Registered: May 2016
Location: Palatka, FL
Posts: 5106

For almost 20 years we have been talking breeding and genetics on here. It is about time to see if any of the proof is in the pudding! One thing I was definitely against in the past is someone thinking they could take a dog with a certain genetic make up and cross it with another dog and combine the genetics to increase or decrease a trait. Like you have a dog that won't tree then crossing it was a tree crazy hound and getting pups that tree like you want them to. Or a dog that can't track and mixing it with track power and getting track dogs. I have always felt the genetics you disliked in a hound would pop up in the offspring to haunt you. It is not like making soup and a little more salt or a little more pepper made it taste good. More like an either/or. Now 20 years later. I see quite a few mixtures of genetics like described above and some are working. One thing I still feel is that 40 years ago I depended greatly on genetics determining my success. Today as the genetics have moved more towards we want and is in most hounds. Environment/hunting is a bigger key to success. Most of these dogs today have the blueprint for success. Just have to figure out how to read the blueprints.

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"Boss Lights"

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Registered: Sep 2004
Location: Brookville, PA
Posts: 2461

there are so many theories and practices. Some will argue that some of the ideas are proven, while others argue they are not.

One of the TW best breeders, IMHO, doesn't believe in 2nd crosses. He's had enough experience to believe that making a cross a 2nd time doesn't work as well as the first. I've first hand been part of this and have to agree. But many, many people like the proven cross theory, and there is plenty of proof that it can work.

Environment/Hunting is the biggest predictor to success. Some guys always have a coondog, others never really have anything special. Much of the time it's how much boot leather they put in along with training methods. A person can make or break a dog.

I have one here now that was top notch at a year or 2 old. He went thru some bad hands and is a shadow of what he was. Vet check today to make sure no tick or other issues.

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Lone Pine North

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Registered: Nov 2011
Location: Freeport,TX
Posts: 2014

Mother Nature knows best when it comes to natural evolution…whatever it may be will swing up and down maintaining a an average naturally…looking at the coyotes, they all look alike and hunt alike…natural evolution has molded them that way for a reason…survival of the fittest enables those to breed and carry on those traits…

Man made evolution is quite different…lots of variations due to different reasonings…

One day someone wrote that the pups can only be as good as the parents…I thought about that for a while and based on my dogs in those days I knew what he said was wrong…

The pups can be as good as what is in the parents…I have seen over 5 and 6 generations where hunt speed and grit improved considerably just by breeding best to best within a family…

Since then I developed another theory and the science is proving every day that it could be right but I believe it is right…
Epigenetics…is basically environmental changes whether it is caused by our outdoor environment or internally causing genetic changes…turning on dormant genes and turning off other genes…
In my mind it is nothing new…it’s a part of evolution…the only difference is that scientists now understand how it works and they are causing changes on purpose to an environment to see the outcome…

Hunting the sire and dam for months before breeding and then hunting the dam while pregnant could possibly enhance the hunting instincts in the pups…my feelings are that it does…

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Training dogs is not so much about quantity, it's more about timing, and the right situations...After that it's up to the dog....A hunting dog is born...

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 1610

believed that young females produced better then older ones. You would have a hard time finding a female that was over 4 years old in his kennel.

And all the pedigrees I have going back to the 40s-50s it is hard to see many crosses that were made more then once. I can find a female bred to a male and the next time she came in she was bred to his brother. He was very strong into family breeding but never have I seen a half brother half sister cross.(I have also talked with Mr Fred Hale of the famous Hale Running Hounds and he never had any luck with half brother and half sister crosses and would not recommend it) Roy had a wheel made from a piece of paper that showed what percent of a family he could breed and then when he would out cross what percent of that family blood he would lose and how to get it back. Wish I would have made a copy of it when Red Blakesley passed and his wife left me go through all their old records and pictures. Did get a lot of their stuff, just not Roy's famous wheel.

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OLD TIMER

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Registered: Sep 2004
Location: Brookville, PA
Posts: 2461

quote:

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Originally posted by OLD TIMER
believed that young females produced better then older ones. You would have a hard time finding a female that was over 4 years old in his kennel.

And all the pedigrees I have going back to the 40s-50s it is hard to see many crosses that were made more then once. I can find a female bred to a male and the next time she came in she was bred to his brother. He was very strong into family breeding but never have I seen a half brother half sister cross.(I have also talked with Mr Fred Hale of the famous Hale Running Hounds and he never had any luck with half brother and half sister crosses and would not recommend it) Roy had a wheel made from a piece of paper that showed what percent of a family he could breed and then when he would out cross what percent of that family blood he would lose and how to get it back. Wish I would have made a copy of it when Red Blakesley passed and his wife left me go through all their old records and pictures. Did get a lot of their stuff, just not Roy's famous wheel.

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"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

Lone Pine North

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