As of the date of this publication, 471 Alaskan Klee Kai have been tested. The breed Alaskan Klee Kai has some of the lowest biodiversity of any breed yet tested at UC Davis, with Shiloh Shepherds (ISSA) and Swedish Vallhunds being the only breeds with less. You can read the breed summary here. 

The Parents

Obviously, selection for breeding mates involves more than genetic diversity. We also want the type, temperament, drive, pedigree, etc. in our resultant puppies, just as we always have before.

This is the sire. Let’s look at the key points:

The DLA: Bear is homozygous for the most common DLA haplotype in the Alaskan Klee Kai population. This isn’t necessarily bad, but when all else is equal, I might look for a bitch to breed with him with less common DLA haplotypes, so that those existing in the AKK population are not lost to drift.

As of the date of this post, AKK have 11 Class 1 and 7 Class 2 DLA haplotypes identified in the population. While this is a moderate to low amount of DLA haplotypes as a breed, several of them are very poorly represented in the population and could be easily lost. Once lost, DLA haplotypes cannot be added back in to a population without an outcross. The following DLA types are uncommon in this population:

Class One: 1008, 1011, 1060, 1061, 1063, 1064, 1072 and 1113

Class Two: 2007, 2012, 2014, and 2042

Outlier Index (OI): His OI is right around breed average. As this number drops, breeders are breeding toward a genetic bottleneck, which is when the genes of a few ancestors become very common in the majority of a population. Breeds like the Alaskan Klee Kai, which have very little genetic diversity at the breed-wide level, should be careful to ensure that the breed average OI of .32 does not drop, as this would increase the odds that more allelic richness will be lost from the breed as a whole. The average OI of this breed is at a relatively good level at .32, so breeders with individual dogs that have lower than breed average OI can easily raise them in their puppies by looking for mates with higher OI.

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR): I fondly call this the “more breeding mates” measurement. If you select for a lower AGR (more negative), you will have more unrelated options for your potential breedings. This tells us how closely a dog is related to other dogs in our database. The higher it is, the more dogs he is related to. He has an AGR of 0 which means he is about as related to other dogs in the database as the average AKK.

Internal Relatedness (IR): And finally, the inbreeding estimate. He has an below breed average IR value of-.12, meaning he is more outbred than the average Alaskan Klee Kai  A high inbreeding measurement would be above .15, according to Dr. Pedersen.

This is the dam. Let’s look at the key points:

The DLA: She has one haplotype in common with the sire, which is also the most common haplotype in the Alaskan Klee Kai population, 1014/2037. Her other DLA haplotype 1040 paired with 2043, is one of the other very common DLA haplotypes in the AKK population.

As of the date of this post, AKK have 11 Class 1 and 7 Class 2 DLA haplotypes identified in the population. While this is a moderate to low amount of DLA haplotypes as a breed, several of them are very poorly represented in the population and could be easily lost. Once lost, DLA haplotypes cannot be added back in to a population without an outcross. The following DLA types are uncommon in this population:

Class One: 1008, 1011, 1060, 1061, 1063, 1064, 1072 and 1113

Class Two: 2007, 2012, 2014, and 2042

Outlier Index (OI): Her OI is well below breed average at .22, making her genetics more typical in comparison to the rest of Alaskan Klee Kai. As this number drops, a breed is breeding toward a genetic bottleneck, or genes that are represented by the majority of a tested population. This can tend to concentrate disease genes as well. The OI of this breed is at a relatively good level and this will be easy to raise in the next generation by breeding her to a dog with higher than breed average OI. Breeds like the Alaskan Klee Kai, which have very little genetic diversity at the breed-wide level, should be careful to ensure that the breed average OI of .32 does not drop, as this would increase the odds that more allelic richness will be lost from the breed as a whole.

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR): I fondly call this the “more breeding mates” measurement. If you select for a lower AGR, you will have more unrelated options for your potential breedings. The higher this number, the more dogs she is related to. She has an AGR of .08, which is higher than breed average. This means she is more related to dogs in the database than the most Alaskan Klee Kai in the database.

Internal Relatedness (IR): And finally, the inbreeding estimate. She has a higher IR value of .10, which is above breed average, and means she is somewhat inbred. This is easy to lower in the next generation by breeding to an unrelated sire. A high inbreeding measurement would be above .15, according to Dr. Pedersen.

So, the next question is, how do they look together?

The Litter Prediction

The predicted litter was a category 10 breeding. Relationship categories range from Category 10 (unrelated) all the way to 1 (identical twins.) We generally recommend Category 6 and above, because when you go to the lower categories the level of inbreeding will be much higher, the genetic distance between the potential sire and dam will be tighter, and therefore risks of recessive diseases (or recessive component diseases) expressing are higher. We typically recommend running a test breeding using our breed management software to ensure that the predicted offspring will not have many potential puppies fall above the high threshold for inbreeding, which is generally considered to be around .15 IR.

Now, there may be instances that you would breed for a higher IR, especially if your dogs are from a bottlenecked breed and you have a very uncommon dog/bitch. Why? Because those genetics are underrepresented in the population and could be easily lost through genetic drift, so at times a low IR may be sacrificed in order to maintain an unusual line and its less frequent genetics (as long as the line is healthy).

