PART XI

OF PEAS AND PUPS

PART XI

INBREEDING/LINEBREEDING

OLD BLITZ laid on the big braided rug in front of the fireplace dreaming. It was strange how the popping of the hardwood fire fit so neatly into his dreams....each pop recalling the shot which dropped some particular bird of the hundreds he had handled through the years. Occasionally his leg would twitch as in his dream he'd "smile" as he delivered it to hand. He didn't hunt much anymore. When he did get out, they'd put him down for only a short while before they'd return him to his crate to rest. but he enjoyed his dreaming and he also took great pleasure in hearing the master tell the pups that if they lived to be a hundred, they'd never be half the hunter old Blitz was. The Master had bred Blitz far and wide and had even bought five pups in the past four years trying to get another Blitz but all without success.

COULD ANOTHER BLITZ BE PRODUCED? Never exactly, but Nature will help us, if we let her, to produce pups very similar in both appearance and ability - very much like Blitz. How much like Blitz depends, among other factors, on how much time we have; how keen our selections are and how wisely, we breed our choice. We can only produce another Blitz by inbreeding. Inbreeding on a line to Blitz, linebreeding up close....Why wasn't this tired? Was the master ignorant of natures ways? Was it prejudice? The natural repugnance we all have for incestuous breeding in the human animal? We are foolish, if we permit such unrelated taboos to slow the progress of our dogs. History records instances where human inbreeding was an accepted way of life. We have spoken of the Greeks but probably the most famous example was one of religious law. The Egyptian dynasty of the Ptolemies was maintained for centuries by parent to off-spring matings, mostly brother/sister. The Spartans no longer expose their infants to natures violence so that only the fittest survive. Times change. Among humans today every effort of medical science is directed toward saving lives. Saving all lives, the congenital cripples, the mentally defective, the deviate. No wonder inbreeding is contrary to modern religious and social law...it could not be otherwise. But is this how you raise dogs too? Genetic laws apply equally to man and beast. Moral codes which change with the ages, apply solely to man, enforcing them elsewhere is not only wasted motion but downright stupidity.

THE BREEDING PLAN most likely to produce another blitz would be that plan which would increase the relationship between him and his pups above the usual 50%. Mating him to just any bitch is only going to produce "50% Blitzs'" no matter how many bitches he's bred to...yet, this is the "plan" most generally followed and the results speak for themselves.

THE PLAN MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED in the shortest time is to first backcross (see Fig. 33) Mate Blitz to his dam. These pups are going to be "75% Blitzs'" right to start off. From this litter one selects the little bitch most like her sire. A mating, in time, between Blitz and this daughter will give us a litter containing 14/16th of the blood of old Blitz. You should be able to find in that litter a little male pup 87½% like old Blitz (see Fig. 43)....The law of averages say this will be a fact, and not only that, but, this little pup should be 43% more prepotent - 43.7% more Homozygous than a random mated pup. No matter how good the little random mated pup is, he will be 43.7% less likely to be able to pass on any greatness he may possess, than will Blitz, Jr. Think about that for a moment!....By linebreeding, we were not only able to approach a likeness of this outstanding specimen...his appearance and his ability, but the chances of being able to continue these great qualities in future generations have likewise been greatly increased. We can have our cake and eat it!

WHAT IS THE GENETIC MECHANISM OF inbreeding/linebreeding which produces these very worthwhile but seldom used effects? It is increased homozygosity. All of the good, as well as any harm, which results from this procedure, is due to this fact and this fact alone.

HOMOZYGOSITY is like gene pairs....either dominant or recessive, as shown in Panther above. Homozygous dominants, RR, give us prepotency, inbreedings greatest gift....Homozygous recessives, rr, show themselves and thus provide inbreedings second great gift, for no defect can remain hidden under the glaring light of inbreeding. Inbreeding is the most accurate gauge of the breeding value of any dog that we can make. Breed progress comes not alone by strengthening in our dogs their favorable characteristics but by eliminating their defects as well.

