OF PEAS AND
PUPS
PART I
INTRODUCTION
As the
One of the most
worthwhile expressions of man's great and natural desire to develop and improve
is the breeding of dogs, and nowhere is the challenge greater or the problems
more numerous, than in the breeding of the GERMAN SHORTHAIRED POINTER/RETRIEVER
(and others of the Versatile Breeds). This is so, of course.
. . . .because the Breed is bred for so many more factors.
The purposeful breeding
of dogs is both "Art and Science"....It is art because it requires
skill and taste based upon aesthetic principles........It is science because it
demands the application of accumulated knowledge which has been formulated in
the general laws of Truth or Theory.
Through art alone it is
possible to reach our goal, if we live long enough, but the path is narrow and
tortuous. We will, certainly never live long enough to reach this ideal through
science alone...It is only when Art and Science work hand in paw, that the
results can approach the ideal of perfection...We can mold
by our own efforts, through successive generations, the image and likeness of
our dreams.
TRUE ART in the
breeding of dogs is an inherent gift...sharpened by long experience and keen
observation....It is the single most important attribute the breeder must
possess if he is to succeed...Even with this gift (but more especially without
it) the breeder must rely heavily on complete testing for 'EVERY FACTOR' he
wishes to embody in this, his "Ideal GSP". This Ideal upon which the
breeder aims his sights is a measure of the artistic portion of his Art-Science
concept.
Let it be made perfectly
clear at the outset that the author makes no claim to be the possessor of this
rare artistic gift and so will make no effort to discuss it in detail....This
artistic phase, which is the more important, will be left to those more
eminently qualified. In so far as is possible, we will separate the art from
the science and concern ourselves here with the scientific phase.
Most of the knowledge contained here is not new. It is available to
anyone who has access to a modest library....a willingness to 'dig for the
facts' and an 'elementary knowledge of biology'.....The facts presented here
are just that, "facts". They leave no room for controversy...In the
case of Theories or the Application of Facts to Practical Problems, there is
considerable latitude for discussion....THE PRIME SCOPE OF THIS DISCUSSION
THEN. IS THE SCIENCE OF HEREDITY....'GENETICS'.....I HOPE TO LAY BARE THE BASIC
AND FUNDAMENTAL FACTS.....WHAT THE BREEDER DOES WITH THEM IS UP TO HIM....IF
ONE BREEDER OF THE SHORTHAIR, BY APPLICATION OF THESE FACTS, BREEDS A BETTER
SHORTHAIR THAN HE OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE....I WILL FEEL THAT MY EFFORTS HAVE NOT
BEEN IN VAIN.
GENETICS
GENETICS is that branch
of Biology concerned with heredity....the Heredity of all living things. Its
name comes form the GENES (Greek-birth, life).
The genes, which cannot
be seen, are minute particles in the nuclei of all cells. It is believed, upon
substantial evidence....that it is the chemical action of these genes which
determine the reaction of the organism to its environment and these genes (in
the chromosome) are passed from parent to offspring in a regular and
predictable way they are passed from parents to pups that I wish to talk.
Genetics is a Statistical Science as well as a biological one. The
laws of heredity are based on probabilities. These probabilities approach
certainty as the numbers involved become great enough....Flip a coin four times
and you should get tow heads and two tails because there are only two ways the
coin can fall. Don't stake your life on it but its a
good bet. You may get 3 heads and 1 tail. Four flips are not enough to permit
the law of averages to come into play. Flip it woo times and you may get 46
heads and 54 tails. Flip it 500 times and you will probably come pretty close
to 250 heads and 250 tails. Knowing the odds for a given event helps one decide
(using judgement) the path to follow....It does not of itself assure success
but it increases the chances for success. Some feel that this
element of uncertainty make the laws of heredity of little practical value to
man. This is an ill-considered deduction...If the affairs of men waited
for absolute certainty before acting...little of value would every
be accomplished....A disregard of these statistical laws is what causes
the poker player, who draws to inside straights all night, to go home broke! A
good poker player, one who knows the odds he gives in each instance, can, with
moderately good cards, win consistently over the man who holds better cards but
disregards the odds....And, so it is that the Breeder who starts with
moderately Good Stock and the Knowledge of the genetics' odds he faces, can, in
time, produce finer dogs, than he who starts with good stock and disregards
genetic laws.
MENDEL
LESS than a century
ago, an Augustinian monk of Brunn, Austria, reported
to the Brunn Society, in 40 brief pages the results
of a simple experiment carried on with common garden peas in a 20' X 120'
monastery garden....At the conclusion of the reading (it took two meetings)
GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL sat down and the meeting adjourned...There was no
discussion...no questions..no
comments of any kind...One of the greatest contributions to mans understanding
of the basic laws of nature, had fallen on deaf ears. In spite of the fact that
the proceedings of the Society were published and sent to more than 120
libraries, universities and societies around the world...not one person grasped
the significance of this great discovery...and so it lay sleeping for almost 35
years.
