Recently she had bred her bitch to a dog with one of those pedigrees everyone wishes they could find. Not only was the sire's lineage a perfect line up to the bitch's, but he was a product of frozen seamen stored for over twenty-five years. The bitch's pedigree may not have the top dogs from the 1990's in the first five generations, but there is hidden off page. As it normally goes when expectations are high, only one female puppy was produced from the mating and she was finally going off to her new home. Thus the email request from my friend.
Online Pedigree generators are handy, but most do not store the information and only provide HTML or PDF as a method of save. My friend wanted to send the puppy people off with a five generation pedigree because the AKC form only will provide for three. She spent time entering information into one of those online sites and only produced a PDF that spanned two pages. Could I crank out that much information in a real short amount of time to get it to fit to one page? The answer was no, curse the thing called 'being at work'. The email chain grew longer and the plan to repeat the breeding came to light. She wanted the pedigree for her website with no rush to complete the task.
But it rained and there was no class and the house chores were caught up. The HTML I have been using on my own website had corrupted and I had to build a new table from scratch. By helping with the puppy pedigree, I could finally fix the problems I was having with with my own website. I cannot tell you how much fun I had despite the tedious 'cut & paste' methodology.
Basic page layout was complete and the puppy's ancestry slowly took form. Half of the sire's ancestors I did not recognize because they were from the early 1980's, but knowing the others made it interesting. I had time to really look over the dam's lineage and understand what each Rottweiler breeder was going for in their choices and then see the resulting championships and working titles. Decisions made from paper sometimes do nothing in the whelping box and vice versa, but this little puppy is the perfect match of genetics. If your are interested, visit the Von Braun Rottweiler page for more information.
I spent a few hours getting the table to balance while reminiscing on dogs long passed. Soon enough the final product was created and my friend was happy to have working HTML to add to her website. I was still in 'dog mode' and decided to fix the broken code on my own pedigrees, which meant I had be patient as each dog's name was cut and pasted for five pedigrees.
It was still raining and I was down to the two pedigree with missing information. One of Desi's ancestors had been sold to Japan and I was missing two dogs in one generation. Although it was from an American breeding, the kennel website did not have a pedigree for quick reference nor did anyone else's. Ironically, this night I found the missing information on a Chinese website, thank you Google Translate! The pedigree is now complete because the line goes straight back to the same dogs I am familiar with and suspected were there.
Years and years ago, I embarked on a pedigree search of Crumpet's ancestry to try to teach myself the value of 'on paper' mating decisions. I found a name or two which would open the pedigree to thirty generations before going cold again. Time would pass and I would luck up during a conversation at a show that would spark the interest again. I would go back sixty generations. I ended up with an almost complete lineage with the exception of a seventh generation blank. I finally found someone who knew the two dogs personally and she sent their four generation pedigree. It was a gold mine to me, completing the full pedigree back to the first English and American Champions and first registered Corgi in every line.
I learned a lot by typing out each name and creating my own Access Database. Eventually, I could click on the dog's name and produce the next view. Pembroke Welsh Corgis are unique because up until the 1980s, you will find the same dogs appearing in one lineage up to an easy fifty times. It is this tight breeding that caused, among others, von Willebrand Disease which is a form of Hemophilia. What could be interrupted as kennel arrogance turned out to be deeper. The breed was nearly wiped out during the Blitzkrieg and there were not many dogs to chose from. When genetic testing became available, it enabled everyone to make better out-cross decisions and lineages have opened.
When I picked Niven as the puppy I wanted, I was given copies of her parent's AKC Pedigrees. I knew from a quick glance that her sire was from working field lines, but her dam was a hard guess. Despite half the pedigree revealing working ability, I still took the puppy.
Working dog pedigrees are harder to read than Show dogs'. In the Show world, breeders have kennel names that can go for generations and help track backwards. If you know the kennel, you have a idea of what type of traits are consistently thrown with each generation. In the working world, breeders may select basic registered names where there are no references making it hard to figure generic kennel type from paper. All you have are the titles and can assume the dog worked.
Unfortunately, working dogs are normally selected for their ability to perform and not necessarily for their conformation. Titles become important while the conformation of tail, head, or ear set do not factor in. When I went to see the litter ten years ago, the remaining five puppies' conformation and type was consistent and I knew better than to walk away. I would take my chances by only knowing half the deal.
Basic page layout was complete and the puppy's ancestry slowly took form. Half of the sire's ancestors I did not recognize because they were from the early 1980's, but knowing the others made it interesting. I had time to really look over the dam's lineage and understand what each Rottweiler breeder was going for in their choices and then see the resulting championships and working titles. Decisions made from paper sometimes do nothing in the whelping box and vice versa, but this little puppy is the perfect match of genetics. If your are interested, visit the Von Braun Rottweiler page for more information.
I spent a few hours getting the table to balance while reminiscing on dogs long passed. Soon enough the final product was created and my friend was happy to have working HTML to add to her website. I was still in 'dog mode' and decided to fix the broken code on my own pedigrees, which meant I had be patient as each dog's name was cut and pasted for five pedigrees.
