Reading a pedigree, and the problem with over simplifying

Seems like allot of basic knowledge is quite as basic anymore.

Times may have changed in somethings, but something never change with time. Reading a pedigree should be one of them.

In the past How the dog was bred meant allot. It was often looked at as the recipe. It takes more than just the correct ingredients to get the desired outcome.
Put the correct ingredients in the bowl but mix and cook in the wrong order and you won't get even close to what you want. Put the wrong amounts of the correct ingredients and you still will not get you what you want. Counting how many times you see a specific dog in a pedigree is not telling anyone anything. In fact, a child who has no idea about anything can count that same way.
Its more about how the dog was bred in that pedigree that matters, was it bred to the same dog and the offsprings (belly mates) were bred together, and offspring of that breeding (belly mates) was bred together also and the action repeated over and over. Was it a single dog bred to over a handful of dogs and 1/2 siblings were bred over and over and so on.

These are the things that are important. Often used is that Cakes, cookies and donuts all use the same ingredients but put together in a different order using different amounts to get different results using the same ingredients.

Dogs are not based on famous names. They are based on the center focus of the breeding and the breeder.
Once a strain is crossed with another it is not that strain anymore.
Now take that cross back to the original and it becomes the same strain but having an outcross. Little things make a big difference when it comes to reading a pedigree.
The 1st generation is more of the end results from what the 4 the generation put together.

I often hear people state the only care about the 1st 3 generations, well for myself and others there is no 1st-3rd without clearly understanding how they were put together.
You see, 1/2 brother and sister breeding's will focus more on the common parent of the two, the grandfather of the litter than just the parents of the litter. and if it's consistent for generations you can be linebreeding on a dog that's way in the back that even though you don't see the 3rd still has a great effect on the litter.
Allot of my dog's line bred on Crossfire are like that but not just him, he's line bred on Johnie Rockhead so when you still see the buckskin dogs in today dogs, they are still carrying traits of Johnie rockhead and Crossfire. Examples : http://www.thepitbullbible.com/forum...p?dog_id=93903 and this http://www.thepitbullbible.com/forum...p?dog_id=93905
Now of course they are not clones of those dogs when other new strains have been included but they are homogenized but heavy on those key dogs more than the outcrosses.

All of that being said, you read a pedigree like the old ways of reading from right to left and then from left to right and back right to left again.


We can go on and on about reading a pedigree, but the facts are most today try to oversimplify everything and get allot of it wrong or completely off tract.


Keep em tight, check them hard