Well, you can call it what you will...but phenotype is pretty universally regarded as
what you see, so if you are breeding for a certain look, you are breeding for
phenotype. Certainly it is the genes that give the phenotype...but if it were so easy
to breed by genotype, then there would be many more Cavalier kennels with a particular
look...and there are not.
Yes, a dog who can stamp its progeny has the genes to do it, and if the dog is
lucky, his phenotype reflects the good genes that he can pass on...others, like the
dog Leann described, look one way and pass on different genes. Obviously he has the
genes for the way he looks, too, otherwise he couldn't look that way. Isn't it
interesting that he can't pass it on with any consistency? Sounds like a dog who
couldn't be depended on to pass on anything in particular. This isn't a
slam, but a statement. He's big, but doesn't sire big...but can he be depended on to
sire small? And what else does he pass on with consistency...anything?
The reasons Basil was used so much were because first of all he was extremely well
marketed.....secondly because he sired a very large percentage of puppies with a
particular look--and in very many cases, a particular structure. And his stud fee
wasn't out of line, either...
I don't know about James...I know he's been used a lot, but I haven't paid
sufficient attention to his puppies to know if he consistently produces anything in
particular.
We aren't breeding peas here, we're breeding dogs...and Mendelian principles do
not always work out, as any experienced breeder of anything other than plants will
freely admit. If there were any dogs around in the US now that could be depended on
to consistently sire wonderful stuff regardless of what the bitches' pedigrees were,
that'd be a dog to note...but who has a dog like that now? And how's he bred, and
what is he producing that is so consistent?
If you are breeding for a certain look or appearance, you are breeding for
phenotype....and of course it is the dog's genes that give it...but would you breed to
the dog if he didn't exhibit the trait in the first place? No...because if you can't
see it, you don't know it's there.....unless someone else has done a lot of breedings
and produced it. So basically you are breeding for phenotype unless you're an
Einstein.......and even Einstein said "
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and
as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
Peggy.
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