Puca

My first memory of Ch Enchalla's Ahmadon Puca was a show where I, a seventeen year old Mr. Know-It-All-But..., correctly second-guessed a judge to predict that Puca would take Breed from the classes. At that time, I did not know that Puca was to enter into my life again, through his daughter, Ch Rafelda's Terra, or that Puca would become a major influence in my breeding program.

Years later I would be determining how the progeny of Ch Enchalla's Ahmadon Puca would be used in my breeding program. How could I scientifically determine what was present in my foundation bitch, Gaea, Andi's Gaea of Rafelda? These questions were one and the same, and formed the next logical question in my breeding program. In my first litter, I bred Gaea to the "top half" of her pedigree, through her half-brother, Troy, Treu von Sheik Saeer. The next litter was to explore the "bottom half" of her pedigree. Here entered the question: Which of Puca's offspring should be used to breed Gaea?

Puca, I year, with Brigid Brogan

Gaea's dam was Sherri, Andi Sahara Sheherazade, who produced some litters by Ch Rafelda's Feron of Sheik Saeer, Rajah. Although Sherri was bred to Ch Omega's Merlin of Stone Ridge, Merlin, to use an offspring of Merlin X Sherri would introduce more genetic variance. I did not have the easy, most logical step- another half-brother to Gaea. My choice was to look to a prepotent relative. Who would be better than her brother Puca, Ch Enchalla's Ahmadon Puca? In order to minimize the genetic variables, two litters by Puca were considered: Puca X Ch Andi Chukka Khan Alzan and Puca X Ch Rafelda's Pairika, Suki.

The litter out of Chukka, Ch Andi Chukka Khan Alzan, produced some excellent individuals, including the litter brothers Ch Andi's Pookah, Pookah, who I will call "Junior", and the cream Ch Andi's Sheik of Puca. I discounted the cream son, as I did not want to breed a cream to a cream, and Junior was a stronger individual. Junior, a black, tan, and white, had a very strong front. He was an elegant dog with great length of bladed bone both fore and aft, but stood over much ground. He had a strong neck, upon which was placed a most pleasing head. In general, he was equal to his father, but his pedigree made him an even stronger contender. He was the result of an uncle-niece breeding. Thus, he was three-fourths Bahja Jassara Bala Wakkaf X Enchalla, and the other fourth was Ch Rafelda's Feron of Sheik Saeer. Besides a strong phenotype, he was a perfect genotype for Gaea. The Rajah influence was the control variable. The resulting litter would be more than one-half Bahja Jassara Bala Wakkaf X Enchalla. What better way was there to see what I had genetically in Gaea?

Ch Rafelda's Elegant Moonbeam

The litter out of Suki, Ch Rafelda's Pairika, has entered into the annals of Salukis. This litter was considered because it was half Puca, but unlike Junior, the other half was Rajah, and Care, Ch Hightower's Fanfaranade. Care, although having some similiar genetic material, did not appear in Gaea's pedigree, though a littermate, Hightower Sheik Gamal Saeer, did. Thus, Care was a new factor. To go to an individual from this litter would, on paper, not be as tight as the aforementioned option, but still I considered two cream litter brothers, Ch Rafelda's Moonraker and Ch Rafelda's Elegant Moonbeam, Tazi. Moonraker was the more solid of the brothers. He had a wonderful front, both in layback of shoulder and return of upper arm, and in width and fill between the front legs. He had wonderfully bladed, long bones between the elbow and pastern. His topline was strong and level, and he possessed a graceful tuck-up under a well-muscled and slightly arched loin. His rear was moderate. He had a nice head piece, but had to yield to his brother, Tazi, in overall elegance. Tazi would be called more elegant than his brother in most areas, but it was the solidness, especially in movement, of Moonraker that made me choose him for my rather elegant Gaea.

An interlude. Contradiction seems to run rampant through this outline of my decision making process. In order to make these contradictory statements seem less so, breeding theory needs to be expressed. The first rule is genotype versus phenotype. The next rule might be color. Thirdly, breed the present generation while planning for the next generation. And lastly, outcross two generations before coming back into a line. At the beginning of the decision making process, I am breeding genotypes or pedigrees. I entered a search to find an acceptable pedigree. Once genotype possibilities have been limited, then it is phenotype. I put pedigrees first because the phenotypic variations within the breed can be found in any genetic pool. Therefore, faults and virtues are in any genetic pool. The object of the breeder is to maximize phenotypic characteristics by limiting the genetic variance. Secondly, color does not matter in Salukis, and one should not confuse color with pigmentation. There are two colors in Salukis, red and black, tan and white. All colors are variations of these. Personally, I believe the more color differences the better. Therefore, to breed cream to cream would limit the possible variations. Thirdly, I learned, although the present generation is the focus of any breeding program, the question "how is one going to breed this present generation to create the next generation?" greatly influences my decisions. To guide this process, lastly, you need to outcross two generations with genotypically-related individuals before coming back into a gene pool.

Therefore, I limited myself to considering Ch Andi's Pookah and Ch Rafelda's Moonraker. Pedigrees show that Ch Rafelda's Moonraker was chosen. Why? At this point the decision is more hindsight than foresight. Here enters Puca in a more concrete manner. Without a chronological order, here are lessons that I have learned that resulted from my choice to use Ch Rafelda's Moonraker:

a) At the time that I began seriously considering breeding Gaea, I had Terra, Ch Rafelda's Terra (Ch Enchalla's Ahmadon Puca X Ch Rafelda's Pairika). I wanted to breed her to the Gaea offspring. To choose Moonraker was to, again, minimize the genetic variation within future breedings. Hence, planning for the next generation.

