De Vine Farm Pedigree Program - History

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My husband and I are both programmers and we got our first Mastiff over eleven years ago. Shortly after that I started buying Mastiff books such as Baxter & Hoffman's The History and Management of the Mastiff. One day I complained about how hard it was to keep track of all of the pedigrees that the books mentioned and my husband suggested that I put them on the computer. I looked at a couple of the pedigree programs that were available at the time and told my husband that I didn't like them for one reason or another. He suggested writing a customized pedigree program, but I didn't feel like programming when I got home after programming all day. So, he asked me what I wanted it to do and he started writing it. Of course I got more and more interested as he got it working and eventually I took it over and started entering pedigrees from all of the Mastiff books that I had. Then I started borrowing books and old copies of MCOA Journals and Mastiff newsletters. Then I discovered the AKC Stud Books, AKC AWARDS, Canadian Stud Books, OFA lists, CERF lists, and on and on... Many Mastiff fanciers have helped and continue to help me to gather this information, a special THANK YOU to them all, and a very special thank you to my husband!

Currently there are over 21,000 Mastiffs and thousands of addresses entered in the pedigree program. Pedigree research and analysis is the primary focus of the program. The data that can be entered about each dog can include the dog's registered name, sire, dam, titles, AKC registration number, owners, breeders, color, sex, date of birth, date of death, notes, extended notes, and veterinary, descriptive, and show records. Addresses and phone numbers can be entered for owners and breeders.

A typical use of the pedigree program is to search for stud dogs that match a set of criteria, such as:

    - owner lives in Maryland, Virginia or Pennsylvannia
    - champion titled
    - OFA certified hips
    - born after 1990
    - brindle,

I have used the program to generate the list of male Mastiffs that have OFA certified hips and elbows, which I publish in the Mastiff Stud Dog Register, I print pedigrees for other breeders, I have helped people searching for a stud dog by running a search for them, and it is so much easier to discuss a pedigree when you can see it in front of you while you talk to someone on the phone!

To run the pedigree program you need: an IBM compatible PC, VGA capable monitor, and approximately 8 megabytes of space on your hard drive. To print pedigrees you need a printer that can emulate an HP laser, or a standard dot matrix printer.