Purebred (dog)

"Purebred dog" refers to a dog of a modern dog breed that closely resembles other dogs of the same breed, with ancestry documented in a stud book and registered with one of the major dog registries. Documentation (so that the dog is known to be descended from specific ancestors) and registration distinguish modern breeds from dog types or landraces of dog (sometimes called "natural breeds" or "ancient breeds") that arose under human influence over a long period of time to do a specific type of work.cite book |others= The Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff |title= Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged |origdate= 1967 |publisher= G&C Merriam Company |location= Springfield, MA U.S.A. |language= English |pages= 274 |quote= A breed is a group of domestic animals related through common ancestors and visiblily similar in most characteristics, having been differentiated from others by human influence; a distinctive group of domesticated animals differentiated from the wild type under the influence of man, the sum of the progeny of a known and designated foundation stock without admixture of other blood.]

"Purebred dog" may also be used in a different manner to refer to dogs of specific dog types and landraces that are not modern breeds. An example is cited by biologist Raymond Coppinger, of an Italian shepherd who keeps only the white puppies from his sheep guardian dog's litters, and culls the rest, because he defines the white ones as purebred. Coppinger says, "The shepherd's definition of pure is not wrong, it is simply different than mine." [Citation | last =Coppinger | first =Raymond | author-link = | last2 =Coppinger | first2 =Lorna | publication-date =2001 | title =Dogs, A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution | publication-place =New York | publisher =Scribner | pages =138 | isbn =0-684-85530-5 | ISBN status =May be invalid - please double check] However, the usual definition is the one that involves modern breeds.

Etymology

The earliest use of the term "pureblood" in English referring to animal breeding, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary, was in 1882 and "pure bred" in 1890. [Citation | author=Online Etymology Dictionary | author-link =Online Etymology Dictionary | url =http://www.etymonline.com/ | accessdate =20 May 2008 ] Mirraim Webster dates the use to 1852. [Citation | author=Merriam-Webster Dictionary | url =http://www.webster.com/ | accessdate =20 May 2008]

Registration

"Purebred dogs" are by definition registered members of modern breeds. Breeds of dogs may be registered either in an "open stud book" or a "closed stud book". The term "purebred dog" is typically used to mean dogs registered with a "closed stud book" registry, but the connotation of desirability of this type of registration is disputed by owners of purebred dogs from "open stud book" registries.
*The "closed stud book" requires that all dogs descend from a known and registered set of ancestors; this results in a loss of genetic variation over time, as well as a highly identifiable breed type, which is the basis of the sport of conformation showing. In order to enhance specific characteristics, most modern "purebred dogs" registered with "closed stud books" are highly inbred, increasing the possibility of genetic-based disease. [Citation | author= various authors | title =Canine Genetic Diseases Network | publication-place =Columbia, Missouri, USA | publisher =University of Missouri-Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine | url =http://www.caninegeneticdiseases.net/ | accessdate =20 May 2008 ]
*The "open stud book", meaning some outcrossing is acceptable, is often used in herding dog, hunting dog, and working dog (working dog meaning police dogs, assistance dogs, and other dogs that work directly with humans, not on game or livestock) registries for dogs not also engaged in the sport of conformation showing. Outcrosses with other breeds and breeding for working characteristics (rather than breeding for appearance) are assumed to result in a healthier dog. Overuse of one particular stud dog due to the desirability of the dog's working style or appearance leads to a narrowing of genetic diversity, whether the breed uses an "open stud book" or a "closed stud book". [For example, most border collies today (whether used for herding or for showing) are related to a sire named [http://www.allbordercollies.com/aboutbcs.php Winston Cap] ] The Jack Russell Terrier Club of America states, "Inbreeding favors genes of excellence as well as deleterious genes." [Citation | author = Jack Russell Terrier Club of America | author-link =Jack Russell Terrier Club of America | title = Glossary | url =http://www.therealjackrussell.com/misc/glossary.php | accessdate =20 May 2008] Some "open stud book" breeds, such as the Jack Russell Terrier, have strict limitations on inbreeding. [Citation | author = Jack Russell Terrier Club of America| author-link =Jack Russell Terrier Club of America| title =Jack Russell Terrier Club of America Code of Ethics| url =http://www.therealjackrussell.com/jrtca/ethics.php| accessdate =20 May 2008 "A terrier will be rejected for registration if the inbreeding coefficient is more than 16%"]

