This article is reprinted with permission from the Group North America Newsletter. It first appeared in the DD-Blätter some 25 years ago and was translated by then GNA Chairperson Dagmar Howell. It has been republished periodically by former GNA Breed Warden Larry Reeves as a guide still applicable to present day breeders. Unfortunately the name of the original author is unknown to us.
The earnest breeder studies dogs and their ancestors. He notices by their reproductive record that some bloodlines exert more influence on a breed than do others. In some lines, certain characteristics recur so consistently as to be termed dominant. In very strong lines, the tendencies to stamp their progeny with certain inherited characteristics is not only limited to the sire or dam, but may be carried through for several generations on either the maternal or paternal side. Inheritance is concerned not only with the body of the animal but also with its temperament, character, and general mental make-up. The distinctive formation of any part of the body or some curious behavior is often transmitted through many generations.
A characteristic transmitted from parent to offspring for generations can be said to have a hereditary basis. The mechanism of such transmission is by genes. A dominant gene is one which is able to display its appropriate characteristics in an animal which has inherited it from one parent only, while a recessive gene needs to be inherited from both parents for its effect to be obvious. If inherited from one parent only, its effect is masked by its opposing dominant.
The foundation for good dogs is a well-balanced, well-bred female. In selecting a mate for her, it is advisable to give attention to the dog’s producing record as well as to his performance record to the hereditary factors, and to the visible characteristics. The reproductive records of the dogs’ ancestors will reveal what we need to know.
Selection is not a breeding system in itself but is an integral part of any system used. In selecting a bitch or dog for mating, several factors must be observed. The wise breeder will look beyond the immediate demands of the show ring “picking out the best looking” — the Champions. He must judge the dogs he selects not only on their individual merits, but also by its pedigree and by any progeny it may have produced. Individual merits do not necessarily guarantee the breeding worth (As have been seen by the results of the test litters “vom Drahthaar”).
The pedigree is of value only if the qualities (good and bad) of the individual dogs appearing in it are known and the way in which such qualities have behaved from generation to generation. The progeny test, if available, is perhaps more definite, in that it indicates what an animal has actually accomplished, though there is no absolute certainty that the same pattern will be followed in subsequent matings. This largely depends on the suitable mate. The best start in breeding is the selection and mating of outstanding animals possessed of no serious faults and, above all, no serious faults in common.
Heredity is the tendency by the laws of nature such that physical and mental characteristics will be transmitted though sexual mating from one or both parents to the offspring. Few or many characteristics may be transmitted. The term tendency is used because there is no certainty. The basic theory of heredity is that physical like produces physical like. This is true but the likeness is in the component or trait producing parts of the genes, in the sperm of the male or the ovum of the female. This cell may carry a gene that is dominant or recessive — one might say superior or inferior — and this gene may be that of the parent or a grandparent instead of the individual. In this respect, like does produce like. On the whole, a parent reproduces itself to a great extent in the offspring but a parent is only one of two; both parents must be considered together. If they in turn are greatly similar to each other, the probability is greater that the offspring will be like unto themselves. One parent may be more dominant than the other may and the offspring will follow mostly this parent in similarity. Another factor that adds uncertainty is that a parent transmits not so much its own characteristics as the general characteristics of its entire family for generations back. Consequently, a breeder should select for mating those specimens which in themselves have the desired qualities and whose families also in turn for generations back have desirable qualities, and what is still more important, that these good qualities be somewhat similar on both sides. This, in fact, is line breeding. In selection, the progeny that has already been produced is of great importance. Heredity is simple but uncertain. Were it otherwise, one could mate two champion dogs together and most of the offspring would be champions. Breeding is far from being as easy as this.
Heredity and Environment
Two great forces-heredity and environment-work together to determine the development of the dog. Unless the hereditary factors for any characteristic are present, that characteristic cannot occur; similarly, unless the environment is suitable the hereditary potentialities may never be fulfilled. It is by no means always easy to differentiate between the effects of these two great influences in any one individual. One may perhaps say that heredity decides the fundamental structure; in its fullest meaning, of the individual, but that environment may so check or alter development that the pattern laid down by heredity is ruined. If, on the other hand, the fundamental hereditary pattern is faulty, the best environment in the world will not correct it. The perfect specimen would be one whose faultless hereditary pattern had combined with faultless environment in the realization of all its possibilities.
Bloodlines
The word bloodline has no precise genetic meaning, but as normally used, denotes relationship through descent. It does not imply, however, the inevitable inheritance of identical qualities by reason of this relationship.
