In order to establish some common ground for discussion it is necessary to define what one means by a successful breed­ing program. For some this may mean the production of wonderful family pets free from genetic problems, and this of course is an enviable and worthy goal. For others it may mean the production of a Best in Show winner, but whatever the definition we need a common yardstick for purposes of this dis­cussion. For the sake of argument I am going to take, in part, the definition, "the production of superior dogs. year after year." Since we need a common yardstick to agree on what are superior dogs. I will further extend this description to say those dogs which year after year have proven their merit as superior dogs in the show ring. This is the only common ground upon which we can meet for the purposes of this discussion. One has to have some outside authority as a reference for the assessment of the production of superior specimens and I will arbi­trarily say that the outside grounds will be the independent assessment of many judges in the show ring.

What follows are five concepts which I feel are the most important for new individu­als who are interested in success in the dog breeding world, i.e, top winning show dogs. I believe this is the first time that these concepts have been formalized.

AN EYE FOR A DOG

I consider this concept to be the single most important in the success of a dog breeder. This is the ability to recognize specimens that epitomize the best of a particular breed, including type, soundness, etc., etc. In my evaluation of individuals in various breeds who have not achieved a great measure of success, this is the one most easily identifiable factor. I would say to the beginner in pu­rebred dogs: select your breed, learn every­ thing there is to know about the breed, develop an appreciation for what constitutes an ideal specimen of this particular breed in North America or the world for that matter, learn all you can about the hereditary faults of the breed, and learn where the best speci­mens of the breed are being produced. The ability to develop an eye for a good specimen is one of the most important aspects of suc­cess, has a good deal of subjectivity attached to it, but in my opinion is something that can be taught in a fairly short time to an intelligent. observant, prospective breeder. If you do not know what a good specimen of a par­ticular breed should look like, it seems undeniable to me that the road to producing one is going to be long and difficult.

For the beginning breeder there is no way that I can over-emphasize this most impor­tant aspect of success in the breed. This con­cept must transcend local community, state and even national standards of breed acceptance. The total gene pool in the world is your shopping ground. Don't be misled by local fads and fetishes, or what local breed­ers may tell you is the acceptable trend in the breed. It is true that you may have to show your specimens in a particular province, but a good specimen of any breed will eventually be recognized no matter where you exhibit. I would suggest to the would-be dog breeders and exhibitors: study your stand­ards, go to all the dog shows that you can possibly attend for at least six months; take a pencil and paper and, while sitting at ring­ side, write down everything you can observe about your particular breed of interest while it is being judged in the ring. Develop an objective viewpoint of all the dogs being judged no matter who owns the dog or who is judg­ing the dog. Visit all of the breeders of your breed that you can manage and chat with them in depth about what they consider important in their breed. Ask them to show you good and poor specimens of the breed and to point out on the dogs the good and bad points. At the end of that time period, look at your notes, ask yourself the ques­tions: Why is this or that dog winning? What sets this dog apart from the other specimens in the ring? ls this breed well represented in my particular area? ls this breed doing well in competition outside of its own breed, i.e., group competition? Are the breeders in my area doing well in show competition?

KILLER INSTINCT

All the sociologists out there are going to have a field day with this particular one and I really don't want to get any letters from commentators on the social scene about how nice it is to play the game whether we win or lose. Oh, I know, there is a large body of opinion that we  should smile and take our second ribbons and be a better person for it. I say to you, if you are happy with that don't read another word of this article because it is not for you. The concepts that make up what I have chosen to call the 'killer instinct' (perhaps that is not a good term, but I like it), involve what I think separates the winners from the others - things like: don't be happy with second best, critical assessment of your breeding program, open mindedness and whatever else goes into a truly analytical appraisal of one's breeding program.

I have placed this particular concept in the number two spot in my list because I think, 

after the inability to recognize a particularly good specimen in the breed, it is the second most common failure of breeders to ascend above the ordinary.

Don't be happy with second best: Decide at the outset that you are going to achieve a high level of success in your breed and don't be content with second best. This is not to say that you will not be defeated, but in any defeat there is a lesson and one should be receptive to this lesson. Don't confuse this with poor sportsmanship either. Be gracious in defeat but have the inner resolve to im­prove your won/lost ratio. Don't blame poor judging, professional handling, etc. for defeats. One of the lessons that beginners must learn is that a dog show is a show and a good specimen must not only be good but must look good.

Critical assessment: This is analogous to not being kennel-blind. Oh how often have I heard comments like:

" ... this is better than anything being shown locally ... "

or " ... she's a sweet little bitch, maybe she'll produce something better than herself ... "

or " ... she does have these faults but I think I can correct them by breeding her to a stud dog that can correct them ... "

or  " ... it's my bloodlines and I'm going to stick with it... "

or " ... she's from the best kennel in this breed. Therefore, she must be good and will produce something good... "

or " ... I hate to lose her bloodlines... " etc., etc.

I could go on and on with the many argu­ments and rationalizations I have heard from breeders over the years, but you must be tough-minded enough to assess what you have and weed it out. The successful breeder will not agonize, rationalize or make excuses for something that is less than satisfactory. The pathway to the top is not for those who have emotional hangups or who are willing to start with a poor specimen and spend years and years trying to improve and breed out the faults. The term 'killer instinct' does not imply anything cruel or unemo­tional about owning or breeding purebred dogs. It simply says that one starts with the best and one does not accept anything but the best. If you are going to start rationalizing about particular specimens because they carry your kennel name, then you can forget about going to the top.

