|
Home
Males
Females
Puppies
Breedings
Produced
Family Photos
Web Awards
Application/Deposit
Sales Contract
APBT Books
APBT Videos
Inspiration
Responsible Owners
Kids & Dogs Safety
Breed Standards
APBT Dictionary
Origin of APBT
Historical Events
Famous APBTs
Gameness
I Bloodlines Stories
2 Bloodlines Stories
3 Bloodlines Stories
4 Bloodlines Stories
5 Bloodlines
Colby Dogs
Floyd Boudreaux
Maurice Carver
Blue BloodLines
Blue pitbulls
Illigitimate APBTS
I gamedog gallery
2 gamedog gallery
The Matches
The Keep
Dog Activities
Breaking Stick
Springpoles
Housing APBT
Dog Fighting
Animal Laws
BSL
APBT Facts & Myths
Positve Press
Positive Press 2
Media Lies
Issues & Epidemics
Rescue Organizations
Petey & Lil Rascals
Puppy Care
Health Care
Disease&Treatment
First Aid Kits/Emergemcy Care
Vitamins & Minerals
PrebreedingTests
Ear Cropping
Methods of Breeding
Tips-Whelp/Breeding
Breeding Info
1 Basic Genetics
2 Basic Genetics
3 Basic Genetics
4 Basic Genetics
Color Genetics
Size Genetics
Dog Training
Aggression&Testing
1 Weight Pull
2 Weight Pull
Supplies
Construcing Kennel
Other Bully Breeds
Other BullyBreeds2
Our Banner
Message Boards
Web Rings
Links 1
Links 2
Topsites
Topsites II
|
Contact:
EMAIL
Please Sign Our Guestbook
Click Below to
Pay With Credit Card.
Web was created by law on
01/05. Website is maintained by the Rios family.
ALL OF OUR AMERICAN PIT BULL
TERRIERS ARE ADBA REGISTERED.
|
|
| |
| |
Breeding
Methods
Breeders, Bloodlines and all that Jazz
...By Amy Greenwood Burford
There has been a lot of interest expressed as of late with the definition of a
breeder and the definition of a bloodline. Even outside of the dog game, there
is much talk of ones bloodlines.
A few weeks ago, I was commenting to a young mother about the personality of her
pre-term infant. I commented, "She is definitely a feisty one." The mother
replied, "Oh, she comes by it naturally. It's in her bloodline." In reading an
interview that was done by a rap star, he spoke with affection concerning his
wife and said, "She is my bloodline." There is also a music company that
specializes in rap called Bloodline Records.
Technically, the breeder of a litter of pups, is the owner of the dam. It is the
owner of the dam who decides that this bitch is worthy to breed and goes about
to find the proper stud to breed her with, to produce the litter. This is not
etched in stone and we have seen in about 10% of the case when a litter is
submitted into the registration office, the owner of the sire is listed as the
breeder. This is an issue that can be decided between the owners of the sire and
the dam. This is a technical definintion, but for a person who is deciding to
become a "breeder" of American Pit Bull Terriers, or to establish their own
bloodline, there is much more of a commitment expected.
We can look to the history of the breed and use those breeders and bloodlines
that have held up as the finest examples to use in formulating our understanding
of what it takes to be a breeder and what a bloodline is. One of the more
notable examples of this was Howard Heinzl and the Heinzl bloodline. The Heinzl
bloodline was established based on three well known bloodlines of the era- the
Corvino, Tudor, and Colby lines. A "standard" was set in each breeding that was
done, only the pups that met the "standard" were retained in the breeding pool.
Howard studied pedigrees and investigated the individual dogs in the pedigrees
of the dogs that he was using as brood stock. He had a vast knowledge of the
principles of genetics and talked with other breeders of dogs as well as horse
breeders and breeders of other livestock. Howard had a written plan of future
bleeding’s that he wanted to make, always keeping his "standard" in mind. Howard
used line breeding, inbreeding, and out-crossed breeding among the three quality
lines within the formulation of his bloodline. Throughout his career, fanciers
could always count on the quality that the Heinzl line was based on, when
acquiring a Heinzl dog. These qualities included beautiful athletic
conformation, soundness, health and beautiful heads with strong teeth. The
Heinzl dogs were known for wrestling ability, being long winded and possessing
endless endurance. His family of dogs, after his many years of selection, all
had these qualities. This is what constitutes a bloodline. the dogs breed true
for the trait or traits that the breeder is aiming for.
