| Let's Start Breeding Sensibly By D. B. Rice, M.D. Rock Island, Tenn The Hunter's Horn August 1957 Page Twenty-four & Twenty-five What is stated herein is conscientiously done with the hope that it may act as a stimulant and in aid to the production of better foxhounds. Should this happen, the desired goal will have been reached. And in the beginning let me say that should I at any time refer to any of my activities as a breeder of livestock, it is done only to explain and emphasize some statement made herein and certainly not in the spirit of egotism. At my age, and now having retired, I am not interested in the promotion of any additional interests. About the year 1922, at which time I was burdened with the responsibilities of operating a hospital and clinic which I had founded, with such duties as managing a group of doctors, a training school for nurses and reviewing a good part of the 100 patients' histories per day, with no time off for recreation, I decided that for the benefit of my physical being I must take up a hobby. This I did, and having been born on a farm in Kentucky, I had retained a "smattering" of knowledge of standard bred (trotters and pacers) horses. I bought ten brood mares and placed them on a ranch I owned eight miles from my hospital. I could sneak out to this ranch, spend an hour with the horses and return to work somewhat refreshed. These were good looking mares, all registered; a few had won at horse shows, but I soon found, notwithstanding these good qualities, that they were not of the producing bloodlines and therefore not popularly bred. In others words, although registered, they could be classed in foxhound parlance as "potlickers." To keep these mares for breeding purposes necessarily would require too much time and would place me at too great a distance from my goal of producing the best horses possible -- "procrastination is the thief of time." Therefore I got rid of them at any price and began buying handpicked mares with producing and popular blood lines. And may I add that the cheapest mares I ever bought cost me the most money. (I am sure that most good breeders of foxhounds will interpret the meaning of this last sentence.) Yes, I could have bred them to a notable stallion and in several generations improvement of my horses could have been evident, but it would have cost me as much to keep the kind I had as it would to keep the good kind. So according to this logic, would it not be best for hunters to get rid of their breeding stock unless they know for sure it is outstanding in the field, and to have a family tree the pedigree of which is proof that desirable bloodlines prevail? I think it timely to include here some of the quotations which I have used in my writings on eugenics (the breeding of people): "Blood Will Tell," "Like Father, Like Son," "A Chip Off The Old Block," and "Like Begets Like." And I especially wish to call your attention to the inscription which I used on the cover page of my Rice's Ranch Sale Catalogs: "Quality Doesn't Cost--It Pays." As proof of the above methods of selection and procedure I must state that my horses, in addition to being an enjoyable and healthful hobby, proved to be also an international business and when I quit work in 1948 and held my dispersal sale there were five millionaires around my sale ring and this was the greatest sale ever held up to that time. Since then, following the death of Mr. Will Reynolds of the Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camel Cigarettes), his dispersal of standard bred horses topped my sale. He was also an advocate of outcross breeding. Breeding Operations Need Foundation Again, hunter friends, let me beseech you and advise you: It is too expensive to build your breeding operations on "The Sand"; You must have a solid foundation. Get yourself at least one real gyp, or a female puppy from the gamest family possible; breed her to a real dog, keep her as a foundation. The produce should give you both pleasure and profit. The above advice, as you will probably agree, may be considered rational, logical and advisable, but it is also lacking in detail. When weighed in the balance, it will probably be found wanting. I will explain: When I began breeding standard bred horses, I visited with one of the best known and most successful horse trainers known at that time. He was also known to possess a vocabulary which contained a few words you would not exactly want little Johnny to repeat when he comes home from school. I asked this horseman if he could brief me with a little advice as to how to make a success in the production of horses. "Yes," he said, "Breed a d_____ good mare to a d____ good horse" and you have it made. Now superficially this sounds like good advice, but the advice is also superficial. It failed to take into consideration the fact that if breeders in any line (including people) fail to heed the ill and baneful effects of inbreeding, they are on a one-way street which ultimately leads into a dead end. Yes, I know this will be read by "many hunters of many minds," some will say "Yea" and some will say "Nay"; in fact, judging from statements made and recorded on the pages of our hunting magazines regarding bloodlines, I will not be surprised to see later where some hunter will tab some of these statements as eccentric. Regarding this important question of inbreeding we readily see what has been done in the breeding of foxhounds by looking at almost any five-generation tabulated pedigree. At the time my horseman friend gave me the "secret of success" (?) in advising me to breed a good mare to a good horse without any explanation or emphasis on bloodlines, there had been and continued to be for some time the worst mannered horses ever known. You older hunters will remember when you visited your county fair and the larger race meets that most of the horses were so bad headed that it was almost impossible for the starter to get them started. They would rear up, wouldn't come down (balk), jump the