Do you ever breed a certain breed out of a dog. (not sure if I a putting that right) LOL Nanooks grandpa was malamute and grandma husky...so that would make his dad 1/2 malamute 1/2 husky...had pups with a full husky female. Does that make Nanook 1/4 malamute and 3/4 husky?? Does it work like that?

That is basically right LOL. And to answer your question, no once breeds have been crossed, you can never breed that back out. In other words, no puppy produced from the line you indicated will every be 100% Siberian husky. Its a great topic for philosophical discussion, and gets into some interesting things in regards to the origin of the Siberian husky as a breed.

We'll say malamute genes are red marbles, husky genes are black marbles, and a dog always has 50 marbles. At the time of reproduction each puppy is going to randomly pick 25 of dad's marbles and 25 of mom's marbles. Note: the number of marbles matters if we actually want to figure out probabilities of having certain traits, but this is just a general example.

Grandma: 50 red marbles (pure Mal)
Grandpa: 50 black marbles (pure Husky)
Dad: 25 red marbles, 25 black marbles (F1 Husky-Mal Crossbreed)

Mom: 50 black marbles. (pure Husky)

So, here's where it gets messy... all we can say about Nanook is that he has 25 or fewer red marbles (well, we can also say he has at least 25 black marbles). The grab from Dad could be 25 black marbles, 25 red marbles, or some combination (say a 17, 8 split). The term for this is hybrid backcross, specifically Nanook is an F1b hybrid husky-malamute crossbreed.

Now, really messy is what happens if we breed two F1s to get an F2 hybrid crossbreed. Each parent has 25 of each color marbles so the pups will get somewhere between 0 and 50 of each color. From a lineage standpoint a puppy will never be a "purebred" out of this match, but it is possible (some non-zero probability) that the resulting F2 hybrid has the traits entirely of one of the grandparent breeds.

Someone with a genetics or biology background can probably give you a better explanation. The short answer is that no, it's not that he's 25% malamute and 75% husky (though he could be, probability is a hoot!)

LOL...my random PJ/coffee thought just got complicated LOL

The title of this thread seriously cracks me up!!

How does breeding work?

Well when a mommy dog and a daddy dog love each other very much.......


roflmao

Crispin wrote:

We'll say malamute genes are red marbles, husky genes are black marbles, and a dog always has 50 marbles. At the time of reproduction each puppy is going to randomly pick 25 of dad's marbles and 25 of mom's marbles. Note: the number of marbles matters if we actually want to figure out probabilities of having certain traits, but this is just a general example.

Grandma: 50 red marbles (pure Mal)
Grandpa: 50 black marbles (pure Husky)
Dad: 25 red marbles, 25 black marbles (F1 Husky-Mal Crossbreed)

Mom: 50 black marbles. (pure Husky)

So, here's where it gets messy... all we can say about Nanook is that he has 25 or fewer red marbles (well, we can also say he has at least 25 black marbles). The grab from Dad could be 25 black marbles, 25 red marbles, or some combination (say a 17, 8 split). The term for this is hybrid backcross, specifically Nanook is an F1b hybrid husky-malamute crossbreed.

Now, really messy is what happens if we breed two F1s to get an F2 hybrid crossbreed. Each parent has 25 of each color marbles so the pups will get somewhere between 0 and 50 of each color. From a lineage standpoint a puppy will never be a "purebred" out of this match, but it is possible (some non-zero probability) that the resulting F2 hybrid has the traits entirely of one of the grandparent breeds.

Someone with a genetics or biology background can probably give you a better explanation. The short answer is that no, it's not that he's 25% malamute and 75% husky (though he could be, probability is a hoot!)

That is a pretty good analogy, and it shows the general idea. However, DNA isn't quite that simple. To continue with the analogy, you would have to remember that every one of those red marbles has the ability to split in to a million little pieces and mix in with all the million little pieces from the black marbles and the probability of every getting rid of the fragments of red marbles is so miniscule that the red DNA will never be completely gone. Descendents of this line will always have some Malamute DNA in their DNA.

ramoscl wrote:

How does breeding work?

Well when a mommy dog and a daddy dog love each other very much.......


roflmao

OMG so funny!

Not sure how to start this, with goats they can be purebred if lineage can be traced back to the big bang (I guess), next would be an American this is also considered breed able, believed to be a pure or almost pure breed that cannot be traced all the way back. Last is a grade, this has all the traits of a certain breed but no history for proof. Now, if breed to pure sires the grades will work there way up to being Americans as the progeny expands(wish I really understand all of that). They are never purebred but considered to be as close as possible without actually being. Do dogs get "updated" like this or does it go against what is being strived for. Again I hope this isn't to confusing, I know what I'm asking, just not sure how to put it in writing.

So pretty much I could breed Nanook with a full husky female and their pup with a full husky and their, theirs and theirs....but would never get to just husky. Not that I am going to, I was just curious if after a time the malamute would no longer be a gene in the blood line.

Trailtoad1 wrote:

So pretty much I could breed Nanook with a full husky female and their pup with a full husky and their, theirs and theirs....but would never get to just husky. Not that I am going to, I was just curious if after a time the malamute would no longer be a gene in the blood line.

I think "technically" you can apply for paperwork after 3 generations of Sibe x Sibe breeding in order to register THOSE puppies... I remember reading that when the merle Husky puppy issue came up... Sara said it I believe.

arooroomom wrote:

Trailtoad1 wrote:

So pretty much I could breed Nanook with a full husky female and their pup with a full husky and their, theirs and theirs....but would never get to just husky. Not that I am going to, I was just curious if after a time the malamute would no longer be a gene in the blood line.

I think "technically" you can apply for paperwork after 3 generations of Sibe x Sibe breeding in order to register THOSE puppies... I remember reading that when the merle Husky puppy issue came up... Sara said it I believe.

This is true, as you stated it came to be known with the Merle cross mutts getting registered.

If you look back, way back in the bloodlines of the Siberian husky to where Leonard Seppala was breeding his original stock, one of the females he used in breeding was half malamute, so I would imagine that technically it could be argued that all purebred Siberians have some malamute genes already. That is interesting that after so many generations they can apply for registry, I didn't know that.. If you were interested in having/maintaining excellent bloodlines then I would imagine you need to go back much further than the standard three generations that you get with AKC registry.