What is selctive breeding and how is it undertaken in dogs?

Answer 1

Selective breeding in pedigree dogs is where breeders will attempt to "breed out" defects or imperfections in the animals or try to mate particularly good specimens of the breed to get the best quality puppies.
They may select one stud dog, ie a champion show animal, and breed it with several bitches to produce show quality litters that can be sold for a very high price.
It can also be used if a family of dogs has diabetes, bad legs, poor hip scores, bad colouration etc. Over several generations these can be bred out by mating with more perfect specimens.
The largest example of this selective breeding is dalmations. They're not supposed to be spotted !!!. They're bred a certain way to get spotty puppies. Sometimes this involves a lot of inter-breeding and genetic defects can then occur, such as odd eyes, deafness, blindness etc. It does seem quite cruel in some cases but show dogs have to conform to certain criteria or they will never have a chance of winning anything.

Answer 2

n general, the owners of the animals use three strategies to refine local populations:
Isolation. There must be a period in which the members of the group are relatively fixed, so that no new genetic material comes in. Without genetical isolation of the group, the differentiation that creates a new breed cannot take place.
Artificial selection. Breeders must prevent random mating from coming about, and limit mating to those individuals who exhibit desired characteristics. One logical consequence of this isolation is the next characteristic: inbreeding.
Inbreeding. Ordinarily those who are controlling the artificial breeding will find it necessary at some stage to employ a degree of linebreeding (mating within one bloodline, or strain) or inbreeding (mating closely related individuals), to facilitate the weeding-out of undesired characteristics and the fixation of desired traits. Inbreeding and linebreeding are controversial aspects of artificial selection, but have been practiced for centuries.


Most purebred cats and dogs of breeds recognized by all-breed club registries are controlled by "closed studbooks". In a number of modern breeds recognized by the kennel clubs, there are high incidences of specific genetic diseases or disorders and sometimes increased susceptibility to other diseases, reduced litter sizes, reduced lifespan, inability to conceive naturally, etc. This came about because:
Many breeds have been established with too few foundation dogs or ones that were already too closely related, or both.
There was artificial isolation: the registries (stud books) are closed for most breeds; therefore one cannot introduce diversity from outside the existing population.
Most selective breeding practices have the effect of reducing the diversity further. In addition, in the world of conformation dog shows, breeding specimens are often selected on the basis of aesthetic criteria only, without regard for soundness.
Even if the foundation dogs were sufficiently diverse genetically, almost no one knows how their genetic contributions are distributed among the present day population, consequently, breeding is done without regard to conserving these contributions, which may be of value to the general health and survival of the breed.
Similar problems affect purebred cats, however to a lesser extent since selective breeding in cats has not been practiced for nearly the length of time that it has been in dogs. The purebred cat is a relatively new creature; some breeds of cats have existed less than fifty years.

Answer 3

In simple terms and in lay mans language, selective breeding is that choice of desired characteristics in a particular breed and letting those that match the characteristics to mate and consequently produce the wanted characteristics in their offspring.

In dogs like in any other animal kingdom, you prevent the mating of undesired characteristics carriers.

that should be staight forward.

Answer 4

Selective breeding in domesticated animals is the process of developing a cultivated breed over time

Answer 5

Simply put:
If you want more poodles and you have some poodles and some alsatians, you mate the poodles together.
If you want slightly less fey poodles, you chuck in an alsatian every few generations.

Answer 6

two dogs(one male one female) of suitable characteristics are bread together. their of spring should have the correct characteristics.