Enhance the well-being of your trusted dog

Genetic tests for dogs – Why are they important?

The development of modern dog breeds has created a population structure that is largely separated into relatively closed subpopulations termed breeds. The traits that define each such breed include both those deliberately bred for, and undesirable traits concentrated into particular breeds by descent from a small founder pool.

Dogs consist of over 400 genetically isolated breeds with considerable morphological and behavioural diversity. Dog breeds have undergone two major bottlenecks, the first when they were domesticated from the wolf ~15,000 years ago, and the second in the last few hundred years during development of the modern breeds from a low number of individuals selected for certain physical or behavioural traits. Such heavy artificial selection results in limited genetic variation within each breed and many inherited diseases. Inherited diseases in dogs are predominantly recessive, often resulting from strong inbreeding and usually showing allelic homogeneity within a breed or group of related breeds and allelic heterogeneity between less related breeds.