Haynes: Practical Dog Breeding 



267 



a dam to her own son. (3) By breeding 

 together full brother and ivll sister. 

 These, and only these, are true in- 

 breeding." Any other consanguineous 

 matings are to be called line-breeding. 



As a fact, inbreeding is not common, 

 it appears, among first-class dogs. An 

 examination of records showed that 

 "including both inbreeding and the 

 primary cross of line-breeding only 

 7% of the Scottish terriers are closely 

 bred, and but 13% of the Airedales." 

 Mr. Haynes strongly indorses line- 

 breeding, but holds that "continued 

 inbreeding results in degeneration of 

 both physical an(J mental powers." 



As to breeding systems, whose name 

 is Legion, Mr. Haynes reduces them all 

 to six different basic systems, three of 

 which "are no systems at all," and he 

 takes occasion to warn his readers that 

 successful breeding is not a matter of 

 some mathematical or mechanical 

 "system" but of knowledge and judg- 

 ment. The systems he recognizes are: 



(1) Trust to luck. 



(2) Breed to the latest sensational 

 winner. This he calls the "fashionable 

 breeding system." 



(3) The egotistical system — i. e., the 

 one in which the fancier always breeds 

 to his own dogs, "because it is cheaper, 

 because it gives them greater oppor- 

 tunity as sires, or because it supplies the 

 puppies with pedigrees that look as if 

 he had established a strain of his own." 

 These three systems are all actively bad. 



(4) Inbreeding. 



(5) Line-breeding. 



(6) Outbreeding. Each one of these 

 has its own place, but must not be 

 considered as an infallible rule. 



The effect of inbreeding is to magnify 

 the heredity of a single individual. 

 This is often highly desirable, and most 

 breeds of live-stock have been built up 

 by inbreeding. But as bad as well as 

 good points are intensified, inbreeding 

 is a two-edged sword which must be 

 used with great care. 



VALUE OF LINE-BREEDING. 



"Judged by the results produced, 

 however, line-breeding, although its 

 results have been slower and are less 



sensational, has been even more effec- 

 tive. In our pedigree studies we saw' 

 that line-breeding has, in the case of 

 two typical terriers, .produced more 

 than five times as many champions as 

 inbreeding." 



"Line-breeding can be defined as the 

 combination of the blood of a certain 

 individual without the direct use of 

 that same individual. It is fairly 

 represented in the marriage of cousins 

 in whose children the blood of the 

 grand-parents is again combined." 



"Straight out-breeding, the scrupu- 

 lous avoidance of all close-breeding of 

 any type, is a child of the super-fear 

 of the noxious effects of continued close- 

 breeding. From what has been said, 

 it is plain that this is foolish and un- 

 profitable. Moreover, from a practical 

 point of view, it is almost impossible." 



From these methods, Mr. Haynes 

 "pieces together" a system that he 

 feels confident in recommending to 

 breeders. The breeder should learn 

 all he can of the history of his variety 

 and then he will draw up for himself a 

 very definite ideal. His actual breeding 

 operations will be directed toward the 

 establishment of a strain that will as 

 closely as possible approximate this 

 ideal. 



How can this be done? By trans- 

 forming "the drag of the race" from 

 an enemy to an ally, Mr. Haynes 

 believes. 



"Even a casual study of any breed 

 will reveal the fact that certain points 

 'come good' in the majority of the dogs. 

 Other points are commonly bad. If 

 in the selection of the brood bitches of 

 his kennels, a breeder gets two or three 

 of sound average type, but excelling 

 particularly in those points in which 

 their breed, as a breed, is weak, he will 

 have made the best possible start toward 

 the establishment of that ideal strain. 

 Naturally, these bitches should not 

 only excel in these weak points of their 

 breed, but should, so much as possible, 

 be bred from stock strong in these 

 same characters. Bred to dogs excel- 

 ling in these same points, and better in 

 others, the foundation of the strain is 

 well laid. 



^Journal of Heredity, V, 8, pp. 368-369, August, 1914. 



