The importance of genetic diversity - Page 8

From the link that Hexe referenced above, I think the below need to be emphasized and specially highlighted:

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Locating the genes that underlie genetic disorders in dogs can identify cause and function, but this doesn’t eliminate the deleterious consequences to health.  Breeders use test information to minimize the risk of producing affected offspring, but as the number of genetic disorders increase, the breeding options diminish.  As breeders select away from unwanted genes, the genetic diversity of the gene pool declines, which increases the probability that other deleterious genes will begin to be a problem.  In a way, the best efforts of breeders to minimize the health risks of the puppies they produce by testing and careful selection only continue to make matters worse over the long term.

 

THE SOLUTION

The solution to this problem is to improve the genetic health of the dog.  In some cases, this can be done by locating isolated populations, perhaps in another kennel or even another country, that contain unique genes that can be reintroduced into the larger breeding population.  It might be accomplished by bringing dogs together from field and bench lines that have been genetically separated for perhaps generations.
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By "field and bench lines" what they mean is of course Working line and Showlines.  So the suggestion is to mix the whole shebang up - German WL, German SL, Czech WL, DDR, Finnish WL, Romanian SL etc and just massively increase the genetic diversity in the GSD population......I totally support that, if there is a decent enough critical mass of movement in that direction, from across the landscape of GSD breeders.