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Originally Posted by Micah my love  You should be able to contact AKC and get a pedigree dated futher back than three yrs...some people are very PC smart and can trace back for generations |
I was going to say I think AKC goes back 5-6 generations...and you can google PEDIGREES and find people that can go back 8-10, 12 generations.
But............now you have all those dogs laid out on paper....do you know the lines? Do you know the INDIVIDUAL dogs?? Do you know what lines or what dogs in particular, may have a propensity to have faults and what those faults are so you do not cross them closely with your other dog you are going to pair with? THIS is what takes YEARS AND YEARS of research and study and "insider information" because you cant just walk up to a breeder and ask "Who throws liver shunts? or Who throws bad legs? or Who has bad eyes?" Until they are able to identify and tag the genes that produce these diseases, this is something breeders know and avoid and work around in their breeding programs. All lines have certain issues, faults....for example, just because you have a dog that you have a genetic marker as throwing bad livers....that dog can be bred with hundreds of other dogs and will never throw a bad liver....but when you cross that dog with another dog that has bad livers back in their pedigree, you run into trouble. This is why "reputable, ethical, knowledgable, breeders (show breeders especially)" absolutely cringe and grimace in agony when they see indescriminate breedings taking place all around us. This is nothing more than Russian Roulette....this is exactly why there is such an increase in faults of all kinds, from simply a coat color/texture, up to liver and heart anomolies/diseases. A complete and thorough knowledge of your dogs pedigrees, is knowing the exact road map to how that dog you are looking at, got on the ground in front of you! People casually throw around the term, "Breeding to better the breed"....well that is truly what those breeders are doing, through precise and intricate combinations of the pedigrees they know sooooooooooo well. They breed out the bad livers and hips and knees and eyes, and develop strong, healthy, gorgeous Yorkies that exemplyfy exactly what the breed standard dictates.