Puppy Genetics
When you are building your dream home and you have this wonderful picture of what you want it to look like, wouldn't it be nice to have the blueprints to go along with it? A Carpenter, Electrician, Architect or a structural Engineer to explain what would work or won't? Or would you jump in with the little experience you gained while building the backyard shed and hope for the best?
Breeders never had the ability to use blue prints, but used trial and error to finally achieve the results they were aiming for. As they bred their Dams and Sires, they picked the best from the litters to continue the lines and removed the less desirable traits from the breeding program. They slowly worked towards the ultimate goal of producing the ultimate line from the breed of their choice. Everything could be looking great. The overall appearance, intelligence, agility and health appear to be improving every generation. Then on the 6th generation, epilepsy appears in one of the litters. Up until this time, you have taken every measure to ensure your breeding stock was the healthiest candidates for your program. Not a single generation has shown any sign of epilepsy until now.
Somewhere within the 5 generations a gene was passed along to each and every litter until finally it decided to show up on the 6th. At first the gene was dormant until 2 of the same genes came together, producing a litter with epilepsy. This could be devastating for a breeder who has spent so much time into his breeding program. As a breeder, you would have to figure out which parent or both have idiopathic epilepsy (also called primary epilepsy or genetic epilepsy). 
With the discovery of DNA by Watson and a few other researchers, in 1953, breeders now have the blueprints given to us by the creator. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all living organisms. The main role is the storage of information. It's a set of blueprints, recipe or code which contains the instructions needed to construct the cells. The segments of DNA that carry this information are called genes. These genes determine whether the puppy is going to be black, blue, white, long hair, short coat, a German Shepherd or a Shih zu.
Along with this gene, it carries information which tells us whether they have any genetic disease which could be passed down to their off spring. With this information, a breeder is able to determine which sires or dams are the best candidates to breed, eliminating any diseases or undesirable traits from his line. Without putting you to sleep with scientific mumbo jumbo, I'm going to attempt to explain to you, in the following pages, how this benefits the breeder in the most basic way, I possibly can.
My wife has told me, when I first brought this up to her, "I don't want to know the colors we are going to have; I want it to be a surprise" or "You over analyze things to much!" I guess it's in my genes and don't bother correcting the following web pages and I promise you I won't tell you what will be in the following litters.
Just in case you are reading this ........ "TE AMO"
Next Topic- Canine Color and Coat Code