I breed and I just found out that one of my pups only dropped one testicle. Ive been told that it was hereditary is this true, if so how can you tell who is passing on the gene?

Take it you mean Dam or Sire, not sure if it is attached to the Y chromosome, or if it is a condition that is attached to both and only happens if both are affected, and all my books are packed away at the moment, hopefully some one who has it at their fingertips will come along and tell you.

Are both parents of this pup both maidens, and if not, have you had any cases before. If one is a maiden then you will need to check the next litter to see if the problem appears again, and if it does I would stop using that particular dog, anyway. you should not repeat that mating again unless the result was exceptional. Would not consider breeding from the affected animal. Have you researched the background of both parents back at least 5 generations to check that it has not occurred before? As a breeder it would be best if you checked up on all the problems that can happen in your breed in detail and in dogs in general, and purchased at least one book that describes & explains dog genetics.

The gene is from the mother on her X chromosome

I know others on here have other ideas but I did & do study geneitcs, & in dogs the sex characteristics are carried on the X chromosomes which males get from their mother

The X & Y chromosomes sre different lengths & the X is longer. The SC sre on the part of the X chromosome that is not matched by the Y chromosome

If it was on the Y chromosome all offspring sired by a dog with only one testicle would also only have one testicle which is not the case, the reverse also applies an entire dog would not be able to produce an offspring with one or no testicles

Therefore it has to be carried by the female & if she has only one defective gene you half a 50/50  chance of any male puppy being not entire, if she has two then all the male puppies will be affected(very rare as she receives one gene from her father & few people use dogs that are not entire)

It can be many generations before it appears & then the finger is always pointed at the sire when in fact the probles lies hidden in the bitches breeding

No I did not think different, I did not know and could not remember, but that helps the original poster they need to stop breeding from the bitch.

Re the message title - are there any other sort?????  <G>

Don't octopus have 8 of them :)

We went through this not long ago if you search the Board.  Then as now I will point out that although gender is decided by the chromosomes, the reasons for testicle retention are not known and the inheritence of it is definately not certain.....do any web search on the subject :-)

Moonmaiden will no doubt disagree, but she still hasn't pointed me to anything other than her assurances on the subject :P

My source is years of study & research & no I'm not going to quote the references as I can't see why I should dig out all my Genetics books  & study papers. Shall I just say that my lecturers who were geneticists never corrected my dissertations which I sure they would have done if it was incorrect & would not have been able to pass my course if it had been incorrect. Good job you were not marking my work if it was so very very wrong, the professors obviously should have been sacked for incompetance.

However as always I bow to your superior knowledge & experience in research into canine genetics(off the internet of course) & leave the thread to those better educated & informed than myself

Hi, I have a sibe male who has an undesceneded testicle, AND it wasn't passed on by his mother, but from a stud i had used! I understand that the bitch does carry this defected gene, however, the stud was the carrier and we traced the gene back to his father who carried the defect from his mother (which makes it my boys g. grandmother). It is not entirely accurate to state it is from the mother as my dog did not get this from his mother but from his father's side. Although it is carried by the female, it doesnt necessarily mean it is from the mother, it can be from the studs side as in my case.  So, if i was to breed from my boy (WHICH I WOULDNT!!!) then people could say the genetic defect was from the dam, but it wouldnt be as it would be from my stud. Hope this makes sense. :) The trouble is it takes so much research to find out where this gene is from. I was lucky as my dam and her blood line never had this problem but my boys g. grandmothers brother has a retained tesicle, plus she also produce a litter with this problem. Thankfully this breeding line has now stopped.

Ok - been speed-reading agin - does this mean that if the defect is carried on the X chromosome, it can come from either parent, but oviously both parents have to be implicated for it to show up?  (presumably it's recessive , but probably multifactoral, as is HD, so difficult to get rid of?

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats