ISDS Border Collie Database

Statistics from the Stud Books, 'Cap and Cap'

Wilson's Wartime Cap 3036 owes his genetic influence to Wiston Cap 31154 because he is something like 16 times in its pedigree, somebody said to me. I will show below that this is not true, even if Wiston Cap would not have existed, Wilson's Cap would be the most influential ISDS dog ever to have lived.

In a previous article the influence of Wilson's Cap 3036 on the current population was calculated to be 17.2% and that of Wiston Cap 31154 13.3%. Wilson's Cap 3036 occurs 24 times in the pedigree of Wiston Cap: once in the 5th generation, 7 times in the 6th generation, 4 in 7, 10 in 9, and 2 in 9. Nevertheless the influence of Cap 3036 on Wiston Cap 31154 is only 21.5% because Cap 3036 is so far back in the pedigree of Wiston Cap. This means that Cap 3036 got only 21.5% x 13.3% = 2.9% of its influence from Wiston Cap. So without Wiston Cap, the influence of Wilson's Cap 3036 would still be 14.3% and that is 1% more than the influence of Wiston Cap.

On the other hand it could be said that Wilson's Cap has a large influence on Wiston Cap, 21.5% with the fist occurrence in the 5th generation means that it occurs in almost every branch of its pedigree. But this is not exceptional, Wilson's Cap occurs, on average, in 17.2% of every pup born today.

This large influence of Wilson's Cap is all the more remarkable because Wiston Cap had 1933 registered pups from 388 litters, and Wilson's Cap had 'only' 212 pups from 155 litters. Note however that in the time of Wilson's Cap it was still customary to register more than one or two 'promising' pups from the same litter.