BLASCO'S BATMAN BORDEAUX (PEDIGREE)
IDCR# IDCF1-2064M
HEIGHT AT WITHERS: ?
WEIGHT: ?

What is outcross breeding...?

Left, at four weeks of age, Blasco's Batman Bordeaux is a 1/2 Johnson American Bulldog (Blasco's Kay Bella of A&B), and 1/2 Dogue de Bordeaux (Massive Mugsy) Bandogge. Batman is highly intelligent, calm, careful and thoughtful. He is not predisposed to heavy dog aggression, lacking some of the sharper drives of his Johnson American Bulldog mother, Bella. (Though Batman surely doesn't back down, he'll stand his ground when threatened, thoroughly passing all his adult courage and temperament tests!)

Outcross breeding, or outbreeding (often loosely called hybrid breeding) is technically the mating of animals of two different breeds of the same species, but is also a term of common usage, describing animals of the same breed, but divergent bloodlines being bred together. Hybrid breeding, on the other hand, actually breeds together animals of different species, such as dogs and wolves, rather than one type of dog to another, but is also a term of common usage, describing two distinctive breeds of the same species being bred together. Batman is an outcross dog, offspring of an outcross breeding between two excellent, healthy, dual registered dogs, but dogs of different breeds. He displays hybrid vigor, or heterosis (1), so you could take your pick on whether to call him an outcross or a hybrid, either would fit the common usage of the two terms.

Why would a breeder of purebred dogs outcross breed or outbreed?

As an F1 hybrid, Batman has a far lower COI (Coefficient of Inbreeding) than a pure American Bulldog (2). Because of heterosis, Batman can be expected to be healthier and have a longer life than than either of his parents, (who are also both very healthy, highly active dogs in their own right), and to transmit many of those qualities to his offspring, and they to theirs (3). Furthermore, when Batman is bred back to the right American Bulldog girls, most of his puppies will recapture those American Bulldog drives many of us prefer, while still having a far lower COI, and being far healthier than most purebred American Bulldogs or Dogue de Bordeaux.

Phenotypical Observation of a Genotypical Reality
Heterosis Summons "Good Genes" Upward While Pushing "Bad Genes" Downward

Take note of Batman's visual phenotype (the genetic material you can actually see - the look of the dog) (4). He looks very little like his mother, Bella, and also very little like his father, Mugsy. In conscientious outcross breeding we breed together two very high quality, disease-free aninals of different breeds. As a result, the more species enabling recessive genes (the good genes) shared within the all encompassing broader genotype of both the mother and father, combine to become dominant genes in the offspring (5). This is why Batman displays his own phenotype, that more similar to the ancient Mastiffs that both the American Bulldog and Dogue de Bordeaux breeds come from (6). Further, because nature favors the enablement of species, both the good recessive and good dominant genes shared between both parents, tend to combine in greater number in the offspring. This makes the more dominant good recessive as well as the good dominant genes even more dominant, an action sometimes altogether displacing the far more recessive bad genes, and at least consistently pushing them further away from the resultant offspring's phenotype, making the "bad genes" more recessive, as "good genes" shared by both parents are combined and pushed upward into the phenotype (7).

This is why, if a breeder of brachycephalic dogs, such as my American Bulldogs, wishes to maintain a brachycephalic head type, it is essentially never seen in the F1, even when both parents are brachycephalic, but must be purposefully bred for after the initial outcross breeding. The brachycephalic head type is a trait less enabling of species than the somewhat longer nose and flatter head that provides a dog greater olfactory. This is also why hunter breeders, typified by hog hunters throughout the United States, who perform regular and repeated outcross breedings - Curr to Great Dane, to Catahoula, to Bulldog, back to Curr, and similar, tend to be so very successful in doing it. In their manipulation, they prioritize hunting traits within the phenotype they breed for - better nose, longer ranging, higher speed and agility, greater tenacity, which are all traits that for dogs, better enable species, and thus tend to combine in the offspring more readily. The same holds true as to why dogs primarily white in color, are observed in F1s so much less often than colored dogs when breeding a white parent to a colored parent. White, for a dog, is less enabling of species than the colors that allow a dog to be camouflaged with the natural hunting environment. As such, a breeder must specifically favor the breeding of white dogs in order to consistently get white dogs, because the trait most naturally enabling of the dog's species is a camouflaging color, while the trait that most naturally enables the human hunter who uses dogs, is a lighter colored dog that is easier to see.

