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Furry Paws Genetics

Genetics are assigned when you give your dog colors in Furry Paws. These genetics affect everything from showing, the colors of your dog and their puppies, size of litters, and health.

In this document, I will try to explain genetics in a simple but thorough manner, and then follow each long explanation with a simpler version. If you don’t want to read the long explanations, skip to the simpler versions and you should be alright.

Health Genes:

There are four health levels in Furry Paws. Poor, fair, good and excellent. A poor health gene takes points from your dog when they show, and so makes it more difficult to level that dog. An excellent health gene adds points to your dog when they show, and makes it easier to level those dogs. Therefore, you want to have as many excellents as you can.

Each health gene is comprised of 6 alleles. There are three possibilities for alleles in your dog. HH, Hh and hh.

These health of the genes are defined through the number of hh, or defective alleles, that your dog has within these 6. The more hh, the worse their health genes are. Excellent dogs have no hh. Good dogs have between one and two hh in that gene. Fair has 3-4 hh in that gene. Poor has 5-6 hh. HH basically means that the dog has no fault in that allele. Hh means that there is a defective recessive trait in the dog, and there is a chance that you will see that give a fault in puppies.

When two dogs are bred, the alleles are paired up according to order. That is, if the first set of alleles in eyesight are Hh from the mother and hh from the father, then those are the two that combine. There are six combinations available, when you recognize that HH x hh is the same as hh x HH.

HH x HH
HH x Hh
HH x hh
Hh x Hh
Hh x hh
hh x hh

Punnet Squares:

Punnet squares are the way that you can work out the chance of what combinations are avilable. First, you start with a table.

Pick the alleles you are going to combine. Say, Hh x hh. Place the H and the h from the Hhxhh in the top of the square.

Now put the h and the h from the Hhxhh into the side squares.

Now, drop down the H and the h.

Now bring the h and h over in their respective rows.

Now you’ve done a punnet square. As you can see, half of the squares are Hh and half are hh, so you have a chance of 50% of the puppies from this combination getting a faulty gene (hh).

Since there are only 6 combinations, you only have to do the squares 6 times. But it’s good to understand how the punnet square works for other genetic combinations. For the 6 health combinations though, the percentages stand like this.

HH x HH = 100% HH
HH x Hh = 50% Hh and 50% HH
HH x hh = 100% Hh
Hh x Hh = 25% HH and 50% Hh and 25% hh
Hh x hh = 50% Hh and 50% hh
hh x hh = 100% hh

You can use punnet squares for determining everything from litter sizes to possible color combinations. For the sake of simplicity, I will not be going into color combinations in this.

Health Genetics put simply:

HH x HH = 100% HH OR 0% fault
HH x Hh = 50% Hh and 50% HH OR 0%fault
HH x hh = 100% Hh OR 0% fault
Hh x Hh = 25% HH and 50% Hh and 25% hh OR 25% fault
Hh x hh = 50% Hh and 50% hh OR 50% fault
hh x hh = 100% hh OR 100% fault

Knowing this, simply avoid the last 2 combinations (Hh x hh and hh x hh) and you avoid most of the chances of getting a fault in your litter.

Other important things to consider in evaluating your litter:

Litter sizes can be very important. If you have a 50% chance of getting a fault, then you want as many puppies as possible so that you can hopefully avoid that fault. The possible genes for litter size are L (large), l (small) or la (very large.) So, you want to try and avoid l’s in your breedings, and try to make sure that you have L or la in your dog’s genetics.

Stat boosts are best figured out using punnet squares. If you have a mother dog who has the genetics of stmagi intint and a father who has the genetics of constm intagi, then first, use the punnet squares.

You now know that you have a 25% chance of StmCon, 25% AgiCon, 25% StmStm and 25% AgiStm on the first stat boost. If you use a breeding kennel, then your second stat boost is 50% IntInt and 50% IntAgi.