fence, etc. And when they did start they would be so speed crazy (like some hounds) that they would become exhausted before the first half-mile would be reached. Good Crosses Often Overdone At that time there were two leading trotting families: The Axworthy family and the Peter The Great family. Everybody wanted a Peter The Great or an Axworthy. Consequently these two families were crossed and re-crossed (like our hounds) until this intense inbreeding was so prevalent that the end result was weakened and neurotic horses. The first cross was apparently good: it was called "the Golden Cross". But soon gold turned to sliver and then to copper and brass. Something had to be done; a crusade was started to stop this practice and I am pleased to admit that I was one of the crusaders. Now when you go to the races you generally see good mannered horses which have more than quadrupled in value. Last fall at the National at Starkville, Miss., one hunter informed me that he wanted to buy a male with six or eight crosses to "old So-and-So." We had no argument. I asked him if he had a family. He produced a picture of two lovely looking daughters and one son. I asked him if he would be willing for one of these daughters to marry her first cousin or her second or her third cousin. He said his church and some laws of the state would not permit such marriages. I only asked him to find out why such laws were enacted. Should I go into this subject of inbreeding and so-called "line breeding" in a strictly scientific way, this article would be too comprehensive and the reader somewhat confused. It is enough to say that while one may find a few exceptions to this rule, the scientific conclusion is, and I quote from three of the better known scientists: "Experiments with many plants and animals prove that in most instances inbreeding weakens the race and outbreeding strengthens it." Therefore, due to the fact that the foxhound has been somewhat intensively inbred for 50 years, is it not now high time to look for an outcross which possesses the qualities we desire in a hound, and do some outbreeding? I know I am jotting down so much "stuff" here that the reader will begin to yawn before he finishes, but I am reminded of the fox hunter who only had one pair of pants and when they needed patching he would go to bed and throw them out to his wife, at which time she took advantage of the incident and said: This is the only time I have to talk to you and you shall hear me." And with this excuse here is some more: I heard a lecture once given by a student of Drs. Huxley and Wells of University College, London, England. It was in connection with the science of life and dealt with "The World of a Dog." It followed 30 years of experimentation by some of the best known scientists of that time. I remember these statements: "The dog's eye is somewhat inferior to the human eye. It cannot distinguish shapes as clearly as the human eye and we were unable to prove that the dog has color vision; he probably looks out on a black and white world, but when it comes to bright and shadow spots the eye of the dog is far superior to that of the human." Judging from this I would like to tell you that the dog can see much better at night than we hunters. He probably can. These scientists proved that the dog's sense of hearing is markedly superior to that of man. "Our dogs can hear notes which are so high in pitch that the human ear can't reach. This was tested accurately with the Galton Whistle." The Hound's Sense of Smell Now comes the sense of smell: This is what we are all talking about and like Mark Twain about the weather, "Nobody is doing anything about it." Here is what the scientists say: "Man's powers of smell are as nothing compared to that of the dog." Little has been done to correctly evaluate either a normal or abnormal nose. The reason it has not been done is that odors of known constant intensity, which are necessary for a test, have been wafted away too soon after being generated. It is a technical difficulty. But we do know that man recognizes his friends by their appearance (looks), while the dog recognizes things by a sort of catalog of smells. Now let's get down to business regarding this nose business. Why all this "babbling" about the dog's nose? Lately, wherever fox hunters congregate, you are likely to hear a discussion about "nose." The nose has been indicted for neglect of duty, but the case should be thrown out of court due to lack of evidence. We don't have to hold a college degree to understand the following: The nose is made up of two cavities, a lower cavity through which we breathe and an upper cavity with which we smell. Air does not pass through the upper or smell cavity when we breathe. The anatomy of the dog's nose is very much like the human nose. When air containing an odor or scent is breathed normally by the dog through this nose, he smells this odor for the reason that a part of this scent-laden air finds it's way to the upper or smell cavity of the nose by diffusion, a sortof mixing process. To aid this process and enable one to smell quickly and surely, both dog and man must assist this smell process by "sniffing." Every hunter is aware how his hound, when he strikes a cold trail, "sniffs"; he can hear him do this for some distance. This is nature's way. Now suppose the fox is jumped, the hounds are running. What happens? The dog no longer breathes through his nose (maybe very little), but is breathing rapidly through his mouth, or panting. To make a pickup at a runover he must take time to sniff over the track. And a good percentage of these "late model" hounds don't take this time. The hound is excited; he has been bred too much for speed, he is inbred, his nervous system is unstable, he is running with neurotic hounds. He fears some hound will beat him to it, so he keeps an eye on the other hounds and fails to use his nose as nature intended. He crosses and recrosses the track at such a rate of speed that no normal nose can make a pickup unless