Now all coins have a flip side, and so it is with dogs. There are also
undesirable traits that are apparent in some dogs. There are certain bloodlines
that have become known in the American Pit Bull Terrier fraternity that breed
true for some of the more undesirable traits such as shyness, structural
problems or health issues.
So what can we learn from looking at the Heinzl dogs as an example of a
bloodline and Howard Heinzl as a breeder of American Pit Bull Terriers?
1) A bloodline can be defined as a family of dogs that breed true for certain
traits that the breeder sets as his "standard". A breeder's standard should
always start with breed type. Those physical characteristics that were
established in the breed that reflect the history and original purpose of the
breed and enable a breed to be distinguished apart from other breeds. These
include temperament, overall proportions, balance, soundness and health.
2) A breeder has to start with quality stock from somewhere. A through research
into the dogs in the background or the pedigree of the dogs is ESSENTIAL to
learn about the traits that they possess as well as how they were developed.
Such as line breeding, inbreeding or out-crossed breeding. As in the example of
Howard Heinzl, many successful breeders usually start with two or three
outstanding lines to serve as the foundation of their bloodlines.
3) The principals of genetics and the ways to breed, (i.e., line breeding,
inbreeding and out-cross breeding), and the strengths and weakness of each needs
to be understood.
4) Accurate records of the breeding made and the pups produced need to be kept .
Follow-up in the evaluation of the pups is essential, as is the selection of
quality brood stock for future breeding. A breeding may look great on paper, but
the evaluation of the offspring is essential to confirm what works and what does
not. The pups that do not measure up to the breeder's "standard" should be
spayed and neutered and go into responsible pet homes, so as not to muddy up or
spoil the name of the breeder by producing sub-standard dogs that carry on the
name of the breeder.
A bloodline can be based on a breeder, such as in the example of Howard Heinzl,
or it can also be based on an individual stud dog or brood bitch. In this case,
it is usually a prominent dog that genetically throws such quality, that a high
percentage of its offspring all breed true for this quality. An example of this
is Crenshaw's (Jerry's) Champion Honeybunch. Honeybunch was a bitch from the
Carver and Boudreaux bloodline which genetically possessed such quality that,
when bred to five different stud dogs, produced top dogs from every litter.
There was no wrong way to breed this bitch. She produced quality from all five
breeders. One of her sons, Crenshaw's Champion Jeep, is given credit in some
circles for being one of the greatest producing studs of modern APBT history,
You hear of fanciers, that credit Jeep with establishing a distinct "bloodline"
of his own. We can argue that, Jeep is really a dog from the Honeybunch line or
25% Carver, 25% Boudreaux, 50% Loposay cross, depending on how far back in his
pedigree you want to go or to whom you want to give the credit.
For a person who wishes to establish a quality bloodline of dogs, accurate
record keeping is essential to record breeding’s, pups produced and establish
accurate pedigrees. Each breeder or person wishing to establish themselves as a
breeder must recognize and value this fact. If they do not, the predictability
of the quality in the offspring that they produce is really a crap shoot and not
based on the genetic laws of probability. Tell me which person wants to devote
20 years of time and money to develop a line of dogs that will not breed true
because someone hung papers on an unknown dog for a quick buck? When you hear of
someone claiming not to care about this or touting, "so and so did it, so I'm
not so bad", you can quickly determine their quality of commitment to their
breeding program and to the future of the breed.
Becoming a breeder of high quality American Pit Bull Terriers and establishing a
"bloodline" of which to be proud, is no small feat. It is certainly more than
putting a few litters on the ground. We salute those breeders of the past and
those today that remain committed in producing the finest quality APBT's for
future generations to come.
