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The ISSA Outcrossing Plan - History and Population Research

The second task for the ISSA was to assess the population data for our breed. This included a count of current breeding animals of both sexes; an estimate of population fluxuation over the years; following our pedigrees back to document the number and relationship between the founding dogs of the breed; identifying popular sires and the lines that had contributed to our current population; and calculating the average COI across our entire breed.

Below you'll find another excerpt from the actual report we contructed for our first outcrossing project. This was compiled in July of 2017, so numbers will have changed a bit with dogs retiring and new puppies being added.

Outcross Planning Checklist

International Shiloh Shepherd Alliance

April 2017

PART ONE, SECTION TWO: EXAMINE POPULATION DATA

  • ❖ Gather and report population data on the breed. 

  • 1. Number of breeding males and females in the current generation: 110 total breeding dogs; 57 males, 53 females. This information fluxuates monthly as new pups are assessed to be potentially breed quality and as older dogs retire.
  • 2. Estimated population figures for ISSR Shiloh Shepherds over the past decade, with some notes, may be found in Appendix A: Population Data, Shiloh Shepherd History, 2007-2017. A brief summary is that the previous registry regularly produced over 200 pups per year from 2007, peaking at over 300 pups per year in 2010, and then exhibiting a steady decline after the death of the Breed Founder, Tina M. Barber, in May of 2011. The breeding population (intact dogs only) peaked at around 250 breeding dogs in 2010, and, again, declined after the death of the Breed Founder, through breeder downsizing of kennel stock and breeders resigning from breeding, among other reasons. Concern regarding this continual downward slide was one of the factors leading to the formation of ISSA, as an effort to rescue the majority of the remaining gene pool, in 2016. This report is the first part of that effort.
  • 3. Number of Founders, genetic bottlenecks: The lines of all current breeding Shiloh Shepherds from the ISSR and ISSA registries can be traced back to only 20 total dogs. 16 of those were in use around or just slightly prior to the time of breed creation in 1990-1, and four were outcrosses added later.

    • Of those 16 initial dogs, two, Sabrina and Samson-Woo, had other breeds mixed into their German Shepherd stock.

    Sabrina was around 10% European flock guardian lineage, as factored by pedigree (note: Sarplaninac or roughly equivalent breed, as the lineage of this outcross dog was never confirmed by anything other than appearance; the breeder the Founder purchased Sabrina from was only able to confirm that it was a flock guardian dog imported from Europe).

    Samson-Woo, factored by pedigree, was slightly more than 40% Malamute, from the giant weight-pulling lines rather than racing lines.

    The remaining 14 dogs were purebred German Shepherd dogs from Shiloh Kennels, all of them related to each other in some degree.

    The four outcrosses were an Altdeutscher Schaeferhunde imported from Germany; a Canadian White Shepherd dog from the Hoof Print kennels; a female, Chani, who came from the Founder's old Shiloh GSD lines which had not come with when the breed split into Shilohs; and a Czechoslovaky Vlcak, or "Czech Wolfdog." The first three of these dogs all come from German shepherd stock. The last breed is the product of a breeding program that began in the 1950's, mixing Carpathian Wolves with German shepherds and then breeding back to GSD's. The Vlcak was thus also a high-percentage of German shepherd stock, of eastern European origin.

  • 4. Popular sires/dams in the most recent generations. To be considered a popular sire or dam, the dog must be behind more than 25% of the gene pool within the first three generations (up to great-grandparent). 25% is currently 27 breeding animals. Popular sires and dams in the current generation of ISSA stock include:

    • Konrad (Lilli Bean/Angus): 32.7% of pool

    Warba (Meg/Konrad): 31.8% of pool

    Piston (Ivy/Warba): 25.5% of pool

    Saber2 (Saber1/Draco): 32.7% of pool

    Aslan (Lainey/Tazer): 27.3% of pool

    Tazer (Suna/Mygic): 26.4% of pool

    There are additional dogs which may be popular sires or dams within their region (USA, Canada, or Europe), but which are not behind over 25% of the world-wide breeding pool within the first three generations.

