Last weekend's field trials in New Jersey: Congratulations to Darren and Theo

Congratulations to Darren Doran and his Theo von Moosbach-Zuzelek who placed 2nd in the open dog stake yesterday at DALI field trial in New Jersey. It was his first field trialing experience. Theo's sister Tuesday was second in the open bitch stake.  The picture shows Darren with judges: Ed Wills and Teddy Moritz.

The female dachshund who beat our Tuesday in the open bitch stake at DALI field trial was Callie (G2's Callalilly American Express) owned by Jeffrey Koller. She is a miniature longhaired dachshund who is out of wirehaired wild boar parents and she is wild boar. I have never seen a longhaired dachshund out of wirehaired parents before. All I can say she is an excellent hunter and now an AKC field champion.

 

Results of the DNA test for furnishings in dachshunds

If you have not read our previous post about the DNA test for furnishings in dachshunds, click here. We sent three DNA samples to Vetgen te verify genetic status of Bernie, Paika and Tommy for the mutation  controlling furnishings in dachshunds. To quote Vetgen:

"A mutation responsible for “furnishings” or “satin” coat in dogs has recently been identified in the RSPO2 gene. Furnishings refer to the variation of longer facial hair seen in all wire haired breeds as well as some others. This finding was the result of an extensive collaborative effort by researchers from a number of universities and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NIH). The work was published by Cadieu et al. in the journal, Science (www.sciencexpress.org / 27 August 2009 / Page 2 / 10.1126/science.1177808), and the test offered here is based on that work. The mutation is a dominant one, so in breeds where the coat can vary, it is possible for a furnished dog to carry the “unfurnished” trait (called satin by some)."
 
In dachshunds dogs with furnishings are considered to be wirehairs, and they are either homozygous or heterozygous for the mutation RSPO2. When Vetgen reported results they used a letter F for the dominant mutation coding the presence of furnishings. Dogs with two copies of recessive allele f don't have furnishings and are considered smooth.

This is Bernie, who is a son of two wirehairs (Alfi and Elli) and he does not have furnishings. The DNA test confirmed that he is a homozygous recessive ff.

Paika also came from two wirehaired parents but because she has a full coat with profuse furnishings and all her siblings were wirehaired too, I suspected that she has two copies of the mutation. I was right as she tested to be homozygous dominant FF.

We imported Tommy from Germany, and in his first litter he produced only wirehaired puppies. We wanted to know his genetic status, and the DNA test confirmed that he is homozygous dominant FF.

As breeders we are happy that now the DNA test for furnishings is available, and we will be able to know which dogs are FF and which ones are Ff. Most of the time we are pretty sure as wirehaired dachshunds Ff usually have harsher and more wiry coat than FF. FF dachshunds quite often have a full coat with softer texture. There must be other minor genes controlling the degree of harshness/softness of the wirehaired coat as both Tommy and Paika tested to be FF, but certainly their coats are quite different. Paika's coat is softer than Tommy's and from the point of field work is less desirable.

A tracker who owns of a wirehaired dachshund with a soft coat observed:
"My dog Hank's coat is on the soft side. The first time I had him out, he did well-no find but advanced the track well...but after the track he was a MESS!! He was covered in stick tights, bur docks, cockle burs, beggar lice, sand burs, devil's pitchforks and every other kind of method of plant dispersal mechanism known to taxonomic botanists!! The whole family plucked him from end to end for a while. Of course, he was none too pleased. From that point forward, I try and keep him pretty stripped/cropped when it is time to get him out but he still picks some stuff up. The big cockle burs in the paws are the bad ones. IMHO, I think a smooth or very tight coat, in our area (MO) is much better than the softer coat."

Well, this is a reality of wirehairs bred for the field work! And this is why we are not going to breed Paika to Tommy as we would end up most likely with quite a few soft coats that would be a nightmare in the field. We are going to breed her to Moose whose coat is like Bernie's and this breeding should produce puppies Ff, all wirehairs with pretty good coats.

Furnishings in dachshunds - a practical application of scientific research and DNA testing.

