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Once the basic principles are learned and understood, it becomes an invaluable tool to breed improvement. It helps you to understand why certain traits that were not seen in the conformation of the parents can turn up in the conformation of the offspring. You no longer feel as if you are groping blindly in the dark in your quest to improve your dogs.
Because I am not an expert within this field, I do not intend to delve too deeply into how the sperm and ovum carry the genes or the mechanics of microscopic reproduction. This subject can be learned from many good texts written for the layman in comprehensible terms. If you have little or no knowledge of these facts, you should learn your basics as it will give you a better understanding of the information contained in this section. I have included my own basic descriptions in that, without some knowledge of reproduction, you will not understand the following concepts. Mainly I intend to explain how genetic understanding can be used to accomplish your breeding goals and how I use it.
When planning a breeding, the more information you have about each parent’s relatives, the more accurately you can predict what traits that particular animal is likely to pass on to it’s offspring. The ancestral names, which appear on a pedigree, have no value unless you have specific information about as many individuals as possible. Try to actually see as many of the ancestors as you can, either by photo or in person. Evaluate each one in terms of conformation, health and temperament and what they have produced if applicable. Keep a file on each dog, either on your computer (my method) or on hard copies so you can refer back as needed. Photographs or videos are also extremely helpful.
If you cannot see the animal in person, interview those who have. Ask them as many questions as you can think of about each dog. The more information you accumulate, the more accurate will be your ability to predict what to expect in the litter.
INHERITENCE
Some elementary genetic principles must be illustrated here in order to understand what follows.
The new pup inherits half it’s genes from its sire and half from its dam. The genes are the chemical blueprint which determines every inherited physical characteristic each pup in the litter will have. They determine his size, colour, whether his back is long or short, whether his head is pretty or common, on and on for every part of his body inside and out.
There are two types of cells in the dog, as in other living organisms. The body cells, known as SOMATIC cells, which are found in all tissues of the body such as skin, internal organs, bone, etcetera. These somatic cells differ from the sex cells in that they carry a full compliment of the animal’s genetic material, 78 CHROMOSOMES in the case of the dog. The GENES reside upon the chromosomes. The sex cells, called GAMATES, are the sperm cells in the male dog and the egg cells, or ova, in the bitch. The gamates carry only ONE HALF the chromosomes of the somatic cells . Since the genes are found contained within the chromosomes, this means that the gametes only have one half the genes of the body cells. This seems to be the most difficult concept for the beginning student of genetic inheritance to grasp. The SOMATIC CELL (body cell). contains the nucleus which contains the 64 pairs of chromosomes, which contain the genes.
There are several different methods of planned breeding used by knowledgeable breeders. All have their good points and their drawbacks. Sometimes one must simply experiment with the different methods to establish which will work best under any given circumstances. This, then, brings us to a discussion of inbreeding, linebreeding, and outcrossing.
INBREEDING
Inbreeding is generally considered to be the closest type of breeding possible. Full brother to full sister, mother to son and father to daughter.
Ironically, an occasional sister/brother mating may not be genetically close at all since the possibility exists for each sibling to have received entirely different sets of genes from each parent. This is, however, seldom the case and we can assume it to be inbreeding for our purposes.
Those who do not understand genetic principles often condemn in-breeding, claiming that it weakens the animal which it produces. In many cases this can be true, but inbreeding itself is not the culprit.
By its very nature inbreeding gives the greatest probability that recessive genes will be expressed. This is because closely related animals are more likely to carry the same recessives in their geno-type than unrelated animals. By breeding these close relatives to each other the chances are high that two recessive genes, or groups of recessive genes, will meet and produce the trait they control in the animal’s phenotype. Inbreeding’s poor reputation is due to the fact that traits which are controlled by recessive genes are often undesirable, such as light eyes or incorrect mouths. If the trait they control is desirable, then inbreed-ing is considered to be successful, but you usually get some of each.
Inbreeding can be a very useful tool for pinpointing an animal’s genotype. When inbreeding is employed, it is safest after linebreeding has set a type and you have related dogs that consistently produce the qualities you have been striving to “set” in your breeding line. You should have a very clear idea of what your gene pool is capable of producing and then use only animals whose phenotype is as nearly perfect as possible. Even then it can be risky, but if successful, you have a real prize. Inbreeding should be a tool held only in the hands of a knowledgeable breeder, it is definitely not for the novice. Remember also there are some countries that have removed certain types of breeding for what they believe to be the betterment of the breed
LINE BREEDING
This practice usually includes pairings such as, niece to uncle, grand child to grand parent, half sister to half brother or a pairing which includes one animal’s name somewhere within the first three gen-erations on both sides of the pedigree. Linebreeding is probably the safest approach when establishing a breeding line. Although recessives can certainly be expressed when using this method, the frequency is not as high as with inbreeding. There is a wider margin for error here because progress is more gradual.
