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Issue #4 Volume #3

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The Dogue de Bordeaux

By: Andrea Switzer (PnknHdBrdx@aol.com)

History

The Dogue's history is believed to predate the Bullmastiff and the Bulldog. It is said that the Dogue can be found in the background of the Bullmastiff, and other claim the Dogue and the Bullmastiff breeds were both being accomplished at the same time. Some believe that the Bulldog is the building block of the dogue, and again, another group believes that the Bulldog was used in the breeding programs further down the line. Another theory is that it originates from the Tibetan Mastiff.

Dr. Raymond Triquet is quoted as saying: "It is often said that the common stem of all European dogues was a big dog coming from the confines of India and China, more than 3000 years ago, and by stages would have gone from Tibet to Mesopotamia, there, where begins the history of men, then to Empire, the small kingdom of ancient Greece, founded by a mythological king, Molosse; then to Rome and from there to Gaulle. He would have made this long journey by the side of conquerors, warriors and merchants. It is possible that this prestigious connection is part true, but let us not forget the fact, maybe preponderant, that archeologists have found in the land that would become France, bones of dogs dating from prehistory, bones that were those of a Dogue."

There are notions that the Dogue has ties to the Alano, an extinct dog of Spain, similar in many ways to the Bordeaux. It is said that this dog was brought to Europe by the Alans, an Oriental tribe. It is also said the Bordeaux is related to the Greco-Roman mollosids used for war, as there was a breed similar to the Dogue de Bordeaux in Rome at the time of Julius Ceaser's reign. This would make the Dogue a cousin to the Neapolitan Mastiff. Yet another theory suggests that the Dogue is a descendent of a breed which existed in France a long time ago.

In France, the Dogues were bred depending on the region and jobs they were required to do. The general appearance was inconsistent, the Dogue had various colors and varieties of coat, they had scissors bites in some regions, undershot in others, but they all had a general type similar to today's Dogues.

We do know the Dogue de Bordeaux was used as a guardian, a hunter, and a fighter. They were trained to bait bulls, bears and jaguars; hunt boars; heard cattle; and protect the homes, butcher-shops and vineyards of their masters. The Dogue de Bordeaux were prized as protectors and were often found in the home of the noble and wealthy of France.

During the French Revolution, many of the Dogues are thought to have perished with their wealthy masters during the uprising of the classes, but the Dogues of the common man must have thrived. These Dogues became the champions of the arena, and were powerful dogs bred to do their jobs and do them well.

It was in 1863 when the first reference of the Dogue can be found, at the first canine exhibition at the Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris, France. It was more of an inventory of breeds than a conformation event. The winner was a bitch named Magentas, and the Dogue de Bordeaux was given the name of the capital of their region of origin.

There is no other known reference to the Dogue until the year 1883. There was such diversity in the breed at this time, and much controversy over this. They had big heads and small heads, some were exceptionally large in body, while others very small. Some breeders preferred the scissors bite, others the undershot. The mask color was the subject of many debates and discussions. There were three styles of Dogue at this time, the Toulouse, the Paris and the Bordeaux. Our modern Dogue is a mixture of these different types, but is primarily Bordeaux.

The Toulouse was a Dogue that had almost every color in its coat, a fawnish tiger (a light brindle perhaps), with a longer body and smaller bones. Dogues in Paris had a scissors bite, while others had a undershot of almost one inch. Finally the breeders came together and decided upon the undershot, which is today's standard.

In 1895 a few breeders tried to establish the Dogue in England, and also that year, John Proctor or Antwerp, who had judged the Dogue de Bordeaux, published an account of his experiences with the "fighting dogs of the South of France" in the magazine, The Stock Keeper.

In 1896, Pierre Meguin put together a synthesis of the best Dogue de Bordeaux shown and know from 1863-1895. He published Le Dogue de Bordeaux, that featured a description and characteristics true to the Dogue. This effort, put forward by Mr. Brooke, Mr. Mengin, Dr. Wiart, and a group of authorities in France, was the first standard of the Dogue de Bordeaux.

In 1897, Henry de Bylants work, The Breeds of Dogs, introduced the breed standard to the world of dog breeders. J. Kunstler, Professor of Comparative Anatomy of the Science Facility of Bordeaux, studied the Dogues in 1907 and in 1910 published A Critique Etude du Dogue de Bordeaux (A Critical Study of the Dogue de Bordeaux).

During the 1960’s, Dr. Raymond Triquet headed the rebuilding of the breed, and in 1970, Dr. Triquet wrote the new standard for the Dogue de Bordeaux. The standard has once again been updated, this time by Dr. Triquet and Mr. Tim Taylor.

