What is linebreeding?

Question

Who linebreeds and why?

Answer 1

What it is has been explained. Why it is done is to set a breed characteristic for the good or bad. The smaller the gene pool the more like the parents the pups should be. It can also bring to surface hidden defects and recessive genes that were in the pedigree many generations back. Careful planning and a good gentic knowledge of the lines is a must and even then it is not without risk.

Answer 2

Linebreeding is breeding dogs from the same lines.
It's not the same as inbreeding, which would be breeding siblings or within the first generation. A dog that has been line-bred might have a grandmother on one side who also happens to also be a great grandmother on the other side. If you study pedigrees, you might see quite a bit of this.

When breeders linebreed, they are trying to preserve desirable traits within the line, and weed out the undesirable traits. In smaller breeds (those with smaller gene pools) a breeder might not have much other breeding stock available to breed from. Some breeders linebreed because they don't care for what they see in other lines. A classic example of linebreeding is the movie / TV dog, Lassie. In order to produce generations of a Collie with the same exact coat, markings and temperament, Lassie's owners had no other choice but to linebreed. No one would deny that it worked out very well for them.

By the way, dogs are not as complicated as people, and linebreeding / inbreeding dogs does not carry the same potential negative consequences that linebreeding / inbreeding humans would have.

Answer 3

In simple terms linebreeding is "inbreeding with a purpose".

Inbreeding is breeding relatives to each other. With linebreeding you are doing this with the specific goal of duplicating some particularly desirable characteristic in the shared ancestors/parents etc. The downside is that while you're hopefully doubling up on those desirable characteristics, you're also doubling up on any UN-desirable characteristics. That's why I feel linebeeding should not be considered unless a lot of research has been done into all the ancestors, and all possible unrelated dogs have been considered as alternatives.

A lot of breeders seem to be using related dogs from their own kennels and calling it "Linebreeding" just to save on stud fees.

Answer 4

Breeding dogs who are related to each other not as closely as parent/offspring or brother/sister.
Examples of linebreeding: aunt/nephew, uncle/niece, grandmother/great-grandson, second cousins.

Good breeders linebreed because it doubles up on the best without the huge risk of genetic defects resulting from inbreeding.

Answer 5

In-breeding - This is the breeding of closely related animals. Brother-Sister, Parent-Offspring, ½ brother - ½ Sister.

Line-breeding - This is the breeding of animals that share common ancestors but are not closely related. For example the dogs may share a common great-grandparent.

Out-cross - This is generally considered the breeding of animals with no common ancestors within the first 4 or 5 generations.

Answer 6

It's when you breed to relatives..dogs who are in the dogs pedigree. Breeders will do it to emphasize good qualities and keep the same desired look, personality and disposition. Line breeding should only be done by someone who knows the genetics behind the pedigrees and has a certain goal. Line breeding too much and by someone who is not knowledgeable of the pedigree can end in tragedy.

Edit: When I say tragedy, I mean that when line breeding, not only are you emphasizing on the qualities, but you are also taking a chance with faults....that's why it's importnant to know the pedigree.

Answer 7

Breeding within the family tree.
Uncle/niece, Granfather/ great granddaughter,..etc.
Kinda like incest, ugh,... only in the canine/feline world.

Answer 8

line breeding is like inbreeding (though usually a couple generations, so that the animals are cousins not siblings). people do this when breeding rare breeds of cats and dogs, because there is not a large gene pool so in order to continue the breed (to standard) they line breed.

Answer 9

Excellent explanation here:
http://bernesebreeders.org/articles/venditti_inoutbreeding.html