Methods or Systems of Breeding
Inbreeding:
Inbreeding is the mating of related dogs, whether the relationship is close (brother-sister, father-daughter, mother-son), also called incest, or intermediate (granddaughter-grandfather, niece-uncle, etc.) or distant, several generations apart. It applies to any mating within a family or strain. Inbreeding should be practiced ONLY between outstanding animals, possessing no serious faults in common. Inbreeding cannot introduce new characteristics, whether bad or good. It can only emphasize those that exist in the strain and bring out latent ones. Culling is the essential accompaniment of any inbreeding program, and must be done until the heredity has become stabilized
Line Breeding:
The objective of line breeding is to eliminate faults. Line Breeding involves some degree of inbreeding; there is no clear line of demarcation between the two systems. This method aims to maintain a close relationship to some individual of outstanding merit by mating its descendants back to it or to its nearest living relative. The aim is to keep the relationship as close as possible to one ancestor. The value of line breeding is that it produces a family of dogs bearing a close resemblance to each other in type and general characteristics, and having the power to transmit their qualities to their offspring’s to a much greater extent than is otherwise possible. Line breeding and inbreeding are the only ways of producing a strain or family. Relationship is the essence of a strain. It is a very successful method, however, it takes years to accomplish anything with a line breeding program; it means the raising of dogs of successive matings and the recombining of their related blood, and ruthless culling.
Out breeding:
Out breeding is the more speculative method, in that it is impossible to predict results, it is the more practical for the small breeder. And there is to be said in its favor, both for the breeder and for the breed: if well-balanced individuals are used, and matings planned carefully, quality may be more likely to result than when indiscriminate close breeding is resorted to. Close breeding (inbreeding) by the inexperienced and without ruthless culling has had its deteriorating effect on many a breed. Close inbreeding will result in preservation of vigor, breed character, and uniformity only if the best specimens are used. The mating of entirely unrelated dogs — out breeding, though it would not exclude the mating of dogs with a common ancestor several generations back — can bring vigor into a strain, the so-called hybrid-vigor. This is an undoubted fact, but one which is marked only in the generation for which the outcross is responsible. Out crossing — contrary to inbreeding — can introduce new hereditary factors, both good and bad. It is a method to use with care, with a definite purpose in view. The object is to introduce virtues rather than eliminate faults.
The Aim of the Breeder
The aim of the breeder is to exercise such control as will improve the inheritance of his stock; to bring together as sires and dams animals possessing desirable qualities in as great a degree as possible, and as likely as possible to pass on those qualities to their progeny. Having done this, he has to rest content with whatever Fate, in the shape of hereditary forces, sees fit to hand out to him. The selection of breeding stock is therefore of the first importance to the serious breeder, whose aim is not the production of the largest number of salable puppies regardless of quality, but the improvement of his own stock, and of the breed generally. If one or both parents can boast several outstanding dogs in the pedigree, this, a puppy manufacturer will consider, is a strong selling point and nothing further need be considered. The suitability of parents, both as individuals and also as the transmitter of inherited tendencies, does not enter into his calculations.
The true breeder has other ends in view. He will always have the ideal dog before him as a mental picture. With every succeeding generation the breeder will attempt to get nearer to the ideal — and this objective can be obtained.
What to Look For in Breeding Stock
First, and perhaps most important, is TYPE and performance, which may be defined as the sum of the characteristics in their ideal form, which distinguish one breed from another. A dog is typical when it fulfills the essential requirements of the breed, when it approaches the ideal as set out in the Breed Standard.
The first requirement of foundation stock is to be TYPICAL OF THE BREED. Individual type and performance, however, is not enough; for successful breeding the foundation stock must come from a typical family or strain, one which has produced consistently typical stock for generations. The value of any dog for breeding purposes cannot be assessed on its individual worth alone; family tendencies are quite as important if not more so. Many dogs that are doing well are measured by individual excellence only. Used for breeding, such a dog may often be a complete failure, since its heredity may be fluid and its characteristics due to mere chance. The breeder, working with such a dog, is dealing with a set of completely unknown quantities, and no sort of prediction can be made as to what the result will be, when this dog is mated to another, even if this other’s hereditary tendencies are to some extent known. A litter from such a mating may contain puppies of every type and of none, having very little in common with either parent or with each other, physically, mentally, and natural ability-wise. A breeder who mates a typical bitch of a recognized strain to a dog of the same strain (as like her in as many good points as possible and excelling in areas where she may be weak) will at least know what to expect in puppies born of such a mating.
All breeding is working in the dark to a large extent. The ways in which hereditary tendencies may combine are innumerable, and are almost incalculable. But a thorough knowledge of the good points as well as the bad points of a family, and the strengthening and combining of those good points by using a sire and dam suitable for each other, is the best way to make use of such help as the laws of heredity give us.
Equally important in foundation stock is CORRECT ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE. The formation of each bone and joint of the animal body is not a mere haphazard assembling of parts; it is the result of evolution intended to ensure harmonious and efficient action. Faults in construction results in movement that is neither harmonious or useful, it fails to please the eye and entails greatly increased effort and therefore impairs performance, although the natural ability is there. The relation between structure and movement is an essential one. Good action necessary for good performance is the result and not the cause of good structure. Heredity displays its potency as much in structure as in every other character. To breed from dogs of faulty conformation, mental deficiencies, and limited natural ability is to make it certain that a considerable proportion of the resulting litters is likely either to be defective in structure or to inherit the factors concerned, and to pass them on.
