# How many generations back can you go?



## Stephanie17s (Jun 16, 2009)

I have been spending a lot of time tracing Alexa's pedigree, and find it extremely interesting. Just out of curiosity, how far back have you guys been able to go? Pedigree Data Base has been extremely helpful, but I think it's fun to fill in the blanks and put the puzzle together =) I'd like to be able to go back as far as possible, so would excel be helpful with this? If I'm writing it out or something I'm going to run out of paper very quickly lol. I was thinking excel because space wise it pretty much goes on forever.


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## IliamnasQuest (Aug 24, 2005)

I have Khana's pedigree worked out back 56 generations in one area. Now, not ALL of the spots are filled in, but a good part of them are. There are some excellent databases online for the chow breed which has really helped. Most of the information is available back to around 35 generations, and then it gets a bit more spotty. I had to trace her back to the "original" chow, Chow VII, because I really like the looks of the original chow. He was a dog with moderate bone, moderate face (no thick wrinkled muzzle or deep-set eyes), shorter coat (more practical for the working dog he was at that time) and an overall look of being an athletic and capable dog. That's the way I want MY chows to be!

I haven't gone back more than about 10 generations on my shepherd. Since a good part of her background ends up in languages I can't read, it makes it a bit slow .. *L*

Melanie and the gang in Alaska


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## dOg (Jan 23, 2006)

I got back to the turn of the century...1902.
And then considering I now know way more about the dog's ancestry than I do my own, laughed out loud and let it go.
When I got him, I couldn't even get papers and didn't care, as I had met the parents, liked what I saw and felt, and followed my gut, in spite of some naysayer's nay saying.
But when I had to put "MIX" on his scorebook, that started a journey. Now I have obsessed to the point I could get his scorebook replaced, but don't know if I'll ever bother. 
Life's a trip! The highest standard he's held up against is the mutt who started my journey with K9 best friends whom I have mourned for a quarter century. 
He was a very tough act to follow.


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## Stephanie17s (Jun 16, 2009)

> Originally Posted By: dOgI got back to the turn of the century...1902.
> And then considering I now know way more about the dog's ancestry than I do my own, laughed out loud and let it go.










It's so true. I tried last year to research my own family tree, then decided it was too hard and stopped lol. It's sad in a way that it seems much more easy to go back many, many generations for my dog, but not for myself haha.


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## Stephanie17s (Jun 16, 2009)

Melanie, 56 generations is very impressive! How did you record everything? Is it just on paper or did you use a computer program? 

I'm really interested to see how far back I can go. Yes, I would imagine things could get difficult when another language shows up lol.


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## VectorSketcher (Jul 20, 2008)

With Riddick I can go back about 6 generations on his father and his mother's side. I can't get anywhere with Rogue and her pedigree line.


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## sgtmom52 (Aug 30, 2008)

Fortunately my pups pedigree is mostly complete on Pedigree Database and I can trace them back at least 32 generations on the sire and and 29 on the dam. I am thankful to whomever did all that work entering them! 

Both the sire and the dam have Horand von Grafrath ~ Max von Stephanitz "original German Shepherd Dog" in the line towards the end as most GSDs probably do if you can trace them that far back.

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/593011.html


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## ahlamarana (Sep 22, 2008)

I traced my dog's pedigree a while back. He is 25 generations removed from Horand through the sire line, 30 generations through the dam's sire line. The earliest Horand appears in his pedigree is in the 19th generation (that I found, anyway).


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## cliffson1 (Sep 2, 2006)

I have the GSD WinSIS database, that goes back to Horand on 95% of all the German shepherds. this is the way I study dogs thru the thirties and fourties to see if the dog goes through working,herding, or show lines. this is a wonderful resource for the serious breeder.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

Agree with Cliff. The WinSIS is a fantastic and invaluable resource. It is also more accurate than the pedigree database. I have slowly filled in all of the holes in my dogs' pedigrees all the way back to the foundation.


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## Stephanie17s (Jun 16, 2009)

> Originally Posted By: cliftonanderson1I have the GSD WinSIS database, that goes back to Horand on 95% of all the German shepherds. this is the way I study dogs thru the thirties and fourties to see if the dog goes through working,herding, or show lines. this is a wonderful resource for the serious breeder.


I've never heard of that...I'll have to look into it, thank you!


I'm glad other people are doing this...I was beginning to feel a bit strange


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## SunCzarina (Nov 24, 2000)

Before I decided on Otto's parents, I traced him pretty far back but I can't remember what year. Nevermind he's east german and my german is sketchy at best.

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/612475.html

Now my kids, I can get all the way back to the 1200s in Great Britain on their father's side.

My Dad's mother I can trace back to 15th century Scotland. Dad's father's parents are ghosts - they changed the family name when they came to the US and nobody who's alive knows how to spell it.

My Mother's father is also ghostly, he was Russian and came here in 1917. My mother's mother has the family tree on her dining room wall, goes back to the 1600s.


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## Catu (Sep 6, 2007)

I once traced Diabla back to Horand.

But I can say I have the trace of my matern side of the family to 1545, to Don Diego Rojas, the first Rojas who arrived to America, so I beat my dog on that matter


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## RubyTuesday (Jan 20, 2008)

> Quote:He was a dog with moderate bone, moderate face (no thick wrinkled muzzle or deep-set eyes), shorter coat (more practical for the working dog he was at that time) and an overall look of being an athletic and capable dog. That's the way I want MY chows to be!


I've only seen a few, very few, pictures of this type of Chow & was amazed at the difference. So attractive, so natural looking & utterly appealing. I can't fathom why they fell out of favor so completely. The show world is truly crazed IMO!

Do you have pix of your Chow(s) posted anywhere? I'd love to see them?


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## IliamnasQuest (Aug 24, 2005)

> Quote:Melanie, 56 generations is very impressive! How did you record everything? Is it just on paper or did you use a computer program?


It's on paper primarily - I printed off pedigrees as I found them, and then went through and gave each generation a number to keep track of them. Things get very spread out when you go back that far, although in the end it's all about a few choice dogs.



> Quoteo you have pix of your Chow(s) posted anywhere? I'd love to see them?


Here are a couple of links of individual photos - I need to organize a bit better so I have pages of photos I can show.

http://www.peninsulayardsale.com/dogs/khatritail5mar06a.jpg (Khana playing "crack the whip" by hanging onto Trick's tail while they were running)

http://www.iliamnadesigns.com/dogs/khanatazer4sept3.jpg (running with Tazer when Taze was just a puppy)

She's heavier-coated than the old-time chows, and that comes from the show background. She's got moderately heavy bone - at least compared to other breeds (she's smaller than Trick but has heavier bone, very obvious in the legs when you view them side-by-side) which is part of the breed standard. But so many show breeders started breeding for the heaviest bone they could produce, and it's really screwed up the breed. Those chows couldn't begin to run around and play like Khana does. Poor dogs.

Melanie and the gang in Alaska 
Chows and GSDs - almost like owning two different species .. *L*


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Just by clicking farther and farther back on the PDB, haven't found any holes yet in Nikon or Kenya's pedigree. Nikon is show lines and Kenya is working lines but around the mid 30s they start looking veeeery similar.


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## Doc (Jan 13, 2009)

I think you find that there is no difference between show and working German shepherds around the 30's. Also, study the champions of 1929 thru 1931. Max made another "radicle" choice for champion during that time in order to inject more herding ability into the bloodlines. The champ he named also had a yellow eye and unattractive coat but was best at "working".


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