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with the coat problems in wirehaired dachshunds. For those who have never heard of the issue, I'd recommend reading article 1 and article 2.

Well, we are happy to report that  Vetgen has a  DNA test for the mutation associated with the presence of furnishings. The original scientific paper examining genetic basis of coat in canines was published as "Coat Variation in Domestic Dog Is Governed by Variants in Three Genes" in October 2009. It is a highly technical paper, but it is well summarized at click here.

The bottom line is that  the researchers identified RSPO2 as a potential wirehair gene. It is a dominant mutation.  Actually, it has been known for a very long time that absence of furnishings (smooth coat)  is recessive to the presence of furnishings (wirehaired coat), but now we have a specific DNA sequence responsible for it.

So tomorrow we are sending three samples to Vetgen, specifically cheek swabs taken from three dogs:

Bernie does not have furnishings even though he came from wirehaired parents. His test should show that he does not have RSPO2 mutation.

Paika von Moosbach-Zuzelek  comes from a litter that was 100% wire and my gut feeling is that she has two copies of  RSPO2 mutation. If this is a case, she'd produce 100% wire litter with a dog like Bernie.

Tom vom Linteler-Forst has produced so far just one litter, which was 100% wire. I'd like to check whether he is homozygous for mutation.

We'll keep you posted when the results arrive. The test for three dogs is $165.

"Shorthaired wirehaired" dachshunds without beards - use them or lose them?

This is the comment under my post http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2010/06/chuck-and-moose-and-some-random.html

Hallo,
I'm very suprised you don't breed for the DTK breeding policies. So you don't breed for the FCI breeding policies too. And as you know, dachshunds are an original germann breed and the DTK establishs the standard for this breed. If you don't breed for this rules, you don't breed dachshunds!

If you tell the people, that a wirehair that looks like a smooth would be a very good match for bitches with fuller, softer coat, you know nothing about genetics.

If it would be so easy, the wirehairs would have no problems with the hair. It would be interesting to see the result: Albert Einstein and Marylin Monroe, smile.

K.-H. K.

------------------------
This is my response:

It has taken me a week to think about this comment, which has been awaiting my response. There are so many points that need to be made.

I usually don’t talk about my professional training and career, but in this case I have to bring it up. I do know something about genetics. Before I left Poland in 1981 I completed coursework and Ph. D (doctorate) research thesis with focus on plant genetics. I left before the thesis defense. This was done at the Institute of Genetics and Plant breeding at the Agricultural University in Warsaw. I came to Canada and enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the Horticultural Dept. of the University of Guelph, and four years later I got my Ph.D. there. Again the focus of my research was plant genetics and breeding. After that I worked as a research scientist at Biotechnica Canada, which was purchased by Pioneer Hi-Bred Inc. From 1990 to 1994 I worked as a manager of canola breeding station and was responsible for the Brassica rapa breeding program. Since genetic principles are universal (though breeding strategies might differ depending whether you deal with plants or animals), I think that I have some ideas about genetic basis of a dachshund breeding program.

I don’t follow all the DTK breeding policies, but use the FCI standard as a guide for our breeding. Following all of the DTK breeding policies here in the USA would do more harm to dachshund breeding than good. I am very familiar with the FCI standard and DTK breeding policies since, after all, I was a co-founder of the North American Teckel Club, which is a group of the DTK, and I was the NATC first president. However, when the DTK started to insist that American breeders who have their kennels registered with the DTK follow all the DTK breeding rules, I left the club. In clear conscience I could not stay in because it would mean that I would have to compromise our breeding program. Why?

There are many reasons why DTK breeding policies cannot be implemented successfully in the USA. The USA, in comparison to Germany, is a huge country, and what is possible in European countries is simply impossible here because of the vast distances. DTK regulations require that a dachshund to be used for breeding has to be inspected by a German judge at a Zuchtschau. Until last year, the NATC used to hold one show a year, in the PA/NJ/NY area. Yet, there are many dachshunds out of European hunting lines living in mid-west (I know because we sold many blood tracking dachshunds to hunters/handlers living there), and it is impossible or impractical for their owners to travel to the northeast to attend a Zuchtschau. So these dachshunds just because they are never inspected by a German judge get automatically eliminated from the DTK breeding pool. This situation is not going to change unless the club grows at a very rapid pace and establishes its presence in great numbers outside the northeast, which so far has not happened.