Oddly, many kennel clubs greatly disparage, and even in some cases discipline the practice of outcross breeding, believing purebred dogs are consistently far superior to outcrossed dogs. The opposite is in fact the scientific reality. Repeated case controlled studies have consistently proven, that outcrossed dogs are consistently superior in every metric that can be measured but one: The consistent look of the mass produced market product known as the purebred dog (8) (9) (10).

Outcross breeding is an important tool used by knowledgeable breeders to expand gene pools, lower the incidence of inherited disease, boost immune system function (raising resistance to bacterial and viral infections), to dramatically enhance reproductive functions, and to provide for superior life energy, higher performance and greater longevity within bloodlines (11). Today many dog breeders simply do not understand this. Touting a 1950s understanding of commercial livestock breeding, modern dog breeders often rely on extensive - even exclusive in-line breeding practices, in-line breeding itself being a type of inbreeding (7). Interestingly, while the livestock industries once believed strongly in repeated in-line breeding, around the mid-1980s changes began to take place in their practices, better reflecting more up-to-date genetic research. Today, nearly every egg or piece of meat you eat, and most every cup of milk you drink, comes from far healthier and dramatically more productive outcrossed, crossbred or hybrid animals (12).

Our Outcross Today - Pros and Cons

Here's Batman at 14 months or so with Kat. Batman is extra sweet and gentle, having endless patience with kids, puppies and other dogs. He's just under 100 pounds here, but admittedly I haven't weighed him recently. He's a good sized guy - not a giant, but certainly plenty big enough to do protection work - though with Batman, it will require the typical training that is NOT typically required with my straight American Bulldogs, just because he's such a sweet and gentle boy.

It's worth mentioning that Batman, bred to American Bulldogs does throw a lot of brindle into his puppies, but he also throws a few white based dogs when bred to white females as well - and all his puppies are very drivey. That's an important issue in this particular case study. Batman is very much not a drivey dog - (drivey, having a noted proactive drive to aggressively protect), but exibits the more Mastiff type temperament in his somewhat overly calm and quiet demeanor, and slower maturation. I'm not attracted to that myself. I want protection bred dogs to be natuarally dominant and territorial,- drivey. And, I want a dog to mature into its working capacity in well under two years, just to get the most use out of the dog. That's not who Batman is, however, and it is almost never what an F1 Bandogge is. It's been known for many hundreds of years that the most successful Bandogge mixes are 60% to 75% Bulldog and 25% to 40% Mastiff (depending upon the characteristics of the dogs used, and the desired final product), and for these very reasons - sharper temperaments, faster maturation and more consistent size.

The NKC 7/8 Rule
Predictable Consistency in Offspring

Batman is an AWESOME breeding dog, producing large, very correct dogs with temperaments every bit as sharp as straight American Bulldogs. Further, Batman's puppies when bred to an American Bulldog are then 3/4 American Bulldog. The puppies that Batman's puppies produce, when bred to 100% pure American Bulldogs, do then meet the NKC 7/8 Rule for purebred registry as American Bulldogs. That is, Batman's grand kids - assuming he and his puppies are only bred to pure American Bulldogs, ARE THEN American Bulldogs themselves, while still providing higher COI and a host of other very positive health and life energy characteristics.

