents, but when the population is prevented having genetic exchange with other similar populations, genetic diversity within the population begins to diminish. Some of this may be beyond anyone’s control."

   To reiterate - "some of this may be beyond anyone's control - especailly if we want to maintain purebred dogs.

   
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