PART XIV

OF PEAS AND PUPS

PART XIV

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

...This series started with the September 1963 issue of the "GSP NEWS". It may be my imagination, but I think since that time, Shorthair breeding among the informed, has improved. There has been more thought and planning preceding the matings than before that time. At least I hope that is the case.

We have discussed Basic Classical Genetics, Mendels determiners, the genes, and their fundamental physical and mechanical action under various mating plans. The complexities of the protein chemistry of heredity have been omitted. It is true however that the newer, more sophisticated knowledge in genetics, the fact that the genetic code is being cracked and the secret of life itself is about to be revealed, had not, in any significant way, changed the fundamental theory of the Austrian-monk's work in his monastery pea garden. The time when we can actually manipulate the chemistry of the heredity of our dogs and make them something they are not, will not come in our lifetime. - In the meanwhile we have available to us only those genetic tools contained in the various breeding plans. These tools have, starting from scratch less than 100 years ago, brought us the versatile Shorthair we know and love today. Their continued thoughtful use can even bring us a better Shorthair tomorrow.

...IN OUR LAST INSTALLMENT, I gave a combined Moesgaard pedigree (Fig. 51) which showed that many of the outstanding individuals and producers of the breed could be found in a single pedigree. I made it quite clear that I could not be accused of kennel blindness since I had no Moesgaard in my kennel and no immediate intentions of getting any. That brought me more mail, I expect, than any other comment in this ling series. Praise and criticism, applause and jeers, bouquets and "bitching"...almost as many, as my stand on height disqualification! It was interesting that people took that comment the way they chose to see it, rather than the way it was written.

...I have no Moesgaard, No Greifs (Hundsheimerkogles), no Hoehn-Tann, Dixon, Fieldacre, Albrecht or Bess, et al......This is true NOT because I necessarily have anything against them, there are fine dogs in each GROUP (they are certainly not all strains), but because I happen to believe that each of us in the breed should get the most out of his own strain before outcrossing. The reasons for this should become clear as I proceed.

SUMMARY

...A brief outline adapted from LUSH (Animal Breeding Plans, Iowa State, 1945)

will serve to summarize our discussion to date. LUSH is a worthwhile text for any serious breeder...you can go into it as deeply as you wish. It is directed toward farm animals but of course is applicable to our liver & white friends too.

SELECTION

1. MATING LIKE TO LIKE

A. By pedigree (Inbreeding/Linebreeding)

B. As individuals (best to best, worst to worst)

2. RANDOM MATINGS (pull out their names out a hat)

3. MATING UNLIKES

A. By pedigree (Outbreeding/Outcrossing

B. As individuals (best to worst, big to little)

...AN OUTLINE can give us at a glance the total picture and how the pieces fit together. Details are lacking and for that reason it is not always clear without prior knowledge. It is important and has been repeated here...NO ONE TOOL WILL DO THE JOB WELL - they must be used in combination and there is a combination which will, in most instances, meet the requirements of a specific breeding situation. THE JOB is to figure out which combination will give us the most favorable odds in a given instance.

...I HAVE DEVISED THE FOLLOWING OUTLINE which contains the same data as LUSH in a bit different form. I prefer it because it is clearer to me; it demonstrates the idea that selection must be based on the Individual, his Ancestors (pedigree) and his progeny or Descendants.

I. SELECTION

A. THE INDIVIDUAL (Must be tested)

(a) Like to Like (best to best, fast to fast, etc.)

B. HIS ANCESTORS (Pedigree)

(a) Inbreeding (Like ancestors)

- Linebreeding

(b) Outbreeding (Unlike ancestors)

- Outcrossing

C. HIS PROGENY (Descendants)

II. NO SELECTION

A. RANDOM MATINGS -

.....mates no more or less alike as individuals or in their ancestry than the average for the breed. As if mates were drawn by lot.

