"He has a pedigree a mile long!" exclaimed the owner of the dog wagging his tail next to me. Most people are justifiably proud of that large, mysterious piece of paper with a list of strange sounding names, some of them outlined in red ink. What exactly is this paper that seems so impressive? What does it really mean?

Very simply, a pedigree is a record of your dog's ancestors - sire (father), dam (mother), grandsire, granddam, great-grandsire and so forth. Every creature - animal, plant or human - has a pedigree. Unless someone takes the trouble to write it down and keep track of it, the information is lost in the mists of memory and time.

The Australian National Kennel Club and other animal registries are designed to keep track of pedigrees. For a small "registration" fee, the ANKC will record your dog's name and pedigree information. The ANKC registration certificate you received for your dog means that its information is kept on file in the ANKC's records. For another fee, the ANKC will provide you with a pedigree - a listing of the information they've kept on your dog's registered ancestors.

The ANKC records your dog's name, color, sex, parentage, date of birth, breeder and owner and any titles the dog has won in ANKC sanctioned shows, obedience or performance trials. When applying for registration, the ANKC relies on breeders and owners to be honest. If the breeder of your dog has given the ANKC false information, your dog's pedigree may not be correct. Unfortunately, it is hard to verify all of this information individually. Unless you personally know and trust your dog's breeder, you really have no way of knowing if your dog is really the one recorded on his papers!

What a pedigree doesn't tell you is very important! Any purebred dog who meets the ANKC's requirements for registration may be registered and receive "papers". The papers can't tell you if the dog is of good quality or if it even looks like the breed it is supposed to be. All it can tell you is that the dog is registered and his records are kept on file. Most people misunderstand this important point! Many, many poor quality dogs are ANKC registered. You can't judge a dog's quality from looking at only his registration papers or pedigree.

With this in mind, you now know that a pedigree can only tell you who your dog's ancestors were - it can't tell you if they were of good quality, what they looked like or whether they may have had inherited health or temperament problems that they passed on to their descendants.

If your dog serves you well as a pet and companion, you may not care about finding out more about his family. If you intend to breed or show your dog, however, getting accurate informaton about his background is crucial! You'll need to do much, much more than just memorize the names on his pedigree.

To find out more about the dogs in the pedigree, you should visit your dog's breeder to see his sire and dam firsthand. The breeder should be able to tell you where to find your dog's grandparents as well. For information on dogs further back in the pedigree, you may have to resort to books and magazines about your breed. Contact the national breed club to find veteran breeders who can give you the history on dogs now deceased. Pictures can only give you part of the story. You need to talk to people who have first hand knowledge of what the dogs were really like.

What does CH. mean? CH. is the abbreviation for Champion, a
title that makes everyone's heart beat a little faster! A pedigree filled with champions, their names written in red ink, is an impressive sight indeed.

A champion is a dog who has defeated enough other dogs at sanctioned shows to win the required number of points to achieve the title. The required number of dogs to be defeated varies for each breed and different sections of the country. It can be easier to achieve the title in some breeds than others.

Is a champion a dog of exceptional quality? Sometimes - and sometimes not. A champion is only as good as the competition he beats. In areas where the competition is poor, a champion may be just slightly above average for his breed. He may not be able to achieve his title in places where the competition is tougher. Having the title doesn't tell you whether he actually deserved it.

A championship title also can't tell you if the dog was good breeding stock or if he/she had inherited defects that were passed on to its puppies. Only first hand knowledge from people that actually knew the dog can tell you that.

In short, a pedigree is a tool to help breeders produce better dogs. It is a starting point for research. A pedigree by itself doesn't mean much. Without knowing what the dogs in the pedigree were really like, a pedigree is just an impressive list of names!