A Final Note for the Nay Sayers

The NKC 7/8 Rule has detractors, who believe that purebred breeds of dogs should not be tampered with, and that a 7/8 dog is not a purebred dog. You're wrong. That which defines a breed is the phenotype you select for as a breeder, and it is the phenotype that defines one breed of dog from another, not the genotype. This widespread knowledge deficit fails to take into account the fact that outcross breeding is the only method that successfully combats inbreeding depression in a breed. There are purist breeders just tearing their hair out over this article right now. Fair enough, but before sending me the angry emails, re-read the article, take time to pursue the citations - learn about heterosis, inbreeding depression and COI. We have issues in the more popular lines of American Bulldogs that are very easy to amend - issues clearly caused by an ever contracting gene pool. Outcross breeding corrects things like that, and it is very much a legitimate part of proper professional animal husbandry in every other area of species and sub-species management.

It always makes me shake my head in wonder when I come across other breeder's websites talking about how the English Bulldog was destroyed, and then on the very same sites, bragging about their own continuous in-line breeding, the very thing that destroyed the English Bulldog!. Study up on the terms mentioned and pack a lunch before emailing me on this topic; we're going to have a friendly debate, there is endless research and examples I can cite, and I'm going to win. Or, better yet, toss the out-dated dogma of continuous in-line breeding to the ash heap, bring in outcross sires, and see your program surge forward in leaps and bounds. Use the 7/8 rule intelligently, to build your breed, rather than trying to only replicate the better specimens in an ever shrinking gene pools. Furthermore, you can and should still practice limited, responsible inbreeding, so it's not like your previous work was wasted. Most scientifically based commercial outcross breeding schemes actually begin with inbred specimens (7), but that's another chapter, soon to come...

Above left, some Batman puppies, excellent structure and health, great size, colors well within standard, and refined, easy-to-train, yet drivey-as-hell American Bulldog temperaments...

 

 

Glossary of Terms:

Note: Terms are defined in order of use, not alphabetically. Definitions are at times shortened, or lengthened and paraphrased from collegiate dictionaries, and dictionaries of medical and genetics terminology, and in other cases two or more definitions knit together to give a more complete understanding. In all cases definitions are focused on the usage of the term herein, and are fully correct and complete for their use herein. For further definitions, interested researchers should avail themselves of such materials for their own libraries. It's an unfortunate truth that some reference materials simply are not available online.

Bandogge: Any distinct Mastiff breed of dog bred to any other distinct breed of dog, whether of mastiff-type or another type, and any and all crosses between such progeny. Most common and well known in modern times is the breeding of Mastiffs, such as the Neapolitan and English Mastiffs with Pitbulls. Such breedings, however, are not the exclusive, nor the more historical method of Bandogge breeding. There are many different breeds of mastiff-type dogs, from English and Neapolitan Mastiffs, to South African Boerboels, Cane Corsos, Dogue de Bordeaux, and others. Any breeding between any such distict mastiff breeds constitutes a Bandogge breeding. Any breeding between any such distnct mastiff-type breeds and any other breed of dog, of any type or breed also constitutes a Bandogge breeding. For example, a Pitbull bred to a Neapolitan Mastiff is a Bandogge, but so also is a German Shepherd bred to an English Mastiff, a Cane Corse bred to a Boerboel, a Presa Canario bred to a Bloodhound, a Jack Russell Terrier bred to a Dogue de Bordeaux, and so forth. Bandogges are historically, and usually to this day, bred for some type of guarding or protection, and may or may not also have a hunting application. To learn more about Bandogges and the heritage of the Mastiffs and mastiff-type dogs, I'll recommend my own article here: What Is a Bandogge or Bandog and Why Should We Breed Them...?

Outbreeding: Outbreeding or outcross breeding is the mating or breeding of distantly related or entirely unrelated individuals within a species, such as breeding one breed of chicken to another breed of chicken, one breed of cow to another breed of cow, or one breed of dog to another breed of dog. Outbreeding often produces offspring of superior quality because it increases homozygosity (the occurrence of two alleles for the same trait at corresponding positions on homologous chromosomes), thereby sharply reducing the risk of deleterious recessive genes being expressed. Crossbreeding is the most common form of outbreeding.

