According to Embark, the White Swiss Shepherd has an average genetic COI (Coefficient of Inbreeding) of 26%--a little bit greater than the expected COI of siblings. Without adding diversity into the breed, which can only be done by outcrossing to other breeds or finding rare lines that have been excluded from the breed due to political reasons, the COI will gradually increase over many generations until health problems become too widespread. This has been seen in other purebred dog breeds - like the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel or the Doberman, both of whom suffer horrible heart conditions due to inbreeding.

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At the moment, the stud books are open for the breed, which allows us to add in these much needed genetics. Our hope is that by doing so early on in the history of the breed, that we can delay issues caused by inbreeding and that hopefully the kennel clubs around the world will someday accept that outcross must be a normal part of breeding.

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In our efforts to find and create diversity, we have carefully chosen lines that are rare within the breed and we have also done our first outcross combination. We have successfully bred litters with below average COI--which is no accident, but absolutely intentional and certainly not easy to accomplish. While we have had some setbacks in our efforts towards reduced COIs, we are the nonetheless committed to seeing this number come down over time.