Ch Rafelda's Terra

b) The litter of Ch Rafelda's Moonraker X Andi's Gaea of Rafelda, of which four were titled, was outstanding. Each member of the litter had a strong front with clean movement coming toward you, my dream come true. Three from this litter produced offspring. All grandchildren of Moonraker and Gaea were at one time bred to an offspring of Ch Rafelda's Terra or herself. Odi et Amo Coeus was bred to a Srinagar bitch, Saracen Arukh Tiye Hasue, by the Banks of Hasue Hounds. The get typified the Warm Valley/Srinagar cross. The Banks went one step further and bred the outcross back to Odi et Amo Ops, a Terra daughter, to produce some very typical Warm Valley type individuals. Ch Odi et Amo Rhea was bred to the Terra son, Ch Odi et Amo Atlas, to produce some of the strongest individuals I have bred to date. Ch Odi et Amo Mnemosyne FCh was bred to Ch Odi et Amo Iapetus Bandera.

c) Ch Rafelda's Feron of Sheik Saeer was an elegant dog, as was his daughter, Andi's Gaea of Rafelda. I doubled up on Gaea through the breeding of her double Rajah son, Ch Odi et Amo Iapetus Bandera, to her daughter, Ch Odi et Amo Mnemosyne FCh, Memory. Although Memory was a very small bitch, there were ten puppies in this litter. From this breeding there was a great deal of elegance and, too often, a consistent weakness of front, lack of depth in the chest, narrowness, and forward placed fronts. Also, I had high-lifting and floating front action which was not focused.

Ch Odi et Amo Menoetius Elessar

At the same time I make this comment, I look at Ch Odi et Amo Menoetius Elessar, who I would say has one of the best fronts I have bred, not only for the smoothness with which the bones are attached to the ribs and the angles between shoulder and upper arm, but width viewed from the front. Also, Odi et Amo Calliope Elessar was bred by Lee Marsh to Sakkarah's Kontiki O'Palregan, a linebred Canem Dei dog, to produce in Windsong's Knockn Ehm Dhed, the strong and smooth front which is typical Warm Valley. Therefore, the genetic material is present, but the point here is that the phenotypes, in general, not in total, did meet my expectations. I had to watch fronts.

d) The breeding of Ch Odi et Amo Iapetus Bandera, Mork X Ch Rafelda's Terra produced three very strong individuals. Mork X Terra was very similar to Moonraker X Gaea. The difference was that the former had more Rajah. Mork X Terra produced Ch Odi et Amo Atlas FCh and Ch Odi et Amo Prometheus Sun Rah FCh. Both were close to my image of Puca.

e) All along, I wanted to maintain the Sheik Saeer/Hightower Saluki. This was relatively easy to do. With a Rajah daughter, Gaea, and a Suki daughter and Rajah granddaughter, Terra, I had the genetic basis for a strong development and continuation of the Rajah variance of Sheik Saeer/Hightower. Jean Hoefer (Rafelda) had the foresight to use Puca. This made a great deal of sense as, in pedigree, Puca carries some of the Kesari, as well as the Warm Valley, that makes Rajah.

f) In doing an outcross, it is very important to outcross two generations before coming back to the original line. This idea was first implanted in my mind by Peggy Swayze, who owns Longlesson Hounds. Peggy has been breeding Afghan Hounds since the 1940's. She has had the opportunity to outcross to some very established Afghan Hound lines, as well as maintain her own Longlesson line based on the immortal Turkhamman Nassim Laurel. Puca may have been selected by Joan to be the second generation outcross that Fritz Sweeney began. Thus, the Puca X Suki breeding became the proof of the pudding.

The moral: The most successful individuals that Odi et Amo-Elessar have bred have contained at least twenty five percent Puca- Puca's first gift. Puca's second gift is a blueprint on how to breed in order to establish a stong and valid genotype and phenotype correlation.

Rafelda's Raisen

If I plan a litter, I will first check if the resulting breeding is twenty five percent Puca. In order to maintain my wish of developing a line based on Ch Rafelda's Feron of Sheik Saeer, Puca became the necessary outcross in order to maintain vigor. He and his offspring complemented and supported the Rajah offspring that I used. So that now, four generations later, I have a strong line based upon Rajah.

In my breeding program, I have never attempted to reproduce a Puca. I did give thought to using Ch Andi's Pookah at a later date, but that did not materialize. Unfortunately, no one else has maintained a line in which Puca is genetically predominant. But for Odi et Amo-Elessar, Puca has enabled us to consistently produce a genetically strong and predictable phenotype. Today I look at Puca's importance as being a way to breed. He has enabled me to see that not only is the selection of an individual for breeding important, but the individuals must compement each other, building upon the strength of each. I must give credit where credit is due. I do not think that the Rafelda variation of Sheik Saeer/Hightower would be so genetically and phenotypically prepotent without the incorporation of Puca. Thus, another of Puca's gifts. For me, the breeding of dogs is a facinating endeavor. The study of pedigrees, as well as first-hand acquaintance and knowledge of individual dogs, when combined with a modest amount of luck, allowed me to visualize my goals. Ch Enchalla's Ahmadon Puca and his offspring contributed "gifts" to my breeding program. However, this account is not meant to serve as a blueprint for others, since individual ideals and goals differ, but rather, an example of the study and caring concern that responsible breeding requires.

Ch Enchalla's Ahmadon Puca and Ch Enchalla's Chu Dhu Brann with Brigid Brogan.