...We can only use the tool or combination of tools which will fit a certain situation. For Example:

...We have before us an eight week old pup and we wish to know what he is likely to do in the field and at stud when he is two years old. INDIVIDUAL SELECTION will tell us if he is Healthy, Alert and Bold and this offers some clue but our best bet is to check his Ancestors. Were they good field dogs? How closely were they related? This will not give us an infallible answer by a long shot, but we must use that tool for it is the only one we have. How will this pup produce? How do we know? We do not know...Individual selection can not tell us, nor can his progeny, for he has had none. The ONLY tool we have is his Pedigree, his Ancestors. We are forced to admit it is a very weak tool (in 99% of cases) but we must use it for we have no other.

...I HAVE TRIED TO ARRANGE THE TOOLS (in the outline) in the order of their usefulness and importance. The individual, if used alone, is more important than the pedigree, if used alone. Of course they must be used together, and are thus placed A & B. There is little question that C. His Progeny, if they are all great, is the surest way of picking a great pup and where it can be used, it the must useful and important. It has been placed at C. only because it can be so little used. We have few proven producers and often those we have, are known to us only after they have gone to the "happy hunting grounds".

...MATINGS based on the individuals, like to like and unlikes are explained briefly in the outline and this outline makes it more obvious that it is possible and often advisable to choose mates which are unalike as individuals, yet alike in their ancestry or visa versa.

...LET US NOW SUMMARIZE OUTBREEDING and INBREEDING-

...OUTBREEDING is the mating of animals less closely related (genetically) than the average for the breed. Usually, we say that when we do not see any duplicate names on a five-generation pedigree, we are outbreeding. We probably are, but we could as well be random mating too...Outbreeding, the wider it be, the easier its seen - consists more especially in the mating of distantly related but closely inbred strains. The extreme would be crossbreeding. The results are the same, the difference being a matter of degree. NOTE: Outbreeding usually leads to individual excellence but low breeding worth. An outcross is an outbreed step in an overall Linebreeding program...We outcross in order to pick up or reinforce a trait which is either weak or missing from our strain. If we gain it, we immediately return to our Inbreeding/linebreeding program and try to fix it in our own strain.

...INBREEDING is the mating of animals more closely related than the average for the breed. It should be used only with the severest and most Rigid Selection....LINEBREEDING is inbreeding directed toward a single outstanding specimen in the breed...it is not, as often defined, necessarily a less intense form of inbreeding. Inbreeding and linebreeding are fundamentally the same in their genetic action whenever their intensity is also the same.

...INBREEDING/LINEBREEDING fixes traits, builds prepotency, reveals defects, forms families or strains. All of the good, as well as any evil, which comes from inbreeding stems from the simple fact that it tends toward homozygosity, like gene pairs.

...OUTBREEDING without selection will bring no progress, but inbreeding without selection will bring disaster...Inbreeding with rigid selection is genetics strongest force for good.

A PLAN FOR BREED PROGRESS

...MANY BREEDERS in all breeds have the mistaken idea that breed improvement come inevitably, permanently, positively and solely by breeding the best to the best (like to like as individuals). IT DOES NOT! Some improvement may come by this process. IF every member of the breed is aiming for the same goals and judging by the same standards, but the process is slow. - Any gains that are made can not be held...individual selection has no genetic ratchet mechanism. We can apply the pressure but the moment we relax, the gain is lost. Also, we are applying but a fraction of the genetic pressure available to us because we are using but a single tool, individual selection. The only breeding tool with the build in "ratchet" is Inbreeding/Linebreeding. This is like to like mating with regard to ancestor's (pedigree). - But if we use it alone, it is worse than worthless, it is downright dangerous to the breed. It MUST be used with thoughtful selection. (When I say "like to like", I actually mean "similar to similar" because exactly alikes are impossible.) Selection and inbreeding by itself cannot make any gains but it can hold any gains made by selection. The two MUST be used together if we are to progress....it is the only way we can progress for there is no alternate plan.

...THE PLAN I suggest here is not new, and certainly not original with me. It has been common knowledge to thinking animal breeders for years, although few breeds have the Organization to realize its full potential. I do not imagine that the whole Shorthair fancy will favor it or grasp it quickly and enthusiastically and put it to work. Fortunately it does not require the co-operation of the entire breed, although that would be much better....It is a plan which can be effective with but a few serious breeders...and there are plenty such Shorthairs. The idea was presented briefly in my "Basic Breeding" which first appeared in the '1964 Yearbook'. I will expand on it.

