| Breeding tips and documentation from American Fox Hunting |
| What is a proven producer? A proven producer is one who has the ability to sire hounds of consistently high quality from different matrons. No stud hound has, or ever will, sire 100%, high quality hounds! A given stud may seem superior to the others when actually, the difference is the number of matrons that were breed to him. A stud with fewer champion offspring ,could very well be a superior stud.It can be easily compared to judging the batting average of two baseball players when one only played half as many games. What is a mutation? Mutation means a sudden and unexplained variation in an offspring,differing radically from their immediate forebearers.These traits good or bad may never breed on, but they should not be in any part of a breeding program, because it has been proven many times that they will not produce. As much as we would like to think, that a superior hound that was concieved from plain potlickers,(and I have seen plenty) should be breed to.I have seen it fail time after time. What is line breeding? Line breeding is directing the inbreeding to a certian individual. in this case the name of one relative one be in the pedigree more than any other relative and as close to the individual as possible.The goal is to gather as many genes as possible of one particular hound, by breeding back to that hound whose traits we desire in our offspring. A good formula for line breeding is: "let the sire of the sire be the grandsire of the dam". What is in- breeding? "the Basis of Breeding" by Leon F. Whitney: "In the broad sense of the word, inbreeding means mating within a family. In another sence, it means the purification of the stock. If we mate brother and sister, parent with offspring, uncle with niece, first cousin with first cousin, we are inbreeding. Anything further removed than first cousins we shall not consider inbreeding." In animal breeding, the most uniform specimens are produced by close breeding such as brother to sister, father to daughter and mother to son.If specimens are in good health,free from nervousness, and are excellent specimens, inbreeding is the speediest and surest way to the breeding of dogs nearest to the standard of perfection.I have found that this is quite the norm for conformation but I'm afraid that I have fell short on the ability portion. But I blame my lack of complete success on the fact that I had to settle for the best hound that I could find but it seems they all have faults that show up when you least expect it.( imagine that!) I have inbreed with fair sucess for the last few years, and have learned a great deal. I believe that inbreeding will secure a greater sucess rate in the offspring if you cull unconditionally,your breeding stock. A Quote from Dr. Braxton B. Sawyer many years ago stated: "When it comes to breeding American Foxhounds,I am a racist, I am a segregationist, and I discriminate ruthlessly. If you do not practice this, Please do not 'cuss' the judges when your dogs do not win, because you are a mediocre breeder." What is the best breed of foxhound? No one strain has a copyright on all the good or bad qualities.I believe there is good in all breeds.There are few or non that are equally as good on all game (gray fox, red fox, or coyotes).The same bloodlines run in different parts of this great country after different game , preform differently ,that is a fact.But it basically equates to whatever suits a particular hunter, whether it is a 3 hour foot race, or an all night catch race, if the hound does not preform to suit him he will not be satisfied. The early development of the July Hound Jack Davis of Temple, Georgia wrote of the 'purity' of the Julys in the April. 1957 issue of "Hunters Horn" . There were two groups ( Inner Circle Purist and Modern) who controlled the strain's breeding program. The Inner Circle Purist group was comprised of old time July men. they were not organized but had strength and trust within the group. This grouupe began in Georgia and later included a few members in other states.Their devoted developmentof the July strain, produced the July or July-maryland strain which gained admiration throughout the fox hunting fraternity. Some of the first importation of hounds used as studs to produce pure julys were Boston, Highlander, Rush, Glider, and Foot. Old White Joe was a virginia hound that was used to benifit the breed with stingy mouths,extreme speed and a heavy coat Nip a Maryland hound, was semi-related to the original Julys and used as an outcross. His grandsire was a brooke hound and was credited with changing the appearance of the Julys, producing larger frames and adding grey to their coats The second importation of new blood came from the Sugar Loaf and Airhart Winters hounds. the Sugarloaf strain passed endurance, better noses and the brindle color to the strain.Along with the Airhart Winters which passed on the calico color. Both of these strains had glass eyes which still show up in today's July hounds. The Inner Circle breeders felt that the Julys had reached a level of perfection and held that only hounds of this foundation stock to be true Julys. As the July's popularity began to spread across the country, breeding stock was shipped from Georgia to other areas of the country. Profiteering fox hound peddlers began to take advantage of the strain's fame and began to bred impure hounds, but continued to call them Julys just to make a profit. Thus the breeders reduced the number of pure Julys that was released to the public. Although they reduced the numbers, there were many pure blood Julys in other parts of the country north and west by this time. Out of necessity, Many were forced to breed to outside blood. these were know as Modern breeders. Thus both groups claimed to have pure Julys. And today we have our Julys ,glasseyed, calico,brindle, Black, White, Red, blonde,long haired, shorthaired, and I am still seeking the perfection they had found in their hounds, Maybe the next cross? |
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