Customer Reviews

Genetics: An Introduction for Dog Breeders

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book should be read by anyone the least bit interested in breeding better dogs. Not light reading but extremely valuable to the serious breeder. The Author gives a basic course on genetics and backs up her facts. She applies these principles easily to dogs and makes it easy to understand. The photos and graphs are very helpful.The section on color inheritance is fascinating!If you are not interested in improving your breed do not bother but if you dedicated to your breed this book is invaluable.

Jackie Isabell has a wonderful way of explaining genetics that is detailed yet easily understood. She brings you along with her in an enjoyable discovery of what could be very dry subject, and even adds a bit of humour from time to time. I learned what I set out to learn from this book and I thank Jackie Isabell for being an excellent teacher.

Every single dedicated breeder should have the knowledge found in this book.
In addition to important information on genetics, it has very interesting information on the evolution of dogs and a great chapter on behavior which even goes into detail on the stages of development in puppies and effects of environment on behavior.
There is excellent information about hereditary problems, genetic disorders, and even mate selection. There is a list at the back of every breed with their hereditary disorders listed and mode of inheritance when known, which should be especially helpful for breeders. There is also breed-specific information on coat colors and alleles- which, by the way, used to look like an exotic foreign language to me and now makes sense!

I had a very simple understanding of Mendelian genetics before I read this (from reading "The Joy of Breeding Your Own Show Dog by Anne Seranne- another great book.) This book made my understanding complete.

Before I read this book I thought that genetics were going to be difficult and boring to learn, but the author does a great job of keeping the subject interesting. The preface mentions that the author had her breeder friend, who was confused and intimidated by genetics, read the manuscript and point out areas that were especially confusing to a beginner or areas that needed clarification, etc. Maybe this is one of the reasons why this book is so effective.

A great, absolute must-have book that I highly recommend!

Dog breeding is an art as well as a science, and this book gives a pretty good explanation as to why this is the case. It gives a thorough overview of what we know of canine genetics, discussing physical traits, genetic conditions, etc, and what we consider our best guesses are for the inheritance patterns of various alleles.

But unless your breed of choice happens to be Weimeraners, you won't find many specifics in this book. If the breed you're interested in has fairly typical canine genes, you'll find more here than if your breed is more obscure. Moreover, the book necessarily goes into Genetics fairly deeply; I've a degree in Biology and I have more genetics background than the average joe, and *I* found the book a little overwhelming. I think it would be heavy reading for most people, especially if they do not have some basic idea of how the mechanics of Genetics work.

It's a good reference, but nothing I'm just dying to read. I got much more out of certain breed-specific books.

I have other books on canine genetics - but I keep going back here because it's easy to understand. A commonsense approach to teaching genetics.

This book should be required reading for anyone serious about breeding quality dogs. Easy to read with lots of valuable information, but detailed enough for the experienced breeder.

I know the very subject matter of this book is difficult and involved, but unless you are at least slightly well versed in the subject or have a steel trap of a mind and remember everything you ever read, this will be very frustrating!

I was constantly re-reading to try to make sense of it all and trying to memorize the terms & their meanings. Even when I was successful, it was a short-lived accomplishment because the next paragraph introduced something else just as complicated or more often worse.

It isn't a total loss, though. There is some interesting dog/wolf history... even the history of science & genetics was interesting.

I don't think the average dog breeder looking for an introduction to genectics would find this an easy read or get a lot out of this book unless you use it more as a study mannual & had some to help guide you through it.

This one is on my shelf to be re-read at a later date.

I hope you have a better time of it than I did!!!

I think that this book is far more expensive than it should be. I have a copy of Leon Whitney's "How To Breed Dogs", published in 1972 (purchased used through Amazon for $12.00), that contains information that is very close to identical to a lot of information in this book. In addition, Whitny's book is far easier to understand & details breedings that were made that led to his conclusions.
Any new information that is presented in this book is freely available on the internet. Your dollars would be better spent on "The Mysteries of Breed Type" or "Born to Win - Breed to Suceed" or Whitney's book.
lexi

An absolute necessity for anyone who wants to breed excellent and healthy dogs. Should be required reading. I have known Jackie personally and she is brilliant and highly knowledgable. She is also co-author of Weimaraner Ways written by herself and Virginia Alexander. Jackie is also a registered nurse and always does her homework (research).

relly nice book ,well written .Lots of informations
It is a must for a breeder in order to do a good job!!!