...THE PLAN IS BASED on two basic and fundamental breeding facts. First, that errors in individual selection are common, are difficult to overcome and that they represent the prime cause in breeding failures. We must reduce these errors if we are to hasten progress. Second, that under present circumstances, when a fine animal does appear because of successful selection. He is rarely able to reproduce his own greatness. He has low breeding worth because he is heterozygous, the result of an outcrossing or genetic random mating. The gain to the breed of a single individually worthwhile animal is certainly greater than had the animal not been born but it is microscopic. IT BEGINS and ENDS in that INDIVIDUAL!

PROGRESS COMES by producing a fine animal who can produce a fine animal, who can produce a fine animal and so on....The true greatness of a fine dog lies not alone in his individual merit but in his ability to pass on his greatness. The ability to transmit is prepotence. It is homozygosity, like gene pairs. It is INBREEDING/LINEBREEDING. It is the pedigree which is in error. (Part V)

SO - errors in individual selection and excessive heterozygosity are the culprits....THEY are the characters who are working against us- and as they are against all breeds. They have not stopped us- merely slowed us down but our progress toward the ideal will be quickened to the exact extent to which they are weakened....The path to success is not so much a positive bull-dozing offense because we cannot entirely eliminate errors in individual selection or produce complete homozygosity. It is only logical that if we work together with these thoughts in mind, we can progress more rapidly.

...When I say "BREEDER" in the following plan, I am not referring to a "canine copulation overseer" or a puppy-mill operator but rather to the "thoughtful fellow", sincerely working for the betterment of the breed. He may have 25 dogs with 10-12 litters a year or he may have one dog and one litter every two years. The program, is fundamentally the same except that the former may not have to go outside his own stock, while the latter must, for either a sire or dam. - The one dog owner will usually find it wiser to join with several other one dog owners in the initial phase of the program, unless he is able to lease highly desirable dams.

...THE BASIC PLAN is simple enough, it consists of linebreeding to the best until something better comes along IN THAT STRAIN, then linebreeding to that. It is Like to Like (best to best) individually and like to like genetically (inbreeding/linebreeding)....We start by building strains, families. Some may be based on already established strains, others start new strains. "Each breeder or group" builds his own family, his own Shorthair strain. There is very little breeding between groups. The breed itself becomes varied yet, it is made up of very uniform groups or strains.

...A step by step plan might go something like this....

A. Each breeder or group must decide and have firmly in mind (it would best be written down) just exactly what he seeks. What does he want from his Shorthairs?...Does he wish to maintain ALL of the traits from which the dog is bred in his Fatherland, or does he wish to minimize or even eliminate some traits and emphasize others? - This is a crucial question because we should be going for the same goals, the same general goals at least. We are NOT trying to split the breed off into tangents - we must follow the same Standards - in Conformation and in the Field. We must pursue the same goals but without interbreeding between groups - many varied strains will be developed but each strain will be uniform and directed toward the same general idea. But, until each breeder knows precisely what he is after, he can neither choose the best nor bucket the worse. He is powerless to take the first step.

B. Each breeder must take stock of his own physical and financial resources. There is no need to bite off more than he can chew...This must be fun to be successful and not a burden. He must decide how many animals he (or his group) can comfortably Handle and TEST. Maybe it can be only one litter a year (Frau Seydel has produced an enviable recall at this pace). This is not a mass production plan, but rather one in which each litter is properly fed, housed, socialized and tested...with an environment as nearly perfect as you can make it. If a breeding group is too large, it will take too long to consolidate, too long to bring about strain uniformity, strain type, clearly. - If the group is very small this strain type can be developed rapidly, but among those few animals, there may not be enough "good" genes in the pool to get the job done at all. The more animals available to a given breeder the greater will be his gene-pool but as I said above, with too large a pool, the "sifting process" takes too long. We want not only lasting progress but RAPID lasting progress.

C. The breeder seeks out the animals which he feels most nearly meets his ideal. There is no need to await perfect mates because the perfect Shorthair has yet to be born. He starts with the best he can find, avoiding, of course, all obvious serious faults. - We hope that the phenotype (appearance and/or performance) and the genotype (hereditary makeup) have considerable correlation because we are actually looking for the 'best genes' we can find for our own pool. Only these genes will be available to build on because after building our foundation stock, we will stay within our own group.

