What is a pedigree?  No it is not a degree that allows you to do pedicures.  Simply stated a pedigree is the lineage of a particular animal, it is a "family tree." 

Have you heard people refer to a dog as a "pedigreed dog?"? Now that you know what a pedigree is do you see how ridiculous that statement is?  Even a mutt can be a pedigreed dog - all that is required is for someone to put down on paper who the sire and dam, and the grand sire and the grand dam, etc.   This reminds me of something else, slightly off the topic of pedigrees; have you ever seen classified advertisements in the newspaper or spoke to someone who has "thoroughbred dogs?"  This is a sure sign of a very ignorant person and someone who does not even have the smallest clue as to what they are doing.   Any person  who chooses to do business with a "breeder" (I am using that term very loosely) who advertises pedigreed or thoroughbred dogs is demonstrating their own stupidity and deserves whatever they get.  But you are neither stupid nor ignorant or you would not be reading this! By the way, a thoroughbred is a breed of horse and has nothing to do with dogs other than a thoroughbred may be owned by someone who also owns dogs.

Pedigrees can either give you lots of information or very little.  It depends on the knowledge of the person looking at the pedigree and the pedigree itself.  A basic pedigree is a record of a dog's lineage, which includes the names of consecutive generations of sires and dams and their respective titles and health certifications.  This is the basic form from which breeders work from.  Much more complex pedigrees are often used by scientists (researchers, geneticist, etc.).  These more complex pedigrees are used to track genetic traits (good or bad) often including all progeny within a pedigree.  These pedigrees become massive and complex.

 The pedigrees you will examine will be limited to names of direct descendants, titles, and health certifications.  Getting the most from a pedigree comes only with experience and knowledge of the dogs and the dogs related to the ones listed on a particular pedigree.  At that point a pedigree is like looking at a book which is loaded with information.  It tells you a story about the genetic makeup of that pedigree; limited to the personal knowledge you have of the dogs in this pedigree.  Sounds rather covert doesn't it?  Not really, it is all a matter of interpretation, knowledge, and that elusive combination of science and art.  I don't know if science will ever fully replace the "art" of breeding.  I doubt it.  There are many subtleties to the art of breeding, and many of them are too intangible to quantify by science.  One of the most promising scientific tools on the horizon is the promise of DNA analysis which hopefully will be able to tell us all the positives and negatives carried in the genes of an individual dog. 

In your quest of knowledge you must start somewhere, and the first place to start is with the basics.  Let's begin!

A pedigree is read left to right, but instead of starting at the top like you would normally do when reading, you start at the far left center and branch out from there.  The name that appears farthest to the left is generally the name of the dog whose pedigree you are looking at.  Sometimes there may be two names that are foremost to the left.  In this case, these are the sire and dam of the animal (or litter) whose pedigree you are looking at.

This is a simple pedigree of "Champion Rebel Without A Cause,"  his sire is "Champion Rebel," his dam is "Lost Cause ROM."

                  CH Rebel CD

CH Rebel Without A Cause OFA 

                  Lost Cause ROM
 

The sire is always listed above the name of the progeny, therefore the dam is always listed below the progeny's name.  From this short pedigree above we know that "Rebel Without A Cause" is a champion and OFA certified.  From this pedigree we can not tell "what" is OFA (Orthopaedic Foundation for Animals) certified. It could be his hips, elbows, cardiac, thyroid, patellas, and many other things that are certified by the OFA.  Generally, when all it says is OFA, I assume that it is an OFA certification on the dog's hips.

Lets expand the above pedigree:
 

                             Duke von dadogue CDX
                  CH Rebel CD
                             Sheba of Belle

CH Rebel Without A Cause OFA 

                              CH Many Causes OFA GS-10 Good, OFA EL-12
                  Lost Cause ROM
                              Can CH Happy Girl CERF
 

We now see the grand sires and the grand dams of Champion Rebel Without A Cause OFA.  We now have information on three generations.  We can see that in three generations there are three AKC champions and one CKC (Canadian) champion.  Two of the dogs have performance titles - a CD and a CDX (companion dog and a companion dog excellent - both obedience titles).  We also can see that in three generations we only have two dogs with OFA certification.  One is not clearly marked as to what is OFA certified and the other is clearly marked.  Champion Many Causes is OFA certified hips with a "good" rating and this OFA number is included, enabling anyone who desires to verify this information.  Also OFA certified elbows, again with the OFA number for verification.  We have one other health certification on this pedigree, that of Canadian Champion Happy Girl.  According to this she has received a CERF certification.

Some of these dogs are not titles because their owners did not put the time and effort into the animals to earn some breed or obedience titles; or was it because the dog couldn't cut it in either the breed or the performance rings?  Or was because the dog died an untimely death, and if so why?

Some of these dogs have health clearance certifications and others do not.  Why?  Because they couldn't pass the health tests?  Because the owners never did the testing?  In my opinion, it is ridiculous to spend the time and money to do health checks and then not follow them up by certifying the results with an outside certification registry such as OFA (Orthopaedic Foundation for Animals).  The fee to complete this last step is minimum in comparison to the expenses already incurred.  The certification process gives credibility to the health claims asserted by breeders.  A dog with a OFA number on its hips and a dog whose owner says the dogs hips are good are two very different realities.

OFA certification establishes a permanent record as to the health status for that particular dog for the health item being certified.  This is very important as each breeder is merely a guardian of the breed and work with that past breeders have developed.  The more information that is available to all the better for the breeders of the here and now and in the future. 

Hopefully, you can now look at a pedigree, gather information, and start asking some informed questions.  In the world of dogs, you are always learning.