It was a Dr. Philip Todd who is credited with bringing the Dogue to the United States in the 1960’s, although evidence of Dogues in the 1920’s has been found, but yet undocumented.

Dr. Todd moved to Holland with his Dogues, and there were no other records of any n the country until 1969 when Steve and Wendy Norris, with the help of Dr. Todd, began to import Dogue de Bordeaux into the United States.

It was in the 1980’s when the United States saw a small Dogue boom occur. In 1986 Touchstone released Turner and Hooch, showing a big messy slobbering Dogue, which was believed to be a Bullmastiff or mutt. In reality, it was the Dogue de Bordeaux.

The Dogue was brought in to the country by dog brokers, and many people received below par stock. But thorough the years, the Americans have improved this stock, with selective and careful breeding, to have some of the finest Dogues in the world.

Today there are breeders of Dogue de Bordeaux that stretch form New Jersey to California, Texas to North Dakota. One must be careful when purchasing a Dogue de Bordeaux, although they are considered a rare breed in the US, they carry a hefty price tag and are a favorite breed among the puppy millers.

The Dogue is not yet a recognized AKC breed, and they may be in the far, or near feature. They are recognized world wide by the FCI, and are a UKC recognized breed. There are a myriad of rare breed shows for the Dogue, and they are also eligible to compete in events such as obedience, agility, canine good citizen, therapy dog, weight pulls, etc.

Appearance and Temperament

The Dogue is classified as Molossoidae Brachycephalus. The FCI standard is quoted as saying "It is a powerful dog with a muscular body, while retaining a harmonious outline. They are built close to the ground...They are stocky, athletic, imposing and has a very dissuasive aspect."

Breeders recognize the red, black and no mask varieties, but unfortunately, in the United States as well as abroad, the consensus is the red mask.

We must always remember the Dogue's original purpose was to fight and protect. The Dogue is aggressive by nature, although breeders have tried to "breed it out" through the years.

The Dogue is sweet and even-tempered, it protects what is theirs, including their owners. The Dogue is devoted to its family and friends, and it is very important to socialize the Dogue in its early stages of life.

Remember that even though the body is large, the mind is till young. It is common for a 7 month old puppy to knock over the largest man while playing, or attacking.

They are stubborn, and arrogant, yet once they learn a command or task, they rarely forget it. They possess a dominate nature, "To ignore this aspect of this breeds temperament would be to produce atypical and so inferior Bordeaux Dogue." (Carl Semenic).

They have a keen sense of smell and hearing and are intelligent and balanced. They are also a product of their environment.

Health Concerns

The Dogue lives on an average of 8-10 years. Hip dysplasia is the most common problem of the breed. There are a small number of breeders who OFA certify and PennHip Certify their Dogues, but unfortunately there are breeders who still refuse to do this. Thus, continuing to breed unsound, inferior Dogues with bad hips. The battle to eliminate the problem is constantly in jeopardy.

Heart murmurs and skin disease are other problems with the Dogue. Heart murmurs can be attributed to the small gene pools that composes our Dogues today. Demodex mange in a skin problem rarely discussed among breeders. This is a mite that naturally lives on all dogs, when the immune system is low, the mites feed faster than the body can reproduce cells, and they take over. Often this is mistaken for staff infection unless skin scrapings are done.

The Dogue de Bordeaux is a fast growing dog, puppies can gain 2-4 pounds a week at average and may experience Eosinphilic Panosteitis, (Pano) or growing pains, or wandering lameness. Pano is an acute lameness unrelated to trauma, it shifts from one location to another and is accompanied by a fever.

Some Dogues expericene soft palettes. The palette does not open and close correctly and can interfere with the dog when it needs to vomit. The Dogue will dry heave until its throat opens up and allows passage. The Dogue may pass bile, or may pass out from lack of air.

Most Dogues also are prone to vomiting after drinking cold water. A word of advice, give the Dogue room temperature water to reduce this.

Dogue de Bordeaux are also prone to bloat, twisting of the stomach, which could lead to death. Excessive exercise and excitement after eating and drinking can cause bloat.

The Dogue needs a lot of exercise to develop its muscle structure. Young pups get a lot of their exercise from play, but as the Dogue gets older, it is very important that they receive the proper amount of exercise. For more information on the Dogue de Bordeaux, please contact the Dogue de Bordeaux Society, at Borde53835@aol.com.

