Time marches on, females age, they no longer can whelp and contribute to the gene pool, eventually through a long healthy life they pass on. This is normal. Nothing we can do to slow this down naturally. It’s an eventuality for dog breeds, not just Elkhounds.
Preservation Norwegian Elkhound Pup
Kamia Kennels Preservation Breeding Program
Every 8 years, which is normally the max time frame females can whelp, every 8 years half the female genetics in any breed are lost to this natural process.
As well, Male genetics lose the same way, but a longer process as they can last much longer, and of course much easier to store artificially if possible to do.
For this illustration I will speak primarily to the female side. So if you take the “Unique” bloodlines, meaning those few lines that are still diverse and have unique genetics that are not in the main lines, which are almost all related, but the unique lines. If we just focus on them for the sake of this illustration.
Let’s say there are 10 Unique bloodlines left. There could be more, could be less, but I’ll use that for example. Every 8 years, we will lose half of those unique blood line female genetics. 50% will be gone just due to age.
Consider that you would have to keep every single female unique in breeding going forward, which will be difficult of course as it’s going to mean 10 unique male lines, which ain’t happening, but lets just say it is.
You have another 8 years, total 16 years from now, and 50% of that set of unique bloodline females are now gone. Never to come back, no way to get them back, there is no “Genetic Store” we can stop by the get new genetics, they are gone.
So now, in 16 years we have almost lost the entire unique bloodline genetic set on the female side, oh sure you can say there is still 25% of the original, but never would there be as no breeder is doing any work in preservation at this point other than Kamia Kennels, so at best if you have any left, you would simply be thrilled, let alone 25% of the original.
More shocking is that at the end of the next 8 year cycle, only 24 years from now, there is guaranteed to be none Unique. Remember, every time a female dies, or stops whelping, you lose half the genetic material.
Time marches on!
What speeds the destruction of the gene pool? Well, for starters having all the bloodlines in the main gene pool, getting mixed all together, all the time. No gene pools outside the main? Who came up with that plan??? Not me.
Thus the reason we try to keep our genetics outside the main gene pool. In sixteen years every single breeder in any country breeding Elkhounds is going to be finding it very, very difficult to find unrelated females to use in the breeding program. It will be basically use great grandpa on the great granddaughter, or, well don’t breed.
Or, begin to understand the value of a separate genetic gene pool that is “unique” exempt from the main, now some of those bloodlines we have now breeders begin to understand the process as we would be the only one with unique bloodlines.
I’ll cover this in more detail too coming up, things like, only breeding Champions, and not breeding the “Entire Genetic Pool”, by only breeding a select few you dramatically hasten the end, the Entire gene pool needs to be saved, stretched, and used and preserved so that the “Champions” have some one to mate with other than their daughters.
I’ll come back to that.
For now, we count on all our clients to assist us in preservation of these great breeds. Without our clients we could not last and stay outside the main breeding pool. Our clients are the ones that understand that if they wish for a healthy long lasting diverse genetic Elkhound again anytime in the future, they need to help. They are helping too, awesome work. They are the ones that take our pups, keep them intact, increased odds of saving more genetic material with every single intact dog, male or female.
So Hats off to our clients for literally being the ones saving the genetics!
Check out the old world bloodlines we have now, the great pups, our program up at Michael and Sarah.
