Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook.pdf - Mr. Walnuts

plan to choose your stock. Visit as many kennels as you can, talk to the owners
and see the tried-and-true producers, the winners, and the retired dogs.
Keep in mind that a pedigree ensures only that the dogs are registered with
the AKC or a similar organization and are the breed they seem to be. It does
not testify to the quality of the dogs in question. Pedigrees are important
because they are the means to study bloodlines and learn the relationships
among dogs of a particular breed. They are of greatest value when the dogs are
known to you or have actually been seen. The contribution of a superior dog
who appears several times in a pedigree can be determined mathematically.
Now that pedigrees, such as those from AKC, include some health certifications,
the pedigree will be more helpful for health studies.
Some registries are now requiring a DNA profile before a dog is bred, so
that parentage can be verified. This is done with a cheek swab. This helps
ensure that pedigrees are correct.
You will notice that the successful breeder is the one who sees faults in his
or her own dogs as readily as those in a rival’s. Perhaps the little “something
extra” is the good sense to breed with the whole dog in mind—not to emphasize
one particular attribute at the expense of the overall dog.
FOLLOWING BLOODLINES
SEX AND REPRODUCTION • 431
A conscientious breeding program seeks to maintain and improve the quality
of the breed. Dogs who are poor examples of breed type should be avoided in
favor of those who are excellent examples. When outstanding dogs are bred
repeatedly to dogs of similar type, the type becomes fixed and the line breeds true.
In essence, this is the strategy behind most planned breeding programs.
The relationship between the various breeding individuals is kept relatively
close in order to concentrate the desired genes in the offspring. This method
is called inbreeding.
Inbreeding involves mating parent to offspring and full brother to full sister.
A variation on inbreeding, called linebreeding, breeds individuals who are
closely related through a common ancestor. Skillful linebreeding is the best
method for perpetuating desired characteristics.
Inbreeding and linebreeding expose both good and bad qualities in the animals
being bred. If the line carries undesirable traits, this becomes evident
after a few generations. While this may seem a disaster, in the long run the
exposure of such traits is in the best interests of the breed. By choosing not to
breed affected animals and their relatives, the undesirable trait can be eliminated
from the bloodline.
A common misconception is that inbreeding causes high-strung, nervous,
or aggressive dogs. However, it is not the breeding process but the genetic
potential in the bloodline that determines the animal’s temperament. A kennel
that uses unstable dogs in its breeding program is likely to have problems.
One that uses fundamentally sound dogs produces sound dogs.