How many generations can something pass through to a dog?

It probably depends on what it is, but lets say like with Labs for one, do you think that after 3-4 or 5 generations of no joint problems it would be gone? How many generations could that pass through? Or like with my breed (GSDs) and hip dysplasia, could that pass through 3-4 or 5 generations?I thought this was a very interesting question.

be very carefull with that one, some breeders will just hide the problem dogs away as pets, and keep breeding on the healthy ones so it wont show on the pedigree there is hd in the lines, while if you start digging a bit it become very aparentone of the reasons a good breeder spend a long time planing a breeding, because it takes time doing a thorough check of potential mates

Because canine hip dysplasia is a polygenic trait (meaning the dog must inherit more than one gene for CHD for the disease to actually show up), it can be carried in line indefinitely, even if only dogs who don't have the disease are bred. As long as a dog is a carrier (or has one gene), it can have puppies with CHD if bred with another carrier. This is why genetic testing is recommended before breeding; the dog can pass many disorders to its offspring without showing them itself.

Genetics are a crapshoot. That's why it's important to have a long pedigree and health tests done.

You can't really breed it out of a dog, it is still in the genetic structure. It becomes a recessive gene & still could pop up at any time.The only way to remove that gene would to be go in & alter the genetic structure & that is way over my head to go into specifics.

I would say unless you have something specific, it would be impossible to say. Hip dysplasia is not a clear inheritance. Studies of hip dysplasia genetics have indicated that the disease is polygenic and multifactorial. (multifactorial - relating to, or caused by a pattern of familial inheritance resulting from multiple genetic or environmental factors or from a combination of both. Polygenic is having more than one source or origin.)http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/chd.htmlBasically, it is not one clear inheritance. How many generations is impossible to know. No, there are many breeders breeding dogs with 3-4 or 5 generations of good hips, still produce a dysplastic dog. There are ways to determine what probabilites specific genes are going to be passed to future generations if there is a clear inheritance. Problem is, for most genetic diseases, it isn't clear cut.

A recessive characteristic can pass through unlimited generations. Since it isn't seen unless both parents had the same recessive allele and the offspring got that allele from both, a certain characteristic can remain hidden. Structural defects, such as hip dysplasia, are less likely to occur in offspring when both parents have been tested and received good or excellent ratings. If only Excellent rated parents are used, then none in the litter should have inherited hip dysplasia.

TK gave a good answer concerning hip health.However, we see that the generations a trait is passed can be unmeasurable.For instance, there are 14 dog breeds that DNA has proven are the oldest of *tested* breeds, as they are most closely linked to the common ancestor of all canids, a wolf-like canid, "Canis diris". Of those 14 identified breeds, all but 3 of them still demonstrate very feral, or wolf-like traits, compared to the other breeds tested..When I was breeding Dobermans, I took 10 of my Dobes to be evaluated by my mentor. One of them had a very slight underbite. My mentor stated that she knew who the g,g,g,g,grandsire was, and asked to see the pedigree. Yup, 6 generations back, there he was..She said that that dog was a great working dog, but shouldn't have been bred, and that his mouth is still cropping up..My own lineage of Afghan Hounds goes back to "Hermit", a dog who never showed, as he was too unsociable. However, he produced 63 champions ( the most of his era, 1960's). Sure enough, 9 generations later, my breeding program produced a gorgeous, but TERRIBLE tempered puppy. I spoke with an older breeder who had leased Hermit, many years ago, and she said he was more than just "unsociable", but very ill tempered and mean. All of my other dogs have had great temperaments, but that one terrible little puppy came along totally out-of-the-blue.