2009 Wayeh DANCE litter COI

COI (Co-efficient of Inbreeding) is how inbred the pedigree of a particular dog is.  It is a mathematical estimate of inbreeding, but we have not yet mapped the genome, so it's still a calculation, not a fact, but a calculation based on the science of statistics.  COI is one of the tools a breeder can use as a guideline to build pedigrees that are either outcrossed or inbred, and how much so.  Ten generations is the standard used by geneticists in calculating COI.  If you bred a Golden Retriever to a Poodle the 10-gen COI would be 0% because there would be no common ancestors in 10 generations.  This is no guarantee that both parents didn't carry dangerous or unwelcome genes, because all dogs are dogs.  But the likelihood is less that you'll double up on these same dangerous genes, AND you'd be increasing the odds of genetic diversity.  All purebred dog populations are inbred to a certain extent, because we've closed the studbooks to new bloodlines in nearly all breeds.  

In Malamutes a 10-gen COI of 0% is nearly impossible because of two things:

1. The genetic bottleneck in the 1950s which lead to the re-opening of the studbooks to allow the M'Loot and Hinman third strain to join the Kotzebue.  Since then, there are a handful of pure Kotzebue dogs left, and none of the M'Loot and Hinman third strain.  Today, all modern pedigrees of Malamutes (save those rare and wonderful pure K dogs) are roughly half Kotzebue and half M'Loot, by pedigree, with a tiny bit of the third strain dogs.  The trick is, of course, how those pedigrees are arranged.

2. Blended pedigrees because of the advances in transportation, the internet, and veterinary medicine.  Until recently, it was possible to have relatively isolated populations of purebred dogs -- kennels or countries, that rarely saw new pedigrees except from their neighbors.  Now you can buy semen half-way around the globe and have it frozen and then surgically implanted in your bitch.  This is wonderful, and terrible, as well.  It's wonderful finding new pedigrees to help you fix a problem.  It's terrible because we no longer have those isolated kennels to which we can go when we need to fix a problem.

As a general rule, if you bred two unrelated dogs, you'd get a 10-gen COI of 0%.  If you then bred two siblings from that litter, you'd get offspring that had a 10-gen COI of 25%.  We consider anything under 7% to be an outcross, anything over to be inbred.  In our modern population of Malamutes, we are starting with dogs whose numbers are much higher than 0%.  25% and up are normal COIs for kennels who are inbreeding to set type, or breed on one or two particular individuals.

At Wayeh, we are striving for generations of CERF/Thyroid/OFA Excellent working dogs who are outcrossed (10-gen COI below 7%).

Here is a short pedigree of the DANCE litter with COI percentages.  (all 10 generations takes up hundreds of pages to print, much less type).

Contact Wayeh    *    423-365-6039    *    Spring City, (East) Tennessee
Wayeh Alaskan Malamutes last updated 10/16/2009