This is a condensed version of an article on the Bordeaux that was published in The Rare Mastiff. It is used as breed info for the Dogue de Bordeaux Society, Inc. The DDBS is a new non-profit organization formed for "the love of the breed" We offer 7 regional shows throughout the US in conjunction with ARBA (American Rare Breed Association), a Breed club championship, encouragement to participate in agility events, a bi-monthly newsletter, breed rescue, and a common place for all dogue de Bordeaux owners to come together.

We welcome all owners, breeders, handlers, fanciers, the show dog, and the family companion. the DDBS is nationwide, progressive, and most of all, inclusive. Anyone can contact the DDBS by emailing the membership committee at The above address, or calling Anna at 617-776-2814. Membership is $10 per year for single, $15 for family (entitles to 2 votes for voting matters).

Take a Byte out of Canine Software

With the computer revolution in full swing, fanciers have more software options than ever before-let the authors guide you through some of the top programs.

By: John Cargill M.A., M.B.A., M.S. and Susan Thorpe-Vargas M.S., Ph.D.


Now is the time for all dog people to get computerized if they have not already. If you are not on the internet and you are not keeping your dog-related records electronically, you are missing out on the new technologies. Even if you are already computerized and have dog software, read on-one of these offerings may be just what you need.

We initially looked for pedigree software directed toward dog fanciers, but braodened the search to software packages for kennel, health, breeding and show records, etc. Then we looked in the science realm for genetics software, thus catering to the desires of the sophisticated breeder. To keep our thinking structured, we mentally separated the functionality of those packages reviewd into four categories:

  • Boarding and kennel management
  • Breeding, show, obedience and trial records
  • Pedigree
  • Genetic analysis

Rather than attempt to catalog the features of each program, we have written our impressions in order to give you a reason to explore the potential of these programs. Demonstration software, either by mail or online downloads, and 30-day trial periods are the rule. If none of this is available from vendors of interest, we suggest you not buy their software.

Newer software (not necessarily better) tends to support Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT and takes advantage of Microsoft Access (relational database) and Excel (spreadsheet) or similar integrated products. The ability to link tables together in a relational way gives the programs a "seamless" characteristic. The newer software usually does not require much of the 640K conventional memory or upper memory, but it can gobble up great amounts of the XMS memory.

Older software tends to be written in a computer language such as C or some other optimized code, and tends to require more system conventional memory, but it can run very, very quickly (FastFile). The older software also tends to have fewer and/or less sophisticated graphics resulting in less attractive screens.

Functionality is Paramount

Functionality is the main consideration when choosing a software program; however, there are other things to think about. First determine functionality requirements and second the ease of use and attractiveness of the screens. Functionality often is forsaken for bells and whistles, and this is a big mistake. Make sure the software does what you want it to do and that it is relatively easy to use, then worry about how it looks. The price of the programs we reviewed is a minor consideration. Both authors have a history of buying poor programs because they were cheap, and we have regretted it ever since. Learn from our lot: But the hardware and software you really want, and pay for it.

No program does everything

Neither of the authors, nor any of the computer-literate dog fanciers we knew, could agree on the features they wished to see in the "ideal" dog software. We conclude, therefore, that software is a very personal thing, much like a toothbrush. Most software is usd minimally; that is, its capabilities are seldom used to their maximum. Many highly touted features are infrequently used in practice, but they look good and are suitable for boasting about by the vendors. Look carefully into your dog doings, the information you now keep and the records you would desire if the data were available readily and there was some easy mechanism for implementing their storage, retrieval and manipulation. Survey what you do and what you would like to do, and then determine the features necessary to satisfy your needs. We cannot do justice to the features of even one of these programs, as documentation of those features would require more space than this article can allow. For example, the Breeder’s Standard software comes with 129 standard reports; FastFile, Breed Mate, CompuPed, Pedigree Lines, WinPed and others that allow the creation of new tables and reports produce such items limited only by one’s imagination and perceived needs.

Functions intuitively obvious to one reviewer were obscure to the other. In some programs, even simple matters such as pedigree data entry were difficult for one of us but not for the other. This led us to the conclusion that buying software with a money-back trial period makes a great deal of sense.

We found some computer users are "mousers" and others are "key strokers." Author Cargill is a key stroker, whereas author Vargas is a mouser. One of the better programs, CompuPed version 4.0, is without mouse support, and we both liked it a lot. We feel compelled to come back to our original thesis: If it has the functionality you want, buy it.

You should not expect to use pedigree software to keep track of advertising expenses by category and to prepare your farm tax return. On the other hand, some of the software reviewed does an incredible job of accounting, preparing show entry forms and United States Department of Agriculture-acceptable breeding records.