Once the computer decides that you are going to have StmCon as the first genetic combo and IntAgi as the second genetic combo, then it’s a 50% chance as to what the puppies have. For instance, if the combination is StmCon, then it’s 50% chance your puppy will have a stm boost or 50% chance your puppy will have a Conformation boost.

Litter sizes put simply:

L means large, la means very large, and l means small as far as litter sizes go. Try to make sure that you get as few l’s in a combination as possible so that you have a greater chance for getting good genetics.

Stat boosts genetics put simply:

For double stat boosts, select breeding dogs or puppies who have homogynous (both boosts are the same) combinations. For instance, stmstm x stmint and agistm x stmstm has a greater chance of giving you a stamina double boost than stmint x conagi and constm x intagi

If you are breeding for a specific show (say schutzhund) then choose puppies who carry stat boosts that are beneficial for that show (int, stm and str, or int/stm/str for schutzhund.)

Your breed has natural stat boosts (the bolded stats on the dog’s description page.) These will get the most points as your dog levels, so you want to favor breeding for natural stat boosts.

Figuring out the health of a combination or future litter:

The easiest way for me to do a combination of two dogs is to make a table with 5 columns and then a row for each dog I am breeding. Let’s take Bonnie Blue Flag, a female, and Cardigan, a male. Both are Australian Cattle Dogs, and their natural stat boosts are agility, intelligence and stamina. Good shows for herders are shows that have 2 or more of these stat boosts and are herding (agi/int/stm), Agility (agi/int/spd), Frisbee (agi/spd/stm), Music (agi/con/int), Schutzhund (int/stm/str), and tracking (int/spd/stm).

Bonnie Blue Flag’s genes are kk YY BB DD aa tt sese swsw mm rr TiTi CC LL spdspd intagi hH Hh HH HH hH hH Hh HH hH hH Hh Hh hH HH HH HH hH Hh HH hh hH HH HH HH

Cardigan’s genes are kk YY BB DD aa tt sese swsw mm rr TiTi CC LL spdspd intagi hH Hh HH HH hH hH Hh HH hH hH Hh Hh hH HH HH HH hH Hh HH hh hH HH HH HH

The useful part of the genes are everything after the Ls for litter sizes. Or…

Bonnie Blue Flag’s genes are kk YY BB DD aa tt sese swsw mm rr TiTi CC LL spdspd intagi hH Hh HH HH hH hH Hh HH hH hH Hh Hh hH HH HH HH hH Hh HH hh hH HH HH HH

Cardigan’s genes are kk YY BB DD aa tt sese swsw mm rr TiTi CC LL spdspd intagi hH Hh HH HH hH hH Hh HH hH hH Hh Hh hH HH HH HH hH Hh HH hh hH HH HH HH

The easiest way I’ve found to figure out the combination is to make a table with 6 columns and 3 rows (one for each parent and one for the evaluation.) In the first column, put the dog’s name. In the second column, put the dog’s litter size and stat boosts. In the third through sixth columns put the health alleles, splitting them into groups of 6.

The easiest way I’ve found to make sure that I avoid the hhxhh and Hhxhh combinations and make sure that I get every hhxHH combination is to bold the HHs and underline the hhs.

In the bottom row, put down any faults that you see. Faults are stat boosts that are not natural to herding, small litter sizes, and any hhxhh and Hhxhh combinations you see. Use the table of known percentages to plug in values for the combinations to make sure you don’t miss any of them. Bold any 50% or 100% combinations and consider those faults. Underline any 0% fault combinations. The more 0% faults you have, the better the puppies will be.

HH x HH = 100% HH OR 0% fault
HH x Hh = 50% Hh and 50% HH OR 0%fault
HH x hh = 100% Hh OR 0% fault
Hh x Hh = 25% HH and 50% Hh and 25% hh OR 25% fault
Hh x hh = 50% Hh and 50% hh OR 50% fault
hh x hh = 100% hh OR 100% fault

Using the genetics calculator, copy the percentages on the left side of the board to get the 0%, 50%, 75% and 100% combinations. Count the number of 100% and 50% faults as faults. Take into account the size of litters and any natural stat boosts the pups will inherit.