At the turn of this century, three botanists working independently
in
GENES
WHAT DID MENDEL
DISCOVER? He discovered GENES...He did not call them that but referred to them
as DETERMINERS. However, the laws he propounded for his determiners follow
exactly the laws which govern the genes. Unlike earlier workers, Mendel
realized that to unravel the laws directing heredity in a complex organism...he
must concentrate on one factor or characteristic at a time. Other students had
failed because they tackled the organism as a whole...and had been over-whelmed
by the complexity. (The GSP breeder will do well to consider the soundness of
this procedure and concentrate on the improvement of one factor at a time as
will be discussed later.)
With consideration
Mendel chose simple garden peas for his experiments. He set up plainly
discernible and contrasting pairs of characteristics to study; such as, shape
of ripe seeds (round or wrinkled) color of seed
coat...the position of the flower on the stem...length of stem, and the like,
seven pairs in all.
His object was to cross
(outcross) one variety with another and observe the Hybrids* of such matings through the following generations in an effort to
discover how these characteristics were passed from one generation to the next.
An explanation of the results of one of these experiments will pretty well
indicate the results of all of them.
He crossed peas having
smooth, round seeds with peas having wrinkled seeds...It made no difference
which of the parents were round or wrinkled...all of the Hybrid
"children" were round-seeded. All of the hybrids had round seeds like
the round-seeded parent.....They were of the same PHENOTYPE (appearance).
The next year when the
hybrids were self-fertilized (inbred), the harvest yielded round seeds and
wrinkled seeds in a ration of 3:1 respectively....Although all of the hybrids
looked the same, they were not of the same GENOTYPE (genetic make-up) because
25% of the offspring were wrinkled. Mendel rightly deducted that the wrinkled
characteristic lay dormant in the smooth-round-hybrid-seeds....He called the
dormant wrinkled characteristic the RECESSIVE determiner, and the round
characteristic, which showed though, the DOMINANT determiner.
Without knowledge of
just what took place in the plant during reproduction...he correctly theorized
that these determiners, one from the sperm and one from the egg, were brought
together in pairs at fertilization and remained together during the life of the
organism....separating only when the time had come to produce sperms or eggs.
Of course today, we
know that is precisely what happens....It happens in peas, pups, pansies,
parakeets and paupers, to mention a few, but to reason this fact from the ratio
of round to wrinkled seeds appears to be, a deduction of highest of the highest
order....The genes are paired and the pairs separate in the formation of the
germ cells to be reunited at the time of fertilization.
The Dominants he
represented by capital letters, a practice still followed by geneticists today....In
the case of the round seeds, or the SOMATIC CELLS (all of the cells of the body
except the germ cells) would be represented as RR....the germ cells as R and
R....For the wrinkled cells this would be rr and r
& r, representing the recessive genes.
The RR seeds are pure
and dominant and all seeds like them have the same phenotype and genotype...the
rr seeds are also pure, and recessive, and all seeds
like them have the same phenotype and genotype....the hybrids are all Rr. They have the same phenotype, round, but they are not
of the same genotype......Other terms used to denote the genetic make-up of the
ZYGOTE or fertilized cell, are HETEROZYGOTE, Rr, and
HOMOZYGOTE, RR AND rr....HETERO-different;
HOME-same....Diagrammatically the round wrinkled mating looks like this...... 
With only one type
sperm and one type egg, there can be but one type off-spring (for a given
characteristic)....The resulting hybrids are all phenotypically
alike but heterozygoteous....Mendel then permitted
the hybrids to self-fertilize, as is natural with peas, with these results....
The hybrids produced two
types of sperm and two types of eggs, R and r, because
the ALLELES (the pair of determiners) are different. Thus there are three
possible ways to unite...RR, Rr and rr.....They produce two phenotypes, round and wrinkled, in
a ratio of 3:1.....They produce three genotypes....one Homozygous Dominant, RR;
two Heterozygous Dominant, Rr; and one Homozygous
Recessive, rr.....The ratio is 1:2:2 or 25%-50%-25%.
