History » Prick-Eared

A Sign of a Wounded

Breeding, Genetics, Swedish Vallhund 3 Responses »

Apr 192012

Over the course of the last year I have been assembling information on the Swedish Vallhunds. The starting point was my own dog with a five-generation pedigree. At first the state of the breed seems to be relatively positive with low Co-efficient of Inbreeding (COI) once I have plugged in data, provided through SVPedigrees maintained by Sharon Donaldson in Australia; using Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice Spreadsheet at first then later BreedMate PedX. However, there were many holes in his pedigree.

A much more comprehensive dataset was extracted from Worldwide Swedish Vallhunds – Västgötaspets Pedigree
Database once kept by the now-deceased Leone Darling. It is rather a shame due to the death of a predominant breed historian, the domain will one day be taken down once it expires since the information is much more complete with far fewer errors. Using the dataset from Ms. Darling provided a much clearer picture.

When Christopher Landauer revealed one must go back to the founders to get a more reliable calibration of a dog’s COI, a graph of why it is not enough to look at the COI(3) and COI(5) was produced. With Riley, we will take a look at the COI(29).

Distressed by the relatively high COI, more information on the founders and popular sires and brood bitches was needed. To understand why such a high COI was procured, we must first understand what a pedigree collapse is. However the entire tree is relatively compact and there are a few noticeable collapses at a glance. The good news is they are not frequent. The bad news is not all the known founders are included in his complete pedigree. This hints the possibility several lines died out.

Pedigree tree highlighting repeated ancestors generated with PedX.

When inquiring numerous breeders about this issue with Riley, it was learned he is very typical of the breed. In fact, he is a relatively accurate sample of the Swedish Vallhund population.

So what happened? The modern population of Swedish Vallhunds, in which there is approximately 500 registrations world-wide every year, once had a more diverse ancestral base. A great number of potentials were rejected due to poor understanding of recessives and lack of knowledge of concepts essential to population genetics and quantitative genetics such as allele frequency and polygenes when the breeding program first initiated even though the rejects had obvious influences or characteristics. Ontop of the inability to recognize suitors, many of the progeny were sold unregistered and only the ones who were seen as ideal for breeding were registered for many decades after the founding of the Swedish Vallhunds. In addition, there were a few kennels between 1960s and 1970s producing surpluses of puppies which coincided with the extinction of several dam-lines and a a couple of sire-lines in the 1970s and 1980s. The bleeding of the breed slowed down when the Swedish Kennelklubben mandated entire litters must be registered in the 1980s, and a rule was passed in the 1990s stating a sire cannot contribute more than 5% of the existing gene-pool. As the result, conductor was able to slow down the train to hell.

However using pedigree software are quite limiting and they don’t tell us a great deal of information. There are quite a few of them out there. One of the easiest software to utilize, often used in population genetics, ecology and conservation biology for visualization, although the original purpose of the software was for discovering new relations between proteins in biochemstry and genomic laboratories, is an open-source network analysis program such as: Cyptoscope, Gephi, Pajek, BioLayout Express^3D. There are plenty of software floating around on the Internet which regurge useful information.

In the next post, an illustration using a node-mapping software will be provided and explained. We will walk through as we add more information to the dataset and change how it is processed, different interpretations arise. We will also explore why in a competitive world where everyone is more concerned with their self-image, a pedigree record is rather limiting. A pedigree is a tool which only becomes more useful as more hard data is added.

Struggling to Keep Head Above Water

Genetics and Health, Shikoku Inu 8 Responses »

Mar 292012

Dogs as a whole are not endangered. They still retain the same diversity as their ancestors, the wolf. However the state of affair among individual breeds is disconcerting. Of course, with breeds within closed registry, all it takes to save them is to open the stud-book. Politics do not always allow for this though, so other tactics must be sought out.

The Shikokus, a breed native to Japan, are in grave danger. A few Nihon Ken enthusiasts in the know revealed these dogs need hormones and artificial insemination to produce new litters: a sure sign of severe inbreeding depression is underway. To add cherry to the top, bitches have a volalite irregular heat cycle: some come into season every three months, some have split heats, some skip heats and others have silent heats. To add to that, females are self-defensive to the extreme toward males. If a natural breeding is to be performed, the female must be muzzled and multiple people are required to assist the male to rape the bitch in order to conceive. Such hyper-aggression toward closely related individuals of the opposite sex are signs of inbreeding avoidance. If owners of the Shikokus are not careful, they will find that their bitches will eventually full-stop quit breeding and heat cycles become nil. There is only so much a biological entity can take.

