Pure Dog Talk

Bill Shelton on Breeding for Genetic Diversity, Breeding Up and More Bill Shelton: breeder, judge, activist. In part two of our series, Bill Shelton, leading advocate for preservation dog breeders, and host Laura Reeves have a spirited conversation about how to improve the health of our breeds while maintaining genetic diversity. "Leading theriogenologists say breeders are suppressing genetic diversity," Shelton said. "Only testing phenotype not genotype in hip x-rays for example, removes dogs from the gene pool without understanding the genotype. When we eliminate genes for one thing we don’t know what genes we’re removing that are positive." Lethal genes must be removed, but until we have a DNA genetic marker we don’t really know, Shelton noted. We need to breed carriers and potentially affected as well in order to preserve a variety of genes for the future. Weaving genes to make a healthier dog "We are asking more of our dog breeding programs than we are for our own humanity," Shelton said. "We're actua