Distant Genes Don't Die Out
I recently overheard a breeder (not a very successful one I may add) expound to another not-so-experienced young breeder that "only the immediate ancestors are of any real importance in a dog's pedigree". This person was trying to say that the nearer the ancestor, the greater it's influence...
What a lot of nonsense.
If that
were true it
seems pointless
to Study any
extended pedigree
when trying to access a dog's true breeding value.
The statement as quoted is so far from
the truth that one is left wondering how
it could be seriously have been considered
by anyone who wished to breed
good dogs! Were it true, it is clear that a
dog would show so close a resemblance
to its parents in all point,,, that the breeding
of any dogs true to a type or ideal
would either be so easy as to be hardly
worth bothering with or so heart-breakingly
difficult as to be virtually impossible
according to the immediate parents at any breeders disposal.
I can assure any one who attempts to breed good Pekingese that this very thought, let alone statement, is complete untrue and I back my opinion with over 50 years of quite successful breeding results.
The theory that more distant ancestors can exert little or no influence on an animal's structure - or for that matter temperament - is quite flatly contradicted by those surprises, oddities or strikingly unusual features which crop tip so disconcertingly, from time to time, in what we consider in otherwise normal litters from typical well-bred parents. These accidental freaks are attributed to the influence of nature. In truth they are just that and usually are the emergence of some recessive quality which has been carried genetically in a line through several generations without being visibly apparent.
Genes are not destroyed or eliminated by the mere passage of time. Genes for a recessive character introduced into a family strain by a long dead and perhaps forgotten ancestor may be hidden and unsuspected for any period of time - that is, providing no individual carries more than a single dose of them.
When planning a mating breeders would be well advised to be aware of the fact that some recessive genes are bound to be carried by both the dog and the bitch. The aim of the breeder should be to refrain from breeding two Pekingese which show glaring faults in structure and temperament and, to protect the union, to be sure that genes for the same fault are not carried by both parents. This makes it not only necessary but essential to make a critical analysis of pedigrees. The further back this searching examination is carried the better the prospects of tracing the ancestors through which genes for recessive faults may have been brought into a line.
There is no truth whatsoever in the assertion that a dog is necessarily more strongly influenced by near than by more-distant ancestors. To what extent any puppy resembles any of its forebears, near or remote, in respect to a particular characteristic depends entirely in its genetic makeup.
The Orient Express / June 1997