It was still raining and I was down to the two pedigree with missing information. One of Desi's ancestors had been sold to Japan and I was missing two dogs in one generation. Although it was from an American breeding, the kennel website did not have a pedigree for quick reference nor did anyone else's. Ironically, this night I found the missing information on a Chinese website, thank you Google Translate! The pedigree is now complete because the line goes straight back to the same dogs I am familiar with and suspected were there.
Years and years ago, I embarked on a pedigree search of Crumpet's ancestry to try to teach myself the value of 'on paper' mating decisions. I found a name or two which would open the pedigree to thirty generations before going cold again. Time would pass and I would luck up during a conversation at a show that would spark the interest again. I would go back sixty generations. I ended up with an almost complete lineage with the exception of a seventh generation blank. I finally found someone who knew the two dogs personally and she sent their four generation pedigree. It was a gold mine to me, completing the full pedigree back to the first English and American Champions and first registered Corgi in every line.
I learned a lot by typing out each name and creating my own Access Database. Eventually, I could click on the dog's name and produce the next view. Pembroke Welsh Corgis are unique because up until the 1980s, you will find the same dogs appearing in one lineage up to an easy fifty times. It is this tight breeding that caused, among others, von Willebrand Disease which is a form of Hemophilia. What could be interrupted as kennel arrogance turned out to be deeper. The breed was nearly wiped out during the Blitzkrieg and there were not many dogs to chose from. When genetic testing became available, it enabled everyone to make better out-cross decisions and lineages have opened.
When I picked Niven as the puppy I wanted, I was given copies of her parent's AKC Pedigrees. I knew from a quick glance that her sire was from working field lines, but her dam was a hard guess. Despite half the pedigree revealing working ability, I still took the puppy.
Working dog pedigrees are harder to read than Show dogs'. In the Show world, breeders have kennel names that can go for generations and help track backwards. If you know the kennel, you have a idea of what type of traits are consistently thrown with each generation. In the working world, breeders may select basic registered names where there are no references making it hard to figure generic kennel type from paper. All you have are the titles and can assume the dog worked.
Unfortunately, working dogs are normally selected for their ability to perform and not necessarily for their conformation. Titles become important while the conformation of tail, head, or ear set do not factor in. When I went to see the litter ten years ago, the remaining five puppies' conformation and type was consistent and I knew better than to walk away. I would take my chances by only knowing half the deal.
The Age of the Internet is awesome for research, but often contains false information. Every time we read, we have to assume the person doing the writing has the facts straight. This is no different when using someone's posted pedigree! I took my chances in piecing together Crumpet and Sprout's pedigrees and continue to take chances with Niven and Tarot's. It is always nice when you find a reliable source and I finally did. Could there be mistakes? Sure. In the case for certainty I would have to find the owner of the Stud Books or buy each pedigree from the American Kennel Club.
With that in mind, ten years ago I started a search on Niven's pedigree. The field titled dogs were easy to find and I bonused with background information. Then I found an online pedigree database where I could enter a dog's name and within minutes, be taken back to 1870. It was the greatest experience accompanied by photos and extended background info, if only field wins. From what I could tell fifteen generations back, someone knew what they had and continued the tradition of working dogs.
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| Niven's Sire: "Damien's Scar" |
What do you do with the other side of the pedigree? With no titles one can assume these dogs were family pets or personal hunting dogs. Maybe there is a photo or two posted to an old website or on Facebook for "Throw Back Thursday", but that does me no good. If anything, I figured there had to be some titles back there, maybe more breed championships than performance? All I could do was sit, stare, and imagine the grandiose hidden lineage.Google searches led no where except for one dog entered at a breed show in 1997. Every couple of years I would have a few minutes to search, but with the same results. For nine years, I have stared at that fifth generation and wondered what was back there and eventually resigned myself to letting it go. These dogs were long gone and the paperwork with them. Who would spend the time entering in information twenty years later?
So.
It still rained. It has been raining hard for days and Tarot is in season which means my routine is changed to one night of classes with the other dogs. I have free time after spending an evening creating an HTML file for my friend's fantastic repeat breeding. I decided to do another search.
Desi's missing ancestors were found first, followed by Niven's. By the time I was done searching the eight names left in the pedigree, I was ecstatic with four found. Where Damien and Tex's (Tarot's Sire) pedigrees are heavily entwined on the same working titled dogs, Sady's goes back to breed and dual champions. It merges in the 1950's with their pedigree of foundation dogs, all ending with "Netherby Boatswain" whelped in 1868 . Now I hold hope for the other missing names to appear in a search one day, but I think I know where this goes.
I realize there is an argument concerning when in a pedigree the dog or bitch becomes less influential. Some say four or five generations, but I have experienced genetics pop up from ten generations back and it comes down to knowing what is back there. Maybe I do not need to worry about those missing grand parents in the sixth generation? In any case, I am glad to be a bit more educated concerning the pedigrees we are continuing and I look forward to the future.
Here is to you, Sady X. Your mystery pedigree is slowly being revealed after ten years.
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| Niven's Dam: "Sady X" |
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| Damien & Sady |
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| Niven |
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| Tarot |
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