_______________________________________
Line
breeding is: A
breeders tool used to develop, isolate and set specific desirable traits into
succeeding generations. Line breeding can be seen in registered dogs by having
specific high caliber or quality ancestors two or more times in the recent
pedigree as noted in the table above. Line breeding often has more than one high
quality ancestor multiple times in the same pedigree. However, from a purely
scientific point of view, linebreeding can also be defined as breeding two
individuals containing at least one common ancestor. This common ancestor may
contribute a negligible amount to the descendants, or a great amount. This makes
the scientific meaning lacking in true art and practice. You can do a
line-breeding that has absolutely nothing to do with refining or setting
specific traits or you can practice the art and craft of breeding better animals
and make rational choices in your program.
Ultimately, linebreeding is simple concept that is extremely complicated as a
breeding tool. One must remember that linebreeding is a program that produces
animals from a single line of descent from a common or a few common and
outstanding ancestors. The goal is not to reproduce the quality of the ancestors
but to try maintain as many of their good qualities as possible while improving
their deficiencies by refining the genetics of the line. If you know a breeder
that is producing the perfect animals then why the hell do you need to breed?
Just buy all your dogs from this breeder. If a breeder is producing superior
dogs and you breed off their lines will you produce better dogs than that
breeder? If not then do the breed a favor and do not breed.
Inbreeding
Willis (1989) defines INBREEDING as the mating of animals "more closely
related to one another than the average relationship within the breed." From the
introductory table we can see that these involve brother/sister or parent/child
breeding.
With all the negative connotations associated with inbreeding why discuss it as
a viable breeders tool?
It is true inbreeding can create horrific genetic mistakes or it can be the best
and fastest way to improve and standardize a line (set traits). IN the first
sense it is a useful genetic tool to reveal hidden recessive genetic problems in
your line by doubling up on them and making them express themselves (as it were
LOL). Note this is a tool used to reveal hidden defects and these defectives
should be culled from the breeding pool. In the second sense when your line is
heterotrophic for beneficial traits you can do inbreeding to make them
homozygous (set the trait). Note it must be a tremendously important trait or
preferably numerous traits you are trying to set within your line to consider
inbreeding as the best method to set the trait. So here inbreedings are done to
verify the superiority of a particular strain or to check for recessive
problems. Any weaknesses, faults, deformities, etc. are likely to show up. If a
truly superior line or strain has been developed, containing only desirable
qualities, these desirable qualities will be seen in the resulting offspring.
Outcross
Outcrossing brings together two APBTs that are less related than the average for
the breed. By convention both the sire and dam during an outcross should have
some linebreeding in their background because no matter how you slice it,
breeding a scatterbred dog to a linebred dog produces a scatterbred dog (see our
case study below). Many breeders feel this is outcrossing but in reality you now
have only half your lines genes and no rational idea what the other half may be.
Thus we usually consider outcrossing to involve two linebred or inbred animals
from different bloodlines.
A reason to outbreed would be to bring in new traits that your breeding stock
does not possess or to decrease the inbreeding coefficient or typically both.
When you are looking for high quality traits, also termed aptitudes, that are
not present in acceptable members of your germline, then the most obvious way to
bring in missing aptitudes is to outcross to a line prepotent for these. Thus,
if you are experiencing inbreeding depression you can seek dogs outside your
lines with aptitudes that compliment your lines weaknesses. Example one would
choose a mate that does not possess the same faults while phenotypically
complements and hopefully maintains your dog's good traits. By convention both
individuals should be linebred but share no common ancestors in 5 generation
pedigree. This promotes more heterozygosity, and gene diversity within each dog
by matching pairs of unrelated genes from different ancestors. Note that the key
type genes that define our breed will always stay paired. Unfortunately,
outbreeding can also mask the expression of recessive genes, and allow their
propagation in the carrier state.
Overview of Breeding Methods
Ok ...Now
we have a VERY brief overview of breeding methods and what each is lets talk
about GENES. The very thing those methods revolve around.
Think of all the characteristics of your dog as individual paired packets of
information. The black nose, the red nose, the temperament, strong working
drive, dog aggression, good angulations, strong front, laziness, weak underjaw,
tendency to be fat, tremendous muscle tone, big head, too long tail, straight
topline, short back, powerful reach and drive and essentially all other
characteristics that make up or are missing from a specific “breed type” or
“line type”. All these traits are determined by paired packets of information.
In a simplistic form the sire of a dog provides one packet and the dam provides
the second packet to create this pair.
Now lets look at some terms so we can go forward and understand genentics in its
basics.