Hybrid Breeding: The offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species, or genera, especially as produced through human manipulation for specific genetic characteristics. Used technically in biology, hybrid breeding refers to the breeding together of two different species, such as a cow to buffalo, or a dog to a wolf or a jackal. Used loosely, the term sometimes also refers (incorrectly) to outbreeding or outcross breeding - the breeding of two distinct breeds within a single species - distinct dog breed "A" to distinct dog breed "B" - distinct breed of chicken "A" to distinct breed of chicken "B" and so forth. While it is true that some hybrid breedings do produce progeny that cannot breed (donkey to horse breedings producing mules), this is not a defining characteristic of the term hybrid, i.e. the majority of hybrids can in fact be bred, both to each other (hybrid to hybrid) and also back to the progenitor breeds, and also to still other distinct breeds.

F1 Hybrid: Crop or strain variety, characterized by unusual vigor and uniformity, produced by crossing two selected inbred lines. F1 hybrid is a term used in genetics and selective breeding. F1 stands for Filial 1, the first filial generation seeds/plants or animal offspring resulting from a cross mating of distinctly different parental types. The offspring of distinctly different parental types produce a new, and uniform variety with specific characteristics from either or both parents. In plant and animal genetics, those parents usually are two inbred lines.

Heterosis: Heterosis, hybrid vigor, or outbreeding enhancement, is the objectively improved or increased function of any biological quality in hybrid offspring, such as overall size of the organism, its resistance to disease, its lack of inherited defects, its reproductive functions, etc. Good examples are chickens laying larger eggs and more of them, chickens, cows, pigs and other meat livestock producing more lean muscle mass and reaching slaughter weights faster, and cows producing more milk, all while being far healthier than the progenitor breeds - both genetically (an absense of inherited defects) and insofaras their resistance to disease (bacterial/virus infection). Notably, whether a breeding is between same species or outside species (whether distinct dog breed "A' to distinct dog breed "B" or dog to wolf, dog to jackal, dog to fox, heterosis is still commonly observed in the offspring, and is typically observed at a rate coorelated to how distant the two parents were, (distinct dog breed "A" to distinct dog breed "B" producing offspring clearly demostrating heterosis, but dog to wolf demonstrating still more signs of heterosis).

COI (Coefficient of Inbreeding): The Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI) is a measure of the level of inbreeding of an organism. The coefficient of inbreeding is a statistical value derived from an individual's pedigree and cannot be verified by looking at the individual's genome. The inbreeding coefficient (COI) estimates the mathematical probability of receiving two identical copies of a gene, from an ancestor common to both parents. Inbreeding coefficients are expressed in percentages, 6.25% COI, 12.5% COI, 25% COI and so forth. A lower COI is considered "safer" and less likely that offspring will exhibit inherited disorders. To put it in perspective, parent to offspring and sibling to sibling inbreeding both represent a 25% COI. Grandparent to grandchild and half sibling to half sibling both represent a 12.5% COI. Great grandparent to great grandchild and first cousin to first cousin represents a 6.25% COI. Understand, all dogs are inbreed to some degree (that is how breeds are formed), but they will vary in how many generations it takes before the common ancestors appear in the pedigree, which affects COI. However, also impacting COI is how many different dogs were used in developing a breed. You may have a six or eight generation pedigree that shows no common ancestors at all, and so, the COI would seem to be very low. Yet when you look at the ten generation pedigree (or further back), you may realize that all the dogs on your dog's pedigree are actually progeny from only three dogs, thus significantly raising the true COI. English Mastiffs in England for instance were almost entirely extinct after WWII, and were "brought back" using only a fraction of the dogs that once existed. As such, a modern five generation pedigree for an English Mastiff may well have all different names in every spot, suggesting very low COI, but in reality, the breed was "brought back" arguably with only six dogs, making the COI higher than the shorter pedigrees would suggest. While breeders will often use a five generation pedigree to calculate COI, a ten generation pedigree provides far greater accuracy. However, as explained, COI calculations do not account for how many, or how few dogs were used to develope a breed. If a breed was developed using only three dogs for instance, 100 years later (assuming exclusive purebred breeding), the tens of thousands of dogs that may come from those three dogs are still only carrying the genetic material of those three dogs. All things being equal, the lower the COI, the more health-conscious the breeding, and the higher the COI, the more likely offspring will display defective traits. An F1 Outcross breeding between two dogs of different distinct breeds lowers COI to ZERO% in the resultant puppies.

