Have you ever wondered why some dogs are a “natural” when it comes to producing other dogs with their own good qualities? While there are some others that can’t reproduce their good qualities no matter with how many different females they’re bred to? This is where genetics comes into place. And although I’m not geneticist (someone with a professional degree in genetics), I am a science teacher and have had to learn enough about it to get my teacher’s license and teach it. Genetics, as in electricity, can sometimes be illogical to those who never deal with it. I’ll try to give some insight on this matter as simple as I can for most to be able to grasp it.
When it comes to the Working Dog, genetics is a bit more complicated to decipher than it is for the conformation breeders. It’s “easier” to establish the physical traits of a breed than it to establish the behavioral characteristics shaped by their genes. Ex: If you have a solid black dog and breed it to a red female and whole litter turns out to be black, you can assume that dominant trait that defines the color of the pups is in the male. Likewise us working dog people want dogs with certain natural qualities (prey drives, civilness, hardness, etc.)
Lets say we have a stud that is extremely “civil”. And when bred to different females (even show dogs) produces very civil dogs. We can assume that this particular stud dog’s civil gene is dominant. Let’s name this dog’s civil trait as (AA). On the other hand let’s say this dog was bred to a female who’s genetic makeup for that trait was recessive. Meaning that civilness is present but can be overlapped by another trait (non-civilness). Let’s say that the genetic makeup of this female is (aa). The pups of these two individuals will have a percentage of dogs with the traits being (Aa). Let do the same for another trait. You choose, be it Desire to Please, Hardness, Prey Drive ….. whatever. And call this trait (B). And have a female with the genetic makeup (Bb). Cross this female with an (Aa) male and all these possibilities can pop up; (AB), (Ab), (aB), (ab).
We’ve just scratched the surface here. For there are thousands of traits and that many more possible combinations of them. That’s why one particular dog may be a great working dog and produce crappy workers, while other dogs can produce great ones. Good breeders who know the “in’s” and “outs” of genetics can have a very successful working dog breeding program with relatively few dogs while others who don’t have this applicable knowledge will need a huge amount of dogs to produce only a small amount of good workers. I hope I haven’t been too technical and this part of genetics has been “understandable” enough.
When it comes to the Working Dog, genetics is a bit more complicated to decipher than it is for the conformation breeders. It’s “easier” to establish the physical traits of a breed than it to establish the behavioral characteristics shaped by their genes. Ex: If you have a solid black dog and breed it to a red female and whole litter turns out to be black, you can assume that dominant trait that defines the color of the pups is in the male. Likewise us working dog people want dogs with certain natural qualities (prey drives, civilness, hardness, etc.)
Lets say we have a stud that is extremely “civil”. And when bred to different females (even show dogs) produces very civil dogs. We can assume that this particular stud dog’s civil gene is dominant. Let’s name this dog’s civil trait as (AA). On the other hand let’s say this dog was bred to a female who’s genetic makeup for that trait was recessive. Meaning that civilness is present but can be overlapped by another trait (non-civilness). Let’s say that the genetic makeup of this female is (aa). The pups of these two individuals will have a percentage of dogs with the traits being (Aa). Let do the same for another trait. You choose, be it Desire to Please, Hardness, Prey Drive ….. whatever. And call this trait (B). And have a female with the genetic makeup (Bb). Cross this female with an (Aa) male and all these possibilities can pop up; (AB), (Ab), (aB), (ab).
We’ve just scratched the surface here. For there are thousands of traits and that many more possible combinations of them. That’s why one particular dog may be a great working dog and produce crappy workers, while other dogs can produce great ones. Good breeders who know the “in’s” and “outs” of genetics can have a very successful working dog breeding program with relatively few dogs while others who don’t have this applicable knowledge will need a huge amount of dogs to produce only a small amount of good workers. I hope I haven’t been too technical and this part of genetics has been “understandable” enough.