...THE ANIMALS CHOSEN must be selected with great care. The breeder must measure them by his own "three-foot" yearstick....

1) AS AN INDIVIDUAL, has the dog been tested, judged and found superior?

2) DOES HIS PEDIGREE INDICATE GOOD BREEDING? Are his ancestors outstanding and related?

3) DOES HE HAVE OFFSPRING? and if so, who were the mates and what has been the merit of the pups?

...The breeder tries to obtain either the animals themselves or their services.

D. His kennel or strain is built on these few animals he feels most nearly come up to the goals he has established for himself. If his foundation is already based upon some established strain, he is just that much farther along. If not, he starts where he is.

...FOR THE SAKE OF DISCUSSION, let us assume that there are forty breeders interested in the program. Each will be building his own strain or substrain. It will be built on the animals he has chosen. The progeny will all be kept closely-related. They will be kept closely related to their best present and immediate past ancestors while their relationship to their ordinary ancestors will be permitted to become more distant. We are sifting the genes, the wheat from the chaff. In a relatively short time, these strains would become more uniform and recognizable to all who are active in the breed....not only in general appearance but also in the way that they handled their birds. One could say, "that's a Jones dog", or "He look like a Schmitt dog", much as we say today, rightly or wrongly, "That's a Moesgaard or Fieldacre" because the dog is white....Under this plan the difference would be more than a matter of color - it would be A TYPE. The process would simplify selection. Each breeder would be able to see more clearly where his Virtues and Faults were coming from, he would be able to read more accurately the genes of his strain.

E. Unless the breeder or group has several good animals....Three or Four Males and Twice as many females - he must do some outcrossing to get started. It should be as mild as possible and should only be done to prevent some severe fault from becoming established in his strain. Under such a plan, our inbreeding can become as intense as the quality of our stock permits, because it will not be injurious to the breed. True, an individual breeder may suffer if he is caught with his selection pants down, but it will not affect the breed in the same way that faulty selection with inbreeding affects the breed now under present circumstances. The inbreeding is selfcontained in this plan and affects only the individual breeder. - If he is thoughtful, he has little to fear because a single outcrossing would re-store any degeneracy and the breeder would know exactly where to go to get the most help...what strains possessed the strength to match his weakness. Furthermore, these inbred strains from which the defective recessives have been eliminated would have much to offer when outcrossed.

...SO THIS IS THE PLAN for the individual breeder. How long it would take to establish forty pure strain types would depend upon the breeders themselves. - some would progress more rapidly than others, some would fall by the wayside. The size of each strain would be a factor as we have already discussed, being quicker with smaller groups. This advantage of speed might be canceled out if the smaller breeders original selection was poor because he'd never make it. Yet, if the reverse were true, if his first choice was a wise one, while waiting for the larger breeder to catch up with him, to reach the same degree of homozygosity, he would be building positive prepotence and be generations ahead of the latter. During this period of strain formation the individual breeder would not be sitting on his thumbs, he would be campaigning his dogs, comparing them with the other strains, measuring his own progress against theirs and learning the virtues and faults of these other strains, learning to recognize them. During this period, the breed would probably be progressing at about its present rate.

...AGAIN, THIS IS A PLAN that doesn't require the co-operation of the whole breed, although, it would be better that way. Two breeders can play the game, or four or ten or twenty....The important thing is that they each build TRUE strains - not outbreed and make any outcrosses as mild as possible. The next step:

...NOW comes the time for RAPID progress of the whole breed. We have kept up a steady trot for years, now is the time to go into high gear. The breed, like an artist with a preconceived picture of beauty in mind, is ready to move. The canvas is set on the easel. The colors are mixed on the palette, the brushes are cleaned and ready. The strains are the oils, clear, colorful separate and beautiful. There is literally no end to the hues and shades which the artist-breeder can produce. Using the same oils with different, but equally talented hand and mind, we have the work of a Michelangelo, a Renoir, or a da Vinci. All much different but all beautiful...the colors, the forms, the textures are infinite. The colors alone, are without number but all come from the basic or primary three, the possibilities are boundless but they must start with the foundation of three. Rapid breed progress must start with a foundation of clearly defined, easily recognizable, pure breeding strains.

