Percentage of Dogs that are Breed Worthy?

[Ruthie]

This question came up in another thread, and I didn't want it to get lost. It is an interesting question.

Originally Posted by Hunter Jack

I'll try asking a different way.

What percentage of a breeders dogs (regardless of their end use) wind up being good enough to actually want to use for breeding.

[ponyfarm]

10%! Just repeating what a very famous breeder of labs told me!

[Jack's Dad]

I wonder if they are breed worthy or actually used in breeding.

When I was researching breeders to purchase the dog I have now most breeder sites did not carry but a few males and or females.

So it seems breeders are working from a select and small group of dogs.

There are many heated discussions on the forum about breed standard but most of them are probably only understood in depth by a very few.

I love to hear from the breeders because they have a tremendous amount of knowledge about genetics and the breed in general.

Even though they may differ in focus they are the hope of the breed.

For those of us who merely own these fantastic dogs our hope for the breed lies with them and the dogs they choose to breed.

[cliffson1]

There is probably no way to get a handle on a figure because of all of the varying reasons that motivate breeders. Just from comments and positions on this forum my opinion is as follows;
1) Very few breeders have the proper priorities in place to foundation their breeding
2) Very few breeders have the knowledge of bloodlines and genetics to be breeding
3) Very few people understand/recognize the most important traits of the breed, thus are ill equipped to make the compensations necessary to keep balance and utility in the breed
4) Too many breeders allow what they personally like in the breed have more importance than what they may need in their breeding program
5) The devlopment of specialization lines have rendered many many dogs as not breedworthy because the breeders did not know when to stop or when to revitalize with genetic diversity
All of these things have greatly decreased the number of dogs that are breedworthy, though I think the bigger problem is the breeders and not the dogs. Some dogs today are so genetically compromised that you cannot use that dog for breeding if you want to maintain the core principles of the breed. This aspect was not done by BYB, nonetheless what is created must fall into the unbreedworthy catergory because of the genetics and performance.
These are just my thoughts and I couldn't hazard a guess on the percentage.

[Uniballer]

As usual, Cliffson1 makes excellent points.

For males we should probably be shooting for the top 1% of qualified (i.e. titled, rated, health certified) animals. That would still provide plenty of genetic diversity while being far enough up the bell curve to improve the breed. The problem becomes who defines which animals are in that top 1%, and what criteria are used to put them there. This is what the German breed survey system is supposed to do, but there are certainly varied opinions on how well it is working.

For bitches lets just stipulate for now that all qualified (i.e. titled, rated, health certified) animals are acceptable.

[Danielle609]

I think that there are probably a lot of "breed worthy" dogs that are not bred, and too many dogs that are being bred that are not "breed worthy". I don't think there is a way to put a percentage on it. Of course I am a newb to all of this...just my 2cents :-) But I don't think every breed worthy dog should be bred. Just like having a DSLR camera does not make you a professional photographer, having a "breed worthy" dog shouldn't necessarily make you a breeder.

[ponyfarm]

Originally Posted by cliffson1

There is probably no way to get a handle on a figure because of all of the varying reasons that motivate breeders. Just from comments and positions on this forum my opinion is as follows;
1) Very few breeders have the proper priorities in place to foundation their breeding
2) Very few breeders have the knowledge of bloodlines and genetics to be breeding
3) Very few people understand/recognize the most important traits of the breed, thus are ill equipped to make the compensations necessary to keep balance and utility in the breed
4) Too many breeders allow what they personally like in the breed have more importance than what they may need in their breeding program
5) The devlopment of specialization lines have rendered many many dogs as not breedworthy because the breeders did not know when to stop or when to revitalize with genetic diversity
All of these things have greatly decreased the number of dogs that are breedworthy, though I think the bigger problem is the breeders and not the dogs. Some dogs today are so genetically compromised that you cannot use that dog for breeding if you want to maintain the core principles of the breed. This aspect was not done by BYB, nonetheless what is created must fall into the unbreedworthy catergory because of the genetics and performance.
These are just my thoughts and I couldn't hazard a guess on the percentage.

Ok, so, like my breeder/judge friend said...less than 10% are quality enough to be bred!

[Chris Wild]

If we're talking truly exceptional animals that should be bred, I'd agree that the 10% guess is probably about right. Now, if talking dogs who are technically breed worthy in terms of titles, health certs, no disqualifying faults, etc... then the number would be higher. But just because a dog has breed worthy credentials doesn't mean it really IS something that should be bred. Likewise, there are undoubtedly a lot of dogs out there without all of those credentials for one reason or another, that would have a lot to offer as breeding dogs. And obviously if talking dogs who get bred, whether they should or not, again even higher yet.

[Liesje]

I think there are a lot of dogs being bred that shouldn't be, and I've also seen some really exceptional dogs placed in pet type homes or in working/competitive homes that never breed. For all we complain about over breeding and people breeding simply based on papers and titles, I often wonder how many truly great dogs never reach their full potential or are passed over for breeding for any number of reasons...

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Does anyone have an idea of the actual number of GSDs bred a year? Would that be helpful in determining a percentage?
1. AKC numbers
2. Mill registries
3. Estimate of non-registered litters
Or any other?

I do believe if those 5 things were met we would have a great bunch of dogs, but they would not be coming out of our ears. Never going to happen because of greed, but nice to think about!