Future of Purebred Dogs
Most Kennel Club breeds that exist today were chosen from existing land-race breeds in the late 19th century. How those dogs appear now however have been customized to fit within the breed club's chosen description of them. To do this, required selective breeding and rigorous culling. This created a genetic bottleneck that some people think will render breeding from closed stud books not viable. Suggestions for improvement have included outcrossing (opening studbooks) and measuring and regulating inbreeding. There are some breeders who take care to ensure that the dogs they breed have not been bred to too many other dogs so that the genetic pool does not shrink from everyone breeding to a popular sire. There are a great deal sadly that are merely breeding two "papered" dogs assuming that is all they need to do.
Books on choosing a puppy 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. 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."
Hungarian ethologist Vilmos Csányi sees purebred dog breeders, in efforts to meet breed standards, increasing the extent of inbreeding and thereby reducing the breeds' desirable attributes; "This process appears to be unstoppable," he says.
However, science continues to get better and enables breeders to test for genetic diseases. Where breeders were only able to detect afflicted animals in the past, now DNA tests can be run and only animals without affected genes can be bred to produce stronger breeds. Many breed clubs fund research and the future looks bright for preventing genetic diseases.
Some types of pedigreed dogs are frequent targets of Dognapping (the crime of taking a canine from its owner) the profit from which can run up to thousands of dollars.
Read more about this topic: Purebred (dog)
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