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Hi there, I'm relatively new so would appreciate some advice. What is your experience of close matings (father/daughter, half brother/sister etc.) in improving SOP. Also what effect does COI have in this game?

All advice and sharing of experiences gratefully received.

COI should be 15% or less. I have done a few where it was just over 18 breeding for a certain colour.

the higher the COI the worse the pups turn out.

Thank you!

If you are working with a strong, consistent line of dogs, breeding higher COIs doesn't have much of an impact.

Pedigrees with dogs from a mix of lines tends to create the chance for more sporadic differences in quality of offspring.

A mix of lines can produce quicker jumps in SOP stats on individual dogs, but the slower moving tightly linebred lines tend to move the entire kennel forward at the same pace.

Basically, Don't be afraid of playing with high COI.

I have one kennel based on a bitch I bought and finished and bred back to her father since he was the only available stud dog. I was able to buy one additional bitch who was a cousin to my original girl. I bred her to the same stud and started line completely based on these three closely related dogs. Zero additional dogs have been added to the line. I bred the line as high as 38 COI until I created enough stock that now my 7 to 18 COI on average.

Will

That’s really useful. Thanks Will. Was this is in Giant Schnauzers?

No. I just jumped back into giants a few months ago when Blunote left. I'm only 2-3 gens in, but my COIs are running closer to 20 in the breed.

Will

I have had litters of 30+ COI with SOP of 100 in Afghans and other breeds. At this point, I don't think it matters much. At most, sometimes some pups will have SS of less than 10 but the quality is usually the equivalent of 100.

I was doing high COI breedings in Siberian Huskies. I had one breeding that was over 41%. They were still showing 100s, like virtually all Sibes, but over time I found that the really high COI ones weren't having as much success in the show ring. I dropped the COI back to around 15 and that brought them back up to par.