The Truth About Selective Breeding

“From the Neapolitan Mastiff to the Chihuahua, selective breeding is responsible for all the different types of dog breeds, but there is a trade-off for having pure beed dogs, and the trade-off for having pure breed dogs, and the trade-off is most of the time the dogs health.”

The Truth About Selective Breeding and how its harming Dogs

From the Neapolitan Mastiff to the Chihuahua, selective breeding is responsible for all the different types of dog breeds, but there is a trade-off for having pure breed dogs, and the trade-off is most of the time the dog’s health.

Artificial selection (or selective breeding) is the process of breeding plants or animals to obtain qualities that the breeder wishes to have. Selective breeding works when a parent has offspring and if an offspring has a trait that the breeder likes, then the breeder will breed more of that trait. ​(The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Domestication)​ This process is how all dog breeds were made but as we breed more unique dogs, the dogs themselves are not benefiting from this sometimes this process is harming the dog. ​ (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Selection)

Issues that can arise from selective breeding are skin problems. According to PBS as many as 15 per cent of all dogs have ​skin allergies, ​atopic dermatitis​ (very itchy skin), and inflamed skin but certain breeds have it worse than others Dalmatians, Vizslas, and several terriers, such as the Boston Terrier, Bull Terrier, and the West Highland White Terrier are all prone to atopic dermatitis, And the numerous skin folds of a Chinese Shar-Pei, so valued by some breeders, can become breeding grounds for staphylococcus and other bacteria, which cause frequent skin infections. Also, excess wrinkles of skin on the face can rub on the eye, causing lesions and, potentially, blindness.​ ​(PBS Dogs That Changed The World)​ & ​( Jezierski Evolution: Library: Evolution of the Dog) Some more issues that can arise from selective breeding are blood disorders and neurological, behavioural and sensory difficulties Bassett Hounds are prone to an inherited abnormality the effects the ability of the platelets in the blood to clump together after an injury. The blood doesn’t clot properly, leading to haemorrhage and bruising. Clotting problems also plague dogs with von Willebrand’s disease, a genetic condition frequent in Doberman Pinschers. Neurological and behavioural problems afflict many pure breeds. Bull Terriers, for example, often compulsively chase their tails. Pugs are be predisposed to Pug Dog encephalitis, a fatal brain disease. Scottish Terriers are affected by Scottie Cramp, a disorder that causes the dogs to lose muscle control when they get excited. German Shepherds may inherit degenerative myelopathy, a crippling spinal cord disease that causes weakness and eventually paralysis. ​ ​(PBS Dogs That Changed The World) One of the biggest issues that plague all purebred dogs is cancer, Cancers are strongly influenced by genetics, and so it is not surprising to find various types of cancer among different dog breeds. For example, bone cancer, or osteosarcoma, is considerably more frequent among large and giant breeds of dogs, such as the Irish Wolfhound, Great Dane, Rottweiler, Labrador and Golden Retriever, Greyhound, and Saint Bernard, because their bones are stressed by carrying so much weight. High rates of malignant blood vessel tumours are seen among Golden Retrievers, which

are also prone to leukaemia and brain tumours. German Shepherd Dogs and Chow Chows are predisposed to gastric cancer, while Scottish Terriers are 18 times more likely to develop bladder cancer than are other breeds. ​(Curley Purebred Dogs Offer Insight in Cancer Research)​ & ​(PBS Dogs That Changed The World)

Selective breeding works on the basis of natural selection but instead of nature choosing the traits that get to be passed on, the breeder is the one who can choose which trait he would like. Natural selection can be seen everywhere, an example of where we can see this is in the bacteria that infect us. When we get infection we usually use antibiotics to cure but sometimes when a bacteria mutates is may develop a trait that can make it more resistant to that antibiotic that you are taking, This is also known as antibiotic resistance. It is speculated that the detective breeding of dogs started over 14000 years ago before we started to practice agriculture. The “original” dog that we started to breed was a wolf but the species of wolf that dogs come from went extinct, some scientist speculate that the “original” dog came from a variation of the grey wolf that is no longer around. And ever since then we have created over 300 different dog breeds! Making dogs the most diverse man-made animal.

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