"The number of combinations of existing genes which have never yet been brought together, is practically infinite. In every breed there are enough unfixed genes available to make possible the production of animals more extreme than has ever yet existed in almost any direction that the breeder might desire. All our breeds are exceedingly plastic, and the breeder opportunities to mold them to his own desire are so great that there is no occasion to mourn his inability to produce new mutations at will and probably no important reason to regret that established breeding systems make it impossible for a breeder to use blood from outside the breed..."(LUSH).

...THESE ARE THE POSSIBILITIES WHICH EXIST...the potential is there. Is there a greater challenge in dogs? Will the Shorthair reach his potential? How soon? It depends on you.

...THE STRAINS have been established. They are all Shorthairs but each strain differs from the others in minor but recognizable respects. The virtues and faults, strength and weakness, debits and credits, have been brought into sharp focus. During the sharpening process, many of the faults, weaknesses and debits have been culled....it has been impossible to removed them all but most of the severest have been skimmed off and been discarded. A blind man can almost feel the differences in the strains...he can select, without his eyes, almost as well as the seeing man could before this transformation took place. Our selection will improve, it can't help it. We have shaved the selection odds working against us and the breed, to manageable proportions. In the process, we have likewise and of equal importance, improved in homozygosity to hold the selection-made gains.

...These strains are not perfect. The breed is not uniform, although the strains are. The time has come for outcrossing between strains. We would know where to go for help. Strains with more virtues and fewer faults would be mildly outcrossed to closely related strains which were strong where they were weak. They would immediately return to their linebreeding program in an effort to fix these gains without losing any of their own. The wide outcrossing would be reserved for the weakest strains. They would be outcrossed to several of the strongest strains to determine which one did the most for them. - When that was determined, line-breeding to those strains would upgrade the poorer one, possibly to a point where it might even exceed the one to which it was being linebred - The results of outbreeding two closely inbred strains could be explosive! The results, might exceed our wildest expectations. - The beauty of this plan is that if we found a "nick" it would take little imagination to see the benefits to the breed. Under present circumstances, a nick between two dogs is a one-in-a-million long shot cannot be duplicated. HERE, should a nick arise, it would be between Strains, Groups of dogs, rather than individuals and its benefits could be magnified. Fabulous. This would be another added bonus to the breed and not the prime purpose of the plan at all.

...THE MORE CLOSELY EACH STRAIN approached the ideal the milder and the less would be any outcrossing. If the strains were graded with the best at the top of the list and the poorest at the bottom, the line-breeding would be more intense at the top and would become milder as we worked down the list. At about midpoint, we would shift from mild linebreeding to mild outcrossing and those strains at the bottom would be widely outbred to those at the top of the list. It is not difficult to see how rapidly such a program could raise a breed to new heights. We are all working toward the same general goals for the Shorthair...we are all going our separate ways to reach those goals. The program presented here offers a systematic, scientific and co-operative approach which can carry us along, in company with our short-haired and short-tailed companions; at a pace we have never imagined...."then will it be that undreamed of progress will come to this very fine and versatile young breed....to those soft-eared, loyal and loving companions who have provided us with so much pain and pleasure so much sadness and joy, so many heartaches and thrills." das End

...and so the end of an article but the beginning of a possible dream. We now have the knowledge and the plan for making 'the best better'. Up. up and away.

...Five years sounds long for carrying the best article the GSP NEWS has printed, but maybe it took us that long to ingest and digest genetic terminology. Phenotype, genotype, meiosis and homozygous are all familiar terms which we are using freely.

...Do you realize that at the beginning of this article that the word 'inbred' like the word sex in the past, was a dirty word, it was either unspoken or whispered!

...I concur with Dr. McCue, it is not imagination that we are doing better and more thoughtful breeding. I have typed, in the past two years some utterly fabulous pedigrees. I know of four kennels at least, where I can go and pick up a closely inbred/linebred pup.

Thank you, Dr. McCue

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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