it be somewhat accidental. Brain, Not Nose, Is at Fault The hunter who recently wrote, "My hound is too fast for his nose," had the right idea. That doesn't mean the hound's nose was weak, it probably was normal. So let's quit fussing about he nose and turn our attention to the real trouble. In my opinion--one man's opinion--too many runovers are made. The ause of it all is not the nose but the brain. In the brain we find the executive office, the memory storehouse, the dog-mind, the center of intelligence--yes, dogs have a mind. The control location for the speed we are talking about is in the brain, not in the dog's legs. Yes, there could be numerous pathological (disease) conditions of the nose in dog or man which could cause the sense of smell to become dull, but I am confident that not one dog in a hundred or more has any of these conditions. The inbreeding we have done has covered sufficient generations that the nervous mechanism of the dog could have become weakened. It has happened in the human family in 50 years. And here we might just as well make an open confession: Have we done our duty in choosing our breeding stock? "Ye have heard that it hath been said: 'My hound has a nose equal to his speed, and he is fast.' But, verily I say unto you, no hound has a nose good enough to smell a track as he should, when going at the rate of speed some hunters want him to go." At The National last fall, a number of us saw a red fox which had jumped up about one-fourth mile ahead of the pack of ten or twelve dogs. We saw this fox run for about half a mile. When the dogs came to where the fox turned they made a bad runover but soon began to circle and all hounds crossed the line three times before a pick-up was made. Was that the nose? No, that was the brain! At the National, Too Much Speed In this case twelve good (?) fox hounds crossed the line three times before making the pick-up (this is not an isolated case), and it was noticed that the third crossing was made in "intermediate" and not in "high". But look at the time lost. One hunter, knowing that I had recently bought a hound (yes, $6,000 for dogs in six years) from one of his friends, had just informed me that he would sell me one of the hounds which we heard trailing before the fox was sighted. His description of his dog was indicative of the present day trend, or the sign of the times. When the dogs came in sight his was the lead hound. And his was the one which crossed the road still in the lead, when the fox had not come within 200 yards of the road. And his dog was still leading, all others following, when they ran over this hot track three times before picking up the scent. And scenting conditions were good that morning, so we thought. According to this hunter his hound was one of the fastest hounds known in his community. He had scored highly in speed and driving at two field trials. He was as game as the gamest. Yes, he had a good mouth, I heard that. But if what the hunter said is all the hunter had, he was not a foxhound and could cause a lot of trouble in a fox race. If this man had said, "I can turn this dog out of my kennel any time of day or night and he will go alone to the woods and stay out until a fox is found then run this fox up to fourteen hours, running the track with few runovers (which would necessitate medium speed), then come home after it's all over; and is also good in a pack with a good mouth at the right place and not competition or speed crazy," I would have been very interested. Yes, we still have a few of that kind. I would judge I have about six out of 25 hounds, and I am now beginning to cull. The percentage should be more, and we all can have more; it's up to us. Let's do some thoughtful, selective breeding, with the object in view to "run out" our neighbor instead of "outrun" him. We are woefully short of "packs" of hounds, we have too many "strings" of hounds. "United they run, divided they fail." 'Slow Down and Smell' Some hunter may ask, "What speed does the writer want his hounds to show?" Answer: I want my hounds to run as a pack. In doing this they must follow their noses, not run ahead of them. I get more enjoyment when they run in "intermediate," not high or low. The watch usually shows that they can run certain known circles in less time than when headed by a runaway hound. The highway officials say "Slow down and live"; a parody on that for the foxhound would be, "Slow down and smell." Hunter friends, due to the length of this I will close. I have two other important subjects (I think) to discuss, but will wait until I am tried and possibly executed for this offense before making another venture. Conclusions: First, let's take a break in the inbreeding of hounds---the first one in 50 years-and ease up on the accelerator when it comes to "line-breeding". Yes, we all can recall some famous hounds, the result usually of the first cross from inbreeding (I owned one myself). But "one swallow doesn't make a spring," and to continue will lead us to the unhappy hunting ground with neurotic hounds, the cause of many transgressions and a weakness of eye, ear and nose. I have never known true science to be defeated. Secondly: Be sure! Be Positive! Be Certain! Be Confident! Words with sufficent emphasis fail me here. If you have a bitch which can and will do it all and do it right, before you breed her be sure the hound to which you breed her has the same qualities, and is not noted for one or two things only, such as speed and driving, but is a well balanced foxhound, good in all departments. And the gameness of both should be unquestioned. If you don't have this kind, don't use a substitute; wait until you do have this kind, as the substitute will surely prove expensive. One day Dr. Wm. Mayo of the Mayo Clinic in an address said: "If you do the best you can at what you are doing you won't have a lot of competition for the reason that few people are doing the best they can." Are you and I doing the best we can to improve the American Foxhound? |