Study: Most Dog Breeds Highly Inbred
Going on 30 years, I have had a pack of working hounds, usually from 4 to 12 strong. We have rural land surrounded by large plots of <i>more</i> rural land, 4,000 acres+ of tree farm and private hunting preserve, so our hounds are necessary for keeping coyotes and etc off livestock and other pets.<p>In that time we&#x27;ve had many litters of puppies, usually trading them with neighbors to improve the local landrace and pass around some of the best traits. There&#x27;s a steady input of &quot;dumped purebeed&quot; in the local mutts, they never survive long unless rescued.<p>&quot;Pure&quot; breeds are useful in being controlled and defined parameters to breed from; hybrids are the best &quot;working&quot; dogs however. IMO.<p>Our greatest successes have been with hunting hounds (bluetick coonhound or great danes) x &quot;herding dogs&quot; of some spread. The border collie x Bluetick cross produces some great dogs but there&#x27;s a high proportion of psychopaths; expect 1:20 or so to be one of those puppies you just cant do <i>anything</i> with without insane effort. Bluetick x Catahoula are more mentally stable but likely to fall to the &quot;merle on merle&quot; cillia based health issues. (Digestive trouble and&#x2F;or hearing issues)<p>Great danes x collie were robust, intelligent, <i>big</i> dogs that avoided almost all the inhertibale issues of the parent lines; but that&#x27;s a cross you don&#x27;t want to undertake raising without significant time. They&#x27;re as bright as a small child and they feel they need a job: furthermore if you&#x27;re not the boss, they feel they have to be. Of 4 litters (all large, hounds are profligate) we got 2 willful and bright enough I&#x27;d call them &quot;psycho pups&quot;. <i>Bad</i> news at that size and vitality. Great for a herd dog, but only if you don&#x27;t care about having input into how the herd is run.