BY INCREASING HOMOZYGOSITY, inbreeding fixes traits, builds prepotency, forms families, reveals hidden defects and decreases variation. How does inbreeding increase homozygosity? Like gene pairs are increased when closely related animals are bred because they each have similar genes which cam from common ancestors to start with....They are more homozygous and if they reveal no defects, we know the defects have had some chance to show in their process of becoming more homozygous, they are less likely to be carrying recessive defects. If defects have shown up during the generations of linebreeding they have been disposed of.

WE SHALL TAKE A SINGLE PAIR OF GENES in the Heterozygous form (outbred or hybrid form) Rr, and inbreed them (by self-fertilization). You will recall in (Part I) that when hybrid round peas are mated Rr X Rr, they yield two Phenotypes , round and wrinkled, and three Genotypes, Rr, Rr, rr in a ratio of 1:2:1.

WE START WITH 32 Rr pairs, 100% Heterozygosity. 32 separate smooth, round peas which all look just exactly alike. We would substitute Ww for wirehair and smooth hair but since we cannot self-fertilize in dogs our illustration would require twice as much space because it would require double the generations to achieve the same results in full sib-matings as in self-fertilization. Further, we could say that these 32 genes collectively controlled a single characteristic such as "nose" in a dog...the mechanism would function inexactly the same manner so there is a practical value in knowing how the genes function in inbreeding. In figure 45, we start with 32 "problems"...we don't know what we have, they all look the same. In four short generations of inbreeding, we have solved almost half our problems...we have found 15 mongrels (recessive pairs show). All we now have is 17 problems. We could follow the same procedure further and it would not take long but we already have pretty favorable odds on the balance. If our selection were made blindfolded, the odds in picking two peas which were pure and prepotent, RR, would be about 8 to 1, and that's a hell of a lot better than we'd ever get at Las Vegas.

LINEBREEDING AND INBREEDING in dogs differ primarily in direction, not intensity as is often believed. This is because we never get over the 50% intensity mark in either inbreeding or linebreeding and it is at this point, that inbreeding leaves linebreeding and when the Intensity is the same, the Action is the same. Direction is the difference...linebreeding is directed toward and Individual inbreeding toward a Type, A Family, Strain or specific Group. Figure 46 demonstrates this difference. Litter A & B are inbred but litter A is inbred on a line to Mars, in litter B there are two lines of equal intensity, one from Mars, one from Artus....Both A & B have the same percentage of blood from Mars(50%) but litter A is much more likely to resemble Mars than litter B....Littler B pups would have no more tendency to resemble Mars than Artus since their contributions to the litter are equal...It is for this reason, that to get the most our of a linebreeding plan, our mates should be directly related through Only one Line....Inbreeding takes over when they are related through more than one line on each side of the pedigree even if the intensity is less.

WE SHOULD NOT BECOME DISCOURAGED when a single mating does not bring our hearts desire. There is little REAL PLAN to a SINGLE mating, linebreeding is no one step affair. We must put one foot in front of the other, step by step slowly. We are impatient. Nature works slowly. Linebreeding plans are many and varied and sometimes ingenious but none of them may be accomplished in a single step. When we say linebreeding, we always imply linebreeding and selection, we must have both, either alone have little value....The chances for success in linebreeding may be most accurately assessed by measuring the degree of relationship between the ideal and his (or her) pups. Some examples may clarify the question.

WE SHALL TAKE THREE BITCHES of equal bench and field merit. The first is Asta, who is linebred in the same strain as the notable sire, Axel, whose great nose, run and class we wish to bring to our pups. The second bitch, Baronessa, is outbred and presents a wide open pedigree. Third is Cara who is linebred in a different strain from Axel and as strongly linebred in that strain as Axel is in his....Asta should give us pups most like Axel, that is, from a purely linebred standpoint, this should be the best litter. It is possible, if the mating is really close, that the overall average of the litter might be down, but there should be one or two really great pups, most of the rest mediocre and maybe one which might have to be bucketed. This is because in pushing homozygosity, we are going to pair some recessives as well as the dominants. This is to be expected but should be no cause for great concern because the Dominants are so much more numerous than the occasional recessive....The one or two pups of this Axel X Asta litter should not only be really great but will be able to carry their greatness on. Such estimates of a specific litter are, of course, just pulled out of the air to indicate what might happen, the odds favor it but genetics is based upon the law of averages and many, many litters are required to make the averages balance out. An individual litter might be much better or worse but you are working with the probabilities on your side under such circumstances and this is the only way you are going to progress.

