Three Types of Dog Person – Which One are You?
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By Sandy Weaver
From the archives of The Canine Chronicle
If you’ve spent much time on social media in the past decade, chances are you’ve seen this marvelous quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt: “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
That got me thinking – how does that translate in the dog show world? Maybe something like this:
“Great minds discuss genotype. Average minds discuss phenotype. Small minds discuss people.”
Genotype is what a dog actually is, not just under the beautifully groomed coat, but under the skin. It’s the genetics of the dog and can only be assessed by deep and broad knowledge of the pedigree along with an honest analysis of offspring of that dog. In pedigree research, there’s depth and there’s breadth. The depth of the pedigree refers to knowledge of the actual animals listed on the document – how many have you seen in person and, ideally, had your hands on? Seeing pictures or videos doesn’t count. You need to have been up close and personal with as many of the dogs in the pedigree as possible in order to say that you have knowledge of those dogs. The breadth of a pedigree refers to the littermates of the dogs listed in the pedigree. How many of their siblings have you seen in person and had your hands on? Is the dog in the pedigree on par with the rest of the litter or the anomaly in the litter – the stellar dog in a litter of mediocre dogs? If so, then Stellar Dog may not reproduce what (s)he is phenotypically. Which brings us to the honest analysis of Stellar Dog’s offspring – you never truly know a dog’s genotype until you see what that dog can consistently produce.
Which brings us to the second part of the revised quote.
Click here to read the complete article
From the archives of The Canine Chronicle
Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=177917
Posted by AnthonyA
on Feb 1 2022. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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