Scout's Paw Tracks

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