Scout's Paw Tracks

Saturday, December 22, 2007

GSP Top 100 Web Sites Important Conversion Notice

As part of the silverblades.net to gspdog.net conversion we have moved the GSP Wep Top 100 to the new domain.  The silverblades version will be available until 1 Jan 2008

Over this week please convert the links on you web site for the GSP Top 100 Webs so your votes will continue to be counted.

There are three ways to make this change.

Method 1 (Recommended)

1.  Go to http://www.gspdog.net/topsites/index.php
2.  Log into your account
3.  Go to “Your Control Panel” Link
4.  Select “HTML Code” Link
5.  Select the “Generate Code” button
6.  Copy the html code
7.  Paste if over the old code—If you did not have the code installed place it where your users can vote for you.
8.  Save the page and you are done.

Method 2

1.  Find this code on your page, if you do not have this code it needs to be added use Method 1.

“http://www.silverblades.net/topsites/index.php?do=votes&id=##"
“http://www.silverblades.net/topsites/tracker.php?do=in&id=##"

2.  Change the silverblades.net to gspdog.net
3.  Change the id=## to your site number (Skip this step if you have your site number already set.
3a.  What is my site number?  Go to http://www.gspdog.net/topsites/index.php find your link, highlight your link in the lower left corner of the browser you should see a link to your side at the end it will show id=(somenumber)

example: http://www.gspdog.net/topsites/tracker.php?do=out&id=37 <<---- Site number
4.  Save the page and your done.

Method 3

1. Copy this following text over the existing code.

See e-mail for code or use Method 1.

2.  Change the id=## to your site number (Skip this step if you have your site number already set.
3a.  What is my site number?  Go to http://www.gspdog.net/topsites/index.php find your link, highlight your link in the lower left corner of the browser you should see a link to your side at the end it will show id=(somenumber)

example: http://www.gspdog.net/topsites/tracker.php?do=out&id=37 <<---- Site number

3.  Save the page and you are done

Once you have made your changes your site voting linking should go from looking like this.....

to looking like this....

Any new additions are automatically directed to the new web domain.

Thank you for your support and patience during the conversion and as an FYI the photo and forumns are the last items on the conversion list. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you and your family.

Regards,
J. Brown

Scout’s Paw Tracks :: Dedicated to German Shorthair Pointers http://www.gspdog.net
Home to more than 27,000 GSP pedigree’s, dynamic web based database engine, you can share them on your web pages, create trial pedigrees and many other reports.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU & YOURS!!!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

GSP Links Database Update

The GSP Links database has been moved from the legacy silverblades.net domain to the gspdog.net domain.  We were able to make the change without any database issues.  Users of the system will not have to make any changes.  There will be an annoying message at the bottom indicating the links database has not been registered.  It has it take 24 hours for the registration to reach the site and remove the message.

Happy Christmas and Happy New Years to all.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Pedigree Database Change **** PLEASE READ *****

Important news and changes to the German Shorthair Pointer Database.  As I had mentioned a few months ago I would be moving the database to the GSPDOG.NET domain that move has been completed today and all the links have been changed to http://www.gspdog.net/index.php/site/pedigree/ with an HTML version available at http://www.gspdog.net/pedigree.html the previous address was http://www.silverblades.net/search.html and will be available until the end of the year.  Note the silverblades.net database is no longer being updated and is out of date the most recent database changes were made tonight and were only published to the new location.  Both of the new links share the same data source, using either will generate the same results. 

This is a significant change and is part of the continuing plan to move tools off of the old domain name.  All the features you know are functioning and we have included a couple of new ones as well.  Dogs with photos on record are included.  This is a change from the past.  If you would like to have a photo added you need to provide it along with an e-mail giving me permission to use the photo.  You must be the owner or a delegate of the photo’s owner.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Three Part Series On How To Use The German Shorthair Pointer Pedigree Database

This is the first of a three part series on how to use the German Shorthair Pointer Pedigree Database.  I will describe what we are doing and why, the concepts and data rules.  How to connect to the web based version and the steps to search for specific dogs.

Part two of this series will speak to the options you have once you have found the dog you are looking for.  How to follow a specifc line using the database in-line links.

Part three of the series will walk you through how to send us electronic pedigrees to be included in the on-line and off-line versions.  I hope you find it helpful and please provide us with feedback as I am continually improving how this works.

Currently as of this writting there are over 27,000 dogs listed in the pedigrees.  Some of them have pedigrees streching back more than 70 generations while others are a little less detailed.  So why?  Many folks will tell you there is very little to be gained from looking this far back in the pedigrees and from a pure science view that is true, however, not always.  Just because a dog does not have a CH in front of the name does not mean it is not a solid representation of the breed nor does it mean that it will not produce champions.

Health records and other information make an informed buyer or breeder so does a dogs pedigree and understand the hours of work quality breeders put into understanding pedigrees before mating a dog and female.  Genetic soup and nuts and a lot of help from the Almighty will determine the final result but knowing as much as you can about the possibilities does not hurt.

The other reason is pure research understanding what other breeders did and then working out the why.  Why did they breed dog X with female Y, what were they looking to accomplish what little change were they looking for in thier line.  Perhaps they were not looking for a change at all perhaps they were looking at strengthing some characteristic in the line.  All of these are good reasons to have a solid understand of pedigrees.

Much of this data has been pulled from a variety of resources.  I am also working through dogs with similiar names, duplicate regestrations or inaccurate registration numbers.  While those make us less than 2% of the overall data I am working dilligently to correct them.

This is what drives my passion for the breed and these pedigrees understanding historically what has been done and why and recording the information in a simple to use format.  Once I started on this endevor I decided to publish it on the web site at no cost and share with others who share this passion for German Shorthairs.  I have the ability with the tool to store other breeds and specifically do not like the site the information is specifc to German Shorthair Pointers.

