Hi all just wondering if anyone can help? Trying to work out how to calculate percentages of breed/blood in a dog when crossbreeding and just cant for the life of me manage to crack it!

For example we own a 3/4 whippet 1/4 greyhound bitch and want to be able to work out what ratio whippet to greyhound and vice versa the litter would be if we used a pure whippet or a pure greyhound??

Thanks in advance!

Not sure it can be worked out like that. And why would you want to?

The answers are 0.875% whippet or 0.325% greyhound.

But crossbreeding (or any breeding unless you're an expert with outstanding stock) is very frowned upon in the pedigree dog world. It is one of the things people find the most upsetting. So hopefully your question was just hypothetical?

I certainly wouldnt be putting a greyhound dog to a whippet bitch..thats for sure..poor thing!!!

> 0.875% whippet or 0.325% greyhound

No :) I think you mean 87.5 % or 32.5% :)

The answers are 0.875% whippet or 0.325% greyhound.

But crossbreeding (or any breeding unless you're an expert with outstanding stock) is very frowned upon in the pedigree dog world. It is one of the things people find the most upsetting. So hopefully your question was just hypothetical?

Never was any good at maths, so the percentages here are probably right!!?

As for the rest- totally agree.   If you have a mix-bred b itch, please don't put her in whelp when there's no need to.  There could be an element of 'lurcher' about all this!   And you surely can't put a Grey male to a basically Whippet female in any case, even if she is 'oversized' for a Whippet.

The bitch is a 23" 36lbs whipgrey so is classed as a longdog rather than a lurcher, and certainly not too small to put a small greyhound over! she's only a youngster at the moment so the question is purely hypothetical. If we ever did the breeding it would be with sports/work in mind and not showing so functionality would be of the utmost importance.

Can I ask how the percentages were worked out in mathematical terms?

If a dog is 75% whippet and you breed with a 100% whippet - then add 75+100 then divide by 2 giving 87.5%. If you had a dog that was 50% greyhound and you bred with another 50% greyhound it would be 50+50 / 2 giving 50% still.

Of course the genes don't always follow - so you will never know exactly what you end up with :) :)

If you're breeding with working in mind,  I doubt the puppy owners would be much worried about accurate percentages of which breed.

Working dog/long dog people are more interested in what aptitude the parents have for working and whether their new pup will have the right aptitude.   And how big the pup is likely to grow.

It's only dubious 'designer crossbreed'  breeders who try to blind their new puppy owners with sciency sounding expressions of percentages of which breed and f expressions ;-)

So basically the pups from this breeding would be 3/4 Whippet 1/4 Greyhound X Greyhound,  if the Greyhound is actually full Greyhound.   :-)

Some of the working Greyhounds I've seen have been bigger than the  UK Breed Standard.

Excellent post Dill, that's exactly it. Those wanting crossbreeds for genuine working purposes are not going to be bothered by percentages or anything, just working ability -so what will matter the most will be how good the parents are at working. Those wanting percentages and funny made up names are the wrong people to crossbreed for as that is just breeding for profit.

If we ever did the breeding it would be with sports/work in mind and not showing so functionality would be of the utmost importance.


This being the case, I'm a bit confused about why you need to know about percentages?    Regardless (and with any mix-breeding it's always a lottery because you simply don't know which set of genes will prevail, in each puppy), if she's 3/4 Whippet, if you can find somebody with a purebred Whippet to let you use him, her offspring would be bound to be more Whippet than not.  3/4 Whippet to 100% Whippet.   If you use a purebred Greyhound, the mix would be more diluted.  1/4 Greyhound to 100% Greyhound.   You do the maths.   But the fact remains that the puppies will still be mix-bred.   Using a purebred Whippet on her won't alter that even if the puppies are more Whippet than anything else.   

To be successful in whatever discipline you are aiming to do, you'd have to have a bitch who has the instinct to work/whatever, and a similarly minded partner.   Not what breed they are?   

Well your bitch as a parent would contribute 3/8ths or 37.5% whippet, and 1/8th 12.5% Greyhound.

The sire would contribute half, 50% whippet or greyhound.

So your resulting pups from whippet mating would be 87.5% whippet and 12.5% Greyhound (7/8ths and 1/8th).

From Greyhound sire 62.5% Greyhound and 37.5% Whippet (5/8ths and 3/8ths whippet).

personally much better to use percentages than fractions.

But as someone else has said what would be the purpose of such a mating?????? 

What are you trying to achieve???

Also remembering that crossbreeding does not give you the theoretical proportion of either parents characteristics in the offspring (they don't breed true).

Thank you to everyone who replied; its much appreciated.

I dont "need" to know for any reason bar my own curiosity and furthering knowledge. Imo if anyone breeds and doesnt bother trying to gain as much knowledge as possible beforehand then they're doing something wrong!

Like I've said the bitch is only young now but if she fulfills her potential and we had a waiting list of suitable homes for working pups we would consider breeding from her. She's a very useful bitch herself and any stud we chose would have to have proven himself also for us to even consider him a possibility for her.

We realise the issues of not breeding true when crossbreeding - we own 3 crosses and 2 purebred dogs; it is certainly easier to gauge how a purebred dog will turn out as opposed to a cross! Having said that though all 3 of our crosses were bred for a purpose and all 3 fulfill that purpose extremely well :)

I'm glad you have a purpose and at least some idea! :)

I saw a posting on a FB group today where someone with a three-quarters Shih Tzu and one-quarter Jack Russell, was asking if it was bred to a  Shi Tzu, "would the puppies be full Shih Tzu and would that cancel out the Jack Russell input?"

So - no wonder we like to ask questions ;)

>"would the puppies be full Shih Tzu and would that cancel out the Jack Russell input?"

Durrrrrrrrr!!

Sorry, can't help it.

It certainly wouldnt be something we undertook lightly!! I would rather keep a whole litter than let any pup go to idiots. Have had countless enquiries to use one of my Staffords at stud but despite him having a great show record and a fantastic pedigree I think the breed is just too overbred these days so politely decline