Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After attending the Shelby County Commissioners' forum in Columbiana, Alabama yesterday concerning a hearing defining "dog kennels", which was to be voted on so that legal actions could be taken against a resident who is supposedly breeding "Pit Bull dogs", I spoke to one of the county commissioners about the issue later. I made the statement to him that if indeed the owners of the said property was breeding Pit Bull dogs, I am offended by the idea of breeding dogs to fight in the pit. He was thrown by my statement and quickly commented that he owns a couple of Dachshunds as pets and dogs are not bred for their original use anymore. He asked how I use my dogs for their original use. My response was quick, as it would take a day to really get into breeding practices and activities of the breed.

I explained that a breeder breeds to preserve the standard and function of the breed. In order to prove this my dogs participate in all types of performances including show ring, field trials, obedience and tracking (search and rescue)and agility. He really could not respond to this statement. I plan to later sit down and write him a letter explaining the function of a breeder as in regards to the breed they are maintaining according to the AKC Standard which is provided by the breeds' parent clubs. So why breed Pit Bull Dogs? I mentioned to him that I would not be offended if they were breeding American Staffs.

A few breeders from the Shelby County, Alabama area attended the meeting and spoke to the commissioners. The problem we had with the zoning change, was how this would affect hobby breeders in the future if you claim that housing 4 or more dogs on your property would make us "commerical" and apply this definition to us and restrict us from future breeding practices or go underground to maintain a healthy choice of breedable dogs and bitches.

In the following post I wish to share with this board some of the information provided during an AKC Canine Health Foundation Breeders' Symposium I attended last month. This was a credited course which was an all day event. I set my alarm for 2:00 a.m. and arrived at 8:30 a.m. in Athens, GA to attend.

I hope in my next message to cover questions and statements made earlier on this board about our breed and the choices we have made in the U.S. in regards to our selections for breeding purposes.

I believe the information provided by the speakers during the symposium is excellent.

Linda T.

Some how all the information I just typed was lost. Maybe it took too long to type as I had a couple of interuptions from the phone ringing and my husband stopping me and asking me a question.

I no longer have time to re-write, as now too much time has passed and I must prepare for work.

I will share the information at a later time.

Thanks,

Linda T.

Notes from the AKC Canine Health Foundation Breeders' Symposium through the generosity of the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Georgia.

"Pedigree Analysis and How Breeding Decisions Affect Genes"
presented by Jerold S. Bell, DVM

"When evaluating your breeding program, remember that most traits you're seeking cannot be changed, fixed or created in a single generation. The more information you can obtain on how certain traits have been transmitted by your animal's ancestors, the better you can prioritize your breeding goals. Tens of thousands of genes interact to produce a single individual. All individuals inherit paris of chromosomes; one from the mother, and one from the father. On the chromosomes are genes; so all genes come in pairs. If both genes in a gene pair are the same (for instance, "aa" or "AA" the gene pair is called homozygous. If the two genes in a gene pair that make a cat a cat and not a dog are always homozygous. Similarly, the gene pairs that make a certain breed always breed true are also homozygous. Therefore, a large proportion of homozygous non-variable pairs - those that give a breed its specific standard -exist within each breed. It is the vairable gene pairs, like those that control color, size and angulation that produce variations within a breed."

"There are ways to measure the genetic diversity of a population. One method is to measure the average inbreeding coefficient (or Wright's coefficient) for a breed. The inbreeding coefficient is a measurement of the genetic relatedness of the sire and dam. If an ancestor appears on both the sire and dam's side of the pedigree, it increases the inbreeding coefficient. The inbreeding coefficient gives a measurement of the total percentage of variable gene pairs that are expected to be homozygous due to inheritance from ancestors common to the sire and dam. It also gives the chance that any single gene pair can be homozygous."

NOTE: Through the years I've heard breeders state that inbreeding is the breeding of sire to daughter, brother to sister, dam to son, etc. That is called "Line breeding".

continue to next message.