Look for importing and exporting functions. We predict in the future that virtually all registries and clubs will have their records converted to electronic form and will make them available. Several breed clubs and third parties currently are making available show statistics of the breed.

Programs engined with a relational database often can be tailored to individual requirements. The ability to add new fields and relate them to other tables is the essence of the modern software environment.

Advances in Genetic Software

One area in which the authors were in agreement was that of genetics analysis. As you peruse the following program comments, pay special attention to the trait analysis, the kinship (homozygosity) and Wright’s inbreeding coefficients and various sibling and ancestor strings (unique and common). Several of the programs allowed tracking a large number of traits, various genes and even sex-linked and reverse sex-linked characteristics. We checked the results against one of the best genetic analysis programs-Cyrillic2. If you are a serious breeder with a background (self- or school-taught) in genetics, this is a program for you.

Cyrillic2 easily and simply handles disease loci, DNA details , chromosome selecting, haplotypes, reverse allele order, kinship and inbreeding coefficients, etc. So many purebred dogs have serious genetically transmitted problems that this program could be put to great use and benefit. We refer you to our own articles1 and to those by Dr. George Padgett2 published in Dog World, as well as those by Jerold S. Bell3.

Much downloadable genetics software is available from various university servers, but you get what you get. Most researchers had a specific purpose in mind and did not write software for the general public. If you do not have access to a university mainframe and you want to run these programs on your own, we suggest you go to the World Wide Web and check out http://linkage/rockefeller.edu/soft/list.html for a description of more than 100 scientific genetic analysis programs. Beware, however, that some of these research programs can cost several thousand dollars. Beware, also, that not all programs define line breeding, inbreeding, coefficient of inbreeding, percentage contribution, homozygosity or kinship in the same way. Therefore, the computed coefficients may vary considerably from one program to the next.

Appraising the Programs

The following comments are strictly the impressions of the authors. As you read, please keep in mind that a program that is intuitive for one user may not be for another. We can say, however, that the programs reviewed all have merit and do the jobs for which they were designed. For the most part, they have extensive functionality-far more, in fact, than most fanciers would ever use.

The information provided below is time-sensitive in that software versions come quickly these days. By the time this article is published, or soon after, we anticipate newer versions will be available. We encourage you to check with the vendors before you buy.

Animal*Track, version 2.0.

This is an attractive, fast-running program supporting not only pedigrees, but health and services, competition events, breeding records, semen storage management, financial reports, inventory, boarding run assignments, billing and a "tickler of services due." Go for the "special editions" of the professional version of the program that allow you to cut and slice your data every which way. (The program also is available in a basic version that includes all features except billing.) Author Cargill, wearing his MBA hat, got a kick out of the rebilling features. Programmer Donna Koehler is most helpful, but with customization at $35 per hour, we cannot imagine anyone needing it. The program is exceptionally complete as is.

Starshine Enterprises, 1760 Oak Knoll Lane, Newcastle, Calif. 95658; (800)645-9149, (916)645-9148, fax (916)434-0733; e-mail: mailto:animaltr@jps.net; World Wide Web address: http://www.cyberhorse.com/antrac/antrak.htm offers a demo download; price: $48.50 to $92.50.

Breeder’s Data Manager version 1.0.

This product is a folder-based system with Dogs, General, Litters, Puppies, Shows, Judges Critiques, Pictures and Phenotypes folders. The General folder covers sales, purchases, vet visits, heat cycles, debarking, shots, leases, lease returns, sterilization, handlers’ fees, show entry fees and other expenses. A major feature is the unlimited number of phenotypes with ratings. This program is especially useful for rating phenotype against breed standards and tracking phenotypes of your own choosing. It runs quickly and is an excellent program with one of the easiest data-entry procedures.

Solutionware, P.O. Box 702, Monument, Colo. 80132, (800)481-2516, (719)481-2151; e-mail: bobk@databahn.net; Web address: http://www.databahn.net/solutionware; price: $59.95.

Breed Mate, version 2.6, Professional Edition.

Breed Mate is a smooth and easy-to-use program with 39 standard data fields per entry. "Drop and Drag" editing, with the ability to create new tables and new forms of your own design, makes for the ultimate in customized record-keeping and reporting as a powerful development platform. The "Navigate" pedigree function is particularly pleasant to use, pulling out ancestors, full siblings, sire siblings, dam siblings and offspring at the click of a button. Data entered in one form updates all others. The import and export functions are to and from MSWord and Excel. The software produces nice eight-generation pedigrees and supports pictures and logos. We couldn’t find the instructions for a week but realized we did not need them! This is an easy-to-operate program with many capabilities that performs well. In sum, Breed Mate is a good all-around program.

