What's A Pedigree Worth Anyhow?

What's the value of a pedigree... Oh, we all know that it shows the family tree, but is that important outside of just knowing what the dogs are, if there are any titles for bragging rights, etc.

To me, a pedigree tells a story and I want to read and understand it. After all, that curiosity helped start a pretty good sized database...

Certainly you have to have some understanding of the dogs involved in the pedigree, especially the first couple of generations. You need to also understand your own dog for the prospective mating.

If you have a nice family pet, with a perfectly bland set of ancestors, you may or may not benefit from breeding to the National Champion show dog or the National Field Champion outside of bragging rights...

How about possible genetic faults.... not all of them can be tested for... bad bites, Canine Lupus, etc... there are plenty to choose from... and some anomalies are simply carried by one or the other of the pair... or both of them. Unseen but a potential problem.

Breeding can be a crap shoot, but study can help.

How much is too much on the COI%... outcrossing is safer but will it give you the qualities you need for the show ring, or the field if competing? Maybe and maybe not.

What about color? I once knew a nice pair or unrelated dark roan dogs that produced 2 lemon pups each time they were mated...lol. They were from my dogs... and I did not know that there is a simple little gene that causes the problem. OOPS! Second time it happened I tested every dog in the kennel!

What about timidity? We produced a litter that had lots of talent. One owner even competed against retrievers in retrieving tests and held his head high as he won his tests with his GSP from this litter. The 2 girls, however, were terribly soft to handle... neither of the parents were soft and one was from strong hunting stock while the other was a FC... but those girl pups.... long story short 1 is a FC now and the other is almost there. Both are all age competitors. You cannot test for it and their pups have no issues with being soft. But the gene is there. How many generations will it skip before it matches up again?

No, its not all in the pedigree... but in knowing the dogs. It may show up in the Breeding Info link on the database. In fact, that is a pretty good place to look. It shows the parents, the siblings, the half siblings, the breedings and the pups from each breeding. All, of course, depending on how many of them show up on the database. And I am working daily to add more and more...

The COI% gives some of the story, the pedigree gives some of it, the Breeding Info gives more. Lots of it is in knowing the dogs but there are hidden answers... like my 2 unrelated dark liver dogs that suprised me twice and then were not mated again. He, or she, did not ever have lemon with any other cross I did with them.

Is the database worth your support? Only you know the answer to that question, but it carries a lot of potential for those who care to dig a little.