For the dachshund to be eligible for breeding in the DTK system, its conformation has to be rated at least “very good”. During evaluation a judge pays a great deal of emphasis on the dog’s size, topline, tail, dentition, gait etc. For example, if a dog misses one incisor, it gets disqualified, and according to the DTK breeding regulations is not eligible for breeding. In the country with many thousands of dachshunds such as Germany, the strict selection of the breeding stock and its purification might make sense (though I don’t share this opinion). In the USA, where we have just a handful of breeders of dachshunds out of European lines, this strict and severe selection would to be harmful in the long run, and prioritization of traits is a must. On the scale of importance, the smooth coat appearing in a population of wirehaired dachshunds is, in my opinion, a minor fault. I would say that the major faults are related to health and temperament, and only a breeder or owner is fully aware of this information. The dachshund’s biggest health problem is disc disease, which is partially controlled genetically, and removing affected dogs from a gene pool makes a great deal of sense. There are other issues related to health that are present in European wires, and should selected against. Temperament problems in their extreme forms such as severe shyness or aggressiveness have a genetic component and should be selected against as well.

But when it comes to the smooth coat showing up in the wirehaired dachshund breeding, this trait is not correlated with health, temperament or working aptitude. It is a recessive trait that is not that easy to eliminate. The FCI standard penalizes it heavily, and one would think that over many years the exclusion of the “smooth wires” from breeding would bring the frequency of the gene down. I have no hard data to say whether the policy has been effective or not (and the DTK probably does not have it either), but I have seen at German hunting tests many dachshunds with the short wild boar coat. I would say that 90% of wirehaired dachshunds we have imported from Germany carry the gene for short hair and absence of beard. We know because subsequently these dogs produced short-coated offspring when bred here. I suspect that when correct harsh and wiry coats are favored in breeding, the way they should be, automatically the presence of the smooth gene is selected for also. Maybe the gene for short coat is needed for the harsh and wiry coat, and selection for the correct coat is associated with selection for the gene for the short coat. This would explain why this gene is still present at a high frequency. While in Germany I heard an opinion from a long time breeder of wires that wires with softer coats should be used for breeding to avoid short coats in the offspring. But to me this situation does not make any sense at all – you have to use softer coats for breeding so you don’t get shorthair puppies, but it is a wiry and harsh coat (not the soft one) that is described as ideal according to the standard!

We put a premium on a correct wirehaired coat in our breeding stock, and I have never used for breeding an individual with a soft and longish coat (we used a smooth “wire” twice). Yet, in almost every litter we get a broad range of coats – on one extreme softer coats, on the other extreme short coats and no-beard, and everything in between, all in the same litter. This has happened in numerous litters over many years (I bred my first litter in 1991).

It was actually Einstein who said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So in the light of empirical evidence collected over many years, I choose to face reality and adjust my breeding practices. I am not saying that the short coats with no beard are favored by us over correct harsh and wiry coats, but I choose not to throw them out any more out of the breeding pool. If a smooth dachshund out of wire parents is healthy, friendly and outgoing, talented in the field, and complements a bitch on the basis of pedigree, conformation, working strengths and weaknesses, I am not going to exclude him from breeding just because he does not have beard! There are many more important issues that I am concerned about, like the small gene pool of wires.