Wild Systems Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 1887, Macquarie Centre, NSW 2113, Australia; +61-2-9876-3926, fax +61-2-9869-0854; e-mail: wild@zeta.org.au; Web address: http://www.zeta.org.au/~wild; U.S. distributor, Silverton Enterprises, 9751 N. Highway 99, Stockton, Calif. 95212; (209)952-2251, fax (209)9952-2282; e-mail: john@silverton.net; Web address: http://www.silverton.net; price: $135.

Champions in Windows, version 2.7.

If you want the ultimate in bells and whistles without sacrificing functionality, this program may be for you. This is a relational program with virtually unlimited customization capability, and graphical reporting of expense sets this program apart from the others. The diet and care functions seemed particularly useful, and this was the first time we had seen height, weight and age record-keeping suitable for use in making predictions. If you are inputting data on a breed that has a minimum or maximum height or weight, this could be very important.4 Althouhg the program lacks the various genetic statistics, it is becoming recognized as one of the programs to beat if you want to capture the market. The company also puts out Boarding INN Windows and Handling in Windows.

Strategic Services Inc., 802 Braselton Highway, Lawrenceville, Ga. 30243; (770)995-7466; e-mail: strategi@avana.net; Web address: http://www.avana.net/~strategi; price: $189.99.

CompuPed, version 4.0

What CompuPed lacks in pretty screens it makes up for in abundance of features. This is an exceptionally fast program that handled a 31,234-Akita database with ease. Genetics analysis is a great strength of this program, with as many as 30 generations to be included in calculating inbreeding and kinship coefficients, sex-linked and reverse sex-linked pedigrees. A tally of common and unique ancestors, last and full generations found and a host of tracking functions made this one of both authors’ favorite programs.

Everything is key-driven with no mouse support. If you seek features, not bells and whistles and pretty screens, this program is an excellent choice. The import and export functions work perfectly. (I hope you don’t think either author typed in data on 31,234 dogs!) The query function allowed various operators and was extremely quick even on a large database when forced by command to look at every record. With a few keystrokes you can even compute the inbreeding coefficient for every animal in the database and then sort it. To globally create and save 30-generation genetic statistics on a database also took only a few keystrokes. On a Pentium 200 this took only 25 minutes to run. Furthermore, it is a query-driven program in that you can ask it which animal you should breed to in order to get a particular coefficient of breeding. Don’t let anyone know you did it because armed with this kind of information, you could make yourself unattractive to the membership committee of the breed club!

Data entry edit functions are customizable and preclude, for example, entering a younger dog as a parent of an older dog. If you are an Internet freak and wish to create hypertext markup language files with photos and genetic and pedigree data for your web site, CompuPed does this with a template and a macro. Don’t take our word for it-goto http://www.ssc.msu.edu/~handrick/wimsey/welcome.html and look at Wimsey’s Shrewsbury Sheriff. The ability to create macros of your own choosing is a powerful feature. Author Vargas’ comment when she saw this was, "I can topple governments with power like this."

So far we have been talking "nickels and dimes." It is time to go to the "dollar" features. CompuPed comes bundled with a starter breed database. You would pay $100-$200 anywhere else for this. CompuPed supports most of the popular breeds, and those databases are available for a minimal disk duplication fee. Data never was this cheap before. CompuPed with breed database(s) is by far the best buy for the money we have found.

Ritter Consulting, 1117 Redwood Dr., Loveland, Colo. 80538-4048; (800)735-2840, (970)669-8580; e-mail: 71331.2102@compuserve.com; Web address: http://www.netpet.com/cped; price: Lite $49, Standard $99, Professional $149.

Cyrillic2, version 2.1.

Cyrillic2 is an exeptionally easy-to-use "heavy duty" program popular in the United States, Great Britain and Germany. The developer is Dr. Cyril Chapman, clinical director, Department of clinical genetics, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom. Cyrillic2 handles genetic marker data, phenotypes, haplotypes, disease loci and penetrance classes, kinship and inbreeding coefficients and is compatible with LINKAGE and MLINK programs for risk calculations. Cyrillic’s medical-style pedigrees are easier to analyze than the sire-dam pedigrees common in dogdom. If you are serious about tracking genetic problems, this is the program to get.