A few days ago, it was released there are about 233 dogs registered with NIPPO in Japan in the year 2011. This is a huge drop from 357 two years prior. Overseas, in Europe and United States, where Shikokus are becoming increasingly more popular fetching astounding price-tags stemming from an incredibly small exported gene-pool, it is probably certain we will see the nastiness of auto-immune disorders arise in those bloodlines much sooner. In the irony of it all, while it is true Shikokus have been steadily decline in popularity in Japan heading toward extinction, which is no surprise considering the hassles, the breed is at the point where Japanese owners are literally giving away pups to new homes. Without knowing the effective population size, which its true number can only be found from deep pedigree analyses, and sampling to measure the effective genome, where the zygosity can be overseen, the situation may be far more dire than one realizes.

When one sees comments like this, it is rather scary:

In a situation when the registration number is so low, and people refuses to outcross, every single dog is of breeding quality. Temperament can be restored through careful selective breeding. Recessives can be controlled with a good understanding of genetic drift and allele frequency and keeping disorders at bay may not be possible if the MHC diversity is already lost. The breed has already lost its reproductive fitness and it is a fast-track to hell if the spay-neuter mantra continue to be regurged. Gradually, polygenetic traits such as auto-immune disorders will be fixed, become a feature of the breed and normalized for the most hardcore gaurdians. It will be impossible to breed away from these disorders within such a narrow gene-pool. This is not the time to gripe about puppy-mills or backyard breeders. Gene losses cannot be recovered.

Now is time to stop the bleeding and to perform a triage. It is irresponsible to eliminate potential candidates by desexing them. Although not every dog should be bred, every dog should be treated as a genetic reserve. In an ideal world, every dog would have its genome sequenced and filed in a database to be matched with the best potential breeding partner. However we are still quite a bit away from this being a reality. In the absence of advanced genomic technology, with every castration and tube-tying, the breed takes a tremendous hit.

Some people are literally brain-washed by society. To be fair, they are not exactly brain-washed. The commenter means well, she believes in what she was told. How could they know better? The amount of information out there is paranormal and mind-bogging in which it is intimidating to absorb all the knowledge out there. To be able to synthesize and apply the knowledge is a daunting task in itself.

Over the last year, a new concept was learned: qualzucht [trans. torture-breeding]. It is a concept coined in Germany during the 1990s when animal husbandry started to rear its ugly head. In fact, in some countries, there are now laws for when breeders or an institute knowingly produce defective animals in the presence of better scientifically-documented alternatives.

When it is known that a genetically-bottlenecked breed is struggling, it is a form of qualzucht to not advocate keeping every dog intact. It is torture-breeding to continue a bloodline when the alternatives are effectively eliminated through ideologies. Considering it is unethical to desex a pet in Europe without medical reasons, it is clear North American believers in the pedigreed world are being spoon-fed what it means to be a responsible breeder or a responsible owner without a clear understanding of population genetics.

Since breeders regard the Shikokus next to primitive and appear to be close to nature, they are believed to be natural and healthy. Due to shrinking population and hyper-selection for type, although people cannot see on the outside, internally, at a genetic molecular level, the dog is just as unnatural as the Bull Terrier, Neopoltian Mastiff, the English Bulldog and other breeds with phenotypical extremes. People interested in the Shikokus owe it to themselves to take agricultural science, quantitative genetics and conservation biology for the welfare of the breed.

There are five options for the Shikokus at this point: let go of the breed; outcross to restore reproductive fitness and open the studbooks to accept any unregistered individuals; treat every individual as sacred; start again from scratch; or bend over and prepare for even further symptoms of inbreeding depression. Time will tell if the dog has chosen a wise ally or not over the few decades or if the contract between the Shikokus and mankind will be revoked. The fallout is coming, and it is rather interesting to watch people patch the leak and to clean up the aftermath. Let this be a lesson for other dog breeds.

Research Request: History of the Black Norwegians

Norwegian Elkhound 2 Responses »

Feb 092012

Once in awhile, a dog is imported and is revered by the locals, yet very few people have recollections of who imported the dogs to begin with. It perks one’s curiosity where the dogs come from and when.

While it is easy to find out who aided in the import of some of the dogs found in America, such as West Siberian Laika, Norwegian Grey Elkhound and others, there is one breed which exists outside the major registries, neither the American Kennel Club or the United Kennel Club: the Norwegian Black. These dogs found in the Appalachia are indistinguishable from the FCI-recognized Norwegian Black Elkhounds under the Norsk Kennel Klub, however very little historical records exist. The oral history which does exist is reduced to “my grandfather hunted with these and his father before him did as well”. So these dogs must had come from somewhere since the cultural memory is still intact.

The dogs in question are smaller than their Norwegian Grey cousins, and they are much slender in appearance. The coat is much more dense and shorter. Their intelligence also differs in that they are much more head-strong and wilder, yet they are also more easily trainable than the single-track minded Norwegian Greys; and one can still find these dogs today readily in the classifieds simply as “Norwegian” for the purpose of working squirrels.

