Scout's Paw Tracks

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  Note the silverblades.net database is no longer being updated and is out of date the most recent database changes were made tonight and were only published to the new location.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.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Comments In The Top 100 GSP Webs Turned Off

This e-mail notice went out tonight to all Users of the Top 100 GSP Web users.

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I wanted to send a note to notify all the Top 100 GSP Site members that I have disabled comments.  I have discovered an issue with the tool we use that allows someone to spam comments on Scout’s Paw Tracks Top 100 GSP Webs at our website.  It does not change the way the sites are ranked nor does it change how the voting buttons work or the ability for someone to rank your site.

Originally I saw this as a great tool to allow visitors to your site to give you feedback on how their experiance was at your website or with your kennel.  It is regretable that others saw it as a way to promote their own webistes with content unrelated to GSPs. 

With the high level of success we have had with the website and large volume of traffic it sometimes attracts spammers looking for ways to promote their own websites. 

I am sorry to say we had to take this action but I am concerned that someone could add comments each of us might feel inappropriate.  I know I do not want Scout’s Paw Tracks to be associate with such sites and I am sure you feel the same way.

In our efforts to be a valued source of GSP information I have taken the action to remove all the current comments and turn off the ability to add future comments.  I have spoken with the developers at evoTopsites and have asked them to resolve this issue or remove the comments feature completely.

Overall this is the only change you will notice is the removal of comments.  I want to thank everyone for being a part of this community and understanding the reason for this change in policy.

Regards,
Jim Brown
President and CEO
Scout’s Paw Tracks

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Pedigree Database Information about the How

With over 7,000 dogs in the database I have been working on record validations. I thought it would be good to share how I go through this process. Basically it is three phase and any record can be in any phase at any specific moment in time. There are even cases where some of the information changes and needs to go through the process again.

This is why you will see some records with very complete information and others with some but not all the information about a specific dog. I do this alphabetically therefore some records later in the alphabet my be missing championship data, color or other specifics. I put something in every field and dogs that have completed validation will have unknown field marked with “Unknown.” The more information on a record more likely that the record is accurate. Ones with registration numbers are normally as accurate as the official record. With 6,800 German Shorthairs in the database today I can guarantee I have probably miss spelled at least one name. =D

To start we have a dog and some basic information normally pulled from a website our some other source.

The first step is to get as much information into the database.

Sources

On-Line web pedigrees
Pedigree databases and paper pedigrees
Studbooks
GSP Year books
Show documents and records including results

Once the information is in the database we then go to the official records and attempt to find further information or validate information we have. Is the name spelled correctly, is the registration number correct and so forth. This information comes from several sources and they are compared for accuracy.

Validation

American Kennel Club records
Foreign Kennel Club records
Various studbooks
GSP Yearbooks
Orthopedic Foundation for Animals - Assuming it is an American dog and fairly recent
Certified Pedigrees

Data integrity

Checks are run after any session for data inconsistencies.

Data Checks

Check for Invalid Records
Missing Parents
Born before parents
Duplicate Registration Numbers
Gender (Making sire males are listed as fathers and females are listed as mothers.
Similar Names

Currently I have 50%+ validated through all three phase. Of the last phase I have 250 records with similar names, all the others are clean. Keep in mind many of the 250 with similar names may not be errors at all since some people name the pups with similar names.

In addition we will be adding photos and links to OFA information for dogs we can find the information on.  I hope you find the pedigree database useful and as always if you see something that is not correct please let me know.  Check back soon for follow up articles why I am doing this.

Monday, March 12, 2007

What is a track back?

If you look at many of the stories and information posted on the website you will notice several things at the bottom of each entry.  Some questions arised as to what each one means.  So I thought I would provide a breif description here.

The first item if I do not forget to add the information to one of them one is a CATEGORY.  This is simply an easy way to group related stories.  Information about Blade is in the German Shorthair Pointer category and the sub category of Blade.  Information about Scout is listed in the German Shorthair Pointer category and the sub category of Scout.  Should I add any additional dogs I can sub categorize them as needed.

On the right side near the bottom you will see a list of categories and the sub categories.  If you select a category it will only display the information or stories for that category.  You can also view them by month.