Check out http://mantis.dcrt.nih.gov/publications/pedigree/ped_three.html to compare Cyrillic2 vs. FTREE and PedDraw, version 4.4. So many animal people are using Cyrillic2 that the program developers say they are going to increase the number of chromosomes the program can work with. At its price, Cyrillic2 is a fraction of what its major competitors cost.

Cherwell Scientific Publishing, 744 San Antonio Road, Ste. 27, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303; (415)852-0720, fax (415)852-0723; e-mail: deborah@cherwell.com; Web address: http://www.cherwell.com/cherwell; price: $799.

DogBase Pedigree Software

Before you buy anywhere else, download the demo. Soon you will see why creator Mary Spinelli’s programs are used throughout the world. It doesn’t hurt that at least nine various breed databases are available. If you wish access to tremendous amounts of pedigree information across a lot of breeds, this is an opportunity for one-stop shopping with assurance everything will work. This is a relational program with attractive screens, good speed and some 30 fields per record. It is exceptional in its ease of use and supports show, medical, litter and ownership records. One nice touch not standard in other programs is a count of champions and a percentage of champions in the pedigree. An add-on program is available for AKC/Canadian Kennel Club entry forms.

Canine Specialty Software, 104 Tranaki Drive, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada B2W 4X7; (902)434-0310, fax (902)435-7973; e-mail: 102463.2724@compuserve.com; Web address: http://www.zcg.com/css; price: $129.

E-Z Kennel

Stacy Chapman has written one of the easier programs to use. It is intuitive and fully relational. The strengths of the program lie in its ability to prepare litter records for sale of the entire litter, to create USDA forms, to track litter registration requests and to keep track of requests for puppies and dogs of different types. Dam and sire records keep track of the breeding histories of each breeding animal. This relational program is made for easy searches. It is business-oriented and keeps the financial records with great ease and was designed to meet governmental and AKC record-keeping requirements. If you do a lot of breeding, this may be a good program for you.

Chapman Pet Programs, Rt. 1 Box 20, Loraine, Ill. 62349; (217)696-2551, (217)696-2536; price: $99.95.

FastFile

Written in Assembler language, this program is the speed demon of the lot and even can be run on handhelds because of its economy of memory. With FastFile, nothing is set in concrete. It not only is the fastest of the programs but has probably the greatest amount of flexibility. One nice touch is a lifetime of free technical support. For the price, you buy a tremendous amount of power, but you need to be computer-literate to make the most of it, as you do with other tailorable/expandable offerings.

FastFile is foremost a data manager, and Pedigree, ShowLog, Novice, Open Class, Utility, Shots, Litters and Dog-Bill are just some of its standard applications. You can make this program do just about anything you want for dogs and then turn around and use it for other data management requirements. If you see a set of records you would like to keep in another program, you can have the same thing in FastFile. If handheld computers become the rage at dog shows, where one gets to impress the folks with an entire database of breed records, this may be the software with which to do it. If you do not wish to upgrade a really old clunker computer to a modern screamer, FastFile should be one of your first choices.

Interactive Mini Systems, 5312 W. Tucannon, Kennewick, Wash. 99336; (509)783-3829; e-mail: fastfile@aol.com; price: $70.

Kennel Management System (Ped30)

KMS’s Ped30 is a DOS-based program with demo disks available. If you do not wish to upgrade an old clunker but still want complete functionality of record-keeping, this program and FastFile are your two best options. The program is equipped to handle pedigrees, show records and entry forms, breeding records, medical expenses, income, sales, stud contracts and data import/export functions. It lacks mouse support and the bells and whistles screens of the Windows programs, but it is tight, functional and does what it is supposed to do without any fuss. Setting KMS apart from most other software is the ability to select as many as five show locations and five different animals and to print those entries with the push of a button.

Management Computer Services, 1105 Harbert Lane, Modesto, Calif. 95350; (209)578-2731; e-mail: arnie@vs1.invsn.com; price: $79.

Lineage Manager for Dogs

Quick, intuitive and easy, this is a program with significant abilities. Genetic coefficients are printed for four and five generations. The program has two major sections: General database and Medical database, both with the ability to select various defaults. Photos and separate breed files are supported with the ability to search for siblings, half-siblings or siblings on the sire or dam’s side. As a bonus, the price certainly is right for all the features. Before you buy anything else, download this program and try it.

Northwest Performance Software, P.O. Box 148, Maple Valley, Wash. 98038-0148; (206)630-7206, fax (206)639-9865; e-mail: nwps@eskimo.com; Web address: http://www.eskimo.com/~nwps/index.html; price: $50.

Pedigree, version 3.3.