As with inbreeding, you must be sure to use only superior quality individuals when linebreeding. You must also be certain that the ancestor being linebred on is himself or herself a superior specimen of the breed, and has the traits you are trying to set in your line. If you linebreed on faulty animals, you’re more than likely going to get faulty pups. You must also be sure not to breed two animals together that have faults in common.
In other words, if the dog is a bit cow-hocked, make sure that the bitch is perfect in her rear legs.
OUT CROSSING
This is the mating of unrelated animals who do not have any ancestors in common within the first 4 or 5 generations. Unlike inbreeding and line-breeding, this method will do nothing to make the resulting pup more homozygous genetically. It is very difficult to predict with any accuracy what results might be obtained from such a mating unless the outcross mate is, himself, line bred. The continued use of this breeding method will never produce a group of animals which breed true for any characteristic.
One advantage of this method is that you are less likely to encounter any recessive genetic problems unless the parents each carry these genes. Outcrossing can best be used when, after several generations of line-breeding you have established a gene pool which breeds true most of the time for the traits you desire, but you find that your gene pool does not contain genes for producing, for example, a beautiful head. You will try to locate a stud dog, who is from a linebred family with beautiful heads, and who has himself consistently produced pups with beautiful heads. Even though this animal himself is the result of linebreeding he is unrelated to your own animals and the resultant breeding is considered an outcross. Then you take the good headed results of this mating and breed it back to your own linebred bitches. You have now obtained the genes you need to work with in order to put beautiful heads on your future puppies.
Besides the above outlined breeding techniques, there are several others. I will not go into them here, but many breeding books can fully explain them to you. Much can be learned from books concerned with breeding other types of animals such as horses, cattle and chickens. The principles are identical.
NATURAL BREEDING
If a bitch will not stand and tries to savage the dog, then maybe she should not be bred at all. One of the most important traits for which one should select is fertility, and dogs who breed readily. Natural breeding is the most common and most successful method of breeding.
Even with all the scientific advancements I still believe that the dog and the bitch know best when the moment is right!
I like to allow the dogs to meet each other while held on a 6 foot lead if possible.
Some dogs will greet the bitch and invite her to play with him. If the bitch seems so inclined, it’s to everyone’s benefit to let them both off lead in a small enclosure and let them play. The dog will usually try to mount right away. If the bitch is receptive, she’ll brace her hind legs apart, and ‘flag’ her tail to the side. Often you can allow the tie to occur before steadying the bitches head and helping the male to turn.
The ‘tie’ occurs when the bitch’s vaginal muscles contract and hold the ‘ball’ that forms at the base of the penis. The natural impulse of the male is to dismount with both forelegs on one side of the bitch. He will then lift a hind leg and try to turn so that the dogs are tail to tail, with only the tie holding them together. It is during the tie, that, the bulk of the sperm is ejaculated. The first fluid is usually clear seminal fluid and when the fluid becomes milky, it’s full of sperm.
Be sure and have a good hold on the bitch’s head when the tie occurs. This is often painful for her and she may try to turn and bite.
If the dog is interested and trying to breed, and the bitch is standing well, but they’re just not connecting, don’t panic. The chances are that you’re a day or two early. Commonly, when you try on the following day, it’s a case of instant tie! Often the handlers want to constantly interfere with the dogs in an attempt to facilitate the breeding.
It’s been my experience that the dogs are far more adept than we are and if left alone, will accomplish the breeding when the time is right. However, there has been cases when the bitch tries to walk away and severely damaged the males part's, so much care is needed.
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
This method is used under several circumstances. When a stud won’t or can’t, breed properly, when the stud is many miles away and you don’t want to ship the bitch, or when the stud has died and his semen has been stored.
Whether you’re using frozen semen or cooled, you and your bitch will have to put yourselves in the hands of the experts. The bitch is inseminated in one of 2 ways, surgically or transcervically.
Surgical insemination requires that the bitch be anesthetized and the semen is introduced directly into the uterus through an incision through her side her side. The procedure with transcervical insemination introduces the semen directly through the cervix into the uterus and the bitch does not need to be sedated. Until recently there was a higher rate of pregnancy with the surgical procedure but I understand that it is equally successful transcervically.
In either case the bitches hormone levels must be closely monitored prior to breeding. The bitch is only fertile for a very short period of time and it’s just prior to this that the insemination must occur. Make sure that the vet performing this procedure has had a great deal of experience and success. It’s not enough to simply collect the semen and squirt it into the bitch. There’s a reason for the ‘tie’. It’s during the tie that the bitch’s vaginal and uterine muscles are contracting and helping to move the semen along into the uterus. Because of this the vet or technician must ‘feather’ the bitch. This involves inserting 2 or 3 fingers into the vulva as high as possible and then knotting them to simulate the stimulation she would get from a tie.
