Canton Pomeranians

When your Pomeranian approach the breeding age,  you start  thinking about being a breeder.  Since I am promoting quality breeding, I will omit pet breeding; ie, breeding without any objective in improving on the puppies.  I will focus on upgrading the quality of your puppies whether the female pom that you have is  of superior stock or not so superior.

There is no such thing as a trash bitch.  You can always upgrade her qualities and work towards having puppies better than her, perhaps you can achieve some of this is the first generation...if not, in the second, if not, you should get it in the third....all this can be achieved is you do the right choice of stud dog. The cost of all this is TIME.  One generation will take at least 1 ½ years....Three generation will take 5 years, more or less.  If you sum up your TRUE COST, which also includes the stud fees and whelping expenses spent to achieve that 3^rd generation puppy which ought to be good, you will realize that having invested on that better bitch would have been all worth it.

The first step is to be able to access the quality of your bitch...In terms of the dog itself and in terms of her pedigree.

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The bitch herself
What are her virtues?  What are her faults?  Generally, you do not breed your bitch to another dog with the same fault because that will cement in that particular fault on your puppies.  At the same time, you do not keep on putting on weak points on your strong points because that would make your strong points unstable...eventually you may have all these faults coming out.  The key is take out the faults by breeding to another dog that is strong on those points and at the same time, ideally, double up on the strong points so that will cement those strong points in your breeding program.

Oftentimes, you cannot find a dog with all the virtues you require to correct those weak points.  In  such a case, you will have to prioritize the faults you want to correct and do it one at a time. 

Then there is also the issue whether that fault is dominant or recessive.  I have talked about this in my earlier blogs and whether it be black skin or color breeding, the same Mendelian theory works.  Please refer to this link:   http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/search/node/Mendelian+chart

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The pedigree
What is her pedigree like...is she a tightly bred female or is she an outcross...who are the ancestors behind them? ......Who are her desirable(not necessarily famous) ancestors which you want to resurrect in your puppies?....by doubling up on them.

Perhaps, the best way to explain this is by actually going to one pedigree at a time.... Let us start for example by coming up with specific bitch...say Ph Ch Canton Beautiful Star, whose pedigree in the link below:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/112/tree/asc

From this pedigree, the best dog that comes to my mind is the sire:  Ph HOF Am Ch Canton the Gigolo.  Since Gigolo is the kind of dog I want to produce, I want a stud dog that is a son of Gigolo.  For those who are not familiar with the other features of my website, you can quickly do a search of direct sons and daughter of specific dogs of interest by merely clicking the PROGENIES section of the profile of the said dog.  For example, to be able to select which son to use, I use my pedigree database to choose the desired son...here is the link:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/61/tree/progenies

From this link, I decide on Ph HOF Braveheart, which to me, is the best on of Gigolo.  And so, I breed Beautiful Star to Braveheart to produce half brother half sister breeding of Gigolo....and that produced  Ph HOF Am Tha Ch Canton Bravestar and Ph HOF Canton Britestar...and you can see their pedigree in this link:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/153/tree/asc

This is one of my most successful breeding with 2 Hall of Fame results.  This is inbreeding of Gigolo 2-2.  The expression 2-2 refers to how close the breeding is.  From the above pedigree link, you will see that the sire and dam are in the first column and are all referred to as 1.  All the grandparents on the second column are 2.  All the great grand parents are 3.  So since Gigolo is the paternal grandfather(2) and the maternal grandfather(2), the in breeding of Gigolo is 2-2.

Let us talk some more about inbreeding and linebreeding.   The pedigree of Ph Ch Canton Black Saracen whose link is below:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/152/tree/asc

This is Gigolo 1-3.  The sire(1) is Gigolo.  The maternal grandfather(3) is Gigolo. 

If we go again to another pedigree, say the pedigree of Ph Ch Canton Black Crescent, you see the pedigree to be Gigolo 2-2-4.  Here is the link:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/188/tree/asc

Gigolo is the paternal grandfather(2), paternal great great grandfather(4), and maternal grandfather(2).  It is very simple.  Just look which column the name Gigolo falls....first and the third you will see Gigolo’s name is the second column so that refers to the first and third (2).   You also see his name in the fourth column as the paternal great great grandfather of Black Crescent.

Let us go to another example,  Ph Ch Canton Pierre  Balmain whose link is as follows:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/191/tree/asc

Here you see Gigolo 2-4-4.  On the sire side, he is the father ...(2).  On the dam’s side, he is grandfather on both sides 3-3 for the dam....and 4-4 for Pierre....so in finality, it is Gigolo 2-4-4.