AXEL X BARONESSA should give us the next most favorable odds. The overall appearance of the litter might well be above the Axel X Asta litter but there should not be any pups so much like Axel as in the first litter. It would be highly unlikely that any pups would need to be put away, because Homozygosity would not have been increased greatly in this first step, if it had been increased at all...The Axel X Asta mating although our first step in this example was at least step two in an overall linebreeding plan. Axel had some prepotency because of having been linebred to start with, he is apt to be able to dominate his mating with Baronessa because as we said in talking about Prepotency in (Part V) it is a relative term. The pure bred dog is prepotent to the mongrel and an outbred dog is merely a "mongrel", in a strain or family, a hybrid, the difference being a matter of degree. The inbred dog is prepotent to the outbred dog...homozygosity is prepotent to Heterozygosity.

THE AXEL X CARA LITTER will probably give us the best overall litter but still be the least effective from the linebreeding standpoint. When we say good, better, best overall litter, we are referring to their appearance their Phenotype. The success of this litter out of Cara will have come from Heteroecious (Part V) not from Homozygosis. Axel cannot dominate this mating because Cara is as linebred as he and we will not get increased homozygosity because, since the two are not related, their Dominants did not come from the same Allelic series. Actually, this mating could be considered an outcross, if our intention is to continue linebreeding in the same strain, and take a little bitch from this litter back to her sire. One of the most difficult problems in this case is SELECTING which little bitch should go back to her sire or which little male should be returned to his dam. The outcross complicates selection, the pups are going to be intermediates between sire and dam...The selection in the Axel X Asta litter should be much easier to make. It is altogether possible that IF we make the right choice in the Axel X Cara littler, we could be ahead of either of the other two litters by step number two or three...Our outcross might have brought in a little something extra...Straight linebreeding reduces variation, which is fine up to a point, and providing we have started with good genetic material, but the outcross might have brought us some new and better gene combination. If it has, don't imagine that a further outbreeding will bring still further new and better combinations...the odds are much against it and you might well lose all. Take this genetic gift immediately back to your linebreeding program and nail it down quickly before it has a chance to jump up and run away.

SUMMARY

IN SUMMARY, from a linebreeding standpoint, the litters should be ranked ASTA 1^st, BARONESSA 2^nd and CARA 3^rd. The overall average merit of the individual litters (appearance) will probably come out like this...Asta's good, Baronessa's better and Cara's best.

WHEN AN UNRELATED sire and dam produce really outstanding pups, as, for example, in the Bess pups (FC Von Thalberg's Fritz II Z FC Mitzie Grabenbruch Beckum), it is impossible to immediately assess the genetic action involved. Both Fritz and Mitzie are well above average and the mating has been accomplished three or four times with always several outstanding pups in each litter. It is probably heteroecious (or possibly genetic inbreeding from an outbred pedigree) but only time will tell. We must see how these fine pups are bred and the results. If these pups produce anything like their own ability when mated to an unrelated strain we must assume that Genetic Inbreeding took place in spite of the pedigree. If, on the other paw, they produce only when linebred, heteroecious is the genetic action involved. If, thirdly, you get nothing by linebreeding the action was "nicking" and the only place you are going to get it is Fritz Z Mitzie. The safest bet, the one to tell us where the greatness came from and to maintain and perpetuate it, is to linebreed. The male back to their dam and the females to their sire. This plan would prove most successful whether the causes was Heteroecious or Inbreeding. If we get great pups from Fritz x daughter AND son X Mitzie, we could see the foundation of a great new strain which would greatly benefit not only the breed but the owner of the sire (Don Miner) and that of the dame (Jack Bess) as well.

Copyright 2001. Dr. James G. McCue, Jr. All rights reserved. Postscript: And his legacy lives on in the German Shorthaired Pointers of today. May they always be healthy and bred with forethought and planning.

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