Comparing possible studs and bitches in order to choose the best combination:

Let’s say that you have 2 possible studs and 1 possible bitch for breeding. You can only use one of the studs, so you have to make a choice as to which stud is the best for this breeding. So, let’s say that besides Cardigan, there is also Domino.

Domino’s genetics Kk YY BB DD aa tt sese swsw mm rr TiTi CC ll stmcon stmstm hh Hh hh hH Hh HH Hh hh hh Hh hh hh Hh hh hh Hh Hh hhhh hh hh Hh Hh hH

Do two of the tables that we did for Bonnie and Cardigan, but do one of them for Domino and Bonnie

Bonnie x Cardigan gives you 10 no faults and 1 definite faults, no 50%. Also, the only stat boost negative is spd, and you’re guaranteed large litters.

Bonnie x Domino gives you 11 no faults and 7 possible faults, 1 definite faults. However, you probably will have small litters or at the least you will pass those onto the puppies, and two stat boosts that are unnatural (con and spd.)

Personally, I would go with Bonnie and Cardigan. So I did. As these weren't pretend dogs, I did do the breeding with Bonnie and Cardigan, and got a 4E puppy from the breeding, 2 3E puppies, 4 2E puppies, and a couple of 1E pups. Not a bad litter at all.

Comparisons made easy:

Using the genetics calculator, copy the percentages on the left side of the board to get the 0%, 50%, 75% and 100% combinations. Count the number of 100% and 50% faults as faults. Take into account the size of litters and any natural stat boosts the pups will inherit. Compare the combinations, counting up faults.

Picking Puppies from the litter:

First, count the number of HH Hh and hh with each puppy. Note whether they have genetics for large or small litters. And make note of any stat boosts that are not natural stat boosts.

Count every HH, excellent healths, large litters, stat boosts for future litters or natural stat boosts as positives. Count every hh, small litters, or unnatural stat boosts as negatives.

An example is puppy 1 and puppy 2 where natural stat boosts are spd/stm/str.

Puppy 1: Boosts:Intelligence and Stamina
Hips:Excellent
Elbows:Good
Sight:Excellent
Hearing:Good
KK YY BB DD AA tctc sese SS mm rr titi CC Lla conint stmstr Hh hH hH Hh Hh hH hH HH hh HH HH HH HH HH Hh Hh HH hH hh hH HH Hh hh hH
Evaluation:
8HH 13Hh 3hh
Large and extra large litters
Con and Int unnatural boosts. Stm and Str natural boosts. (conint stmstr)
Intelligence unnatural boost. (intelligence and stamina)
2 Excellents

Puppy 2: Boosts:Speed and Stamina
Hips:Good
Elbows:Good
Sight:Excellent
Hearing:Good
KK YY BB DD AA tctc sese SS mm rr titi CC LL spdspd stmstr hH hh HH HH Hh hh Hh HH hh HH HH HH HH Hh hH HH HH hH hh hH HH Hh Hh hH
Evaluation:
9HH 11Hh 4hh
Large and Large litters
All natural boosts (spdspd stmstr)
Both natural boosts (speed and stamina)
1 Excellent

It’s up to you which puppy is the best. If you are trying for natural stat boosts, puppy 2 is the best choice. If you are trying for better levels, puppy 1 may perform better since it has 2 excellents. However, since the natural stat boosts for this breed is spd/stm/str, as time goes on, puppy 2 may outperform puppy 1 from leveling boosts. In future breedings, the puppy with the less hhs is easier to find a match for, so puppy 1 could be easier. But, in future breedings, the puppy with the more HHs will pass on more excellent puppies, so puppy 2 could be better. As you can see, it’s a personal choice in the end.

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