There is always a possibility the original Norwegian Black Elkhounds were part of the founding imports of the collective Norwegian Elkhound, which in modern times is now divided into at least five different breeds or more, arriving in America in the early 20^th century. The possibility should not be a surprise considering Jämthund and Norwegian Grey Elkhound were not formally separated as a breeds until 1946 much with the help of Aksel Lindström, Bjorn von Rosen and others. Also, Elkhounds at the turn of the century were much more variable in colours, and the splits in the breed such as the Swedish White and others occurred much later when abnormal colours appeared in the litters due to the insistence of the purists all dogs must only be grey. However it would be more preferable to have something concrete and verifiable oppose to speculations and theories.

If anyone can provide a lead on these black dogs found in the backwoods of the Eastern Seaboard, do not hesitate to comment or drop an e-mail through info [at] prickeared [dot] com.

The American Way

People, Politics, Ponderings 1 Response »

Feb 082012

There was an interesting discussion full of drivel on a dog forum filled with dog-mommies entitled “Does AKC Support Crossbreeding?”; however registering to respond to it seems to be a major drag. So instead, because countless of Europeans question why Canadians and Americans have so many dogs outside the major registries, perhaps it is better to explain why in the land of the free, people are free to make their own choices and why the American and Canadian Kennel Clubs, while they do not endorse nor recognize cross-breeding, lack the sufficient means to corral the general population.

It is quite understandable why someone who recently immigrated to the country has a hard time grasping the American way. After all, the continent is quite vast and Europe and Australia are tiny compared to the seemingly endless land. However there is a reason to all of this madness.

First off, do not focus on a subset of breeders. Consider the audience as a whole. A great number of pure-bred breeders are living out in the rural area; and with that there are events in life where pure-bred dogs cannot always fill in the niché, especially in the realm of working and performance dogs. Not everyone who is operating outside the registry are breeding “designer dogs”.

There is a reason why there are so many mongrels in North America. Firstly, it is actually quite common for ranchers and hunters to utilize cross-bred dogs. So it is unfair to ask everyone who manages cattle for a living, courses coyotes or pursues feral hogs to give up his or her hobby of showing and breeding pure-bred dogs because they have vested interests in other aspects of their lives. Whether it is mixing Catahoula Cur with Pitbull to improve their ability to physically hold a pig, or crossing in a Greyhound or Saluki with an American Staghound for managing coyotes as pests, or back-crossing a cattle dog derived from a Border Collie to Blue Heeler to work a new strain of cattle, many people have a practical reason for producing performance-bred mongrels. In addition, it is becoming quite common for dog-sports to be the arena of inventive nature with flyball opening way to winning Border-Jacks [Border Collie-Jack Russell Terrier mix] and Border-Staffies [Border Collie-Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix] leading while aceing the Frisbee championships; or Whippet crosses stealing the diving competitions where static breeds lacking innovations within the last 150-years are losing.

If the AKC or the CKC do not allow people to breed crosses outside the registry or even sell unregistered, then anyone who has serious investment in dog sports, agriculture, hunting et cetera will be pressed to forefeit either showing their purebred dogs or working alongside their crosses. The Kennel Clubs know they cannot afford to lose memberships, so the registries do not bother rocking the boat by forcing people into the “either or” position. It is both political and financial suicide for the Clubs to become anything more than being just a registry.

It is actually much wiser to enable people to have their little showing hobby on the side with FCI-recognized breeds, while allowing them to participate in other cruicial life matters which also involve dog-ownership. Otherwise, the registries will just collapse.

Just because someone is operating outside a registry, it does not means they will commit pedigree fraud or engage in other illicit activities; nor does it mean they are being unethical. If cross-breeding is regarded as unethical because of a few bad apples, then in the fairness of tits for tats, one might as well ban dog-breeding altogether since there are just as many horrific examples of pure-bred breeders committing great sins. Bad cases make for bad laws.

Merry Christmas

Dogs, Pembroke Corgi 1 Response »

Dec 232011

via corgiaddict.com [Image: Unknown]

Norrbotten Retriever

Hunting, Hunting No Responses »

Nov 232011

You don’t need no damn duck dog to retrieve a fowl! It’s so easy, even a spitz can do it.

Of course, supposedly these dogs are not expected to retrieve to hand, but rather head to dry land and wait for their master. They can do it though– it just seems like people don’t require them to.