To help
with the understanding I like the following symbolisms to put together a mental
image. Take “your” perfect image of “your” perfect APBT. Think of this perfect
dog as the perfect BOOK (DOG = BOOK). This BOOK is a masterpiece of binding
leather bound and hand stitched, the best edition of the book you have ever seen
(Top 10 #1 dog of all time) and has all of your favorite fonts and pagination
(type). The book is written in a particular language that is universal (genome),
these books are divided into chapters (chromosomes), these chapters are made up
of paragraphs (operons). The paragraphs are made up of sentences (genes), these
sentences are formed by words (codons), and these words are created by single
letters (Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA). Thus, we see that DNA is the most
fundamental unit of heredity.
NOW that
we have language we can communicate in lets get some ground rules in how Genes
work.
Genes occur in pairs in the dog. The dog has 39 chromosome pairs (total of 78
chromosomes). This is what is meant by diploid (diploid = double). There is
another term of importance which is haploid (haploid = half) that describes the
genome of the egg and sperm.
DNA is an
amazing molecule (even to a geneticist) and its primary and most magical
characteristic is that it has over billions of years developed the ability to
replicate. In other words it is able to make exact copies of itself. This
ability to make functional copies is the basis for heredity. It is not the
parent’s genes which are passed on to the puppies but copies of the parental
genes. Another thing I’d like to throw in here is that: It is not copies of all
the parental genes it is only half of the parental genes that are passed to any
given puppy .
The first
stage of inheritance is the production of either the sperm or the egg. Do not
view the sperm and the egg as perfect little genetic representations of each
parent. Do not consider that when these two "sex" cells combine (one from rover
and one from foxy) and that there is a blending to create "roxy". Combining a
dog that lacks "x" with a dog with too much "x" will NOT likely produce a dog
with perfect "x". Again this concept cannot be stressed too much or too often at
the beginning of our learning: There is no melting together or blending of
genetic traits. Most likely from such a cross you would get half the litter that
has poor "x" and half the litter that has too much "x". This prediction is also
simplistic but it serves to distinguish between blending and particulate
inheritance. Particulate inheritance means that genetic information is
transmitted from one generation to the next in discrete unchanging (not
accounting for evolutionary and mutation events ;-) ) units ("genes"). .
The dogs themselves are diploid but both the egg and sperm are haploid meaning
that they (unlike the actual dogs) only contain one of the two alleles encoded
by the dog. This is what is known as segregation. Segregation is the next
concept of importance. Segregation as a concept, is vital to understanding what
goes on when you are doing outcrosses, family and line-breeding. We will delve
more into segregation and random selection later. However, what we mean by
segregation is that when the pregnant dog produces eggs, her chromosome pairs
are segregated equally into haploid states in the eggs. Meaning The members of
the gene pairs segregate (separate) equally into the gametes. The same is true
for the male. His diploid genome is segregated equally into individual sperm
which are haploid. A good example to use and one we will return to eventually is
sex determinant. Thus the Gametic content states that each gamete (sperm or egg)
carries only one member of each pair.
______________________________________________________________________
A line of dogs in
a breeding program
|
A line is a family that is inter-connected by breeding
close relatives who all have ancestors in common within the first three
generations of each parent's pedigree. A line reproduces family traits such as
soundness, health, size, body structure, temperament, eye color, coat type,
color patterns, and pigment, or any lack thereof. Inbreeding, or line
breeding magnifies what is already in the gene pool. It is natural for herd
animals like deer, and horses to inbreed in the wild, as it is for pack animals
such as dogs, wolves and coyotes. Feral dogs the world over tend to have the
same physical characteristics. It is only when humans become involved in
breeding dogs for specific purposes that their physical characteristics take on
those of the various breeds. It is only by inbreeding that breeds are
developed.
It is impossible to line breed scatter-bred dogs, but
they can be inbred, i.e. breeding littermates is inbreeding, but, as there is
no family line behind the sibling parents their offspring are not line-bred. An
out-cross is breeding unrelated dogs of the same breed. Continuous out-crossing
is called scatter-breeding. Scatter-breeding dogs may produce an outstanding
individual, but it's next to impossible for it to reproduce those same fine
qualities in its offspring.
