Using the simple AKC registrations statistics to understand genetic diversity in pure bred dogs.

Down to the Registration stats table

For 2008 the totals on the spreadsheet 2008Popularity Stats.html are as follows:

This means there are 43 breeds or almost 25% of the breeds in the AKC studbook that account in total for 1% of the individual dogs registered. They may be minor breeds in terms of numbers registered but they are 25% of the BREEDS in the studbook.

Now how many individual dogs are being registered per breed at these different levels? The answer to this would give us an idea about the potential for loss of genetic diversity in each breed.

50% level: 21,545 dogs registered in 2008: Poodles (9 in rank order) - this is a combined registry of all 3 varieties: Standard, Miniature and Toy. This is a large number of dogs in relation to potential genetic health for the breed. It is too bad that we do not have figures on each variety however.

75% level: 7,626 dogs registered in 2008: Cavalier King Charles Spaniel(25 in rank order). This is a breed that is already reporting cardiac problems as a health problem. It came into the AKC studbook in 1996. 7600 dogs registered a year is a reasonable population but notice the great difference in numbers between the 50% level and the 75% level.

95% level: 1247 dogs registered in 2008: English Cocker Spaniel(72 in rank order). This is starting to get into the small population category. If we project an average lifespan of 10 years (because it is easy to multiply by 10 in my head)this would mean there are only 12,400 of them in the US potentially available to the AKC gene pool.

99% level: 330 dogs registered in 2008: Australian Terrier (115 in rank order). This is definately in the small population category. If we project an average lifespan of 10 years (because it is easy to multiply by 10 in my head)this would mean there are only 3300 of them in the US potentially available to the AKC gene pool and only 6.5 of them registered per state on the average.

At what breed and rank do we first encounter fewer than 1000 registered in 2008?
That is breed ranked 76, Staffordshire Bull Terriers with 985 registrations in 2008.

This means that 79 of the 158 breeds - or 50% of them are registering fewer than 1000 dogs a year. However 1000 registrations still is not a very large number of dogs to be registered in a year for a breed. In prospective it is 20 dogs per per state on the average.

It would be very useful to have statistics on the average co-efficient of inbreeding in each breed. I am not sure where Dr Willis got his figures of 4% from and how many generations those are calculated on but from my experience with the Borzoi studbook that I have it seems a bit low if calculated on 10 or 11 generation pedigrees.

If anyone who reads this has the resources to contribute information about their breed, it would be interesting to add such statistics as: (1) number of dogs and number of puppies entered in the annual national specialty for a given year, for each title a dog can earn, number of dogs earning that title in a year. I would really like to see a sample of average co-efficients of inbreeding for litters whelped in a year calculated on 10 generation pedigrees that are at least 95% complete. The l

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