The next item is COMMENTS in the list of options.  Comments are just that if you want to add a comment to a story, share additional information, make a correction ask a question this is the place it can be done.  Anyone that is a member of the site can add comments and becoming a member is free you just need a valid e-mail address.  I do this so not just anyone comes on to the site and make comments.  Regretfully we had to do this since “Surf Trolls” as they are occassionally refered to in the Internet world would come along and add inflamatory comments simply to create trouble.  Requiring a person to create an account on the site has eliminated that issue.  I also do not allow a person to create an account under the age of 18 with out parental consent.  The site follows child on-line privacy guidelies as set forth by COPPA.  Meaning in part that adults can chose to have a public or private profile.  Those under 18 are not given the option they are all private by default.

The final item is probably the most confusing it is the TRACKBACK - PERMALINK option.  This is for websites that find a story on the site they wish to include in their own website.  Rather than having to ask me for permission to reprint the story they can include the trackback link on thier website and it will appear there.  Typically we will provide the source for any information provided on the site and we ask that anyone that pulls information from our site to do the same.  This feature allows that to happen with the least amount of hassle.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Extended mainteniance

I am planning to bring the servers off-line this evening 24 Feb 2007.  Service between 5PM and 10PM will be unavailable as we move the servers to the new server room.  This is neccessary as I have added power protection and other new features to the server room as part of the work I have been doing in the basement.

Regards,
Jim

Monday, July 31, 2006

Long Roads

Been very busy....

Have not had much of a chance to update and my schedule has hit hard at attending shows this year.  Blade has been scheduled and cancelled more recently than I would like to admit.  Hopefully that will change soon.  Work has put a restriction on business travel so I hope to be able to show more in the near future.  We would have made it to Waukasha last weekend had it not been for my flight being cancelled due to weather.

Even this posting I am making while sitting in the airport waiting for another plane.  The new wireless card will hopefully keep me connected and able to update on a more frequent basis.

Hopefully we will see everyone in Kanas City

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Issue with RSS News Feeds

There is an issue with XML feeds from Fido Finder.  You will notice an issue with the XML file at the top of our page.  Fido Finder is aware of the issue and working to resolve it quickly.  Currently we are unable to display lost/found German Shorthaired Pointers as a result of this error on Fido Finders site.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Web Site Review: Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine

How many of you were aware of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website for pets?  Probably not many people know of this site but it does exist.  How many of you have been fustrated by rumours or inaccurate information about recalls and products unsafe for pets?

Most people are concerned pet owners, handlers and breeders, that is not to say everyone cares but they are in the minority.  There are various useful sites with accurate information for all of us.  One of those sites is the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM). 

This site contains recall alerts, tips and information that impact a broad range of information useful to all of us.  They cover everything from dog food to adverse drug reactions.

Consumer fliers contain useful information posted by the FDA covering a wide spectum of subjects including why turtles are a dangerous pet for children, how to read pet food labels, and more technical fliers on “How the FDA regulates Veterinary devices.”

I would highly recommend bookmarking thier site and paying it occassional visits or better yet sign up for thier e-mail alerts and have news stories sent to your inbox.

How useful was this article what do you have to say on the subject?  Select the comments link below this article to let your opinion be heard.

Pedigree Database Updates

The German Shorthaired Pointer database has been updated with numerous new dogs and a continuation of the data clean up I have been performing over the past few weeks.  With over 6,600 records in the database we currently have about a 99.96% data accuracy rate.

I am always on the look out for pedigree’s to add to the database.  If you have a file you would like to send me you can send it to
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The goal is to have over 10,000 dogs in the database by years end with a 99.999% accuracy rate and to add 10,000 dogs a year in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

We do not plan to change the interface with the database but we do hope to add new features, specifically the ability to add records and validation links directly to the database.  Unlike many on-line pedigree database ours only includes German Shorthaired Pointers.

If you know PHP programming and MySQL and would like to help with this conversion please contact me.  Currently the application is CGI based.  The XML format can be located here.  This file is exported into XML format from Breedmate.  Breedmate is the application I use to store pedigree’s locally. 

The Web based version is from Alfirin Technologies.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

E-Mail Update More

The new e-mail server is up and functioning with less than a 1 sec response time I am very pleased with the results.  Webmail users - web mail is functional and has new features in the web mail section.  Challange response services are active, you can authorize challanged message senders now though the setting function.  You will be provided a list of addresses pending approval for your account you can approve them by selecting “Approve” in the drop down box.  You also have the option to remove a previous approval through the same functionality.  If you want to use this mail system you can apply by sending an e-mail to .  We are currently blocking 99.999% of the spam sent to the site.