SET GOALS

I have been impressed with the number of breeders who don't know where they are going or why they are going there. I think it is terribly important at the outset to set some goals and try to establish a clear-cut pathway to obtaining those goals. Begin­ning breeders should sit down and write out their goals at the outset so that continuity in a program can be preserved even with set­ backs along the way. Setting goals is an inte­gral part of what I would call 'game plans.' If you have investigated your chosen breed in great depth and have made the  decision to strive for the best that the breed has to offer, then you should be able to sit down and map out a skeleton game plan for your initial entry into this endeavor at least.

Time will not permit a detailed analysis of this initial entry, but let me just state briefly that you should obtain the best young bitch in the breed that you have chosen that money can buy. This is a real problem for most beginning breeders because estab­lished breeders are reluctant to sell you the best bitch that they have produced. If you can convince an established breeder of your sincerity you can enter the gene pool of a particular breed at an advanced level. The other part of a gene pool in your breed, a stud dog, is only an airplane flight away. Don't keep a stud dog of your own for your breeding program, at least not in the beginning.

MONEY

Achieving success in a breed will require an initial generous outlay and continuous infusion of money. Do not enter into a program of dog breeding in which you think it will be self-supporting. Under my suggested breed­ing program there is no possible way that it can pay for itself because it demands very few specimens for breeding stock, having lit­ters only when you need something to im­prove the breed or for your own show pur­poses, breeding your bitch to the best available stud dog no matter where it may be in North America, and a continuous out­ lay for support such as for veterinary costs, nutritional programs, show expenses, etc. A program requiring self-support will always result in compromises of some sort along the way.

SERENDIPITY

The serendipity factor in a successful pro­gram is an important one although it cannot be measured, predicted, or relied upon. It is the factor that makes it possible to produce a Best in Show winner from mediocre par­ents, and maybe it is this factor alone which keeps many breeders going, looking for that one great one, when the four other factors which I have outlined above are missing. A lot of big winners in the show ring came about serendipitously and will continue to do so in the future. It is not surprising to me that this last factor plays such a large role in the sorting out of conformational qualities, because so little is known about the genetic aspects of these qualities. Although serendipity must be dealt with I believe that there are other positive factors which may be brought into play to enhance one's statisti­cal potential for breeding better dogs.

GENETICS

This brings me to the last subject area which I will address in this already long communication, and that is the subject of genet­ics as it applies to dog breeders. I believe that so little is known about the polygenic patt­erns in the inheritance of conformational qualities in dogs that it cannot be put on a scientific basis. The development of all of the breeds of dogs as we now know them has been made on the basis of mass selection, or how the dog looks. This selection by phenotype is still the method being used today in everyone's breeding program. The kind of real genetic information that is available to the canine fancier deals with the mode of in­heritance of hereditary defects. This kind of information can be obtained in a reasonably straightforward manner by test breedings and progeny testing when we are dealing with a single pair of genes or alleles. In addition, there are published lists of hereditary defects in the breeds of dogs with the mode of inheritance, if known. The elimination of hereditary defects may be an important part of a breeder's program and, if significant de­fects occur in that particular breed, should be a part of a successful program.

However, when we are dealing with con­formational features which may be regu­lated by literally hundreds of genes there is no scientific genetic approach available to the dog breeder in spite of claims from breeders that their whole breeding program is on a genetic basis.

Most of the things that breeders do are based on what they rightly or wrongly inter­pret as observable phenomena which may improve their chances at producing better specimens of their breed. Constraints of both time and money prohibit the effective use of such maneuvers as progeny testing which may help to uncover genotypes. One of the things that breeders may do, for in­stance, is to breed their bitch to a stud dog who has been shown in previous litters to different bitches to be more homogenous for those desirable conformational traits that are hard to attain in a breed. This is about as close to progeny testing as one can get with­ out keeping huge numbers of individuals. Again, I would emphasize to newcomers to the dog breeding world that we are still talk­ing about phenotypic selection and that is why I cannot stress enough the importance of my first factor, ability to recognize a good specimen.

The other thing that most novice breeders do not seem to be aware of is that they can enter the gene pool of their chosen breed at the same level as those breeders who have spent many years in the breed. My advice to newcomers is to forget about such things as line breeding, in-breeding, and out-crossing. Put your dog's pedigree on the wall and be proud of it. But unless you have seen the in­dividuals in the first few generations of this pedigree, don't use it for anything else.

This is not to say that dog breeders do not use any genetic knowledge in their program. Most breeders intuitively refrain from exces­sive matings of closely related individuals. It is generally understood that there is a better chance of getting good conformational qualities in pups from parents with good quali­ties, etc. Those and other ideas may have a sound basis in genetics but only the qualita­tive aspects are available to the dog breeder. 

Let me close by saying that it is not the in­tention of to deprecate the achievements of breeders. I simply wish to point out to newcomers to the dog breeding world that there appears to be no common pathway to success which can be gleaned from similar articles. In addition, I have tried to point out some things that I think are important to those wishing to attain a measure of success.

(Reprinted from the Cocker Spaniel Leader, August 1983.  

These timeless principles are as valid today as they were 40 years ago.)