[Periodic]

I'm glad you used the phrase "get a pure breed" as opposed to "purchase a pure breed". There are far to many amazing dogs that need a home to spend money buying a dog.

If you want a rough story, look at the Bernese Mountain Dog. Twenty years ago the life expectancy of the breed was only 7 years due to congenital heart problems. Breeders have been working to breed it out of them and introduce more variety in the genome of the breed for some time and their life expectancy has been going up.

The key is to at least get a diverse line, though I don't think there's any reason to get a pure bred dog unless you want to show or breed it yourself.

My father recently purchased a Sharpei. It's father was also it's grandfather because it was basically the product of two kennels interbreeding. In humans go as far as to outlaw that in many countries. In dog breeding it's a matter of course.

[djrogers]

> I don't think there's any reason to get a pure bred dog unless you want to show or breed it yourself

There is one other reason - working dogs. Livestock guardian for example is a job that's very poorly suited for mutts due to the genetic personality traits involved. An LGD with chasing, shepherding, or tracking instincts would be at best worthless, and at worst a danger to your animals.

[sitharus]

Yes, but a working breed is vastly different to a domestic breed. Working dogs need to be intelligent, obedient, and free from health problems.

[JoeAltmaier]

Be honest - "in dogs, its a matter of course". Lets not paste human social constructs on an animal.

[jkaunisv1]

Maybe I'm ignorant but my understanding was it's not really a social construct for us, it's often rooted in the understanding of genetics that makes inbreeding a bad idea.

[JoeAltmaier]

Mostly myth. The first million years nobody cared. Inbreeding over time is a bad idea, if the gene pool is too small. But line breeding(?) like done with dogs (and cattle and pigs and ...) is not a death sentence, nor even a very bad idea unless taken to extremes.