The program’s show records include handler, judge and other information, and other records include litter, medical and ownership records with photo capability and genetic statistics. Export to .txt files makes report modification or "beautification" easy. The program also prints show forms and registration applications and bills of sale, etc. The pedigrees printed are five-generation. Aside from downloading costs, the program is free; therefore, no technical support is provided.

James Seltzer, 570 Mine Road, Lebanon, Pa. 17042; (717)964-2137; e-mail: jseltzer@nbn.net; Web address: http://users.nbn.net/~jseltzer/pedigree.html; price: free.

Ped+Plus

This program handles show, breeding, pedigree, medical and competition data. Pedigrees with four annotated generations and a fifth one of straight ancestry are a nice touch. Judging records were easy to update, and we liked the time based (year-to-date, etc.) accounting for revenues and expenses. The True-Type and color fonts capability, common to other Windows programs, was simple to use. Sentinel Consultants’ complete line is written for Windows 95/Win3.1. K-9 Accounting rounds out the offering. Ped+Plus has a lot of features and power for the money. Sentinel also puts out Kennel+Plus, Groomer+Plus and Invoicer+Plus(professional handler software).

Sentinel Consultants, 29 Miller Road, Wayne, N.J. 07470; (800)532-9849, fax (973)872-1110; e-mail: sentinel@caroll.com; Web address: http://www.sitemgt.com/sentinel/icpright.htm; price: $95.

Pedigree Lines

Pedigree Lines, a modern program utilizing Windows95, and MS Access, version 7.0., has full relational capabilities. New tables may be developed and linked. Links are possible to external files and to MicroSoft Office. These are big capabilities that make this program able, with some work and understanding, to do anything you want. It comes standard with Show/Obedience, Medical, Litter and Ownership tables, the ability to compute Wright’s inbreeding coefficient and it supports photos. Everything works without any glitches. Program creator William Schramer took a novel approach by visualizing a breeder’s looseleaf book on the computer. Programs such as Pedigree Lines have so much capability for customization that their use is virtually unlimited. The reviewed copy came on a compact disk.

William Schramer, 5729 Roanwood Way, Concord, Calif. 94521; (510)672-1411; e-mail: pbear@hooked.net; price: $99.95.

Pedigree Plus

Like many of the programs, Pedigree Plus runs a set of pedigree, brood, stud, health, judge and show data files. The brood file contains heats, matings and whelping names. We found this particularly intuitive and easy to use. A nice touch that not all of the other programs had in their health sections was a specific field for rabies tag numbers and the tag-issuing agency. With both admit to mixing up tags and having to dog out carbon copy receipts to determine which tag went with which dog.

The software even features a complete section on worming-ascarids, Coccidia, hookworm, tapeworm, whipworm and heartworm are all standard fields. Pedigree-Plus is an easy-to-use program with the necessary features and some handy improvements over most programs. If you want the absolute cheapest program that can do the job, this is probably it.

Novasoft, P.O. Box 6469, Chesapeake, VA. 23323, (757)485-2456; price: $39.95.

Pet Records System, version 7.0 (PRS7).

Free demo disks and an online demo are available for this no-frills DOS program with exceptional functionality. It is hard to determine where it leaves off. It gobbles conventional memory, so you will probably have to unload some TSRs (transient programs loaded into volatile memory), but that is an inconsequential price to pay to run this program. Several thousands of copies have been sold and are in constant use. A mature program modified at the requests of thousands of users, PRS7 handles routine show, health, judging, vaccination and financial records with ease to include informational extracts, profiles of each dog in relation to breed standard, trait analysis and kennel management. This is the price leader of the bunch for what you get. It competes favorably in functionality with many more expensive programs. We recommend you download it for a try.

Starline Kennels, 7131 Kermore Lane, Stanton, Calif. 90680; (714)826-5218; e-mail: GQYG01A@prodigy.com; Web address: http://pages.prodigy.com/PRS7; price: $54.95.

PETSWARE Manager, version 4.0.

This menu-driven, Windows based program is so simple in its installation and use we did not refer even once to the comprehensive manual(one of the better sets of documentation we have seen) until we realized we should be able to say something about it. Everything is "standard" but able to be customized. We dreamed up things such as "Wouldn’t it be nice if the program generated an automatic reminder and notice to be mailed off when vaccinations needed to be given to client animals? And what about printed birthday cards for client animals?"

