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Asked by katie to Dave, Ed, Guido, Hugh, Stef on 11 Mar 2015.
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Ed Rial answered on 11 Mar 2015:
Hi Katie
You create different dog breeds through a process called selective breeding, and it usually starts from a random genetic mutation.
As I understand it if there was a breed of dog you quite liked but that you wish had shorter noses you would find examples of that breed with short noses and put them together to breed puppies. Then you would look at the puppies, find the boy and girl with the shortest noses and get them to breed and eventually over several generations you would probably get a breed of dog that looked like the original breed, but with consistently shorter noses.
To get the fastest results you need to inbreed quite a lot (mothers with sons and fathers with daughters), which can lead to some quite serious genetic disorders.
Personally I’d always prefer a mongrel 🙂
Ed
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Dave Bond answered on 11 Mar 2015:
Hi Katie,
Looks like Ed has got here first. He has done a great job at explaining it. You also have recessive genes and genes that appear to skip generations. For example it is possible for both your parents to be tall but you are short. This is where the genetics that determine height are not guaranteed to combine exactly how you might expect by looking at the previous generation. You have to do many generations to enforce the tall gene or short nose.
You could always do this in the lab as well, selectively combining and modifying the genetic sequence. A lot of research is done in this area, though a lot of it is thought to be controversial.
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Hugh Harvey answered on 11 Mar 2015:
Have you been watching Crufts?
yes, as Ed says, you take two dogs with the features that you like and let them make children. Then when the children grow up you choose the ones with the right features and let them have more children.
You just keep going!
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