The Standard Book of Dog Breeding: A New Look

Rating:
Summary: Good technical/medical info, pls ignore the in/line-breeding
Review: Dr. Grossman writes a very thorough book that is filled with good content. Many things that we know but need to be reminded and many things that are new (at least to me). Really enjoyed reading his work. Helped focus my objectives on how to begin a successful breeding/showing program.

Rating:
Summary: Great book with excellent content
Review: Dr. Grossman writes a very thorough book that is filled with good content. Many things that we know but need to be reminded and many things that are new (at least to me). Really enjoyed reading his work. Helped focus my objectives on how to begin a successful breeding/showing program.

Rating:
Summary: Good technical/medical info, pls ignore the in/line-breeding
Review: The book is excellent with regard to the technical aspects and considerations of health and whelping, but ignore the author's advice regarding genetic principles of inbreeding and line-breeding.
Do so only if you are an experienced breeder, and are intimately familiar with your line and what traits reappear time and time again in your dogs. Many undesireable traits are tied to the desirable ones. The other reviewer who cautioned disaster has a valid, informed point!

Rating:
Summary: A blueprint for disaster
Review: This book tells you how to use inbreeding and linebreeding, and it teaches you the basics of Mendelian genetics, but these help to manage one or two traits at a time.

The problem is that genes don't assort one trait at a time! Genes are linked to chromosomes. While we were all busy inbreeding and linebreeding to 'fix' the desirable traits of breed type and conformation, something else happened, and now we are producing a steady increase in unwanted traits that we call genetic defects.

Time magazine has an interesting article on this problem...