Not content with that, we wanted to vary the costs of various obedience and handling classes by size, breed, temperament and dog owner. There are dog owners out there we would rather not see unless they paid enough for us to put up with them and their unruly dogs. Certain owners and dogs, however, truly make an obedience class a pleasure for students and teachers alike; therefore, maybe there should be a discount for them by name of owner and particular animal. What we thought would be the coupe de grace in our break-the-program attempt was this: menu-driven selection of one-time clients for special advertising or removal from mailing lists.

Every one of the above features is supported by this program! In addition to tracking day-to-day business operations, the program also handles telephone reservations with immediate history screens, overbooking rates, no-shows, retail inventory, mobile grooming, advance booking by a user-defined run category such as "Dog Suite" or "Cat Condo," mail labels, flexible timetable/charge to accommodate holidays, mid-day breaks, cut-off times and weekends, kennel runs availability, assignments and reservations and occupancy rates sliced every which way.

The program also provides a complete financial performance and accounting system by day, by month and by year with multi-year comparisons. In a program of this caliber, one would expect data integrity checks, the ability to mark records for deletion without immediately deleting them, back-up and archiving routines. They are all there.

PETSWARE Manager is the grand-daddy of boarding kennel and grooming management programs. It is not cheap, but it provides tremendous utility and functionality. If you are in the boarding kennel or grooming business, sponsor a lot of training classes or are in the habit of boarding many animals as a handler or a breeder and you need good tax records, etc., don’t be without the program. We have found no peer, but show, pedigree, breeding and genetics software it isn’t.

Solware Exchange., P.O.Box 6536, Station A, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5W 1X4; (905)878-9410; e-mail: solware.exchange@sympatico.ca; price: $895.

WinPed 7.6.

This product is a pedigree program that does just that more quickly and easily than the vast majority of the programs we reviewed. We would be hard put to identify an easier program. If you are into fancy pedigrees with a lot of flair and feel the need to be creative, WinPed allows importing and exporting to popular word processors and takes advantage of the True-Type scalable fonts. One function is particularly unique: Orthopedic Foundation for Animals indices for puppies and adults. Creator Adel A.H. Zohdy has established a generation weighted 0 to 5 scale index for the numbers of ancestors with favorable OFA ratings. Nearer generations are weighted more heavily. We feel such indices are the wave of the future and would like to congratulate Zohdy for his foresight.

Similarly, the program tracks the number of titles and certifications and has left optional certifications to be tracked through the pedigree. We really liked that function. If you are a Schutzhund or other competitor, you might give this a close look. Inbreeding coefficients are not calculated, but linebreeding identifications along the German style are calculated and shown in the format of 4,4,4,4-3,3 for an animal that showed up four times in the fourth generation and two times in the third generation. This program is an absolute steal.

Adel A.H. Zohdy, 2088 S. Zephyr Court, Lakewood, Colo. 80227; (303)985-9752; e-mail: 75027.3252@compuserve.com; price: $79.

Take satisfaction action

Hundreds of programs exist; therefore, comprehensive review was impossible. There are many excellent programs that for lack of time, editorial space or opportunity did not make it into this review. Whichever software product you choose, however, embrace the following tips to ensure your satisfaction:
  • Try before you buy

  • Demos are available, and where they are not available money-back guarantees are the rule with few exceptions.(Mail order comes, by law, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.)

  • If you do not have a computer and a modem, visit someone who does. Then go on the Internet and look at these programs.

  • Figure out what your requirements for data management and record-keeping might be first.

  • Learn the program (this is probably the key to software satisfaction), then use it extensively until it becomes second nature.

Happy computing.

The authors would like to extend a truly felt "thank you" to all those people out there developing software for dogs. We regret we could not review it all. Special thanks are in order to those who wrote the programs that made it into the review.
Statistician and retired Marine officer John Cargill wears many hats, among them that of an Akita breeder. He resides in Brazil, Ind., and can be reached by e-mail at: cargilljc@aol.com
Susan Thorpe-Vargas received her doctorate in immunology from an Oregon university. She has an extensive chemistry and lab abckground and has been involved in numerous EPA clean-up sites. She also raises and shows Samoyeds. She may be reached by e-mail at: docvite@aol.com


  1. Cargill, J.C.; Thorpe-Vargas, S. "A Genetic Primer for Breeders" series. Dog World, May, Augut, September 1996.
  2. Padgett, George, D.V.M> "Canine Genetic Disease: Is the Situation Changing?" series. Dog World, December 1996, January, March and April 1997.
  3. Bell, Jerold. S. "Getting What You Want From Your Breeding Program." Purebred Dogs/The American Kennel Club Gazette, September 1992.
  4. Cargill, J.C. "Predicting Adult Heights." DOG WORLD, June 1991.


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