Oak Ridge
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Indiana
Posts: 6168 |
quote: Originally posted by Skyward
Stop the presses. I tend to agree with this statement. Genetics don't change. They are what they are when they are born. Training them, hunting them, campaigning them does not change what they were born with. It simply provides us a look at what they are. Larry brings up a good point in questioning what their offspring will produce. They are what will carry the flag forward. When I used to be an active breeder, it was not uncommon to design a breeding with the next 2 generations planned based on it. Adding an unknown gyp really can turn the teeter totter upside down. The lone exception, in my opinion, would be if say someone like Joe N. would utilize one like has been described. He is well versed in genetics and what constitutes his gene pool. He has also minimized the amount of crosses in his pedigrees in the last 3-4 generations. I would think that his risk-benefit ratio would be much more minimal than others. It would be someone like this that I could comfortably take a gamble with raising a pup from a breeding like this. He has already insured that his variances will be minimal. I guess this is one of those things that seperates breeders from one another. Justin I agree that power is in the blood, but ...I gotta go cliche on ya.....the dog makes the papers, not the other way around. How cheesy was that?! lol
Not cheesy at all...
Matter of fact....I've tested the theory a little. Had a female here that was out of a VERY good cross, but as so many of my young dogs do...she got left behind in the training department. She simply "never got a chance". Knowing what I do about her mother, father, brother, sisters, aunts, uncles...etc.....I made the conscious decision to breed her. Now I'm not saying she had "flunked out" of a training program...she never got finished.
I bred her, and she raised a few pups out of the litter. I then placed the pups in the hands of folks that I thought would give them a good chance....and those that have been hunted are turning out EXACTLY like I expected them. Now...I'm not saying that I would use them as breeding stock....cause I'm not sure that I would.
Having an intimate knowledge of the ancestors in the first three generations of the pedigree, and by this I mean understanding TRAITS....not history, not reading titles and making assumptions about a dogs ability, certainly helps make decisions.
I'll stick with breeding "the best of a family to the best of a family" of coon treeing dogs.... I will stick to my guns that we are breeding for traits, and ability is certainly linked to those traits....but ability is NOT inherited, it is developed out of traits. So if you align the traits, then ability will follow. By controlling the outside influences of outcrossing, I am just now starting to be able to say that the traits that I've been breeding for are consistently and reliably passed from generation to generation. The MOMENT I outcross, I loose that consistency.
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Joe Newlin
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Last edited by Oak Ridge on 03-20-2009 at 04:07 PM
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