Breeding strategies and genetic status of the Deutsch-Drahthaar hunting dog

Abstract

The Deutsch-Drahthaar is one of the best-liked hunting dogs in several countries of the world. It is a dog breed that covers all the main tasks during hunting activities due to their versatility. For reaching the current breed status a long way of breeding experiments with many setbacks but also proceedings can be seen in the history of the Deutsch-Drahthaar to achieve the goal of breeding a versatile hunting dog. To maintain and enhance this breed, several guidelines containing basic breeding goals regarding health, conformation and working abilities of the Deutsch-Drahthaar are available. Furthermore a complex system of performance tests has been developed to select proper dams and sires which will be listed in the breed register. For the successful breeding of Deutsch-Drahthaar it is also important to get an overview about the different breeding methods and breeding alternatives which can be used to influence the genetics of the offspring.