Having trouble settling on one dog

[Goat Whisperer]

Temperament is huge as well, especially with true LGD's

Many mutts that would be fine as a farm dog or pet wouldn't be suitable for being an LGD. That is just another consideration.

 

[Southern by choice]

Science can never be guaranteed- something may be the same 99.9999% of the time, but there are exceptions to everything. However, when canids are limited in their breeding, genes between individuals may interact poorly. All breeds have suffered from inbreeding at one point or another, typically around the time they are founded, to preserve very selective traits. Keyword; *may*, *prone*, and *typically.* Not always.
I do enjoy purebred dogs, and they can be wonderful companions. But from a scientific, genetic standpoint, crossing healthy mutts will often produce dogs of varying appearance and characteristics, and usually of wonderful health.

Quite simply all "purebreds" were developed by crossing to develop dogs of a specific purpose and this is why we had breeds we have today. It takes years of dedication and great ability to develop a new breed. Mutts are generally from an oops litter or ignorant people that have little knowledge in breeding and put two incompatible breeds together. To state that mutts "usually" produce wonderful health is a very open statement. Certain breeds as you know are prone to certain issues. Crossing with another breed that is different does not eliminate those and now you add the other breed's genetic/heritable issues as well.
Purebreds also produce wonderful healthy animals. Again it comes down to breeders knowing what they are doing, breeding sound dogs, not just physically healthy but mentally stable.
Working with many breeds and for 35 years I can tell you there are a whole lot of nut job dogs out there. Shelters are filled with dogs that have presumably been abused. Sad truth is many of these dogs given up were never abused they were given up because they are nuts. Amazing how many are mutts.

Sadly the US does have a poor history of breeding for integrity.

As far as hybrid vigor, I do not completely disagree. However breed purpose and type does matter. Most of us that work with Livestock Guardian Breeds are all to aware of the nightmare that awaits the person that gets a LGD/Herding dog cross and thinks they will be a LGD. Breeding a LGD breed with another LGD breed as long as the breeder knows what they are doing and know the genetics and temperament, strengths and weaknesses of the dogs will keep the integrity of the LGD.

Our family has had GSD's for 5 generations. It is a shame what has happened to this wonderful breed.
I my GSD!

 

[Latestarter]

IMHO & just as an aside, this thread was geared to discuss most specifically; livestock guardian dogs (LGDs), as opposed to farm dogs, mutts, and generic dog discussions... just sayin.

Though any dog may live with/near livestock and may even display some potential to "guard" "livestock", that does not make that animal a LGD as LGD's (job description & breed designation) have been bred over thousands of years to do that specific job. A true LGD is an animal bred from one of several specific breeds, that come from only those specific breeds. By the truest meaning of the word "mutt", even a cross breeding between two (or more) different (compatible) LGD breeds would create one, though it could still carry the designation LGD due to parental heritage. But it would be a mutt, (as opposed to) not a purebred.

Mutts are also bred/created from mating two compatible species (as opposed to incompatible) and not always from/by ignorant people. What gives them the "mutt" spec is that they are not "pure bred". As such, anyone trying to create a new breed would be producing mutts up to the point that they have the new breed's desired traits repeatable and standard through future breeding, at which point they would no longer be mutts but be a new "accepted" breed with standards.