Phenotype: The observable physical or biochemical characteristics of an organism, as determined by both genetic makeup and environmental influences. The expression of a specific trait, such as stature or blood type, based on both genetic and environmental influences. In short, the phenotype of a dog is what you can see and measure - its color, structural type and measurements, its senses, drives and temperament - all that makes that dog, that particular dog. As opposed to genotype, phenotype are the expressed genes and their response to environment, and genotype are ALL of the genes the animal carries, whether expressed in the phenotype or not. However, therein lays a somewhat mysterious complexity...

The relationship between genotype and environment is a dynamic relationship, and it is this relationship that makes up the phenotype, not simply what genes are expressed, but how those genes have responded to environmental factors. Example: Two male dogs, cloned and thus fully identicle, are born in the winter in Colorado. At six weeks of age, one puppy is sent outside to live on a large yard with his mother and siblings, while the other is a favorite of the kids and kept inside. Months pass and soon, they are two very different dogs in almost every respect. While their expressed genes are exactly the same, their phenotype is different. The dog sent outside has more muscle mass and is significantly larger. Shivering in the cold is an isometric exercise. It made the muscles stronger and caused the dog to also eat more food, making him grow. That growth provides a physiological framework for further growth, allowing that the outside dog even as an adult will still likely be physically larger and stronger than the inside dog. So then, in dogs that are not cloned, but only appear to be identicle, what portion of the differences between the two dogs is different genes, and what portion is the same genes exposed to different environmental factors? Answer: Within the constraint's of today's genetic science, there's just no way to know, but this reality is most correctly expressed by a formula: Genotype (G) + Environment (E) + Genotype & Environment Interactions (GE) = Phenotype (P), and generally speaking, phenotype is used to describe the expressed genes that make an individual, that which we can see and/or measure: Height, weight, color, temperament, senses, etc.

Recessive Genes: Genes that produce their characteristic phenotype only when its allele is identical, such as the recessive gene for blue eyes in which both parents must be a carrier, but not necessarily actually having blue eyes themselves; or in dogs, hip dysplasia, in which two carriers that are free of the disease themselves, still commonly produce offspring that do display the disease.

Genotype: The entire set of genes in an organism, both seen and/or quantifiable (phenotype) and not seen and/or quantifiable, but still nonetheless resident in the organism. The genotype determines the hereditary potentials and limitations of an individual. Among organisms that reproduce sexually, an individual's genotype comprises the entire complex of genes inherited from both parents, those seen and/or quantifiable, and those not seen and/or quantifiable.

Dominant Genes: Genes that produce the same phenotype in an organism whether or not its allele is identical. A genetic trait is considered dominant if it is expressed in an organism that has only one copy of that gene. A dominant trait is opposed to a recessive trait which is expressed only when two copies of the gene are present. Example: If a person has one gene for blue eyes and one for brown, that person will always have brown eyes because the gene for brown eyes is a dominant gene. For a person to have blue eyes, both genes for eye color must be blue, because the gene for blue eyes is a recessive gene.

Brachycephalic: In reference to dogs, having a head with much greater skull than nasal cavity. English Bulldogs, American Bulldogs and Bullmastiffs all have a brachycephalic head type (skull much longer than nasal cavity), while Collies have a dolichocephalic head type (much longer nasal cavity than skull), and Beagles and Labradors have a mesaticephalic head type (skull and nasal cavity of roughly equal length). Dogs with a brachycephalic head type rarely have good olfactory, and commonly have breathing problems which cause or exacerbate other health concerns.

Olfactory: Of or pertaining to the sense of smell. Poor olfactory is synonymous with poor sense of smell.