The third requirement in foundation stock is the ABSENCE OF ANY REALLY SERIOUS FAULT, whether of constitution or temperament, as well as those mentioned before. The weakling, however good his appearance is not suitable for breeding; the shy, nervous dog is most undesirable for breeding, either as sire or dam. Faults of temperament are passed on in exactly the same way as physical defects, and are every bit as serious a drawback to the breed.
It must be remembered that any parent passes on to any one of its progeny only a sample half of its own inheritance. This sample may be good or bad. There is nothing unusual about two litter brothers to have a totally dissimilar inheritance in respect of many hereditary factors, in which case to describe them as “of the same bloodline” has very little meaning. Actual inheritance is equal from both parents, though either may possess a greater power than the other of passing on its qualities to its offspring. This power is called Prepotency.
Prepotency is an attribute of an individual animal that has a real existence. It is the ability of an animal to so impress characteristics upon its progeny that they resemble that parent and each other beyond the usual. This is mainly due to possession by the pre-potent animal of such characteristics in double measure, as the result of having inherited them from both its own parents. The double measure cannot often be ascertained by any external sign. Knowledge of the ancestry of the dog in question will prove whether or not such a point was possessed by both parents. Therefore the pre-potent animal, dog or bitch, cannot help but pass on the factor for any such characteristic to all its progeny, since it does not itself carry the opposing factor. Prepotency exists mainly in carefully line-bred or inbred strains, and it is this very fact which gives members of these strains their great breeding value.
It is a common fallacy to consider only the sire and to assume that any bitch, whatever her ancestry or her individual characteristics may be, is suitable for breeding, provided a winning sire is selected. It is true that many bitches, themselves of but average worth, may produce consistently good stock when mated to a suitable sire, but it will usually be found that these bitches, though not themselves outstanding, come from a family of proven excellence. The tendency to choose a fashionable sire on wins alone is to be deplored, for ancestry and individual qualities are often completely ignored. The most elementary study of heredity will prove the folly of this, and breeders with some knowledge of genetics will be on firmer ground when they come to this important realization. A sire should be chosen both for his family and for his individual qualities, as well as his suitability for the bitch. A bitch with a definite fault should be mated to a dog as perfect in this particular point as possible, and never to a dog possessing the opposite fault (i.e., overbite to an underbite). Mating between dogs whose ancestors are entirely unrelated are likely to produce puppies of widely differing types.
The general aim in mating is to correct any fault and to strengthen any desirable trait. The real aim of breeding is to raise the general level of stock and not merely to produce an exceptional dog from time to time, especially as this isolated animal, however excellent is not likely to have great breeding worth.
Age:
The most fruitful age for breeding stock is that at which it has reached full maturity but has not yet begun to decline in vigor. For strong vigorous puppies, it is wise that breeding stock should be in the prime of life, neither immature nor aged. On the average, the period during which a bitch is likely to breed easily and successfully is from the age of about eighteen months to six or seven years. The dog should not be used for regular stud services before the age of about two years.
A bitch should never be mated at her first heat, since this usually occurs before she is one year old. During the first twelve months of her life the bitch has to grow and mature, and make up her own frame. She is in fact a puppy, and the strain of carrying and feeding a litter can only be undertaken at the expense of her own development. Not only is such an early pregnancy likely to have a stunting effect on the bitch herself, but the puppies are likely to suffer in constitution from the immaturity of the dam. However, it is also unwise to put off the first litter too long. There is always a risk in mating a bitch for the first time at four or five years of age. Mating itself may be more difficult and less likely to be successful. Whelping complications may ensue and the bitch may suffer infection of the uterus, which can easily develop into cancer. The third heat is a good time for the first mating of the bitch.
The VDD Breeding Regulations limit the minimum age of the bitch to the second heat period, in practice, the age of 2 years is recommended. The maximum age is limited to eight years. There is no minimum age limit for [stud] dogs, yet, the recommended age is two years and the maximum is limited to 9 years of age.
The VDD Breeding Regulations limit the mating of bitches to every other heat period. This is superseded if at least 10 months separate the two service dates. The breeder, who uses his bitches for hunting breeds even less than that. The limit of stud services is also provided for in the VDD Breeding Regulations. Six stud services per year, with special permission from the VDD Director of Breeding (Germany) a seventh service can be authorized for the improvement of the breed. The limitation of stud services reduces the over population of certain bloodlines and provides for a better distribution of various lines. It also furthers idealism and prevents breeding solely for monetary benefits.
Feeding:
A well balanced diet will contain most of the essentials a dog needs to be healthy and to produce healthy progeny.
Exercise:
If one were asked what was the greatest defect of many big kennels today, the answer would be lack of exercise. Many breeders keep far more dogs than they can exercise properly, especially in small kennels, with perhaps a few minutes freedom in the yard or exercise daily. How can this state of affairs be anything but detrimental to an active, freedom-loving animal like the dog? The result is poor muscular development.
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