These days the old way of breeding dogs through linebreeding and the purification of lines in favor of cosmetic trivial traits of purely esthetic value has a lot of critics. Many scientists have spoken against it and the literature on the issue is widely available. One can access some papers at http://www.canine-genetics.com/  and http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/  (go to canine health) like this one http://www.terrierman.com/mcgreevey-some-practical-solution-dog-breeding.pdf . The dachshund is already fragmented genetically enough according to the FCI standard – after all it compromises 9 different breeds (standard-, zwerg-, kaninchen-size multiplied by 3 coats), which are not allowed to be crossed. Why to exclude smooth wires just because they do not fit the coat description of the wirehaired dachshund? They can be useful in breeding. I am not the only one who thinks this way. At The Zuchtschau 2009 I talked to Mme Agnes de France, President of French Teckel Club. She has authority to approve smooth wires to be bred either with wires or with smooths, depending on an individual dog and his merits. This is exactly the way of thinking I applaud. The last time I checked, France is following the FCI standard as well. I also like the way VDD (Verein Deutsch Drahthaar) deals with beardless Drahthaars. They are not allowed to be shown as they are not true representatives of the breed, but some such individuals get approved for breeding.

If I am wrong in my thinking, I would like to see some data and good justification how the gene for short hair and no-beard hurts the breed of wirehaired dachshunds. What harm is done when occasionally, based on strengths and weaknesses of both parents, a shorthair dachshund out of wires is used for breeding? I am not saying that keeping these beardless dogs for breeding solves the issue of coats in wires, but it does not reduce the small gene pool even further. To me we just have to accept the fact that the correct wirehaired coat in dachshunds does not breed true and eliminating shorthaired beardless dogs is not going to change it. The way we choose to deal with the problem is different – the DTK eliminates the dogs from breeding, and I choose to use them in breeding, occasionally, when needed.

The NATC 2010 - three littermates demonstrate very well a range of coats in the litter produced by two parents with very correct wirehaired coats.

Related posts:

http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2010/06/chuck-and-moose-and-some-random.html

http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2010/03/problems-with-coats-in-wirehaired.html

Chuck and Moose, and some random thoughts on breeding

We are going to continue the thread of  spring field trials with some pictures of Chuck Collier and his three-year-old male dachshund Moose. Moose's registered name is Nurmi von Moosbach-Zuzelek and we wrote about him before.

Because of his remote location and long distances Chuck attends only local field trials in Michigan, and this spring he went to one weekend of trials given by Wolverine Dachshund Club on May 8-9. on Saturday Moose was first in the open dog stake and he also was the best of open stakes. I got really nice pictures of from that trial taken by Patt Nance (thank you Patt!).

We received a very enthusiastic feedback from friends who attended the field trials. They all loved Moose, and were very impressed with his performance. We are impressed with him too. As far as blood tracking goes, Chuck and Moose have found so far 26 deer and 3 bear. Moose has a terrific temperament, nice size and he opens freely on rabbits. We are thinking about breeding our Paika to Moose next year, when Paika turns two years old. Some people, especially in Germany, will shake their heads as dogs with the coats like Moose's are disqualified from breeding in the German DTK system.  The smooth coat like his is inherited as a recessive trait. In the US we are working with a very small gene pool of wires bred out of hunting European bloodlines. A dog as talented as Moose should not be excluded from being used in breeding just because of his coat. Actually he would be a very good match for bitches with fuller, softer coat, and Paika falls into this category. Our litters are not registered with the DTK anymore, and currently we breed only AKC-registered pups. I found that DTK breeding policies were too restrictive for our American situation and the exclusion of smooth dachshunds out of wire parents from further breeding would narrow our gene pool too much.

Anyway, I know that there are quite a few nice, talented dogs out there now. However, if these dogs are never brought to any events such as blood tracking tests, workshops, seminars, field trials, NATC shows etc, other breeders will never have a chance to see and evaluate them. So if you own a male that you would like to be used at stud, you must particpate in some performance events so others can see the dog for themselves. We will never breed to a dog that we have not had a chance to evaluate, even when he comes from our own breeding.

Before and after

A big thank you to Alexandra Daley-Clark, a professional photographer, for the two beautiful pictures of her wirehaired dachshund Bogey - before and after grooming.

Bogey was bred by Maribeth McEwan http://www.dackelprincess.com/

Can longhaired and smooth dachshunds be used for blood tracking?