Inline Breeding: An American term contrived between 1875 and 1880 by breeders of animals seeking to distinguish between different types of inbreeding, claiming that inbreeding is parent/child and sibling/sibling breedings, while inline breeding is the breeding of otherwise related offspring to a superior ancestor, seeking to promulgate that ancestor's genes, but not actually inbreeding. In biology, no such distinction exists. Inline breeding is not only inbreeding, but repetitive inbreeding. It is a mathematical certainty that many cases of breeding cousins to cousins, or aunt/uncle to niece/nephew, or grandparent to grandchild results in offspring more closely related than siblings, which are then still typically bred together in inline breeding schemes. Inline breeding and other forms of inbreeding do have legitimate use in professional animal husbandry, but always results in a contracting gene pool, often leading to inbreeding depression.

Inbreeding: Contrary to popular opinion which tends to believe that inbreeding means parent to child or sibling to sibling breedings, to be inbred, a dog must have only one (or more) common ancestors on both sides of the pedigree. That is, a dog has two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents and sixteen great great grandparents, and if any one name appears twice anywhere in that pedigree, the dog is technically an inbred animal. Inbreeding is not bad in and of itself. It is where we get dogs and other animals of distinctive type and breed, and it serves modern day breeding purposes in cementing desired traits between relatives into bloodlines. Without inbreeding, you would have no idea if a cow to-be-born was going to be a better mother or a better forager, what size she would be, what her average lifetime milk production might be, or heraproximate meat to feed ratio. Without inbreeding there would be no distinct types and breeds of any species. Inbreeding is also commonplace in nature. Inbreeding is used in animal husbandry, and to great success when used knowledgeably and conscientiously, balancing the pros and cons of breeding schemes that include both inbreeding and outcross breeding. However, two same names in a pedigree does constitute inbreeding, and as such, all forms of purposeful in-line breeding are in fact the practice of inbreeding.

NKC 7/8 Rule: As of September 22, 2003, NKC (National Kennel Club) will only register dogs that meet the 7/8 purity requirement. While the rule has detractors, it provides breeders a tool by which to improve and/or maintain the good health of bloodlines through outcross breeding. A dog which is 7/8 of a certain breed is considered a purebred dog of that breed. The NKC 7/8 Rule has detractors, most typically found in the pet animal breeding community. The layman researcher should therefore understand, The National Kennel Club did not invent this rule. The rule is reflective of long known and thoroughly established genetic science, applicable to all organisms from sweet peas, to roses, to farmed fish, to chickens, cows, pigs, etc. In all cases, it is a fundamental axiom of modern day genetic science that any sample organism containing a purity of 7/8 genetic material from any distinctive species, sub-species, breed, bloodline or strain, is a "purebred" specimen of that distinctive species, sub-species, breed, bloodline or strain.

Inbreeding Depression: Inbreeding depression occurs when related parents produce progeny with traits that negatively influence their fitness, largely due to homozygosity (both parents having the same "bad genes," or genes which may negatively influence fitness). Example charateristics of inbreeding depression: Reduced fertility both in litter size and sperm viability, increased genetic disorders, lower birth rate, smaller adult size, and loss of immune system function (in dogs often observable as greater incidence of skin disorders, food sensitivities and various cancers).