Crossbred dogs (first generation crosses from two purebred dogs, bred for heterosis, or hybrid vigor, also called dog hybrids) are not breeds and are not considered purebred, although crossbreds from the same two breeds of purebreds can have "identical qualities", [Citation | last =Csányi | first =Vilmos | publication-date =2005 | title =If Dogs Could Talk | edition =First American Edition, translated by Richard E. Quandt | publication-place =New York | publisher =North Point Press | page = 285 | isbn =978-0-86547-686-8 | ISBN status =May be invalid - please double check] similar to what would be expected from breeding two purebreds, but with more genetic variation. However, crossbreds do not "breed true" (meaning that progeny will show consistent, replicable and predictable characteristics), and can only be reproduced by returning to the original two purebred breeds.

Among breeds of hunting, herding, or working dogs in "open stud book" registries, a crossbred dog may be registered as a member of the breed it most closely resembles if the dog works in the manner of the breed. Some hunting, herding, or working dog registries will accept mixed breed (meaning of unknown heritage) dogs as members of the breed if they work in the correct manner, called "register on merit". [See the American Border Collie Association's [http://www.americanbordercollie.org/ROM.htm Register on Merit Program] ] .

For mixed breed (unknown heredity), crossbred (from two different purebred breeds), or otherwise unregistered "purebred" pet dogs there are available many small for-pay internet registry businesses that will certify any dog as a purebred anything one cares to invent. [Citation | author =Jeanne Hale | title =Dog Registries: who’s who and who’s not | url = http://members.tripod.com/~Moosewood/registries.html | accessdate = 20 May 2008 (contains descriptions and lists 'alternative' registries)] However, new breeds of dog are constantly being legitimately created, and there are many websites for new breed associations and breed clubs offering legitimate registrations for new or rare breeds. When dogs of a new breed are "visiblily similar in most characteristics" and have reliable documented descent from a "known and designated foundation stock" they can then be considered members of a breed, and, if an individual dog is documented and registered, it can be called "purebred". Only documentation of the ancestry from a breed's foundation stock determines whether or not a dog is a purebred member of a breed. [cite web |url= http://www.grapevine.net/~wolf2dog/review.htm |title= The New Breed Of Municipal Dog Control Laws:Are They Constitutional? |accessmonthday= 05/20 |accessyear= 2008 |author= Lynn Marmer |date= 1984 |work= first published in the University of Cincinnati Law Review |quote= The court found it was impossible to identify the breed of an unregistered dog.]

Showdog

A showdog is a "purebred dog" that participates in dog shows with its owner or handler.

The term "showdog" is commonly used in two different ways. For people in the dog fancy, a "showdog" is an exceptional "purebred" dog with outstanding breed type, and an outgoing, high energy character that makes competing in the conformation show ring a real joy. [Citation | last =Alston | first =George | author-link = | date =May 16, 1992 | title =The Winning Edge: Show Ring Secrets | edition =1st | publication-place = New York | publisher =Howell Book House | page =59 | isbn =978-0876058343 | ISBN status =May be invalid - please double check "If you make showing fun for the dog, you will have the fun and satisfaction of showing a winner."] For people who have no interest in dog shows, the term "showdog" is used to refer to a dog that is perceived to be ridiculously groomed (referring to a winning show poodle: "this "dog," ...looks like it was made by dipping a large rat in glue and running it underneath a refrigerator until it collected all the dirt, lint, and dust-bunnies it could manage"),Citation | author =Jonah Goldberg | publication-date =13 February 2002 | title =Westminster Eugenics Show | publisher =National Review | url =http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTYyM2Y4YzEyNDJmYWIzNjNmYjE0M2NlY2MzYzlkMDA= | accessdate =20 May 2008] expensive, and probably deformed and sickly as well. Raymond Coppinger says, "This recent breeding fad for the purebred dog is badly out of control." [Citation | last =Coppinger | first =Raymond | author-link =Ethology | last2 =Coppinger | first2 =Lorna | publication-date =2001 | title =Dogs, A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution | publication-place =New York | publisher =Scribner | pages =247–248 | isbn =0-684-85530-5 | ISBN status =May be invalid - please double check] .