Back-crossing is breeding back to a great-grandsire, or
great uncle, or great grand-dam, or great aunt. The younger dog, or bitch
carries this dog, or bitch, or it's sibling in his/her pedigree. It's a great
way to bring older traits forward again, and refresh the gene pool without going
outside the line.
The offspring draw 50% of their genes from their sire, and
50% from their dam. The reason that dogs within a litter look different is
because no two have inherited the same genes, in the same combination, unless
they are born from the same sac, and are monozygotic, or identical twins. The
tighter the gene pool the narrower the differences among littermates. Breeders
must take genotype, and phenotype into consideration when planning breedings.
Genotype is the genetic composition of the animal, in
other words the combination of alleles it possesses. There are two alleles, one
from each parent, which occupy the same position on homologous chromosomes.
Homologous chromosomes have the same pattern of genes along the chromosome, but
the nature of the genes may differ. In diploid nuclei, pairs of homologous
chromosomes can be identified at meiosis (cell division). In animals all the
cells except the reproductive cells are diploid. Two sets of chromosomes are
present, one set from the female parent, and one set from the male parent.
Reproductive cells formed as a result of meiosis are haploid. Fusion of two
such cells restores the normal diploid number (XX or XY). One allele is often
dominant to the other allele which is called the recessive. The dominant allele
determines which aspect of a particular characteristic that the dog will
display. The aspect of the recessive allele only appears when two such alleles
are present, as in the double recessive condition. As an example, in AST's blue
coat color was the result of a recessive allele. Breeding blue, to blue caused
a double recessive that has become as a dominant allele in aspect. In many
programs blue has become the dominant color. This same principle holds true
for red nose, or liver, a variant dilute.
Phenotype is the observable characteristics of the dog, or
what you see. It is determined by the genes, and by the dominance relationship
of the alleles. Phenotype can also be determined by the dog's environment, and
nurture. For instance if a dog's ears are cropped, or its dew-claws removed,
nurture is the reason for the difference in it's appearance. If a dog is
starved, it won't have the same appearance as a dog that has been nurtured.
Phenotype is a combination of genotype, environment, and nurture, all playing a
role in the dog's appearance.
Breeding sound, healthy dogs that are closely related
increases the odds for reproducing very similar genotype, and phenotype. The
key words here being sound, and healthy. It also unmasks masked genetic
traits. Dogs, like humans, have two kinds of sex chromosomes, the X chromosome,
which is similar in size to the other chromosomes, and the Y chromosome which is
smaller. Two X chromosomes makes a female, and one X, and one Y make a male.
Sex chromosomes not only carry genes that govern the development of sex organs,
and sexual characteristics, they also carry other genes which are unrelated to
sex. They are called sex linked genes. They govern coat color, eye color,
and pigment, or lack of pigment.
The reason that stud dogs get blamed more often that the
bitch for defective puppies is that females have two X chromosomes. If one
carries an abnormal allele it is likely that its effects will be masked by a
normal allele on the other X chromosome. Males, only having one X chromosome,
their abnormal alleles will not be masked. A female with an allele for a
defective condition that is masked by a normal dominant allele may not suffer
from the condition, but as a carrier pass on the defective allele to the
offspring.
Scatter-breeding masks defects, but they will eventually
surface with devastating effects upon the breed. Line breeding tests the
strength of a breeding program. A gene pool is only as strong as its weakest
gene.
____________________________________________________________
Breeding the dog or the pedigree
All dogs carry defective genes.
These defective genes are usually "recessive"-that is, their expression can be
covered up by the presence of a normal gene for that function. It is estimated
that the average dog carries 4 to 7 defective genes in it's DNA. (The human
estimate is 10 to 12). Since genes are always carried in pairs, most of these
abnormal genes are carried in a only single dose, so that their presence is
completely concealed by the other, normal gene. What is a gene? A useful analogy
is that a gene is like a set of instructions given to a particular workman doing
a small job on a very big construction site. Each workman gets two sets of
plans. If one set is damaged, he still has one good set, and the job can
proceed. But if both sets are damaged, the job will not be finished, or it will
be done wrong. A gene is a large molecule, a long double strand of DNA, composed
of a backbone of two long sugar molecules linked by pairs of smaller molecules
called "bases" or "nucleotides". It is the sequence of these nucleotides that
encodes the information contained in the gene.
