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.