Dog shows (and the related sport of Junior Handling for children and young people) continue to be popular activities; a single show, the 2006 Crufts dog show alone had 143,000 spectators, with 24,640 purebred dogs entered, representing 178 different breeds from 35 different countries. [Citation |author= The Kennel Club (UK) |authorlink= The Kennel Club |title= Crufts 2006 Show review |origdate= 2006 |url= http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?d=23&f=3&h=243&id=499 |accessdate =20 May 2008] The sport of conformation dog showing is only open to registered purebred dogs.

Eugenics and history

Purebred dogs represent to many commentators the attitudes of the late Victorian era, when dog breeding first became popular and when most modern breeds originated. Purebred dogs were bred from a narrow set of ancestors, and an idea developed that this somehow made them superior in both appearance and in general goodness. Englishman Francis Galton used the term eugenics to refer to his ideas for applying domestic animal breeding techniques to humans, to produce a 'pure' and 'good' elite; the idea became an intellectual fad, promoted by people as diverse as Margaret Sanger and dog writer Leon Fradley Whitney,Citation | last =Budiansky" | first =Stephen | author-link = | publication-date =2000 | title =The Truth About Dogs; an Inquiry into the Ancestry, Social Conventions, Mental Habits, and Moral Fiber of Canis familiaris | publication-place =New York, U.S.A. | place = | publisher =Viking Penguin | page =35 | isbn =0-670-89272-6 | ISBN status =May be invalid - please double check] who both promoted the sterilization of 'unfit' humans; ideas that were extended horrifyingly by the Nazis in World War II era Germany.

Purebred dog breeders of today "have inherited a breeding paradigm that is, at the very least, a bit anachronistic in light of modern genetic knowledge, and that first arose out of a pretty blatant misinterpretation of Darwin and an enthusiasm for social theories that have long been discredited as scientifically insupportable and morally questionable." Information about the way early dog shows were intellectualized is of little interest to modern breeders and owners of purebred dogs, who for the most part have never heard of eugenics. Breeders and serious fanciers are more interested in the real or imagined early history of their favourite breed's development. [Coppinger, page 249] Dedicated breeders attempt to produce the healthiest dogs the limited gene pool will allow, and buyers of purebreds primarily are interested in a puppy whose adult size, appearance, and temperament are predictable. [Citation | last =Caras | first =Roger A. | author-link = | last2 = | first2 = | author2-link = | publication-date =2001 | title =Going for the Blue | publication-place =New York, USA | publisher =Warner Books, Inc. | page =4-6 | isbn =0-446-52644-4 | ISBN status =May be invalid - please double check ] In addition, tens of thousands of people worldwide enjoy the sport of conformation dog showing, which is restricted to purebred dogs. [ [http://www.schaeferhunde.de/site/typo3conf/ext/nf_downloads/pi1/passdownload.php?downloaddata=822 Attendance at American Kennel Club annually exceeds 1.8 million] . PDF, pg 55; [http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070529014101.3ijk447j&show_article=1 Japanese-born French poodle wins at world dog show in Buenos Aires, 2005] ]

Health issues

Health issues of purebred dogs and genetic problems in purebred dogs has been extensively covered in these articles - Genetic disease | List of dog diseases | Canine reproduction as well as the others linked in this article. Also see articles about individual dog breeds for more on health issues of individual breeds. The BBC also recently ran a documentary on the health problems in pedigree dogs [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2583235/BBC-may-cut-Crufts-over-disease-riddled-pedigree-breeds.html] .

