As you can probably guess, the list of reasons why people argue that you shouldn’t inbreed dogs is a lot longer than the one of people claiming that you should!
Humans are pretty much hard-coded to think that incestual relationships are a big no-no, even among animals that have no concept of family ties.
That said, the arguments against inbreeding are a lot deeper than cultural. There are many genuine risks involved.
Genetics can get very complicated, but there’s a chance that something bad will come from strengthening dominant and recessive genes.
Reduced Fertility
Fertility issues among inbred dogs are prevalent. That’s because inbreeding increases the homozygosity of deleterious recessive alleles.
In layman’s terms, Negative genetic predispositions become so commonplace that the resulting litters are unable to reproduce themselves.
It effectively stops the genetic line, rendering inbreeding efforts useless. There’s no guarantee that offspring will be infertile. Some dogs grow up perfectly healthy.
Pregnancy Complications
There is a good chance that female dogs won’t give birth to healthy pups after getting pregnant by their brother.
They may come out without any problems, but most cases of inbreeding result in spontaneous miscarriages and uterine complications.
The hormones tend to go out of whack with incestuous pregnancies. The hormonal imbalance may result in irregular heat cycles, mummification of the developing litter, and more.
Reduction of the Gene Pool
Another potential problem is the overall reduction of the gene pool. This is a huge problem that some of the best-known dog breeds in the world have developed.
By inbreeding to try and capitalize on desired traits, you’re lowering the genetic variation for future generations. From an evolutionary standpoint, this can cause a ton of issues.
The gene pool becomes so tiny that every dog born of the breed becomes prone to those diseases. It’s a nightmare of genetics that leads to unavoidable health problems.
Weakened Immunity
Puppies are already susceptible to a wide range of diseases. Their immune system is naturally weak after birth, which could lead to problems with bacteria and infections.
Inbred puppies have it even worse. Studies show that inbred dogs have an even weaker immune response, leading to a prevalence of autoimmune disorders.
These dogs often suffer from complications their entire lives. What would be a simple cold could turn into a life-threatening problem.
