The Chase Magazine
September 1984
Page Six
Texas Tidbits
Workaholic
I have decided to share my thoughts on breeding hounds or breeding anything for that matter, race horses,
beef cattle or what have you. I am convinced the hound is the most difficult animal to breed that there is. I
will list a few of the reasons – voice, nose, head, bottom, heart, brains, plus a standard of conformation. If I
am to breed something somewhere down the line I want them to look alike. I am not there, but I have a plan
and that is what I will discuss. Somewhere in our formative years someone has influenced our thinking,
training and education. I mentioned the Santa Gertrudas breed of cattle. I know in cattle the important thing
is how quick this year’s calf can get to 800 pounds or whatever weight each rancher desires to sell the
calves. The same principle applies –the stand just changes.
I read with much interest the different thoughts on breeding and influence each parent has on the
offspring. Each hound has 48 chromosomes, 24 came from each parent. Each chromosome is made up of
genes which regulate all the things we desire in our perfect hound (standard). Some genes are dominate,
some recessive. The dominate genes are going to breed on. Now if we had the perfect hound with all
dominate genes pretty quick we would all have perfect hounds, but until Mr. Perfect comes along we are
going to have to control the recessive genes to work toward the standard we desire. This is not as difficult
as it may sound. If I had all of you in a room with a chalk board I could show you much easier than I can write
the principles, but I will give it a shot.
I am going to use color because we can see this in the offspring. I will just deal with Black and Red. Black
is dominate over red so we make a cross with two black parents that carry a recessive gene for red. A big
B for black and a small R for red. Br x Br here out of four offspring one should carry two Big B’s and two
carry a B and r like the parent, then number four will carry the two rr’s. His color is red. Now if we cross the
rr’s back on the BB’s we are back with a Br just like the parents. The two BB’s cannot produce anything but
black, but when I cross rr on Br then I get three red and one black. When I cross two rr’s then I get all red,
so in three crosses I can change my Black dogs to Red dogs with no possibility of a black one. I knew this
as quick as I had a litter to come all red. I have done this in a lab with banana flies when all I could breed
for was long wings, short wings, red eyes or green eyes, but with two bananas and 14 days I could have
another cross.
If we could see everything we want to breed for then time would be all I would need to breed Mr. Perfect.
Since we cannot see the many traits Mr. Perfect has to have, we discuss what we can do to influence the
genes. It’s this influence that leads breeders to say the dam or sire has 80 per cent to do with the off
spring. I have crossed a coyote on a dog, a big red cur dog. No way could you tell the offspring had any cur
dog in him. This is the influence we can have on the genes even though there were 24 coyote
chromosomes and 24 cur dog chromosomes in the ½ coyote. The coyote blood is so intensified (line bred)
an out cross as radical as a red cur had no visible influence on the off spring.
As most of you know there are 62 ancestors in a 5 generation pedigree. This is what I will deal with in this
paper even though we know each off spring with parents with a 5 general pedigrees has 124 hounds in
what I will call his zone of influence. I have seen a 5 generation pedigree with 62 different hounds listed,
but I doubt if there is a 6 generation pedigree with 124 different hounds. I had rather one of my females
would get snake bit than be crossed on a hound with 62 different ancestors. What a conglomeration of
genes-like 62 different colored marbles in a bag.
What I am saying is – if Hub Dawson is your standard, have Hub Dawson in the pedigree as many times as
you can. I am working toward a 5 generation pedigree with 20 different ancestors. This takes intensified
line breeding. I have turned BWT hounds Red because I could control that – if I can maintain the ancestors
in the 20’s for three generations they will all look alike and in principle act alike. If I am selective enough in
my breeding program Mr. Perfect will be near. I will not inbreed-cross brother to sister, but will have to stay
close in a line of hounds. So much so – I have two different lines of Liquor hounds. When I think of
infusing the lines I will pick up 10 or 12 ancestors, so I will wait until I need the infusion or one line comes to
the front as being superior to the other.
I don’t have my breeding program where I want it, but I think I am getting there. I just regret I didn’t get on
this kick a long time ago. It takes a lot of time to breed and raise a part of 10 litters of pups a year. I have
worn out a pick-up going to Illinois and South Carolina in order to get foundation stock. We have some
breeders that have bred along the route I am taking and may already be more successful than I will be.
Those of you who think I’m off to the left, pick up your favorite hounds and see how many times the same
hounds show up in a five generation pedigree. It is NOT easy to get a pedigree below 30 ancestors without
directing inbreeding.