Hopefully that helps understand the why.  Those that have worked through pedigrees know the work that goes into this research and hopefully we will make that a little less painfull for you.  So on to how to search for a dog.

STEP 1 Select the number of generations you will want displayed in the pedigree.  For most computer printers printing in Landscape mode, 5 generations is the best choice.  This option is limited to 10 generations.  Ancestor links are provided withint he webform to look back even further more on that in the second part of this series. 

STEP 2 Enter the name of the dog you are searching for.  This can be any part of the name but it does have to be the dogs official name not the called name.  Now this provides a useful option for a kennel if the kennel name is part of the name.  An example:  Say I wanted to find all dogs from the Hege-Haus kennel.  I would put in Hege-Haus and once I get to the search option every dog with Hege-Haus will be listed in decending alphabetic order.  As of this writing that will generate 200 dogs.  Now as I am cleaning up this data you may have to try different patterns to find the dog you are looking for.

STEP 3 Select the database.  This is already done for you and can not be changed, no action needed on your part.

STEP 4 Select Fast or Slow search.  So what is the difference?  If you do a fast search for Hege you will only get those records with “Hege.” If you use the slow search you will get every dog with “Hege” any where in the name.  Slow search would include “Hege Haus”, “Hege-Haus” or even “Hegendorf.” Slow search is a more complete seatch and takes a few more seconds to complete.  In the example in STEP 2 generated 200 dogs using a fast search; using a slow search it generated 587 results.  As this example illistrates a slow search is the one to use unless you specifically know the speeling of the dogs official name.

Select the “Search Now” button and after a few seconds the results will be presented.

STEP 5 Find the dog listed and select the option you need

[PEDIGREE w/ LINKS]—displays the pedigree with links so if you want to follow a specific line you select that dog and it will generate the pedigree from that dog.
[PEDIGREE w/o LINKS]—displays the same as above without the link to continue following specific lines.
[BREEDING INFO]—Shows the sire and female all full and half siblings.
[TRIAL PEDIGREE]—Adds the dog to an advance pedigree option to take two dogs and show the pedigree of their get.
[REVERSE PEDIGREE]—Shows all the prodgeny for a specific sire or female for the last 4 generations.

So hopefully you will now be an expert on how to find a dog in the database.  As always if you have a question please send me and e-mail.

If you want to link your dogs pedigree there is an article listed under the category of German Shorthair Pointer Pegigree News on how to build and link to the database directly and show your pedigree to the world.

Regards,
Jim

Monday, December 03, 2007

Best of Opposite Sex AKC/Eukanuba National Championship

Blade goes Best of Opposite Sex at the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship.  What a great experience!  The entire week was a great deal of fun and was an opportunity to meet up with acquaintances and friends as well as making new ones.  Thank you to Eve Parsons and Carol Lyons-Bell for all their help and advice over the year.  Patty Huffman for doing such a good job handling Blade through out the this year.  Thank you as well to Linda Clark and Christina Block who have also done wonderful things with him this year and did a fantastic job in California with Blade.  A final thanks to Mr. Roger R. Hartinger for picking out Blade as Best of Opposite Sex.

Congratulations to

Robin Remondi who went Best of Breed
Gregory J Hostetter & Britt Jung & Kiki Courtelis, Award of Excellence
Maxine Moinier & Didier Moinier & Maureen Farley, Award of Excellence and Best Breed by Exhibitor
Daniel Mack & Suzanne Brown, Award of Excellence

Saturday, December 01, 2007

AKC Syndicated News Consumer Alert

Consumer Alert!

© 2007 The American Kennel Club, Inc.

The AKC and the Council of Better Business Bureaus have received an alarming number of reports over the past few months from consumers who have lost money after responding to online or newspaper classified ad offering free or inexpensive puppies.

Consumers are taken in by the sincerity of the scammer, who will claim to only care about finding a good home for their beloved puppy. Before consumers realize that they are being conned, they will have paid hundreds of dollars in shipping fees for a puppy that will never arrive.

“This is certainly not the only scam to be aware of, but it is a common one,” says AKC spokesperson Lisa Peterson. “Because of the emotional investment, consumers are more vulnerable to being taken advantage of when it comes to a cute cuddly puppy than with any other purchase.”

In an attempt to protect other potential puppy buyers from being scammed, the AKC and CBBB offer the following advice:

Do your research. Ask if the breeder is a member of an AKC-affiliated club and contact that club to verify membership. Request references and speak to other people who have purchased dogs from this breeder—especially if the breeder does not live near you.

Beware of breeders who seem overly concerned with getting paid. Any reputable breeder will be far more concerned with the appropriateness of the potential pet home than what and when they are getting paid.

Don’t be fooled by a slick web site. At the very least speak with the breeder on the telephone and ideally meet the breeder, the puppy and the dam in person. If you locate a breeder online, never send money without checking their references and credentials first.

Take your time. Beware of breeders who claim to have multiple breeds ready to ship immediately. It’s highly unlikely that your perfect puppy will be available for shipping on the very day you call.

Report a scam. Anyone who has experienced a dog-related scam should report it to their local authorities as well as their local BBB (http://www.bbb.org) to file a complaint. Consumers can also direct questions and concerns to AKC Customer Service at 919-233-9767, or e-mail .

“If you are sure you are dealing with an actual breeder who has a dog to sell, there are still things to be aware of,” adds Peterson. “If you expect the dog you are buying to be AKC-registrable, you must obtain documentation when you pick up the dog. Wait until you receive it before you pay for and take home your puppy. Once you have completed the financial aspect of the transaction, there is little recourse for an unsatisfied buyer.”