Restoring genetic diversity for the Saarlooswolfdog’s future
The
Saarlooswolfdog
outcross
program
The SaarGen outcross program aims to restore, preserve, and monitor the Saarlooswolfdog’s genetic diversity across generations.
TWO COMPLEMENTARY PATHS
Understand
BEFORE ACTING
To understand why an outcross program may be necessary, we must first understand
the genetic mechanisms that can weaken closed dog breed populations.
PATH 01
UNDERSTAND
Explore the mechanisms that shape the future of dog breeds and why their genetic diversity must be managed at the population level.
PATH 02
THE SAARGEN PROGRAM
Explore the objectives, methodology, and multigenerational monitoring of the SaarGen outcross program for the Saarlooswolfdog.
Although SaarGen focuses on the Saarlooswolfdog outcross program, its educational content is intended for dog enthusiasts, breeders, and professionals working with all dog breeds.
The SaarGen outcross program to restore the Saarlooswolfdog’s genetic diversity
Science & Data
Genetic and pedigree data, measurable objectives, and monitoring across generations, with decisions reviewed as results emerge.
Transparency & Collaboration
Published protocols, criteria, tests, and results. Traceable founder lines and breeding decisions. A collaborative, science-led project open to individuals, breeders, veterinarians, and geneticists.
Health & Adaptability
Health, a stable temperament, and suitability for family life through responsible selection and socialisation.
Ethology
Selection of breeding dogs and puppies based on rigorous ethological criteria, with the aim of favouring a temperament better suited to modern family life.
The Saarlooswolfdog combines a narrow genetic base with a small population. Together, these two factors have consequences over successive generations: genetic diversity declines, mean kinship rises, inbreeding increases, and the risk of problems with health, fertility, robustness and immunity grows.
Without careful management, these constraints can lead to declining diversity, increasing kinship and inbreeding, and greater vulnerability to health and fertility problems.
SaarGen is a structured conservation program that aims to broaden the Saarlooswolfdog’s gene pool for the long term.
SaarGen also aims to bring about a change in the Saarlooswolfdog’s behaviour: a dog that is less exclusive in its attachments, more stable and more adaptable to family life. Greater adaptability means greater popularity.
Why aim for greater popularity? Because without a growing population, we cannot hope to stabilise a breed’s health and genetics over the long term.
Our guiding principle
A breed
is not managed
litter by litter.
It is managed
collectively.
An outcross strategy in three stages
Before.
During.
After.
A serious outcross is not an isolated event. It is a documented program, spread across multiple branches and followed over time.
Understand the population
Assess diversity, kinship, bloodlines and the limits of selection within the breed.
Before outcrossing
Introduce genetic variation
Select donors on genetic, health, behavioural and functional criteria.
During outcrossing
Retain the new contribution
Develop several branches, follow their descendants and preserve the contribution across the population.
After outcrossing
Evidence to guide decisions
No
single
magic number.
Multiple indicators
must be combined.
Effective Population Size
The diversity actually passed on
Mean kinship
Rare or overrepresented bloodlines
Genomic inbreeding
Inbreeding at the DNA level
Genomic homozygosity
The length and distribution of homozygous regions
A breed is more than its number of births or the appearance of its dogs. Its genetic diversity develops, is passed on, and can also decline silently over generations.
SaarGen brings together data, measures changes, and helps us understand the relationships that shape the population as a whole. This knowledge helps establish where the breed stands today and identify what can help preserve its vitality tomorrow.
Understand
Track genetic change across the population
PLAN AHEAD
Identify vulnerabilities before they lead to irreversible consequences.
PRESERVE
Maintain genetic diversity for future generations
Our partners
SaarGen, an
ABNF project
supported by the
Société Centrale Canine
The Team