How does a gene become defective? During normal cell division, an exact copy is
made of each and every gene in the cell, and then it divides into two daughter
cells which are each an exact copy of the original cell. Defective genes are
caused by a "mutation". If something happens to disrupt the exact replication of
the DNA during cell division, a defective gene results. Only a few changes in
the base sequence can render the information in that gene useless. The process
of aging is undoubtedly the effect of accumulated random defects of this sort,
as are most types of cancer.
In the formation of egg and sperm, a special type of division takes place.
Instead replicating the genetic material, so that both the daughter cells have a
full complement of genes (two genes of each type), the genetic material is
divided, so that each reproductive cell has only one gene of each type. When
sperm and egg finally meet, the full complement of genes is restored, and a new
individual, carrying half of its mother's genes and half of its father's genes
is created.
Selective breeding. Nearly all breeding of domestic animals is selective as
opposed to random. Years ago, before the era of scientific genetics, breeding
was done more by phenotype than by pedigree. Race horses tended to be bred by
the stopwatch. That was where the money was. Dairy cattle were bred by the
volume and quality of their milk, meat animals, by the speed of maturation and
ratio of feed to meat, and so on. Later, it was recognized that breeding
together closely related animals tended to speed up the process of "fixing" the
desired traits within a few generations.
Breeding by pedigree is the type of selective breeding most often practiced
today. It nearly always involves some degree of inbreeding. The logic is simple.
We know that an animal's traits are genetically controlled. We can even
calculate the percentage of a particular animal's genes residing in the cells of
one of its descendants. When we mate closely related animals whose family shows
(has the phenotype of) the desired trait, we are reasonably sure it will appear
in the offspring. Some breeders have carried this practice to remarkable
extremes, failing to realize there is a "catch" to the pedigree method. What
about those defective genes? The ones you can't see because they are covered up"
by intact ones. When we breed closely related animals, (let us say because they
have super rears), we can see the desired trait. This trait is genetically
controlled, like all traits. These two closely related animals share the genes
for their super rears as a result of their close genetic relationship. What we
can't see is the PRA gene or the kidney disease gene that these two animals also
share as a result of their close genetic relationship. When we double up on the
good rears we are also doubling up on the particular hidden defects they share.
We can see the results of this type of concentration of mutations in some human
populations which have been relatively inbred by reason of isolation due to
status, geography, or religion. Some examples that come to mind are Tay-Sachs
disease in eastern European Jews, and hemophilia in some royal families.
Phenotype breeding has been largely neglected in recent years. It has fallen
into undeserved disrepute as the more popular inbreeding has produced faster and
more dramatic changes. I say undeservedly, because it has much to recommend it,
and voids some of the serious pitfalls of inbreeding.
Again, we look at the phenotype of two relatively unrelated animals. They both
have good rears, which we want. Why do they share this trait? For the same
reason that he two related ones did: they both have the set of genes which
produce good rears. But what about hidden, bad genes? Since these animals could
not have been selected for unseen characteristics, (after all, if you can't see
it you can't consciously select for it), they probably do not share many of
these defective genes. To be sure, they still carry their load of defects in
their own private collections, but they most likely each carry a different set.
This being the case, it is very unlikely that any one offspring will inherit two
copies of the same defective gene. It is very likely, however, that they will
all have good rears.
Phenotype breeding is still selective breeding. We are selecting those animals
which show the desired traits, while minimizing the probability of doubling up
on hidden, undesired ones. Inbreeding and linebreeding, on the other hand,
select for both the phenotypic and genotypic traits, and dramatically increases
the probability of producing animals homozygous for defects.
The lesson in all of this is that we should pay less attention to pedigrees,
particularly in terms of looking for similarities on paper when we breed, and
more attention to the dogs themselves. All too many breeders make their breeding
decisions on paper, and not in the flesh. We need to consider the pedigrees as
they relate to the qualities of the parent animal - did his mom and dad have
good rears - rather than to insist he be related to our prospective brood b#tch.
We can get the results we want by breeding unrelated "like to like", without the
tragic by products of inbreeding.
Dr. Catherine Marley
_____________________________________________________________
|
