WHY ARE PEDIGREES IMPORTANT TO PET BUYERS?

By Debra Amszi

There are a few things a pet buyer can look for on a pedigree to begin a study on the puppies or the breeder. You really need to see a 5 generation or more pedigree to get the whole picture but the regular three generation can tell you a little.

Kennel names in the names on the pedigree- you can look up kennels by the kennel name at the front of the name. Sometimes the kennel name is other places in the name and you can recognize it by noting if several in the line have that same name. When you look up the kennel name you can see their website or the website called “collies on line” will show photos of the ancestors of your collie. You can also decide if the kennel has good ethics of breeding and it can help you see what chances your pup has of looking or being as you dream.  Most of all you can tell which and how many PET breeders are in the collie history and since many backyard pet breeders do not use big kennel names or make their own kennel name, then you know they also do not have experience or knowledge or resources to make wise decisions for breeding. You can also take note if the so called breeder had done much in the way of hip tests, or show wins. It is not the make or break information but something that can help in your decision if added with your other findings. For instance the OFA does not list results for hip/elbow x-rays if the collie was x-rayed before 2 years old and the collie could have had the litter before 2 years old. But you can add up your findings to help make your decision.

Hip and elbow OFA reports- If the breeder did have the ‘2 year’ OFA tests done for hips and elbows it will be listed easy to see by each name on the pedigree. The grading by OFA is done by noting Excellent, Good, Fair which are all good reports of freedom of hip disease or if the breeder also had elbow xrays done then you will know about that also. A very  bad hip report is not going to be on the pedigree so it could be one of the blank ones was bad. But that is not the reason most are blank.

Whole name of each dog in pedigree- You can look up each dog name in the pedigree on the OFA website to see what all tests had been done on that dog. The OFA is a database where a breeder can send all medical test results for public file. OFA is also a good place to go to find breeders that even do tests.

Champions listed by each name that earned a championship- this is not the most important thing to judge the quality of a line or kennel but it can be helpful to know something. Just remember that a very determined show person can get all the champions that they want and they can get it done with collies of bad health and many conformation faults. It still is a good sign of good collies. At least the collie was showable.  A lot of politics, surgery, makeup, good grooming, and money are involved for showing. In the end the champions show the breeders in that line did know about collies and how they should look. Remember that a collie with good conformation is another form of a health test. Good conformation is needed for the health of joints, muscles, less risk of injury in activities, eye set correctly in the head for safety and health, and even nerves.

You DO want your collie to have the best chance for correct conformation for health , not just beauty.

Inbreeding  seen in the pedigree– Inbreeding is when a full sibling is bred with a full sibling or a child to a parent. This is not always a terrible thing to see but you need to know. It sure is not desirable if the line already has the same dogs on both sides of the parentage over and over again.

Linebreeding can be seen in the pedigree-this is when a half sibling is bred with a half sibling or a grandparent. This can be a very good thing to see in a pedigree. Did you know that even humans can  have kids with cousins without worry if the family does not have an abundant health issue in their line. This is a common practice in many of our human societies. The good thing about line breeding is that you will know more of what you are getting in your puppy. Most of the genes will have the consistent look that you like. Most of the genes will have the consistent health that the breeder or you know that is in the line. This is a good thing to know more about what genes are in the line. Too many different lines  in one collie is a sure fact that the chances that bad genes can be in the mix. The reason line breeding can sometimes be bad for a line is when it has a known bad thing that happens a lot, because the bad thing  is for sure doubled up in the repeating same collies. Once a bad gene is discovered in line bred pups more than  a couple of times then that line needs to be out-crossed. The cool thing is that the co-efficant changes dramatically by only one outcross of a totally strange line and the bad gene is then thinned out again. But the outcross needs to be professionally planned because all the work that was bred into the line to have the special LOOK or type of collie means nothing anymore. That is why if a new breeder buys collies from all over with different lines of Champions it means nothing unless the breeder can prove in other ways they know what they are doing, and that they can produce good collies with a consistent look so the buyer can get what they pay for in a collie. There are many factors in deciding a breeding  so it is complicating. A backyard breeder or breeder that breeds for just money and no forward moving plans is not set up with enough friends to share collies to have the resources and numbers of collies to make good decisions. You could be buying a registered mutt with a toss up that it will look like a collie. There are several types of collies that are nice if bred to their type but crossing the types or doubling known faults of a line, can make funny looking dogs. Pedigrees do tell a story.