deschmidt27
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jun 2008
Location: Burlington, CT
Posts: 1758 |
A Breeding Experiment Explained
OK… here’s my rationale for a breeding decision, I recently made. It’s a done deal, in fact she’s due in a few weeks. I’m just wondering if anyone else follows my train of thought, or if I’m all wet.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not fully versed in the science of genetics, DNA, out-cross versus line breeding etc. And my buddy Joe has already provided me his thoughts from that perspective, which I truly respect. But… I do understand that a dog’s traits are founded in their genetic make-up, and yes it does come from the top and bottom of the pedigree. I also understand the difference between dominant and recessive traits, and realize that you can’t simply mix white with brown and get light tan! But I also realize that with all that we know about genetics and bloodlines, nobody has developed the perfect strain of coondog. That’s not to say there’s not consistency in one’s breeding program, just that there’s still a good deal of inconsistency, and less than desirable results.
So… I took what little I knew and applied it to a “5000 foot view” of what I had/have in the kennel. For those that know me, you know that I was heavy into this sport in my younger years; I took a ten year break and then got back into it heavily. What I and many others around me, hunted 20 years ago, were heavy Finley River and House’s Clint and Lipper bred hounds. I recall the Finley River dogs were all heart and consistently solid coondogs, but the Clint and Lipper bred dogs had more of a “spark”. They seemed to be higher energy, louder and more exciting tree dogs that drove a good track. If you wanted to win hunts, you packed a Lipper hound, if you wanted to tree a coon with snow on the ground; you took a Finley River dog to the woods. And when I was getting out of hunting, the Wild Clover/Casey dogs were just coming on the scene.
For the past few years, I’ve been hunting and hunting with, heavy line-bred Clover dogs. What I’ve witnessed were solid coon dogs that could also win a hunt. Mine in particular will tree plenty in the summer, but do his share in the snow, as well. He can drive a hot track, move a cold one, take pressure, get deep and still be a pleasure to hunt. He’s smart, but he’s also mental, emotional, and generally high maintenance. I’ve seen him shred a cast, in a pouring down rain storm, but I’ve also seen him make back to back slicks because (this is my opinion) he’s upset that I made my first drop with another dog! He’s smoked other dogs to a tree and then turned around and left it, because another dog looked at him cross-eyed. He has intelligence and talent to spare, but he seems to over-think too much and acts jealous, to the point that it’s frustrating to compete him.
So here’s my train of thought… Stylish Clover was the product of Wild Clover and a Lipper female. And the dog I have in my kennel resembles a blend of traits between the Lipper and Finley River type dogs I used to know. And if you have ever heard him, he sounds like a Lipper dog. And when I’m proud of him, he’s using several of what I would call Lipper traits, without all the mental BS. So in my logic, during my 10 year hiatus, the industry managed to blend those Monroe and House traits (or what I would call their traits). But somewhere along the line, these personality flaws were folded in. So… I looked for a female with Lipper in her 3-generation pedigree (a Cade bred female) and crossed her back to my male. The goal being, accentuating those Lipper traits and perhaps diluting or masking some of the personality flaws. The male is Clover, on top of Clover on top of Clover, and the female is Lipper, Yadkin River and Red Eagle. So I know I got more than Lipper with the female, but nothing that really raised any flags.
Does any of this make sense or is this an experiment that will go bad???
David Schmidt
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09-26-2012 09:01 PM
