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| What's In A Pedigree? |
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| A pedigree is another term for family tree. The pedigree of dogs should represent more than just names on a piece of paper. Many novice breeders and pet owners assume that because they have a pedigree on their dog, that it denotes the dog is well bred and of exceptional quality. While this is not always true, a pedigree is an excellent tool for breeders to use to help in making better breeding decisions. To the knowledgeable breeder, the names in a pedigree represent more than just black and white words. In fact, they are actual dogs that can impact their breeding program for the better or worse. A breeder will use this pedigree to his or her advantage by knowing what faults are within certain individuals named in the pedigree and also what attributes or "qualities" certain dogs in the pedigree are know for producing. Armed with this knowledge, the breeder can make better breeding choices and ideally, produce better offspring with each generation to come. All things good and bad can be linked to your dogs pedigree, things such as coat color, hip dysplasia, conformation qualities and faults. Research your pedigrees!! Find out more about individual dogs named in the pedigree by contacting the breeders or owners of the dogs, look at pictures of these individuals and slowly you will see the pedigree come to life. What makes a pedigree good or bad? You may hear people refer to a certain dog and they will comment that "Smokey has a loaded pedigree" or you may hear the term "Champion pedigree" What actually constitutes a quality pedigree?? Well, this is solely my opinion here, but the pedigree, just like the dog is in the eye of the beholder. Fact is, certain names can mean more to one person than another. Everyone has an opinion about which dog is better and so on. If you ask me to look at the pedigree of your Field Champion stud dog because you wanted me to consider using him on my show bitch, my answer would be no because simply put...I do not want any field trial lines crossed with my personal dogs. I would only loose probably every qaulity that I have been trying so hard to keep which is proper size, bone, coat and temperament. Why would I loose this?? Well it is simple, in order for me to retain the features and temperament of my Labradors, I must stay within certain lines and doing an outcross breeding to a line that is as different as night and day to what I am breeding now, will not give me anything but headaches! So without going into genetics here, we will keep things simple. Regardless of which lines you prefer, those of field or show, one thing is important and that is to breed from qaulity animals to start with and only buy from quality breeders. Now, lets take an indepth look at your dogs pedigree. Lets see what is good and then decide on what may be bad. TITLES The American Kennel Club offers 3 and 4 generation pedigrees for all dogs that are AKC registered. Hopefully, your breeder provided you with a pedigree when you purchased your dog...if not, then I sincerely doubt your breeder even knows what is in the pedigree of the dogs he or she is breeding. First off, lets discuss CHAMPION LINES. There can be many abbreviations in a pedgree which denotes the dog is a champion. Champion lines could mean anything so don't be too quickly convinced by this term. In my lifetime of breeding, the number of people to tell me their dog is of champion lines is uncountable and once I get a look at their pedigree, the only indication of champion lines may be way back in the 4th generation, perhaps just one dog! This IS NOT champion lines but none the less the owner of the dog insist that one single champion 30 some-odd dogs back has made their Smokey a champion bred dog! THIS IS NOT GOING TO MAKE SMOKEY ANYTHING BUT A PET, SO DON'T EVEN CONSIDER BREEDING HIM! Now, how do you find the champions in your dogs pedigree or other titles that dogs may have? Below is a list from the AKC. Each Country aside from the US will offer championships and performance events, however, if you have an AKC pedigree, titles won through other Countries, organizations or clubs aside from the AKC will not show up on an AKC pedigree. The AKC pedigree is rather bland when it comes to seeing all the "true" titles in a pedigree, especially of there are foreign or imported dogs listed. So now you can actually understand the pedigree as far as the titles are concerned. The truth is, if your dog has a pedigree that has very few dogs in it that actually has titles, then chances are that your dog does not have a very good pedigree but this does not indicate that your dog is not a wonderful companion, just that breeding from anything less than a heavily titled pedigree will likely result in nothing more than pets. I feel strongly against anyone breeding dogs that do not have conformation champions located within the first 2 generations, i.e, parents and/or grandparents. You may ask why conformation champions and not field or other types of champions. Personally, speaking, a field champion or obedience champion does not indicate to me that the dog is bred to adhere to the written standard for which our breed was developed. In other words, a field champion or obedience champion cannot put emphasis on the "whole dog" as a conformation champion may be able to do. This is why we see so many field champions that do not resemble a Labrador in looks and in most cases temperament. A big advantage to a conformation champion is that most have the proper conformation and low-key temperament. If nothing else, breed for your "ideal dog" but keep in mind that a pedigree will mean much more than a few names. |
| AKC Titles and Abbreviations The American Kennel Club has many events in which titles are offered. Dogs who achieve these titles are entitled to have them listed on their pedigrees and certificates, and in event catalogues. These titles become an official part of a dog’s record with the AKC. The following list shows the abbreviations used for earned titles. Some titles are appended to the beginning of a dog's name, and others are appended after the dog's name. Note that titles earned in a foreign country, or under non-AKC rules and regulations, are not shown on an AKC pedigree. Prefix Titles | BEFORE A DOGS NAME Prefix: Conformation Example: CH. Smokey of Happy Hill Ch. - Champion Obedience NOC - National Obedience Champion OTCH - Obedience Trial Champion VCCH - Versatile Companion Champion Tracking CT - Champion Tracker (TD,TDX and VST) Agility MACH - Master Agility Champion MACH2, MACH3, MACH4, etc. MACH may be followed by a number designation to indicate the quantity of times the dog has met the requirements of the MACH title. Field Trials FC - Field Champion AFC - Amateur Field Champion NFC - National Field Champion NAFC - National Amateur Field Champion NOGDC - National Open Gun Dog Champion AKC GDSC - AKC Gun Dog Stake Champion AKC RGDSC - AKC Retrieving Gun Dog Stake Champion Herding (NOT FOR LABRADORS) HC - Herding Champion Dual DC - Dual Champion (Ch. and FC) Triple TC - Triple Champion ( Ch., FC and OTCH) Coonhounds (NOT FOR LABRADORS) NCH - Nite Champion GNCH - Grand Nite Champion SHNCH - Senior Grand Nite Champion GCH - Senior Champion SGCH - Senior Grand Champion GFC - Grand Field Champion SGFC - Senior Grand Field Champion WCH - Water Race Champion GWCH - Water Race Grand Champion SGWCH - Senior Grand Water Race Champion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suffix: | BEHIND DOGS NAME Obedience Example: Smokey of Happy Hill.CD,TD. CD - Companion Dog CDX - Companion Dog Excellent UD - Utility Dog UDX - Utility Dog Excellent VCD1 - Versatile Companion Dog 1 VCD2 - Versatile Companion Dog 2 VCD3 - Versatile Companion Dog 3 VCD4 - Versatile Companion Dog 4 Lure Coursing (NOT FOR LABRADORS) JC - Junior Courser SC - Senior Courser MC - Master Courser Tracking TD - Tracking Dog TDX - Tracking Dog Excellent VST - Variable Surface Tracker Agility NA - Novice Agility OA - Open Agility AX - Agility Excellent MX - Master Agility Excellent NAJ - Novice Jumpers with Weaves OAJ - Open Jumpers with Weaves AXJ - Excellent Jumpers with Weaves MXJ - Master Excellent Jumpers with Weaves Hunting Test JH - Junior Hunter SH - Senior Hunter MH - Master Hunter Herding Test HT - Herding Tested PT - Pre-Trial Tested HS - Herding Started HI - Herding Intermediate HX - Herding Excellent Earthdog (NOT FOR LABRADORS) JE - Junior Earthdog SE - Senior Earthdog ME - Master Earthdog |