Contracting Gene Pool: A gene pool is the totality of genetic information in a species or sub-species, such as dogs in general of all breeds (species), or a specific breed of dog (sub-species). Gene pools vary in size and can grow and shrink. A gene pool grows when genetic material from outside the gene pool is introduced, such as in outcross breeding when one distinct breed of dog is bred to another distinct breed of dog. A gene pool shrinks or contracts when only relatives are being bred and those relationships are becoming closer and closer with each generation of breeding, and an allele is lost, or dies out. When a gene pool contracts too much, a species or sub-species is threatened with extinction via ever more prevalent characteristics of inbreeding depression, and inherited defective traits being multiplied exponentially. Mathematically this happens slowly at first, with few negative impacts and ever more consistent offspring, promoting the belief in many breeders that these destructive breeding protocols in common usage are actually successful. However, when the tipping point is reached, it results in a sudden downhill slide to complete breed failure, in which all new specimens are so negatively impacted as to have killed off the breed, or changed it so negatively as to make it an altogether different breed. Example: The English Bulldog, less than 200 years ago was still commonly a working breed, and today it is a breed with some of the highest prevalence of genetic defects of all dog breeds throughout the world, with no specimens remaining suitable for the breed's previous utilitarian uses. While it is still called an English Bulldog, the English Bulldog mid-19th century and the English Bulldog mid-20th century and today are, for any practical purpose, two entirely different breeds of dog, the former long dead, the modern busy dying.

Dogma: An authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely true, but which really may not be. Examples: 1) In ancient Egypt it was a dogma that royal women carried the bloodline. As such, it was common for Pharaohs to marry their sisters, in order to produce pureblood princes. King Tutankhamun, i.e. King Tut, was deformed, diseased, inbred and fathered at least two stillborn daughters, he and his daughters victims of the false dogma that inbreeding promotes superior progeny. 2) Among many modern dog breeders a similar belief exists and is epidomized in the statement, "tight is right" in reference to continuous inline breeding, with the commonly held and erroneous belief that less desireable traits are being bred away, more often than multiplied in resultant offspring. While it is true that there are some examples of controlled inbreeding and culling which do remove or lessen the incidence of certain inherited disorders, on the whole the opposite is more readily evident in increased rates of cancer, hip and elbow dysplasia, skin conditions, food allergies, smaller litters, higher and earlier rates or mortality, and smaller sized specimens in many breeds, most typically those with higher COI scores.

 

Bibliography:

(1) If Dogs Could Talk by Vilmos Csányi; First American Edition, translated by Richard E. Quandt ed., New York: North Point Press, 2005; ISBN 978-0865476868

(2) A Beginner's Guide to COI by Jemima Harrison; Dog Breed Health, A Guide to Health Issues for All Dog Breeds; http://www.dogbreedhealth.com/a-beginners-guide-to-coi/

(3) Comparative Longevity of Pet Dogs and Humans: Implications for Gerontology Research by G.J. Patronek, D.J. Walters, L.T. Glickman, J. Geront; BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 1997, Vol 52A,No.3, B171-B178

(4) The Genotype/Phenotype Distinction by Richard Lewontin; The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), First published Fri Jan 23, 2004; substantive revision Tue Apr 26, 2011

(5) Unraveling the Genetic Basis of Hybrid Vigor by James A. Birchler, Hong Yao, and Sivanandan Chudalayandi; Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, U S A., 2006 August 29; 103(35): 12957–12958, Published online 2006 August 22; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1559732/

(6) The Mastiffs - The Big Game Hunters, Their History, Development and Future; Colonel David Hancock, MBE; Charwynne Dog Features; ISBN: 0 9527 8012 7

(7) Inbreeding and brood stock management by Douglas Tave; Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 392. Rome, FAO. 1999, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Corporate Document Repository

(8) Some Practical Solutions to Welfare Problems in Pedigree Dog Breeding by P.D. McGreevy & W.F. Nicholas; Animal Welfare, 1999, Vol 8

(9) Gender, age, breed and distribution of morbidity and mortality in insured dogs in Sweden during 1995 and 1996 by A. Egenvall, B.N. Bonnett, P. Olson, Å. Hedhammar; The Veterinary Record, 29/4/2000

(10) Genetics and the Social Behavior of the Dog by John Paul Scott, John L. Fuller

(11) Should Crufts Be Banned? by Beverley Cuddy; The Telegraph, September 15, 2011; http://www.telegraph.co.uk

(12) Animal Breeding - Now and in the Future by E. L. Lasley; Journal of Animal Science; http://www.journalofanimalscience.org; Presented at Symposium on Animal Breeding Research Foundations for Tomorrow at 67th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Animal Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, July 29, 1975