I’m picturing a long time friend of mine who is sitting at home reading this, nodding her head while silently cheering me on as we’ve always shared a common thought about dog breeding…”the power of the breeding is in the quality of the dam“. Oh, we’re not the first to say or believe this, and we won’t be the last, but if there is one thing that has been of the most value to me, it has been this guiding principle.

Does the bitch carry a sort of magical sauce that causes her contribution to a litter to be greater than that of the dog? If so, what is that sauce, how does it work? I don’t have a black and white answer for you, but I do have some reading to share, it is interesting, enlightening, and who knows, maybe it’s the start to proving what our gut instinct has been telling us, that the bitch genes carry more influence, that she contributes more to the litter than her half of the genes and what she gives through her nurturing.

Here is the first of the links for you, an article titled GENETIC X FACTOR SHARED written by Master Breeder, Barbara “BJ” Andrews. It’s a fast, easy read that shares great points. All you have to do is point your little cursor at the colored title, click, and a new page will open for you! Oh, you will have to do your own reading, sorry it’s not an audio book!

Barbara Andrews refers to information that is coming from the Thoroughbred industry and I have an article or two from them to share with you as well. The first is this (just point and click, you know the routine) Maternal Influences Make a Difference | BloodHorse.com.

The next link is to the actual abstract that founded the article Potential role of maternal lineage in thoroughbred breeding strategy

If I were here to simply offer advice it would be that, to be successful breeding dogs you must always maintain focus on the quality of the bitch you put in your whelping box. But, this is not new advice, it is ages old and comes from the experience of many wise men practicing long before me. Yes, the stud dog you choose is important, very important, but I believe that as the study of genetics moves ever deeper there may some day be scientific evidence to prove that the power of the breeding is in truly the dam.

Sally Gift, Mesa AZ