Planning a Puppy Dog Litter AVOID In-Breeding

In-breeding has been and is a very common practice amongst breeders, which consists in the use of breeding programs of males and females that are closely related, mating the female with her half brother (son of the same father but not the same mother, for example, or vice versa), with her father or grandfather. This formula, very in style more or less 15 to 20 years ago, produced important champions in a great number of breeds and is obviously the fastest way of securing all the good characteristics of the two progenitors in, at least, one puppy of the litter. However, in the same way that the chances of increasing the possibilities of securing all the good characteristics in the individual that are born with these combinations, you also run the risk of securing all the undesirable characteristics, like for example hip dysplasia or progressive retinal atrophy, if both progenitors are bearers.

It's for that reason that the responsible breeder will use this method in a controlled way and only when a perfectly justified for the quality of both progenitors and always trying to obtain preestablished goals; when the result of these combinations is not what was expected, he must not try to do it again in subsequent occasions.