# so what is Ruby?



## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

well I know she's a cross between a smooth and wire haired vizsla and that she's not a pedigree by any means so I looked up WHV's on wikipedia,(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehaired_Vizsla) so I'm guessing she's 75 percent Vizsla and 25 percent GWH. Does that sound feasible?


----------



## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

harrigab, it seems like I read in one of your posts that the breeder had decided to allow a mating between a purebred smooth coated Vizsla and a purebred wire-haired Vizsla. I'm sure my memory could have failed me (or maybe that was someone else's post).

Whenever two purebred dogs of two different breeds produce puppies, the pups are referred to as cross breeds, and so that's what Ruby would be. But if the lineage is anything but 50%/50% or there is a third breed (or more) somewhere back in the lineage, then those pups are called mixed breeds. 

All of those "designer dogs" that seem so omnipresent these days are actually cross breeds (labradoodle, pugle, etc.). They are not new breeds of dogs. They are cross breeds. Well, in any case, Ruby is a sweet looking pup!!


----------



## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

thanks mswhipple, I'm under no illusion that Ruby has no pedigree or breed per se, even though she is a real beauty  The breeder (ahem term used very loosely) should never have let this coupling take place (apparently this is the_* 3rd*_ time this has happened due to his inattention), but not being an expert on genetics, I'm wondering what ratio Ruby is ie V :GWP, but to be honest it's only a curiousity question and I'm sure there'll be no detrimental traits, she is a little love :-*


----------



## redrover (Mar 17, 2011)

Well, if her parents were pure smooth-haired Vizsla and pure wire-haired Vizsla, then she would be 50/50 of each--each parent contributes (pretty much) exactly half of the genetic material of any pup. Neither parent would contribute significantly more DNA that the other (female mammal parents do provide a very small amount more genetic material, but not so much that it's going to count in things like this).

If either parent was not purebred then the ratios would be different of course. In plain terms, the only way Ruby could be 75%/25% would be if her wire-haired parent had actually been 50% smooth and 50% wire-haired.


----------



## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

I'm no geneticist, but I do know one really good thing that Ruby's got going for her -- hybrid vigor! The larger the gene pool, the lower the incidence of hereditary weaknesses popping up.


----------



## redrover (Mar 17, 2011)

I reread your original post and saw I missed something.  If you're wondering how much of Ruby is German Wirehaired Pointer...that, I think, is pretty impossible to measure. I am about to assume a lot about the development of the wirehaired Vizsla breed, and much of what I know about this is based off of what I learned from breeding mice, so please forgive any errors. 

Wirehaired Vs were developed back in the 1930s. Some crossbreeding would have occurred, then some breeding of offspring with enough of the desired traits together. Some backbreeding may also occurred (breeding offspring of two wirehaired "Vizslas" back to some German Wirehaired pointer) all with the goal of getting that nice, wiry coat. The goal would be for the hybrid dogs to breed true (that is, produce offspring that consistently express the desired traits). 

After a couple generations of this, they probably stopped outcrossing/backcrossing and started breeding WHVs to each other with the purpose of bettering the breed. We know by the 60s the WHV was established as its own breed in Europe, so within 30 years they had managed to get the WHV to breed true and they managed to breed sufficient numbers of them. Ruby's WHV parent is 100% WHV. By now, measuring the exact contribution of GWP genes to a WHV is practically impossible. That would be like asking how much of my DNA is technically my ancestor's DNA, when he lived back in the 1200s.

Whew! I'm sorry that was long. I hope it answered your question a little, though. What you can say for sure is that Ruby is beautiful and the best dog in the world (I know I say that about mine!). And I can't believe this is the 3rd time that has happened to that breeder, haha! Talk about not paying attention!


----------

