For the Berner Folk who are MAC users and want to run BMDPed, there is good news.  BMDPed will run successfully on a MAC under Leopard (new MAC OS) using a program called Boot Camp.  At least two of us have done this -- both on a iMACs.  Advice is to invest in a good Leopard manual (Mac OS X Leopard Editions: The Missing Manual by David Pogue is a good investment - covers Intel Macs and Boot Camp, too) and go slowly (allocate an afternoon to install Leopard and Bootcamp and BMDPed) -- I did an archive install of Leopard to be on the safe side.  My friend did a "clean install" of Leopard -- a little riskier.  There are a few little glitches, but none have anything to do with BMDPed. 

I have the program on both my Mac and an old PC running XP --- no difference in the way BMDPed runs.

Now, a BMDPed for us all!!

N Melone
PA, USA

We have addressed this particular Vista problem with the release of version 1.42 which is now available for free download on our site www.bmdped.com.  You should be able to uncheck the requirement to run in administrator mode and that will eliminate the need to keep telling windows you trust the program before it can run.

I would appreciate any feedback you can give me on this as to your success or failure with it.

Thanks,
Dave

Q: When is an Inbreeding Coefficient too high?

A: As to the inbreeding coefficients and their meaning, there is no hard and fast rule as to an upper limit for  the IC.  The important thing to recognize is that when the IC gets higher, it becomes much more important to find out what dogs in the background made the IC go up.  If the dogs that made the number go up are known to be "good" dogs, then the higher number is less of a concern.  Conversely, if they are not "good", then I would reconsider using them in a breeding program.
 
This is where the sex-linked gene list (the little X at the end of each dog's name on the pedigree screen) becomes one of the most valuable features of the program as it lists in order, the dogs that have the most potential effect on the dog or proposed litter you may be looking at. The highest dogs on this list are the ones you should know the most about. You will find if you do a 15 generation list, that some dogs from over 70 years ago may appear high in the list because of the amount they were used in the early years of the breed in Switzerland.  Unfortunately, in most cases, we know very little about them.

Q: What are the criteria for entering dogs into the database?

A: The entry criteria are as follows:
    1. Any dog that has been used for breeding
    2. Any dog that has a certification of any sort
    3. Any dog that has a birth and death date and/or a cause of death
 
    Any others do not really have any information that would help someone in making a breeding
    decision so are not normally included unless somebody specifically requests it.

QUESTION: The problem I've been having lately is that when I'm trying to create a new blank dog, it won't allow me to "Post Changes".  A square pops up with a big red X saying "Key Violation".  I was able to get it to work for a while, but no longer.  Please let me know if there's anything I can do differently on my end to make it work.

ANSWER: There is a possibility your database index has become corrupted which can happen for a number of reasons beyond your control (such as a power blip while saving to disk).
 
BMDPedfw comes with a utility for repairing the database.  Please go to your Windows <START><All Programs> menu and find the <BMDPedFW> selection and click on <Repair Database>.  The BMDPed program must not be running when you do this.  Follow the instructions on the screen.
 
If this does not solve your problem, please email us with the details so that I can investigate it further.

Question: I have been searching for the pedigree on one of my dogs and he does not seem to be in the database.  We have a litter of puppies out of him and I need to print some pedigrees.  He is listed with AKC but not in your pedigree program.


We are constantly updating the database and from time to time will put it on the web where you can download the latest (we will notify all registered users by email each time we do this).

In the meantime, it is easy for you to add the missing dog to your database.  First, you may wish to double-check he is not in the current database by doing a partial imbedded search in case you have typed the name slightly differently than we have.  For example, if you are looking for Wndynobs I Gota Crush On U L'Mtn, you might search imbedded for Crush and see if your dog comes up.

If still not found, you can add your stud dog to the database if you know the parents of the dog and can find them in our database.  Select the NEW DOG button which is on the info screen, then enter the parents (either by number or by searching directly).  Enter the appropriate certification and registration information and then click the POST CHANGES button and he will be added to the database for you to perform any of the program features including printing of his pedigree.  You can also create your own puppies' pedigrees in the same manner using him as the stud.

Note that with the current version of the program, temporary dogs you add in this manner will be overwritten with the next download of the database from the web.  Therefore, please also notify us by email (info1@bmdped.com) of the missing dog and we will add it permanently to the database for the next release. 

I would suggest naming your experiment TEST DOG and reuse it over again unless you want to keep it for future reference.  If you are concerned about it interfering with other searches, just edit and zero the sire and dam numbers.

The current version of BMDPedfw does not have the Delete dog function implemented for a test dog.

However, the dog can be effectively removed from the database by editing the Sire and Dam numbers to zero [How? see below].  Dog #0 is the "Unknown Dog" and hence the test dog will no longer have parents and will not show up in any sibling lists.  Alternately, you can edit an obsolete test dog into a new test dog by revising the name, sire, dam etc. then posting it again.

  How do I zero the sire and dam?  Open the unwanted test dog in the Info window and click the Edit button (or, right click on the dog in its pedigree and select Edit this Dog).  With the Data Entry Window now displaying the unwanted dog, enter the numeral 0 in the Sire# and Dam# boxes, then save (Post) it.

Hello,
How do I delete a test dog?

We have plans to allow you to change the date format to suit your preferences, but have not implemented this in the current version.  Dates are currently displayed in the raw database format (yyyymmdd) and we realize this is awkward but it allowed us to release the program earlier.