"The types of matings that you choose for your breeding animals will manipulate their genes in the offspring, affecting their expression. Linebreeding is breeding individuals more closely related (a higher inbreeding coefficient) than the average of the breed. Outbreeding involves breeding individuals less related than the average of the breed. Linebreeding tends to increase homozygosity. Outbreeding tends to increase heterozygosity. Linebreeding and inbreeding can expose deleterious recessive genes through pairing-up, while outbreeding can hide these recessives, while propagating them in the carrier state."

"Most outbreeding tends to produce more variation within a litter. An exception would be if the parents are so dissimilar that they create a uniformity of heterozygosity. This is what usually occurs in a mismating between two breeds, or a hybrid, like a Cockapoo. The resultant litter tends to be uniform, but demostrates "half-way points" between the dissimilar traits of the parents. Such litters may be phenotypically uniform, but will rarely breed true due to the mix of dissimilar genes."

Personal note: I feel that continually outbreeding your dogs creates too much of a disversity. I beleive the reason we are seeing more larger dogs in the ring is due to the practice of outcross breeding programs. Also over angulations in the rear is another noticable problem.

continue

"One reason to outbreed would be to bring in new traits that your breeding stock does not possess. While the parents may be genetically dissimilar, you should choose a mate that corrects your breeding animal's faults but complements its good traits. It is not unusual to produce an excellent quality individual from an outbred litter. The abundance of genetic varability can place all the right pieces in one individual. Many top-winning show animals are outbred. Consequently, however, they may have low inbreeding coefficents and may lack the ability to uniformly pass on their good traits to their offspring. After an outbreeding, breeders may want to breed back to individuals related to their original stock, to attempt to solidify newly acquired traits."

"Linebreeding attempts to concentrate the genes of specific ancestors through their appearance multiple times in a pedigree. It is better for linebred ancestors to appear on both the sire's and the dam's sides of the pedigree. That way their genes have a better chance of pairing back up in the resultant offspring. Genes from common ancestors have a greater chance of expression when paired with each other than when paired with genes from other individuals, which may mask or alter their effects."

"Linebreeding on an individual may not reproduce an outbred ancestor. If an ancestor is outbred and generally heterozygous (Aa), increasing homozygosity will produce more AA and aa. The way to reproduce an outbred ancestor is to mate two individuals that mimic the appearance and pedigree of the ancestor's parents."

continue

"Inbreeding significantly increases homozygosity, and increases the expression of both desirable and deleterious recessive genes through pairing up. If a recessive gene (a) is rare in the population, it will almost always be masked by a dominant gene (A). Through inbreeding, a rare recessive gene (a) can be passed from a hterozygous (Aa) common ancestor through both the sire and dam, creating a homozygous recessive (aa) offspring."

"The total inbreeding coefficent is the sum of the inbreeding from the close relatives (first cousin mating), and the background inbreeding from common ancestors deep in the pedigree. Such founding ancestors established the pedigree base for the breed."

"Knowledge of the degree of inbreeding in a pedigree does not necessarily help you unless you know whose genes are being concentrated. The relationship coefficient, which can also be approximated by what is called the percent blood coefficient, represents the probable genetic likeness between the individual whose pedigree is being studied, and a particular ancestor. It is a measurement of the average percentage of genes the individual and the ancestor should have in common."

"We know that a parent passes on an average of 50% of its genes, while a grandparent passes on 25%, a great-grandparent 12.5%, and so on. For every time the ancestor appears in the pedigree, its percentage of passed-on genes can be added up and its "percentage of blood" estimated. In many breeds, an influential individual may not appear until later generations, but then will appear so many times that it necessarily contributes a large proportion of genes to the pedigree."

I encourage anyone who is considering breeding dogs or buying a puppy, please attend one of the AKC Health Foundation's breeders' forums. I've tried to touch on the basic reason for having a breeding program and understanding why studing your pedigrees and knowing the dogs in the back of these pedigrees is so important to the breed in the future.

Do we want to change the appearance of the standard of the breed? What are our goals as consciencious breeders? Is the dog winning all of those Best In Show awards the dog we are hoping to create for the future of the breed? I've stated in pass messages that he is an impressive looking dog. Does that mean I want to breed to him?

