DNA Smokescreen of Genetics

DNA SMOKESCREEN OF GENETICS

by Barbara J. Andrews, Publisher - TheDogPlace.org , with a little help from BILL ANDREWS
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Just when you think you understand Canine Genetics, DNA, and words like phenotype & genotype, someone hands you common sense about breeding dogs.




There are a lot of people like Bill Andrews out there. They go along quietly, never make speeches, never get involved in discussing the "finer points" of type. While the rest of us contribute to the general noise and confusion that surrounds the art of breeding dogs, they just observe. Somehow they are able to filter out the static and make sense of it all. They don’t read books on breeding, we never see them at seminars, so we tend to dis-include them when we're all caught up in the latest DNA discovery or breeding theory. They listen politely, or bored with it all, they go walk a dog while we show off how much we know.

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We use them as a sounding board on which to try out our latest, greatest piece of knowledge. The Bill Andrews people listen patiently, able to glean whatever value there is in the jumble of our thoughts, and they rarely say more than polite affirmatives.​

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But when they do... When they do, how many of us have the good sense to shut up and listen? Do you step back from the newest theory and listen to what IS?​

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If you were one of them you wouldn’t even be reading this. You’d be sitting on the deck, "just watching" the dogs, wondering why that one doesn’t play as hard as the others. You might be watching Old Yeller and thinking about how much endurance those hound dogs had and that might lead you to speculate on how little of it our new and improved dogs have….​

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On the show grounds you'd go "walkin’ and talkin’ and swapping lies" but you would be learning more than the rest of us would absorb from a dozen seminars. You wouldn't be taking as gospel what every proud owner says about their breed; no, you would recognize the holes in blind adoration, and apply common sense to all that you saw and learned on those walkabouts.​

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And then, doggone it, when one of us shares something of great consequence like "did you know they developed this new DNA test to identify that fatal CHG disease in puppies?" someone like Bill Andrews rolls his eyes and says "Well I reckon if it’s fatal in pups, it pretty well eliminates itself. Dead pups can't be ignored so if you don’t breed the same dog and bitch again, it won't happen again."​

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Huh? One of them would just smile and deliver the punch line of common sense genetics, "Why spend all that time and money testing for something so easy to get rid of?" What can you say to that kind of logic? If you’re half as smart as he is, you sit back in your chair and think about it.​

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An ecstatically enthralled friend said "The ___ club is working on a new campaign to stop the media from always characterizing the breed as vicious attack dogs!" His response was "That’s nice. Beats breeding trustworthy dogs and not selling to people who want to "feed ‘em gunpowder to make ‘em tuff." The friend had the good grace to blush.​

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When I said "Did you know that ____ has three bitches that she says don’t have sections but have you seen those pin-headed things?" He said "Yeah, I saw them when I was walkin’ around last night. Saw the sire too. 13 years old and as sound and healthy as can be. Got that same moderate head. She showed me her two bitches too. Funny honey, they're just like the sire. Behind the collar you can’t fault ‘em. I can see where they could have puppies… Huh! Guess it all depends on whether you want to show normal dogs that can have puppies or those that are weird enough to win."​

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I’m calling the stud owner.​

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Undaunted, this week I said "I wish they would develop a DNA test that could tell us if a dog is going to go oversize. If I knew that, I could breed to ____ and not worry about which puppies to grow out. He is such an incredible dog, just big. Everyone is afraid to use him."​

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He was driving. He nodded. Somehow I knew it was coming. I’d stepped right into another inarguable bit of logic. I steeled myself. He said "Y’know, seems to me that it’s a whole lot easier to get rid of one really bad fault than worrying about improving on a dozen minor faults. It's easy for me to fix one big problem with the motor home but if it kept having breakdowns from different things. I’d get rid of the damn thing."​

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I said nothing.​

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"I hear you talking about 'rare genes that can kill' and I look around at the shy dogs and the cripples that have to be in pain and there’s no way they could work on a farm. Breeders would rather get all worked up over some "rare" problem they know they don’t have than to deal with instead of solving the obvious problems they do have!
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"So here you got a dog that’s healthy and typey and he has this really bad fault and you can see it, so what? You breed a real good bitch to him, one that doesn’t have that fault and doesn’t carry it. You keep the best pups and work with them.​

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So the sire's got a disqualifying fault? He’s healthy, he’s a built right, he acts right, and our small bitches don't carry it but they could use his bone and those four good legs. So what’s the problem?"​

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"I’m hungry. When are we gonna stop for dinner?"​

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I mean what are you going to say to someone like that?

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