Future of purebred dogs

Most purebred breeds that exist today were created in the late 1800s from older dog types by selective breeding and rigorous culling. [Coppinger, page 245, "Anybody who ever created a breed did so by culling the ones they didn't want."] This created a genetic bottleneck that will at some point render breeding from closed stud books unviable. Suggestions for improvement have included outcrossing (opening studbooks) and measuring and regulating inbreeding.

Books on choosing a puppy continue to advocate for purebred dogs, as long as they come from breeders who are willing to invest the time and money in producing healthy dogs that they are willing to guarantee. "The difference is that purebred breeders know what to expect", writes Chris Walkowicz in "The Perfect Match". [Citation | last =Walkowicz | first =Chris | publication-date =1996 | title =The Perfect Match, a Dog Buyer's Guide | publication-place =New York | publisher =Wiley Publishing, Inc. | page = 16 | isbn =0-87605-767-9 | ISBN status =May be invalid - please double check] Stephen Budiansky in "The Truth About Dogs" writes, "It is true that the standard criticisms leveled against inbreeding are not always well informed from the point of view of modern genetics." He continues, "Curing the problems that inbreeding has engendered in purebred dogs will require more subtlety than either most breeders or their more vocal critics have so far displayed." [Budiansky, pg 212]

Hungarian ethologist Vilmos Csányi sees purebred dog breeders, in efforts to safeguard their breeds, increasing the extent of inbreeding and thereby reducing the breeds' desirable attributes; "This process appears to be unstoppable," he says.Citation | last =Csányi | first =Vilmos | publication-date =2005 | title =If Dogs Could Talk | edition =First American Edition, translated by Richard E. Quandt | publication-place =New York | publisher =North Point Press | page = 284 | isbn =978-0-86547-686-8 | ISBN status =May be invalid - please double check] He continues with the idea that breeders could preserve their purebred breeds, while improving the health of dogs for pets, through the breeding of uniform crossbreeds (hybrids). Crossbreeds are the result of breeding two different purebred breeds to create a dog with a fairly predictable appearance and the advantage of hybrid vigor. "If we take care to maintain the parent breeds," Csányi writes, "we can always produce good hybrids." The crossing should only be in the first generation; "hybrids produced from different breeds should not be bred further", as the advantage of hybrid vigor and predictability is lost. [Csányi, pgs 285-286]

Humans can survive without dogs, but dogs have adapted so completely that dogs cannot survive without humans. [Coppinger, pgs 28- 29] The majority of people do not use dogs in any kind of work, and dogs are expensive to keep. Large numbers of mixed breed (and some purebred) dogs are discarded to shelters or become strays, but if there were some reason to eliminate them, dogs could quickly be eradicated (as was done in recent dog culls in China.) [Citation | author=BBC News | author-link = |title=Second Chinese dog cull planned | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5244304.stm | accessdate =20 May 2008] Dog sports keep purebred dogs useful to, and protected by, humans.

References

See also

*Animal husbandry
*Breed standard
*Breed type
*Conformation show
*Crossbreeding
*Dog
*Dog breed
*Dog breeding
*Dog Crossbreed/Hybrid
*Dog sports
*Dog type
*Inbreeding depression
*Outbreeding depression
*Sewall Wright's coefficient of inbreeding

External links

* [http://kursus.kvl.dk/shares/vetgen/_Popgen/genetics/4/5.htm Calculation of inbreeding]
* [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TBK-4808M5M-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=6e94082f5dcbe752a881366f3af1df51 Mortality of purebred and mixed-breed dogs in Denmark]
* [http://www.braquedubourbonnais.info/en/using-outcross.htm Outcrossing issues]
* [http://www.truveo.com/Hong-Kongs-best-in-show/id/4051039894 Preparing a showdog for competition in Hong Kong] (Video)
* [http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200804/tows_past_20080404.jhtml Television personality Oprah Winfrey's show on puppy mills]
* [http://dogjudges.info/bios/judgesbiost.htm Dog Show Judges Worldwide]
* [http://www.dog.biz/show_terminology.htm Dog Show Terminology]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7569064.stm BBC programme: Pedigree dogs plagued by disease]