As mentioned in pass messages, I prefer a medium sized Pharaoh Hound. This is the standard I'd hope to maintain in producing future pups from my girls. I've tried to eliminate problems that popped up in pass litters and concentrated on selecting those girls I felt could add quaility to the breed through structure, intelligence and health. Right now I am pleased with most of my dogs. I wish I had many years left to my life to continue a breeding program, but reality sets in and I know that our younger generation of breeders will pick up and continue carrying on for the retiring breeders. I only hope they understand the concept of "Why Breed dogs".

Best,

Linda Tetreault
Wildwood Pharaoh Hounds
House of Senbi, since 1987
Breeder of purebred dogs since 1970
and Home of BIF and BIS, DC Senbi's Memories of Spring, SC, Fch. (India)

Wow, that was a lot of typing. Thanks for sharing that, Linda. I think there were a lot of really great lessons in there. I am curious as to how much of that was touched upon during the breeders seminar at the National. I heard that her presentation was also pretty informative. I have had the good fortune to have a personal friend that is a canine geneticist help to advise us over the years. I have always felt confident in our breeding program, having produced very similar (rubber stamped as Bonnie says) and healthy "get", that our path is a stepping stone toward a bigger goal. It is interesting that Jan and I frequently talk about how important the steps that our breeders before us took to result in what we are seeing now. And we joke that that anything that pops up that we don't like is "their" fault since nothing can be cemented or changed in one generation. But on a serious note...it is an excellent reminder that we are the caretakers as breeders and whichever path you choose to go down with your breeding program should be one ladden with education, about genetics and dogs in the lines.
-----
TiaRa Pharaohs
"Produce quality and present it yourself...that way you know what you've won, when you win"
"Quality isn't expensive, it's priceless."

This is exactly the same class taken at the AKC National and I LOVED IT!!!!
-----
Bekki and
Atreyu AKA BIF FC DesertPhoenix Emerald Warrior, FCH,CGC,SC,RA,NA HIC, PHCA Versatility Excellent 2008
Bridget AKA ILP Kaije Staind Glass Beauty "Resident Cheerleader"
Uber aka AKC CH, UKC MBBIS GRCH XO Uber Alles, SC
La-La aka UKC CH XO Ulala,SC 2010 PHCA Western Specialty Best of Winners

Bekki, Do you mean that the information is exactly the same? I think the seminars were given by two different people, right? The one at the National was the Bassett breeder???
-----
TiaRa Pharaohs
"Produce quality and present it yourself...that way you know what you've won, when you win"
"Quality isn't expensive, it's priceless."

It is exactly the same, they go to a school to become breeding seminar instructors and then they travel the country giving the ABC's of Breeding Seminar. Once you complete all the exercises in the book, you get a certificate of completion. And then you can go on for further education that if taken all consecutively pans I think two years.
-----
Bekki and
Atreyu AKA BIF FC DesertPhoenix Emerald Warrior, FCH,CGC,SC,RA,NA HIC, PHCA Versatility Excellent 2008
Bridget AKA ILP Kaije Staind Glass Beauty "Resident Cheerleader"
Uber aka AKC CH, UKC MBBIS GRCH XO Uber Alles, SC
La-La aka UKC CH XO Ulala,SC 2010 PHCA Western Specialty Best of Winners

The information was probably developed by the AKC Canine Health Foundation. The person presenting the information is a vet and a breeder and utalized his own pedigree to demonstrate how to analyze your dogs pedigrees and choose your breeding programs.

He, of course, included a lot of information not mentioned in the booklet.

Linda T.

I noticed there was a tape or something you could buy for $5.00 extra on the "ABC" of breeding dogs. I didn't get it myself since I've had numerous siminars on breeding, etc. The course at the national specialty was, I'm sure, very close to the info I shared today.

btw, Kim, I really enjoy typing. Over 100 words per minute. The computer is amazing in that way.

Linda T.