Here our laws of
probability come in again....All of these ratios are probable, not
mandatory...In this case rather than flipping a single coin, we illustrate by
flipping two coins....With MONOHYBRIDS (hybrid for one characteristic) there
are two types of eggs and two types of sperms, thus the two coins....Each coin
has an equal chance to come up heads or tails. The chances of
heads for a single toss is one in two or ½. We will make heads the
dominant R....The same odds favor tails, 1/2, r....To
determine the chances of getting two heads at the same time (RR) would be ½ X ½
- 1/4, 1 chance in 4....Two tails, rr, would also
require 4 flips, on the average. To obtain the "hybrid" Rr, a head R and a tail r, we must add the 1/4 for a head
to the 1/4 for a tail...and we come up once in two flips, 1/4 plus 1/4 equals
1/2....Thus when we flip the coin four times we should bet 1 RR, 2 Rr and 1 rr....of course it won't
work out that way every time but with a significant number of flips there will
be statistically insignificant error. In breeding small numbers, only
approximate ratios can be expected...Puppies resulting from inbreeding hybrids,
where the ratio should be 3:1, we are pretty safe in assuming that there will
be more "round puppies" than "wrinkled puppies". Actually
Mendel harvested 5474 round seeds and 1850 wrinkled seeds. To be exact, he
would have had to harvest 5550 round seeds if he picked up 1850 wrinkled ones.
He was off 76 round seeds out of 5474.
MENDELS CHOICE of peas
for his experiment was wise and thoughtful. For one thing, "round"
and "wrinkled" are easily recognizable and highly contrasting characteristics,
and they are controlled by a single pair of genes....The dog is, of course, a
far more complex organism and the characteristics we seek are, for the most
part, not so easily recognized.
This is where the Art
comes in. This is where the grading or testing comes into the picture. In order
to help us recognize that which we seek in our dogs, we must rely on keen
observation - complete testing and accurate records. The records are just as
important as the testing, if the improvement is to be breed-wide rather than
just strain-wide.
CONTROLLED BREEDING METHODS coupled with complete testing and
accurate records have brought a phenomenal jump in the butter fat production of
modern dairy herds; it has increased litter size and growth rate in pigs; it
has added speed and stamina to race horses; boosted corn yield 1000%....To say
that the use of these same genetic principles could be of no value to the
Shorthair is ignorance....No one would say that the dog and the cow had a great
deal in common, yet, the Genetic Laws operate exactly the same in one as in the
other....The fact that our GSP is bred for so many more factors is what makes
the testing so difficult...the records so important...and the breeding so much
more complicated...If we test solely for upland game proficiency, and breed
only from the results of such tests, eventually, the multi-purpose attributes
of the Shorthair will disappear. We must test for A::
that we wish to breed!
ROUND or
WRINKLED
So now we have the
whole secret of breeding better Shorthairs....if, we want them round or
wrinkled. But nowhere in the Standard do we find "round" or :wrinkled" so of what value is all of this to the
practical breeder?....Well, it just might prevent a situation which developed
here recently....A local quarterhorse breeder had an
outstanding and experienced stud horse....having become interested in genetics,
he thought that an interesting cross might be made between his stud and a zebra
mare. After considerable difficulty he located a zebra mare and brought her to
his corrals. He left the two together, returning from time to time to see if
any progress was being made....After several days without action, he pulled his
stud over to the corner and asked him why he wasn't breeding....The stud
whispered back, "Hell, boss, I can't even get her to take her pajamas off."
SERIOUSLY, does this
round-wrinkled bit work?....Does it work with
Shorthairs?...The answer to both questions is an emphatic Yes!...IF the name of
our dog was the "German Pointer-Retriever" we could then have a
|Shorthair and a Wirehair of the same breed (the Griffon could also be
included). We would then have a German Pointer-Retriever with Shorthair and a
German Pointer-Retriever with wirehair (in Dachshunds we have the smoothhaired, longhaired and wirehaired...same breed,
different coat)...we add the term "retriever" to the name, as is done
regularly in England, to indicate his versatility and to differentiate him from
the old German Pointer. As near as can be determined the GWP differs from the
GSP in no more than two or three genes out of millions....Let us take on of
these genes, W, which gives the dog its name and appearance. W for wirehair is
dominant to w, smooth hair. When the GWP is mated to the GSP all the puppies
are apparently Wirehairs. When these puppies (hybrids) are mated together we
get 3 wirehairs to every one smoothhair....WW,
wirehair; 2 Ww wirehair; ww,
smoothhair. Now if this one smoothhair
is also shorthaired (it can also be long as will be discussed later) that pup
is just as much as GSP, genetically, as any listed in the stud book. This
procedure is not being recommended nor is it being suggested that we change the
name of our breed in spite of the logic of such a proposal.
Some may recall the furor created by the
inclusion of GWP news in the GSP News some time ago. In view of the minute
genetic difference in the two dogs (I will not use the word 'breeds') this was
indeed a tempest in a teapot.
