CoI What Is It, How Does It Impact Our Breeding Program? Why We Will Never Breed Color Pure.
Coefficient of Inbreeding or CoI, is used to measure the degree of inbreeding in a particular dog. The amount of ancestors in common increases the risk of a puppy inheriting an undesirable unhealthy trait. According to The Kennel Club UK “High levels of inbreeding can affect the health of these puppies, although it is difficult to know the exact impact it can have. In general, we do know that the higher the degree of inbreeding, the higher the risk is of the puppies developing both known and unknown inherited disorders. Inbreeding can also have an impact on the breed as a whole, e.g. reducing litter sizes and fertility” (The Kennel Club UK 2024). Breeders should take into consideration how small their genepool is if their goal is to produce healthy long living puppies.
A primary goal of any ethical breeder should be to strive for the lowest CoI possible. According to Embark, Market Leader Of Dog DNA Tests, The average CoI for the Great Dane is 17% higher than some other purebred breeds (Embark 2024). One of the reasons I believe the CoI in danes is higher is due to two different but equally damaging breeding practices.
Color Pure Breeding: Is the practice used by show breeders to ensure that the color families of Great Danes remain pure. The aim of this practice is to produce consistent show quality puppies in the AKC recognized colors. The already small gene pool of purebred Great Danes is cut into thirds. The color families are as follows:
Fawn and Brindle
Black and Blue
Harlequin, merle, mantle
Meaning color purists will only breed dogs of those colors regardless of CoI, structure, temperament, and titles. A color purist who has an amazing harlequin female, may not even consider a Fawn stud even if he is perfect in every other way.
Breeding for Color or hypertype: Is the practice used by breeders whose sole concern is to produce a popular color or hypertype build ie “Euro” Danes. A breeder who is looking to produce an off standard color may breed parent to offspring, or half siblings so that the color shows in sooner generations. Likewise the hypertype breeder may continue to line breed related dogs in order to produce consistent over exaggerated traits.
At Wanderlust Danes we will not participate in either of these damaging practices. Our primary goal has been, and always will be to produce healthy puppies with good temperaments suitable for family life. We ensure that none of our dogs have common ancestors within four generations on their pedigrees. We go a step further by DNA health testing all of our breeding dogs through Embark and use the pair production to ensure we are selecting the best matches. Our bloodline aims to mix in new breeding stock often from all over the world. We produce beautiful danes in all colors recognized by the AKC and not. We appreciate Danes of all colors and will continue to prioritize health, temperament, and structure over color.
