I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Lisa for starting this blog for what I hope will be an excellent discussion. I've found that the more I learn about Basenjis, the more curious I've become about what exactly constitutes a Basenji. I've read so many theories, anecdotes and intriguing stories about the origin of the breed that I decided one approach that appealed to me was to start with a very basic definition. What is a breed? That is not the easiest question to answer. There are multiple ways to define a breed, and I thought that Drs. Sponenberg and Bixby use of the term as Lisa mentioned, makes sense. As noted by Drs. S and B, "This definition implies an agreement among a group of breeders about the characteristics that define the breed."

Although the focus of the book is on livestock, not dog breeds, nonetheless the thoughtful analyses present throughout the text applies to dogs, and certainly to the ancestral homelands of the Basenji. We know from other recent research that Basenjis are a unique breed of dog, one of the oldest know breeds to humans. Their ancestral homelands are changing rapidly. What effect will this have on Basenjis in their native lands? What changes have occurred because we have removed them from their native environment? Can we preserve the Basenji?

Managing Breeds for a Secure Future

Managing Breeds for a Secure Future, by D Phillip Sponenberg and Donald E Bixby, impressed me as probably the best, and most practical, guide for managing small population breeds that I've ever seen.  One of my goals in creating this blog was to discuss this book.  It has so many practical tips, and insights that relate directly to managing land race breeds like Basenjis, and I feel that it deserves to be widely discussed.

I'd like to start at the beginning, and have us work our way through the book.  We have several people signed up as authors for this blog, many with unique insights and experiences.  I hope that as we continue, many of us will comment and write.  I'd encourage anyone interested to buy a copy of the book.  Excerpts are available online through Google Books, but you don't have access to the full text that way.

Chapter 1, Breeds, starts off by defining breed as used throughout the book.  I've heard breeders debate, what is a breed, and how do you define it.  For this book, the chosen definition is "a group of animals whose individual members resemble each other closely enough to be readily recognized, and that reproduce this same breed type when mated together."  This definition can encompass the varying types of breeds (land race, standardized, production type) discussed in more depth in later chapters.

Another important topic is the role of breeds in biodiversity.  Much of the diversity in domestic animals is preserved within breeds.  To me, the money quote was, "(h)alf of the biodiversity of most domesticated species is shared across breeds, while the other half is unshared and is contained only within single breeds.  The consequence of this structure of genetic diversity is that losing breeds means losing biodiversity, because by losing a breed the species loses the genetic information that is unique to that breed." 

The book also sensibly notes that breeds are preserved or lost by people, and that the human influence cannot be ignored, noting that "(b)reeds fail to survive when either the biological or the political influences are ignored or are mismanaged..

Please comment if you have thoughts on the first chapter!  The second chapter covers Biology of Breeds - we can talk about that next week.  An interesting article to accompany Chapter 2 is Sponenberg's discussion of various types of Shetland sheep - at http://www.shetland-sheep.org/pdf/The%20Need%20to%20Conserve%20Different%20Types%20of%20Shetland%20Sheep.pdf

Welcome to the African Basenjis Blog

Welcome to the African Basenjis Blog!  This blog is intended to be a place where Basenji breeders, and anyone else interested, can discuss the opening of the AKC stud book, the dogs added to that stud book, and principles that can guide us in how to wisely steward that genetic resource.

The dog pictured is Avongara Mine All Mine, call name Flash.  "Avongara" is a prefix that indicates that the dog is 100% descended from dogs admitted to the AKC stud book in 1990 or later, and more specifically dogs from a particular region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.