DEAR PROSPECTIVE BREEDER
HOW ABOUT THE DOGS WITHIN THE FIRST THREE GENERATIONS? The first three generations of the prospective sire and dam represent 14 dogs. When the prospective sire and dam are com- bined, it represents a total of 28 dogs. That’s a lot of genotypes to contend with for just the sire or dam, in addition to how the genotype was expressed as phenotype (what you see) in each. What do you know about each one of those 14 ancestors in the prospective sire’s pedigree? In the prospective dam’s pedigree? If you have not physically seen them, how do their experienced owners honestly describe their strengths and weaknesses? Do the prospective sire and dam and their ancestors come from a phenotypically consistent (be it correct or incorrect) group of dogs? Were the prospective sire and/or dam the product of line-breeding or in-breeding? What attributes did the com- mon ancestor(s) consistently produce? Were there faults in type, structure, movement, or temperament that the common ancestor(s) consistently produced? WHAT DOES ‘LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER’ MEAN? In my early years, I often had fun with those handwritten pedigree half-sheets, one for the prospective sire and one for the prospective dam, held together by a spiral or comb binder. I watched my mentors flip through and combine two half-sheets for a prospective mating, or flip through until another prospec- tive mating was side by side. By and large, those mentors had seen and/or bred the three generations of dogs in each half- sheet, and with their experience, projected what the phenotypic expression of a potential mating might be. This was great while I was involved with using my mentors’ dogs to plan my breed- ings. However, when I wanted to go outside of my mentors’ dogs, it proved to be a different story. What did I, in my relative newness to the breed, know about the dogs in the pedigrees of prospective mates? Did I even ask the right questions (see pre- vious paragraphs) to be able to try to project what a potential mating might produce? ELEMENTS OF A POTENTIALLY SUCCESSFUL BREEDING What do you want to accomplish, phenotypically and geno- typically? What is your plan? Where do you want to be in five years? (Hint: It’s not the number of champions finished, Groups or Bests in Show won.) What is your ideal specimen of your breed, within the meaning and interpretation of the breed’s standard? There is an expectation here that the elements of breed type, structure, and movement are on a path of continual improvement AND that the good health aspects of the breed are preserved or improved. Are you brutally honest in recognizing and acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of the prospective dam and sire? This is not a time for excuses. Whatever offspring are produced may well carry your breeding decision into the future.
“Are you brutally honest in recognizing and acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of the prospective dam and sire? This is not a time for excuses. Whatever offspring are produced may well carry your breeding decision into the future.”
98 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER 2022
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