Each tracking season we get several inquiries asking whether “wires” are the only coat variety of dachshunds to be used for tracking wounded game. Another variation of this question would be this inquiry “I was talking to a young lady at the woods and water show last weekend who told me about the blood tracking dachshunds. I did notice that most pictures show wirehair and shorthair being used for the tracking is there any reason the longhaired version we have wouldn't be able to track deer?”

A short answer is “Good blood trackers (and poor blood trackers) can be found in all sizes and coat varieties of the breed”. A long answer is more complicated.

In the United States and Canada dachshunds have been bred for many generations purely for their pet and esthetic characteristics, without any selection for the working qualities such as hunting drive, nose, line sense, gameness, voice, focus, perseverance and so on. Even though the AKC treats three coat varieties as one breed (and does not specify the coat variety on the registration certificate), we know that the most popular dachshund on our continent is of the smooth type, followed by longhaired, and the wirehaired variety is a distant third.

On the other hand, in Europe wires are most numerous; longhairs are second followed by smooths. According to the DTK (Deutscher Teckelklub) records in 2007, 7080 puppies were registered, and 5105 (72%) were wirehaired, 1207 (17%) were longhaired and 768 (11%) were smooth. In 2008 in Bundessiegersuche in Chorin, Germany (National Blood Tracking Competition for dachshunds) there were 17 entries, of which 13 were wires, three were smooths and one was long. The winners of the competition were all wires but two smooths did very well as well and got 100 points:

GS 2008 Maja vom Escherberg with her handler Ursula Zuther-Grauerholz: 1.Pr.100 Pkt

Dachshunds used for blood tracking in America are usually bred from hunting European bloodlines, and it looks like the ratio of coats resembles more the ratio found in Europe than in the American pet and show stock. Perhaps beginnings of Deer Search had something to do with it too. John Jeanneney brought his first wirehaired dachshund from Europe in 1965 and started to breed wires out of German hunting stock in 1968. His Clary von Moosbach was a great inspiration for hunters who saw her work, and she attracted many future trackers to the organization. Today most dachshunds used by Deer Search members are wires.

Also according to the long tradition, the German foresters and hunters have used wires mainly, but there are some excellent European bloodlines that have been bred for hunting in the two other coats. And as I mentioned, excellent blood trackers can be found in all three coats. A great deal depends on breeding priorities and selection criteria that a breeder applies. Patt Nance from Ohio has been breeding her ”von Dorndorf” standard longs for a long time, and she selects for dachshunds who “are smart, sound, spurlaut, of functional size, stamina, and speed, and who own a spirit of cooperation as well as a will to succeed”.

One of Patt’s longs, Odie, is used for tracking wounded deer by Alecia Wenner from North Carolina.


One of the most talented smooth blood tracking dachshunds I have ever seen was Boris owned by Anatoly Sarser. Boris was half German/half American, and he had a superb innate tracking instinct.


Just recently I received a report describing a nice work done by an eleven-week-old smooth coated Jake. Sian Kwa wrote: “I have placed a pup with a experienced bow hunter about a week ago. Hunter shot a deer on Friday. Deer fled. Hunter and his friend followed the deer and tried to look for blood. It poured that day... They could not find any blood and could not find fresh tracks either. The hunter thought of getting the pup out of the truck just for fun. Pup followed scent exactly where they saw the deer disappeared. Then turned a direction that they thought the deer did NOT go. Hunter put pup a few meters back on scent line. Pup went again to the same direction. They just let him work. About 20-30 yards down they finally saw some diluted and spread out blood. They found more blood later. About 150 yard down the pup all of a sudden stood still and refused to move. Nose up in the air. Due to this behavior, the 2 hunters started to search around. They found the deer hidden in the thickets in an overgrown ditch.”

Jake looks like an excellent blood tracking prospect: “Joel shot another deer last week and saw it fall down in the brush about 90yrds further. He went home, waited about 4 hrs and took Jake with him to the beginning of the track. Put Jake on the trail where he shot the deer and Jake again found the deer.” Check with Sian, she still has two puppies available.