Date: June 2000
Q: Thank you. Being incredibly ignorant, still, of AT lines, how/where might I find information so I can link XX to a line and understand what I should be looking for?

A: You can follow his fatherline to one of the 17 sire lines back to Skak, to
do this you must have access to xx's pedigree in all genererations. You
must also know what sires that are sireline founders. The same is for his mother, you can follow her sire line back to El, so know you know that he is a Skak-El line cross, then you find out if he is line bred on a common ancestor by looking at a five generation pedigree and see how many time a certain name shows up in the pedigree.
To decide xx's breeding value (pedigree, individual qualities, quality
of siblings, quality of offspring) you now must find out if he is a good
representative for his breed and his sire line, this will be done by
gradings where he will be compared to the whole breed population and if he is found good enough he will be recommended for breeding. It is important to breed only with individuals better than the average otherwise you will not improve the breed.