The Real Russian Retriever

Hunting, Hunting No Responses »

Nov 162011

So while breed historians like to state Russian blood made their way into the stocks of Golden Retrievers, the Soviets developed an actual retrieving breed:

via arsik.ru [Image: Potokera RR]

Shocked? So am I. That’s no Golden! It’s a HUSKY! Wait, not a husky, a Finnish Spitz. See, the Soviets developed their own strain of generalist hunting dogs by mixing dogs of the Karelia territory: Finnish Spitz, Norrbottenspitz and Karelian Bear Dogs in Moscow and Leningrad. However the kennels collapsed post-WWII, and Finnish Spitzes were imported heavily to resurrect the doomed breed. From that, the Russian rednecks devised the Karelo-Finnish Laika.

via arsik.ru [Image: Potokera RR]

It is curious however since many spitzes don’t readily go to water like the British retrieving breeds. So the association of waterfowls and spitzes never really connected in my head. It is important to note, however, these dogs are not expected to retrieve to hand but rather retrieve ducks and geese from marshes and tall grasses. Understandable. Note to self: don’t be a control freak.

Apparently these dogs retrieve quite naturally, probably because of their high prey drive; however heading to the opposite side of the pond and devouring the bird upon arriving on shore need to be trained out. Given how food-orientated these dogs are, it would not be difficult to delay the instant gratification of gutting their own birds. See, the dog expects its “prize,” offals such as giblets and feet, after a successful shot.

via arsik.ru [Image: Already retrieving at hree and half months old, Nikelberga LV, 2000]

It is noted these dogs are bank-runners, taking the shortest route on land before diving in for the tedious swim. Apparently these dogs could be trained as early as a few months if the prey drive kicked in early. However, given how soft these dogs are, yet defiant, I doubt rejiggering their brains with electronic collars for line-running would tide over well and could potentially ruin a good dog.

One would have to keep in mind, these spitzes are not specialists, however they are generalist hunters bred to be stubborn and keen. The keenness is why dogs can be employed as “hunt-point-retrieve” dogs during birding seasons, yet act as bear or boar dogs during the off-seasons.

Wait, an all-season dog? If the Finkies are anything like Shiba Inus, they would associate certain objects with certain games, let it be a certain type of gun, a boat or just the type of clothes one wear. Hell, anchoring a boat to the top of the SUV is enough to get a dog excited about going on a fishing trip. Or hitching a trailer meant going bushwhacking.

A Dog Amongst Giants

Swedish Vallhund 3 Responses »

Oct 282011

Do you see any ducks? Sheep? No? What the heck are these giant animals? There is no way such a low-to-ground dog could handle such beasts! Oh, yes, it’s a Västgötaspets: the cattle dog of Lilliput, brought to Sweden by dear Gulliver.

Okay, okay. It’s hard not to relish defying intellectual dishonesty and denialism and rubbing these photographs into holier-than-thou so-called “working” people who don’t depend on livestocks as a lifeline.

Images

Vallning http://www.fjoseskennel.se/vallning.htm (accessed March 16, 2011). [Photo: G. Smedberg, 1987]

Finkie on a Tanuki

Hunting, Hunting No Responses »

Oct 262011

A footage of a Finnish Spitz working a raccoon dog:

The Soviets introduced the Siberian Raccoon Dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides ussuriensis) between 1928 to 1958 to East Europe in attempt to expand the fur trade. The problem is the raccoon dogs are now viewed as a pest species in much of Europe since the grouse populations were decimated; however scientific researches say otherwise. To combat the invasive species, dogs are effective for culling since the raccoon dogs are too elusive for guns and traps. Of course, some may say that only pint-sized working dogs can do these kind of jobs.

See how in the thickets, the hunter located his dog by following the barks? That is how a bark-pointer is used. I have yet to go on a hunt which employ bark-pointers as bird-dogs, only with pointers and retrievers, but I would love to someday.

Odd Photograph

Buhund 1 Response »

Oct 072011

A few days ago, this photograph cropped up on a feed, and it caused quite a bit of a stir among Vallhund enthusiasts since the photograph looked quite dated, no one could place it. It is easy to see why. Some of the female dogs in other breeds could easy pass for a Vallhund. Speculations such as “it’s an Elkhound” or “it’s a Norwegian Lundehund” were thrown around.
So, one of the members of the group blew up the photograph and cleaned up the image.

Intriguing, no? Well, sorry to spoil the mood: it is actually a photograph of a Buhund exhibition in 1926 taken in Ålgård. Now, it is easy to understand where the confusions come from: Norwegian Buhunds are a regional strain of all-purpose dogs which have been used on moose, bears and birds while serving as sheep-dogs today in Scandinavia; and it is highly probable all Nordic spitzes shared the same gene pool, with regional variations.

Images

Facebook. (Image: Unknown)

Sources

norsk buhund. http://www.goldenretrievers.nl/jachthonden/buhund.htm (accessed October 6, 2011).

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