Many people are afraid to use too close breeding but my best dogs has been produced doing close breeding.    Here are some more links showing examples of very close breeding:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/170/tree/asc       Ph HOF Jan Le Don’t Make Me Laugh is a father to daughter to half brother breeding.   He is Am Ch Jan Le Just A Dash of Millamoor 2-2-3.  That is very close.

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/739/tree/asc       Am Ch Janshars Flesh and Blood is a father to daughter back to father and again back to father breeding.  It is Am Ch BevNor and Southland Rambo 1-2-3.  I do not think you can go closer than that!  In the process of producing a dog like this, you will either have very weak or dead puppies.  But having produced a dog as tightly bred as this, you have a very powerful tool of producing uniform and very nice puppies.

Personally, my favorite is half brother half sister breeding but always, always, the key is selection.  In any kind of breeding, selection is always very important.  As you do closer and closer breeding, your selection will become more and more critical.  Close breeding or inbreeding is what I call dynamite breeding.  Used properly, it could be a very very fast way of improving your stock.  Used the wrong way, it will destroy your breeding program.

So, when do you do inbreeding, like half brother half sister breeding (2-2)? 

...When the common ancestor is of such excellence that you want them to be resurrected; and

...When you have to two prospective partners that are top specimens having a common sire or dam with the rest of the pedigree as distant as possible.  You want some new blood like at least 25% to keep your puppies strong and healthy; and

...When both of them are very sound and very healthy with complete and correct on the basics requirements of a good dog.

Doing a less close breeding like first cousin breeding or 3-3 is safer but less powerful. 

For how long can you continue inbreeding or linebreeding?   I have asked this question so many times myself but generally, it takes 3 generations of inbreeding and/or linebreeding to create your own strain.  Each time, there must be some new blood, at least 25%.  When you notice your puppies are getting weaker or less fertile, it is time to think of outcrossing.

Let us go back again to Ph Ch Canton Beautiful Star with the following link:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/112/tree/asc

This bitch has produce so many nice puppies for me...inbreeding, linebreeding and outcrossing....

Ph Ch Canton Golden Goblet was produced with Ph HOF Canton Harry Potter as the sire.  Harry’s mother is a half brother (same dam) to Gigolo so, Goblet is linebreeding of Sparkling Coral of Canton 3-3 according to the pedigree in the link below:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/189/tree/asc

Ph Gr Ch Canton Tuxedo and It Ph Ch Canton Tie N Tails were produced by using Ph HOF Jan Le Don’t Make Me Laugh(Bryce) as their sire.  You have Beautiful Star who is almost an outcross or could be considered very distantly bred.  Breeding her to Bryce who is very very distant relatives but who is extremely tight breeding....resulted to a very successful litter of 2 champions out of a litter of 2.  Here is the link to the pedigree:

http://www.cantonpomeranians.com/node/2575/tree/asc

So what is the rule when you outcross.  Basically, I outcrossed Beautiful Star to Bryce knowing that since Bryce is a dominant gene dog(because he is tightly bred), by breeding him to an outcross, there should be some good prepotency that will come out ....at least we know which line will dominate.

One way, is you breed a male and a female with some common ancestor...preferrably one so that you resurrect a desirable ancestor but always keeping in mind that selection is the key.  You try to continue breeding as long the puppies remain healthy and fertile.  When you see your breeding is starting to fall apart, you should consider outcrossing to keep the puppies strong and healthy.  Also, by that time, after so many generations of linebreeding and inbreeding, you would have had some powerful blood accumulated in your dogs.  It is then time to outcross.  If your bitch is very tightly bred and whose line I really like,  I will want to try to continue the linebreeding or inbreeding if possible.  If not,  it is better to breed her to an outcross male who is an outcross himself.  This way, I know which dog will dominate in the puppies...my bitch.   After that outcross male, I can go back to my old line and with  improved strength brought in by the outcross male.  You always go back to your line or perhaps a hybrid of your line. ... unless you want to abandon it and go to another line.

I do not like the idea of breeding a outcross male to another outcross female if they are totally unrelated.  It is too much of a washed out breeding and I am afraid there is no reliability is this kind of breeding.

All this is theory and this theory can only be verified by actual practice...it is all by trial and error.  Oftentimes, you will  have some combinations made in heaven.  You are so excited with the puppies that will come out only to be miserably disappointed.  The theory is there.  It is up to you to practice it.  It usually should work and you will only find out when you use it.  As you progress and see that what you are practicing is good and successful, you become more and more confident in what you will do.

September  1, 2011

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