What do you see when you look at this predicted breeding?

The Key Points

Outlier Index (OI): The predicted range of this litter is .09 to .46, so puppies could fall anywhere from below breed average to well above it. The lower this number, the closer one might be breeding toward a potential bottleneck within a breed. The variation in predicted values is because each offspring will receive different genetics from the sire and dam. Each sire and dam has common, neutral, and uncommon genetics in comparison to the rest of the breed. The breed average OI for Alaskan Klee Kai is .32, which is a fairly good number for a breed to have. However, breeds like the Alaskan Klee Kai, which have very little genetic diversity at the breed-wide level, should be careful to ensure that the breed average OI of .32 does not drop, as this would increase the odds that more allelic richness will be lost to the breed as a whole. The average for this breeding is .27, which is a little below breed average. The percentage of puppies falling at breed average or above appears to be about 25-30%; you can see this in the image to the left.

Internal Relatedness (IR): The IR range for this breeding goes from very outbred at -.42 to very inbred at .29. However, when you go to the summary, you can hover over the graph and see just how many will fall in the highly inbred range of .15 to .29. It appears that very few in this litter would fall above .15. The average inbreeding IR value of this litter is -.06, which means the average puppy will be outbred. You can see the predicted range in the image to the right.

DLA:  Theoretically each puppy from this breeding will have a 50% chance to be heterozygous for their DLA haplotype. 100% of the puppies will inherit DLA haplotypes that are common in this breed as neither parent carries DLA haplotypes that are very unusual for the tested population.. When all else is equal, in this breeding population I would look for atypical DLA haplotypes and breed for heterozygous DLA.

The Offspring

These are the tested offspring:

FOXX’s Sweet Sensi Star.  Let’s look at the key points:

DLA: She is heterozygous for her DLA haplotypes, and both of these haplotype combinations are very common in this breeding population.

Outlier Index (OI): Her OI fell right at the predicted average for this test breeding and was within the predicted litter range; however, her OI is a little below breed average. It means her genetics are slightly more typical for the breed than the average AKK, but does not indicate health or quality. 

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR): This is the “unrelated breeding mate” measurement. The lower this number (more negative), the more dogs in the database that are unrelated to her. Her AGR is much higher than breed average, so she will be related to more dogs in the current database than is typical for the breed. However, this may change as more of the breeding population is tested and added to the database.

Internal Relatedness (IR): Her IR fell just below breed average, and shows she is not inbred. It will be easy to maintain a low IR in her puppies as long as she is bred to a complimentary male that is unrelated to her.

FOXX’s Grand Northern Lights .  Let’s look at the key points:

DLA: He received two of the same DLA haplotypes that are also the most common in the breed.

Outlier Index (OI):  His OI fell well below the predicted average for this test breeding, but still within the litter prediction. This means his genetics are more typical for the breed than the average Alaskan Klee Kai, but does not indicate health or quality. A higher than breed average OI helps breed away from any breed specific bottleneck.

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR): This is the “unrelated breeding mate” measurement. The higher this number, the less dogs in the database that are unrelated to your bitch or dog. His is slightly higher than breed average, so he will be related to more dogs in the current database than is typical for the breed.

Internal Relatedness (IR): His IR fell above breed average, but well within predicted litter range. He is more inbred in comparison to his sister, but not amazingly so.

So how might you use this? Alaskan Klee Kai do not have large litters, so selection based on genetic diversity in your puppies would be difficult, unless you had an atypically large litter. However, you can use the diversity testing to maintain the breedwide genetic diversity by selecting unrelated mates that also have higher than breed average OI, as long as the future breeding mate meets the goals of the breeder in terms of structure, temperament, drive etc.

A sincere thank you to the owner/breeder of these dogs for agreeing to allow us to use them in this example!

Conclusion

Both resultant offspring fell well within the predicted values. This breeding predicted puppies with below breed average IR; IR values will be easy to keep low in the next generation by breeding to unrelated mates in the database. The OI for the litter was slightly below breed average, with the resultant puppies both falling below breed average. Since this breed has a higher breed average OI, it will hopefully be easy to find complimentary mates for the offspring that will help raise the OI in the next generation, to prevent breeding toward a genetic bottleneck and losing more biodiversity to genetic drift. There can be great ranges in genetics for each litter, and puppies can fall anywhere along those predicted ranges. Often we have seen that entire litters vary drastically from one another, both in inbreeding values as well as outlier index and average genetic relatedness (AGR). The choices we make with each breeding will affect both our puppies and our breed genetics and dynamics in future generations to come; we should be careful to select so that we lose less biodiversity to genetic drift.

Of course breeding is more than just about diversity, as we always need to pair selection for type along with selection for diversity. We cannot have one without the other, as breeding is done by passionate breeders because they love their breed, their lines, and the “family” they have created. BetterBred never suggests breeding for diversity to the exclusion of consideration of pedigree, type, temperament, drive, health etc. This is to add, not detract, from our breeding strategies.