PRACTICAL
OBSERVATION
GOING no further than Mendels
first and second filial generations in the peas (Fig. 1 & 2) we can gain
much of a practical nature to help us. We can see that the units of heredity,
the genes, are separate and distinct....We see that the appearance does not
necessarily tell us the genetic make up;....that Likes do not necessarily beget
likes....Like genes beget like genes or, even more accurately..Like
genes beget like potentials....It is not altogether correct to say that like
genes beget likes because, we are the assuming that the genes are the sole
determiners of the individual dogs. Wich They Are
Not.....Genes determine the reaction of the organism to its environment.....The
peas must have good soil, sunlight, water, etc.,...the pups must have proper
food, exercise, care, etc....Like genes will not produce like individuals
whether they be plants, people or pups, IF the environment is not also the
same.
GENETIC
PURITY....THE GOAL
We also learn that only
pure parents produce pure offspring...Our dogs of course, are not genetically
pure and never will be, but whatever minute contribution we can make toward
that goal of genetic purity, will be to the everlasting advantage of the breed
in the generations to come....
We can see that (in
most instances) hybridizing or outcrossing , whether it be of breed or strain or type, complicates our
genetic arrangements.....Ideally, we want HOMOZYGOSIS or the homozygous state
for every allele. This is a dream not to be realized unless this old world
spins a lot longer than it has already.
The dog has 78
Chromosomes (man has 46, peas 14, fruit fly 8).....How many hundreds of Genes
are contained in each Chromosome has yet to be answered. No gene has ever been
seen.....it has been estimated that it would require some 350,000,000 to cover
the human hair....This gives some idea of the magnitude of the problem and the
remoteness of the complete solution. This however, is no cause for
despair......Each breed already has a great many of their genes properly
aligned....homozygous. They breed true for hundreds and hundreds of characteristics.
AN EXAMPLE...is the
never seen black GSP. In the early days of the breed, we had black Shorthairs.
Black is dominant to our brown or liver....a dog cannot be both brown and black
or liver....a dog cannot be both brown and black for exactly the same reason a
pea seed cannot be both smooth and wrinkled or part smooth and part wrinkled.
When the early Standards decreed that the Shorthair should be liver and that
black was not an acceptable color, you can readily
see how easily it was possible to eliminate these blacks. The elimination of
the black Shorthair made it more difficult for us to get dark-eyed dogs but we
can go into that later.
It is enough to
emphasize that it is not necessary to know the action of every gene the dog
possesses before we can use to advantage the general laws of inheritance and
sooner we realize this and make use of these laws the sooner the Shorthair will
approach that distant and never-to-be-reached ideal of perfection. Merely
because perfection is unattainable is no reason that we should not come as
close to it as possible.
THE SHORTHAIR is
progressing. He is progressing in spite of genetic laws, not because of them.
We are moving ahead...we can move further faster with a greater knowledge and
use of Genetic Principles. Mendel shows us the way with simplicity, with common
garden peas....Dominants show themselves singly.....Recessives must come in
double doses to be recognized......We consider most, but not all, of the
characteristics we want in our ideal GSP to be dominant. This has its
advantages as well as its disadvantages.....Its helpful aspect is that if
either sire or dam contribute one dominant gene to the fertilized cell, that
characteristic will demonstrate itself in the pups, as it did the peas.....That
is fine for that individual pup and we must have improved dogs before we can
improve the breed......
The disadvantage lies
in not being able to tell the genetic make up from the appearance without
further breeding....On the other hand, when the Recessive characteristic (as
the liver color mentioned above shows itself, we know
the Genotype is Homozygoteous.....If we wish to
perpetuate it we merely breed to another dog who exhibits the same Recessive
Factor and every pup will have it too.....If we wish to eliminate it, we
eliminate the dog or merely prevent its mating.....
We would like to be
able to line up our Genotype from appearance for dominants too. This
Homozygosis applies to Dominants as well as Recessives (both Alleles are the
same) either Dominant or Recessive....Thus, the prepotent
sire or dam, which is of such great value to any breed must be Homozygous for
most of the characteristics we seek in our ideal .....In
this event of course, it would make no difference what bitch he was bred
to...all the pups would be superior too....With a poor bitch, the next
generation (unless bred back to their father) would produce a hodge-podge....with a decent bitch, the next generation
(unless bred back to their father) would on the average, tend toward the mean
of the breed. Ignoring Genetic Fundamentals, this prepotent
"blood" is usually permitted to become diluted throughout the breed, although it may raise the level or average of the
breed minutely...it could have done so much more. By concentrating these prepotent genes the whole breed can be improved...The prepotent dam, because she is capable of producing so few
pups in a life time, compared to a sire, demands even more careful selection of
mates.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Corrections to Part 12 & 13
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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