What Happens When Dogs From the Same Litter Mate?
Breeding dogs and predicting the outcome takes quite a bit of research and knowledge. Occasionally siblings, and even littermates, may breed with both intended and unintended consequences.TypesThere are several ways of breeding dogs, including inbreeding (sibling to sibling, mother to son, father to daughter), line-breeding (cousin to cousin, uncle to niece, aunt to nephew, grandfather to granddaughter) and outcrossing (totally unrelated breeding).FunctionWhen you inbreed dogs (littermates), you increase the likelihood of certain genes being paired up, thus creating dogs that are homozygous for that gene, meaning that identical copies of that gene were paired together from the same ancestor.FunctionPairing genes is desirable for good traits and undesirable for diseases or traits that are not healthy or preferred. By inbreeding, you double up on the same genetics, both good and bad.MisconceptionsInbreeding is usually considered undesirable because it can focus so many negative traits in
