Saving the kelb tal-fenek

A lot has been written, recently, about the kelb tal-fenek (Pharaoh's hound) but none of the self-styled breed experts has ever hinted at what can be done to save the breed and maintain its continuity despite serious problems originating from a small breed population leading to inbreeding, lack of type and a variety of diseases.

To breed dogs time after time, because their progeny fetches an attractive price overseas, doesn't make one a breeder but merely a producer of dogs. All you need is a bitch and a stud dog and you're in business. Not that there is anything wrong in making an income from dogs as long as the advancement of the breed is primarily considered. Nor is it a crime if the perfect dog has never been produced since the genetic system is complicated and full of surprises.

It is wrong when we do not take any steps to reduce the repetition of defects that occur. To bury them and hush them up is a disgrace as in such a way we are giving more importance to our personal glory than to the breed. If criticism of a dog isn't accepted no advances can be made as it is only by constructive criticism that the breed can make progress.

Certainly, type together with physical and mental fitness are the basis of true breeding and our aim should always be that of achieving an outstanding specimen although we might not succeed in doing so.

To say that inbreeding or line breeding isn't harmful for a breed of a small population and, especially when many deleterious genes exist, is somewhat absurd. Inbreeding per se, if done by a very experienced breeder with the knowledge of genetics, could be advantageous to the breed insofar as maintaining correct uniformity of the phenotype but it also creates homozygozity of the genetic make-up and leads to a manifestation of faults and diseases that could have never been seen before, often going back to many generations.

When inbreeding and faced with a genetic bottleneck, in order to be able to continue with your breeding programme you need to use an outcross (a dog of the same breed unrelated to the dogs used in your breeding programme) and this to introduce genotypes of a heterozygous nature before returning to your breeding stock. Since a small breed population presents difficulties to breeders, as it is less likely to find really outstanding quality dogs, the best choice would be not to be hard-and-fast about the breeds standard (points of excellence) and to ignore less important features in favour of other more important ones such as temperament and physical soundness suitable for the function of the breed.

So how do we find the breeding value of the dogs? Where do we start from?

Let us for argument's sake say that we have 500 or so klieb tal-fenek on the island. Now let us say that of the breed population we have 50/60 dogs and bitches worth breeding from, although not necessarily up to the required standard. Suppose we have a male dog of good type together with sound mental and physical attributes but that also has a medium score of hip dysplacia (failure of normal bony modelling of the hip socket). It would be easy to refuse the use of this dog in your breeding programme because of improper structure of the hindquarters but on the credit side he is above the general run in other qualities.

The best thing to do is to preserve his virtues and at the same time try to improve his hips. The dog should be mated to three or four bitches, possibly the best available, which have correct hips. The progeny from these bitches should then be assessed to check the value of their quality. If we have positive results, i.e. the progeny has improved in their hip score, together with other features, mental and physical, then a dog from the same litter could be used on the same bitches with correct hips, changing the dam to avoid further inbreeding, thus improving the quality of the breed.

One must not express dislike to a fault and try to avoid it by using other dogs where the fault does not exist but neither are there any virtues or where the original failing has been replaced by one which could prove to be more harmful.