  • 5. Factor current average COI for the breeding population: 16.0% breedwide; 16.1% in the European gene pool, 15.8% for North America. These numbers include both frozen semen and upcoming pups who have not yet passed testing to breed. This information is current as of January 2017.
  • 6. Analysis of current gene pool analyzing common and rarer lines available: A detailed analysis has been completed involving the examination of 5-generation pedigrees of all available breeding dogs. A short summary follows:
    MAJOR LINES:
  • The Saber line is the most widespread
  • The Meg/Konrad line
  • The Tazer line
  • The Ruff/Vino line
  • The Quest/Lex/Timber line. (Quest is Lex’s son; Lex is Timber’s son; the majority of Timber comes through these dogs.)
    • MINOR LINES:
  • The Maggie/Rufus line (now tied to either the Chani line, or the Quest and Meg/Konrad lines)
  • The Tor line (comes originally paired with either the Saber2/Phoenix line, Chani line, or Scout line)
  • The Scout line (Maya/Scout is currently tied to the Konrad line through Warba in all cases; Elf/Scout ties him to the Tor and Saber/Phoenix lines)
  • The Chani line (came down through two litters: Chani/Tor and Chani/Grizz. The Grizz variant is now tied to Maggie/Rufus or to Saber2/Phoenix. This line is several generations behind us and has been bred on to several other lines; however, it is considered an outcross line and we do still have a few F3 dogs in our pool.)
  • The Strauss DNB (double F2) line (tied to the Saber2/Phoenix line in the ISSA, it has been bred on to the Meg/Konrad line.
  • The Vlcak line (tied to the Saber2 line, with or without Phoenix, with sometimes the Konrad line added later. This is an outcross line, the Czechoslovaky Vlcak line, utilized in the early 2000’s.)

In a previous study of lines done in 2011, additional lines were present. However, the Kiora/Samson line and the Star/Tango line now appear combined and coming from a single breeding in an overwhelming majority of the cases, so have been grouped together as the Ruff/Vino line. There is a very small bit of Star/Tango present in the gene pool that is not tied to Kiora/Samson.


  • ❖ Identify health issues which threaten the breed. Relate this information to inbreeding / pedigree study.

    • As stated above, the issues we see on the rise are EPI, subaortic/aortic stenosis, and genetic mega-esophagus. We know that these diseases were all issues during the breed’s formation, and, now that our COI numbers are rising, we see them coming forward across several different lines.

    We track all reported health issues, so we do have a complete database of what each particular dog and its relatives have produced or are linked to. We have recently completed a breeder health survey covering the issues produced over the last five years. We possess close to complete information on the health of the previous three generations or so, and some information on additional generations going back to the founding of the breed. We will utilize this information in choosing the lines to use with the outcrosses to produce the F1 generations.

  • ❖ Present general population and historic data for the current generation.
  • ➢ In a single generation (in ISSA Shilohs one generation is estimated at 3.5 years), factor:
  • ▪ total number of animals in the gene pool : 110
  • ▪ number of animals from each litter :
  • average litter size for 2014: 6.9 born, 6.2 surviving
  • average litter size for 2015: 6.7 born, 6.2 surviving
  • average litter size for 2016: 7.25 born, 6.4 surviving
  • average litter size for 2017 so far: 7.25 born, 6.25 surviving.
  • ▪ number of sires used compared to number of males: We have a gene pool list from 2013 that shows the total number of breeding dogs at 165; number of potentially breeding males at 72. Considering all litters produced from 2014-2016, the total number of different breeding males used was only 33 out of the 72 available between 2014 and 2016.

ADDENDUM, POST UC-DAVIS STUDY AUGUST 2017:

Our UC-Davis study has caused us to modify the way we utilize some of the above information. By looking at the actual genes and haplotypes (groups of genes that are inherited together) instead of estimating diversity via COI numbers, we were able to see which lines carried the more unique or diverse genes--and they weren't always the ones we would have expected. COI remains useful as a measurement of the possibility of producing a disorder from the past in a modern litter, but the ISSA is moving to utilizing the UC-Davis information as a primary means of making matches and managing our gene pool moving forward.

To move on to the next page, Defining the Reasons to Outcross, click here.

To return to the Outcrossing Checklist page, click here.

© 2016 International Shiloh Shepherd Alliance, Inc.