Mustard & Pepper Summer 2024

Reporting on Breeder Education Seminar #1 by Betty-Anne Stenmark, DDTCA Breeder Education Coordinator

B REEDER EDUCATION SEMINAR #1 was the first of many that’ll be presented in the coming years. It is my hope that these seminars and articles that follow will awaken a curiosity within you: How exactly do we breed better dogs? Rather than breeding your bitch to your friend’s stud dog or the one closest to you, you have researched carefully what virtues and faults your bitch has, and what do you want to improve with this next breeding? Do you know how your bitch compares to the standard of excellence we call our breed standard? In your bitch’s pedigree is there a dog who has been a known producer of quality? Doubling up on a common relative much further back than a great-grandsire is not going to influence the offspring. According to Wright’s percentages of inheritance a great-grandsire has an only 6-1/2% chance of appearing in the great grandkids, not a high percentage I’m sure you’ll agree. You as a breeder are also a someone is approved by the AKC to judge at a minimum they have ten years documented experience in the sport of purebred dogs, have bred a minimum of five champions and those dogs had to be whelped in the applicant’s home, not co-bred with a friend who did all the work. This is the minimum. I always laugh at myself who many years ago thought after I’d been “in dogs” for two years that I knew a lot, and then after five years I was sure I knew all there was to know, and then after ten years I realized how little I knew and how much I had yet to learn. The art of breeding better dogs is a continuing learning experi ence. So if you were having trouble understanding what I was talking about this may be the reason. Rome wasn’t built in a day as the old adage tells us. I am often asked what is it that a judge is looking for when judging my breed? There are three very important hallmarks in our breed, what makes them different from all other breeds. First, the unique shape. Second, the distinctive head. And third, the unique pencilled coat. We are going to address the first of these hallmarks today. judge. You are a judge of your breeding stock, a judge of what is in your whelping box and running around your backyard.. As I looked around the room I saw mostly faces per plexed by what I was talking about, attendees who were very new to breeding dogs. When

I am joined today by Sandra Hickson, Sandy Wolfskill, and Donna Francis, the four of us make up the Judges Education Committee. I will narrate the Powerpoint and, please, if you’ll hold your questions until I’m finished, I will answer any questions you might have. And Sandra, Sandy, and Donna can help me with that. Thank you all for coming and your interest in breeding better Dandie Dinmont Terriers. In 1989 when the AKC asked all parent clubs to “standard ize” the Standard, a committee was established and we went to work on exactly that. This was our opportunity to infuse into our Standard a description of a proper front assembly, shoul ders, upper arms, the croup, pasterns, etc. We left the descrip tion of the topline alone as it was explicit as it was written. The membership could not agree on the degree of front angulation so Dr. Josephine Deubler suggested “sufficient layback of

shoulder to allow good reach in front” and the membership vot ed yes. Every other country in the world, including the coun try of origin, described the front as “well angulated” but not the U.S., however, our wording meant exactly that. Cathy Nel son then suggested the wording that described the outline as it’s written today, the Committee

I’d like to point out here something that is important: Just because you don’t have all these virtues running around your back yard does not mean you shouldn’t strive to attain them.

liked it and the membership voted that in. A novice is not expected to understand a breed Standard in their first years “in dogs” so when trying to understand exactly what the Standard is saying, refer to Dr. Harold Spira’s Canine Terminology , the canine dictionary, not Webster. You can buy it on line from AmazonBooks.com. I’d like to point out here something that is important:Just because you don’t have all these virtues running around your back yard does not mean you shouldn’t strive to attain them. No one ever said breeding better dogs was easy. A breeder can get lucky in their first litter or two but can that breeder sustain that quality through the years? It takes decades to establish a line, a recognizable family of dogs you can point to and say with confidence Miss XYZ bred that dog. I can remember leaning over a Norwegian Elkhound going over the front and saying to myself Pat Trotter bred this dog and I was right. You can tell an Elkhound she bred anywhere in the world, they are that distinctive but that line of dogs began in the 1950s and continues to today, as some of you will know.

Mustard & Pepper

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Summer 2024