Post by keyglyph on Jan 29, 2022 15:47:08 GMT -6
Hello all! I'm not a regular contributor to the Petz scene (I tend to be very active on the boards for a few months and then disappear for a couple years), but I'm almost always thinking about the wonderful projects people do, if not also lurking on the boards. RogueRowan 's Rogue Spaniels are specifically what got me intrigued by the concept of selective breeding, and I found their philosophy towards the process to be very inspiring... but I never thought it was something I could accomplish. The short story is, I was wrong!
The Breed
I am so proud to finally present to you the culmination of my breed-in-the-making for the past six months: Snowshoe Scotties! By definition, Snowshoe Scotties are full scotties with only chihuahua markings in their genotype. If their markings are present but fail to express in their phenotype, they're still a Snowshoe. And, they were bred to be colorful!
The reason I'm using the geneotype as the ultimate authority in identifying the breed is because I've seen plenty of dogz with full suites of chihuahua markings who express none of them in their coat: no chest patch, no blaze, not even one single "shoe." Because of this it didn't feel right to exclude "shoeless" dogz from the line when the genes are clearly there, so I've decided to call the dogz with hidden markings Barefoot Snowshoe Scotties.
My husband is the one responsible for naming the breed, and I came up with the "barefoot" designation. 
The Story Behind the Project
The circumstances that kicked off this project were actually terribly sad. Back in May of 2021, our beloved cat of fifteen years succumbed to cancer. Venus was the absolute love of our lives. My grief crushed me. I was desperate to find a "forever project" to bury myself in to help me through those empty days, and while I was playing with my usual crew for comfort (I always turn back to Petz during hard times), I thought, "What could be more of a forever project than creating a selective breed?" And so, it began.
To be clear, I'd only used GenePoolz in passing before this project, and I'd only just learned some of the defining quirks of different breeds (e.g. the "droopy eyelid" of the mutt) about two years ago. All of this is to say that I didn't have a deep analytical relationship with the game before I started this; I'd been naturally raising my crew since 2001 and playing for sentimentality and the joy of surprise. Having also not been a part of the more complicated aspects of the Petz scene (shows, hexing, etcetera), I honestly wasn't sure I could succeed at this.
I wanted to start as simple as possible. I cycled through the OG breeds and thought about how scotties always have black coats and how neat it would be to see them in all different colors; I'd also never adopted a scottie of my own before and was interested in getting to know them. Then, when I realized white boots and flares were specific to chihuahuas, I thought, "Oh, this is it. Colorful scotties with chihuahua markings."
Then, because I was afraid maybe this was too easy and decided to throw in an extra challenge, I decided I would avoid inbreeding. 
The Method
I developed my method on-the-fly as I started recognizing patterns and understanding the scope of the project, and I used PetzA to mate petz, insta-birth their babies, and age the puppies to 30 to speed things up.
For each pair of dogz, I bred until I'd achieved nine offspring with different traits among them that I might want passed. I made printouts of each litter's GenePoolz screenshots so I could see their genes at a glance, which was especially useful considering I was favoring color mutations. Then I'd choose just one offspring from that litter to start the next generation, make a page for their match and resulting offspring, and go through the process again. Wash, rinse, repeat, until I ended up with four batches of unrelated 5th or 6th generation pups ready for vibrant matchmaking.
In general, the flow looked like this:
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A (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 25/75 ChiScot
B (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + 25/75 ChiScot --> Family Line Final (A+B)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + 25/75 ChiScot --> Family Line Final (A+B)
C (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 25/75 ChiScot
D (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + 25/75 ChiScot --> Family Line Final (C+D)
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 25/75 ChiScot
D (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + 25/75 ChiScot --> Family Line Final (C+D)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 25/75 ChiScot
F (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + 25/75 ChiScot --> Family Line Final (E+F)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 25/75 ChiScot
H (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + 25/75 ChiScot --> Family Line Final (G+H)
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 25/75 ChiScot
F (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + 25/75 ChiScot --> Family Line Final (E+F)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 25/75 ChiScot
H (AC Chihuahua + AC Chihuahua) + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> 50/50 ChiScot
(AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + (AC Scottie + AC Scottie) --> + 25/75 ChiScot --> Family Line Final (G+H)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Result
A few days ago I finally locked in my last litter of 5th/6th generation pups. Although I mentioned I was aiming for four family lines, I actually wound up with three; I realized late in the project that there was a sibling pair split across two of my lines, so those lines are off-limits for mixing together. Unfortunate, but what can you do. What's convenient, though, is that with three lines I can assign a primary color to each (red, yellow, and blue) and designate their offspring with the resulting color mixes (orange, purple, green), allowing me to instantly understand the lineage of each pup and know which ones shouldn't be mated.
I also made what my husband is calling "trading cards" for each pup in this so-called "final" breeding gen. I picked up some postcard cardstock at an office supply store and printed each pup's GenePoolz table, family line color, parents, and birthdate on one side; on the other side I printed a master table of all the fur and eye color variants present somewhere in that "final" breeding generation of each of the three distinct family lines. This master table doesn't capture mutations that happened further back and weren't passed on, but the important thing is that I have a reference for what's possible among the dogz in my trading card set and can plan combinations accordingly.
I can't recommend the trading card approach enough. It is SO helpful to move them around on a tabletop when you're deciding what to do. Here's an example of what the front and back of one looks like:
More Pup Pics!
I'll leave you with some more Snowshoe pics. I truly enjoyed the process of creating this selective breed and learning more about how genes pass, the quirks thereof, and getting that dopamine rush of creating the perfect trait combo or stumbling into an incredible mutation. I especially adore my trading cards. Now I just get to have fun mixing the color combinations into infinity, and maybe thinking about showing one or two or adopting some out.
Now I just get to have fun mixing the color combinations into infinity, and maybe thinking about showing one or two or adopting some out.Thanks again to RogueRowan for the inspiration, as well as a place to gush about selective breeds. These Snowshoes got me through some difficult times, and I'm thrilled with them.
