Re: [pyrnet] New and want info on showing

[JGentzel@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/12/01 8:11:55 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
bamb@monmouth.com writes:


> when i look at my own dogs, I'm very critical


If you are not critical you can never be a good breeder.  IMHO, breeding is 
two totally separate things, but completely necessary together to get good 
results.  First you never breed a fault to a fault (phenotype).  So you much 
be objective to identify faults and breed away from them.  Then you need to 
understand the genotype i.e. the genes that you are likely to pass on and 
what the likelihood that these will get passed on.  Too many reasons for this 
to begin listing.  Your great breeders do both of these thing most times 
without ever knowing it.  Most of the rest of us in order to have any success 
must work hard at it.  I am not saying the greats do not work hard at it, but 
they just know somehow things we will never know.  I have been jealous of 
these folks all my dog breeding life <G>.  We can study what they did that 
was good or bad and look and identify what possibly caused it.  We now have 
powerful computer programs that  will give one more information than they can 
use.  My opinion is this is very true of our genetic problems.  Now we have a 
third variable involved.  Not to breed the genetic problem, but breed the 
phenotype we want i.e. throw good type without throwing the gene problems.   
But it all starts at step one.  Knowing what is right, identifying it 
critically, and formulating a breeding program to compensate for the 
weaknesses and stress the strengths.  That is what the proponents of total 
outcrossing every breeding can never do.  They never really know what genes 
lurk in their breeding and have a huge variety in the breeding Get.  

Seaver will tell you today that Marjorie Butcher never line bred and Edith 
said it in writing during her life time.  I believe that she never considered 
line breeding.  But she was one of those gifted ones as was Edith Smith.  
Gifts we can only read about and admire.  The objective data, looking at the 
genotype, of what she did, indicates the result was line bred on the old "de 
Soum" gene pool from which most if not all our really good type in North 
America comes.   

Joe