The boy

Ruby will be mated with an excellent male, Schipdale’s Rebus, owned and bred by Mrs. Lesley Thorne of Schipdale Schipperkes in England. Rebus is a beautiful Schipperke who charmed me when we met at Crufts, 2019. Rebus has just recently been awarded his third and crowning Challenge Certificate. Rebus has also been Embark tested.

Their litter will have a genetic (not pedigree) Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI) of 10%. By comparison, I used Embark’s Matchmaker tool to search for a good quality North American male in their database. Of over 150 possible matches, most would have produced a litter of about 26%. That COI is about the same as if two siblings from unrelated parents, have offspring.

The puppies from the Ruby-Rebus litter will be more heterozygous and will have a comparatively lower risk of genetic diseases.