NUNC LENTO SONITU DICUNT, MORIERIS.
Now, this Bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.
PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.
– John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers don’t know they’re genetic wrecks, they are blissfully unaware that in the transition from regional purpose-bred sporting dog into a studbook governed purebred show dog, their gene pool was severely bottlenecked and harmful diseases came to the surface.
They know not that the bell is tolling for them. But those who are about them, breeders and scientists alike, have no excuse to deny the precarious and unsustainable genetic position the breed is in today.
This Toller probably isn't the product of a father x daughter mating, but the gene pool is so small, it has the same level of inbreeding.
Two recent genetic studies have brought this issue to light but with very different conclusions. One study was done by Katariina Mäki (PhD Animal Science) a Finn who does not own, show, or breed Tollers and the other study was done by Claire Wade (BSc PhD) who is a breeder and exhibitor of Tollers in Australia.
One of the studies is comprehensive and looks at a near exhaustive global studbook for the breed and the other study looks at only those pedigrees that are in one country only (and not even a very important country for the breed at that) and intentionally throws away the pedigree information from the country of origin and all other countries too.
One of the studies found nearly 13 generations of Toller ancestors for their COI calculations (about 16,000 ancestors) while the other one found just over 4 generations of ancestors (about 30 ancestors). That’s more than 500 times the information.
One study traced every dog it could back to the true founding population, the other study pretended that the second a dog landed in Australia, its pedigree was erased and it was a amazingly unrelated to all the other import dogs and was thus a “founder” of the breed.
One study looked at 28,668 Tollers and found 9.8 effective founders while the other study looked at only 589 Tollers but declared there to be 84 founders with 26 founder equivalents.
One study found that the average inbreeding coefficient in Tollers was 26%, while the other study declared it to be less than 3%.
One study found that the effective population size was only 18 individuals while the other found that the value was 47.
Which study would you trust more? The one with 50 times as many dogs, a comprehensive pedigree analysis, done by an unbiased researcher OR the one done by a show breeder who has a vested interest in making her breed look good who intentionally limited the scope of her analysis to the dogs that were imported into her own country?
Guess which researcher claims that the Tollers are a robust and healthy breed and that any thoughts of out-crossing are scandalous and should be ignored?
Professor Claire Wade, of course, who is a biased hack that should clearly know better. In a future post, I’ll walk you through her paper and explain her deliberate attempt to whitewash the state of her breed and how her own bias and unchecked conflict of interest drove her to commit academic fraud.
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Proven fact, Tollers live to be 25 years old on average.
And they toll ducks by masterfully making quacking sounds, proven fact.
Retrieverman recently posted..A good hare day
Rman, where did you get that fact on a 25 yr lifespan for Tollers? I only started to love these guys a few years ago and now they are already in trouble? Lord!
Sarcasm.
Ah! Good one. Very subtle. Or maybe I needed more coffee! 🙂
You’re shitting me on the four generations thing, right?
Jess recently posted..Random Doggage: Caged Heat
Nope. For the Tollers, Wade only went back to 1989, with 589 reference animals, 4.1 Generation equivalents, 84 observed founders, 26 founder equivalents, 12 effective ancestors, 9.1 founder genomes.
And this is basically as good as you can manipulate these numbers to tell as glowing of a story (while blinding yourself to data you know exists and which is informative) as you can make with this breed.
I would like to see the founder impact for Tollers. It was quite eye opening to see it in Salukis and Afghans, which have lots of founders, but not anything close to equal contributions.
Jess recently posted..The Genetic Downfall of the Afghan Hound in the West
The Mäki study makes a pretty compelling case that the founder effect in Tollers is significant. They found a total of 19 founder dogs, 9.8 effective founders, 5.2 effective number of ancestors, and only 2.1 founder genome equivalents. Average inbreeding coefficient and average kinship were both 0.26.
Interesting choice of a Lancashire heeler in the study.
That breed is recreation of an old black and tan heeling dog, like a corgi, that went extinct in the nineteenth century. Someone had an English toy terrier (toy Manchester relative, though not in the same registry) breed with corgi, and that’s how that breed came into being.
Retrieverman recently posted..A good hare day
Why is it that mind also closed with the studbooks? People who breed within closed stud books believe that they are preserving the purity of their breeds. This either wrecks the genepool by slicing it up, or, the smart breeder is a master of cheating who outcrosses and lies about it in the paperwork to keep their dogs in the registry.
A registry should be just that. It will register the dog, including outcrosses and the following generations of breeding back to type. There are some sneaky registries around that will do just that. Like the dopplleganger of the Canadian kennel Club- the continental kennel club. This club, down south somewhere registers an animal on the say so of a member who bred it. Some puppy breeders use this to fool people, calling it the CKC makes people think it is the already established club. The whole idea of their “fraud” stinks, but I managed to actually talk to some members at the headquarters, on the phone. If I were a breeder, I could use their club to track my lines- if I were a breeder. I could include outcrosses and their pedigrees. So though I think these guys founded themselves for puppy farm breeders, they can and will accommodate specialty breeders too. If I were a breeder, I would have software, but having a registry for my animals and their mates and descendents would be centrally available.
In principle, I like the idea of a registry that will track all outcrosses too. A registry that does not impose its antquated Victorian Eugenics principles to present day dogs. The toller looks so much like other retrievers, I can’t understand why they don’t outcross. Will outcrossing give them cooties? It is so off the the table, that people don’t challenge it directly, but accept it, then fool themselves about how small the genepool of a special type is.
The photo is of my landrace Chi, Ruthie, with the Hh hairless gene obtained from a Xolo.
Well, just be prepared if you’re planning on breeding Mexican Hairless Chihuahuas (or ‘Hairless Arizona Dogs’) for all the bashing you’re gonna get.
Hi Pai
I got another bash from a Chihuahua breeder a couple of hours ago! It was so exciting!
Except for perhaps one litter from Ruthie, Idoubt I will ever breed dogs again. It is fun enough to plan imaginary litters from pound dogs. Have you read my post full of landrace Chis up for adoption at he Pima County Animal Control or whatever they cal the local pound nowadays? People who adopt them are furthering the cause of the lovely local “breed” which has never had anyone speak up for it, let alone, even point it out, before me.
I am just beginning this campaign, let’s see who I can get to listen! I am really a champion for the pound dogs of my favorite “breeds” I plan on doing another Rez dog shelter survey in October. We have these landrace dogs in plain sight; it is our cognitions of them that need to be changed. A paradigm change to landrace breeds.
Kate Williams recently posted..Our Dog Pack- confession of a backyard breeder….
Why can’t they see that outcrossing & then careful back breeding would be of a great benifit to these breeds? Of course you will have to work hard & wait a few generations to get the type back to what you want but it’s preferable to what will happen if they don’t in my eyes.
We breed Dorper sheep & have pure bloods & breed up Dorpers & I have had many comment on the type & better health(feet, mothering, fertility) of our breed up Dorpers without them realizing they are actually only 5th to 7th generation breed up Dorpers using other meat sheep of similar type in our program back in the 1st & 2nd generations. I have a ram that was imported in embroy from South Africa & a ram that is breed up from a merino ewe 5 generations back & the breed up Ram is far ahead in health & type so it is very possible it just takes time, commitment & an eye for a like type(although in this case the other breed was not even what I would havce preferred to use as she was not even of a like type). Of couse the quality & type of both or any breeds within a breeding up programe must be of the highest standerds.
There are no excuses breeders are taking short cuts & the dogs are paying for it with their health imho.
Look where breedism has gotten humans like the royal families?