Breed Notes
20th August

This week’s subject is PEDIGREES: A pedigree, if recorded correctly, is a chart or family tree showing all ancestors of a dog so you can relate a pedigree to an ancestry chart, seeing who is who in a family

Many, many years back and credit must be given to one, Margaret Osborne (Shiel) who, without the use of a pedigree database (they had not even been invented then!) recorded the many thousands of collies, on index cards, sorting out their relationships into one of the “Bibles” of the breed. This was a small, duplicated publication known as Collie Lines and Families, a must for anyone really wishing to research their Collie’s pedigree. There are still a few copies around but they are becoming very scarce and dog-eared. It was produced from recording all collies registered at the KC from the earliest times, yes there were errors, but dear Maggie did a wonderful piece of work on the breed and those Index cards 5,000 plus written in a very distinct hand still exist! Should anyone wish to know further information please contact either myself or Dareen Bridge, the Official Breed Archivist and time permitting, we may be able to help out.

Others have followed by producing books containing lines and families and currently, the influence of bitch lines to our breed is being undertaken by another eminent breeder, John Blake, (Corydon) so this should be of interest to many. There are many areas especially in the early days when the KCSB concentrated purely one the sire and often did not record the dam. So, although it is unlikely, should anyone have pedigree details of collies from around  1870 onwards this would be appreciated by all, especially as the females in a pedigree are as important as the males but often do not receive the credit they deserve as many a kennel has had maybe one or two excellent foundation bitches.

Note, many of the good bitches in a kennel may not be Champions in the ring though but are worth their weight in the whelping box

Before the days of electronic pedigree data systems (and how they save time) I can recall sitting with fellow exhibitors and having copious cups of tea/coffee and actually taking on board the comments that were made concerning a prospective sire to a future litter. In fact, having located a few very old pedigrees, there are marks and comments regarding many of the ancestors which were discussed prior to doing an actual mating!

These comments included, round or light eyes, short tail, poor front or rear and other various aspects, and later when health issues came to the fore, comments regarding health!

As a young breeder, there was nothing better than send off to any of the companies, including Our Dogs, Vetzyme or a food supplier for a pack of pedigree forms, or if affluent, you actually had personalized forms printed with the kennel name and details.
I would never fully complete a pedigree for a litter until the actual litter arrived as I often felt it may bring bad luck.
Then, armed with a Red and a Black/Blue Biro, a ruler, one would sit down and hand-write a pedigree for every puppy in the litter.

Then in days of type-writers, if you could, actually typing out all those names for a 5 generation pedigree and just hoping that you typed in the name correctly, otherwise you had to start all over again!

That way you actually found out and maybe remembered how a dog was bred! As you wrote the names, you learnt and occasionally discovered why a mating was made. Possibly by line breeding to a particular dog, or, worse, the number of times the same name cropped up in a pedigree, known as in-breeding.

I often see on pedigrees of dogs for sale, “x number of Champions in this pedigree”. Probably for those wanting to purchase a dog, will this influence them? I doubt it, as often the same dog or dogs are counted more than once.  Joe public can be gullible at times!
With the electronic pedigree based systems, which I find so easy to use, there are actually various ways of looking a pedigree. These include a check on the coefficient of in breeding on any particular dog, noting how many related dogs appear in anything from a 3 – 10 generation pedigree, the number of champions etc etc. Such a brilliant idea, but also a useful tool should you be researching any genetic issues, as each individual entry can be marked to that effect. This means, careful breeders will often use these systems to great advantage as it will give them a “heads up” on any suggested mating or a check concerning one particular animal.

However, as advantageous as they are, I fear the ART of reading and understanding a pedigree is lost on many as it is far too easy to press a few keys here and there, press print and out come copies for the future purchaser! With very little thought as to the relationship of any of the parents, or even if the same names appear throughout a pedigree.
Recently I was contacted by someone who was asking about a suitable male to mate to their bitch. After some long discussions we came up with a few names of possible dogs, but one was totally disregarded on the grounds that is had the same name as one already in the pedigree.

When I enquired as to why, I was told that this name already appeared in her pedigree and although it was a bitch, she did not wish to use the suggested male as she heard that in breeding was a no no and wished not to “In breed” to a close relative. I gave up at that point

When sending in the pedigree of a new “Import” to the KC for its details to be recorded, how many actually check or even know if those listed in the pedigree are true and correct or not?

It is not up to the KC at Aylesbury to check. Do you think they have either a) time or b) access to the many Kennel Club registration departments all over Europe. We can only hope that all pedigrees supplied by the breeders are genuine!
A correct, genuine pedigree is only as good as the details which have been recorded, so one tiny error in the spelling of a name can often result in a “new” record being created for the same dog!

Carole Smedley
(Antoc)