Wasn inbreeding and selection required to develop all of todays dog breeds?
It is certainly true that today’s dog breeds have all undergone a process of inbreeding and selection through which they have arrived at their present form and character. Indeed, this is a large part of the problem, since the breeds that we now have are all to a significant extent lacking in healthy genetic diversity (depauperate, to use the correct genetic term). The irony of the situation is that the very fact that breeds have been developed in that way is now used as a pretext for continuing the process of inbreeding and strong artificial selection, even though these breeds are already “developed.” The excuse is that we seek perfection, that “the breed must be improved” continually. There is no sound biological basis for proceeding in this way. The inbreeding/selection cycle, carried on indefinitely, results in depauperate breeds – like the wild Cheetah, deprived of normal genetic diversity, vulnerable to environmental threats and disease. There is little evidence for the infinite p
