Search Britannica Click here to search

Login
Subscribe
HomeQuizzes & GamesHistory & SocietyScience & TechBiographiesAnimals & NatureGeography &
TravelArts & CultureMoneyVideos
Dorothy Leib Harrison Wood Eustis
Table of Contents

IntroductionReferences & Edit HistoryRelated Topics

Images

Related Questions

 What was Andrew Carnegie best known for?

 How did John D. Rockefeller get famous?

 What were John D. Rockefeller’s accomplishments?

 What was John D. Rockefeller remembered for?

 What was Madam C.J. Walker’s childhood like?

Read Next

Timeline of the 1970s

Discover
6 Classical Dances of India

How Did Alexander the Great Really Die?

Where Is the Ark of the Covenant?

8 Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century

Who Killed Tupac Shakur?

How Fast Is the World’s Fastest Human?

Which Religion Is the Oldest?
HomeLifestyles & Social IssuesSociology & Society
History & Society

Dorothy Leib Harrison Wood Eustis

American dog breeder and trainer
Print Cite Share Feedback
Written and fact-checked by

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Sep 4, 2023 • Article History

Listen to article3 minutes

Dorothy Leib Harrison Wood Eustis

See all media
Category: History & Society
Em>Née: Dorothy Leib Harrison
Born:
May 30, 1886, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.
Died:
Sept. 8, 1946, New York, N.Y. (aged 60)
Founder:

“The Seeing Eye, Inc.”

See all related content →
Dorothy Leib Harrison Wood Eustis, née Dorothy Leib Harrison, (born May
30, 1886, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Sept. 8, 1946, New York, N.Y.), American
philanthropist and dog breeder whose work with German shepherds led her to establish
and endow The Seeing Eye, Inc., and other groups for the training of guide dogs and
their blind owners.

Dorothy Harrison in 1906 married Walter A. Wood, a businessman who operated an

experimental farm for the selective breeding of dairy cattle. The remarkable intelligence
and loyalty of her German shepherd dog, Hans, further stimulated her thinking about
practical genetics. In 1917, two years after her husband’s death, she moved to
Radnor, Pennsylvania, and in 1921 she moved to Vevey, Switzerland, where she
established a kennel and began experimenting in the selective breeding of dogs.

In 1923 Wood married George M. Eustis, who joined in her enthusiasm, as did Elliott S.
Humphrey, an American horse breeder and trainer. Gradually they evolved a strain of
German shepherd of great intelligence and loyalty and excellent disposition. Dogs from
the Fortunate Fields kennel were soon earning great respect for work with the Swiss
army and with various city police units throughout Europe.

In 1927 the Eustises learned of a school in Germany that trained dogs as guides for blind
veterans. Dorothy Eustis’s article on the school for the Saturday Evening Post entitled
“The Seeing Eye” (1927) brought an inquiry from Morris S. Frank, a blind man of
Nashville, Tennessee. Frank traveled to Switzerland early in 1928 to receive Buddy, a
specially trained guide dog from Eustis’s kennels, and to learn how to work with it.
When he returned to Nashville, he and Buddy received wide publicity, which
prompted yet more inquiries from blind persons. In 1929 Eustis returned to the United
States, incorporated The Seeing Eye, Inc., and established a training school for dogs and
owners in Nashville. The school settled permanently in Whippany, New Jersey, in 1932.

Eustis remained president of The Seeing Eye until 1940; from 1929 to 1933 she was also
president of L’Oeil Qui Voit, a Swiss training school for dogs and instructors. Much of
her own fortune went into The Seeing Eye, and no outside fund-raising was required
after 1958. From the outset she restricted the sale of her guide dogs to persons of
sufficient maturity, strength, ambition, and financial means to benefit fully from the
freedom that a guide dog made possible. By the time of Eustis’s death in 1946, The
Seeing Eye had supplied more than 1,300 guide dogs to the blind.
selective breeding
Table of Contents

 Introduction
 Historical developments and examples
 Heritability of traits

References & Edit HistoryRelated Topics

Images & Videos

Discover

12 Influencers Throughout History

Which Religion Is the Oldest?

Why Do Some People Call Football “Soccer”?

How Did Alexander the Great Really Die?

8 Animals That Suck (Blood)

How Fast Is the World’s Fastest Human?

Where Is the Ark of the Covenant?

HomeTechnologyAgriculture & Agricultural Technology
Science & Tech

selective breeding
genetics
Print Cite Share Feedback
Also known as: artificial selection
Written by
Karin Akre
Fact-checked by

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Article History

Listen to article

selective breeding; artificial selection

See all media
Category: Science & Tech
Also Called: artificial selection
Key People:

Dorothy Leib Harrison Wood Eustis Robert Bakewell Robert Colling Charles Colling
Related Topics:

progeny selection pure-line selection family selection pedigree selection mass selection
See all related content →
Selective breeding, also called artificial selection, the practice of mating
individuals with desired traits as a means of increasing the frequency of those traits in a
population. In selective breeding, the breeder attempts to isolate
and propagate the genotypes (genetic constitutions) that are responsible for an
organism’s desired qualities in a suitable environment. Such qualities generally are
economically or aesthetically desirable to humans rather than useful to the organism in
its natural environment.
Selective breeding results from the inheritance of gene-associated traits and, more
specifically, from changes in the frequencies with which desired traits occur in
populations. The latter in turn alters gene frequencies in the population.
Since evolution is based on shifts in gene frequency, selective breeding is considered to
be a driver of evolution.

More From Britannica

animal behaviour: Artificial selection

Historical developments and examples

Humans have been modifying the traits of plant and animal species through selective
breeding for thousands of years. More than 9,000 years ago in Mesoamerica, for
example, humans began selectively breeding teosinte plants that had greater numbers of
kernels, and this practice eventually gave rise to corn (maize; Zea mays), which is today
one of the most widely distributed of the world’s food crops. Many other plants that are
used by humans have undergone similar selection processes. Cruciferous vegetables,
examples of which include kale, broccoli, and cauliflower, share a common ancestor:
wild mustard (Brassica). Selection of wild mustard for specific traits, beginning at least
2,000 years ago, led to the emergence of different versions, or cultivars, of the species.
Selection for wild mustard plants with large leaves, for example, resulted in kale,
whereas selection for enlarged flower buds led to cauliflower. Likewise,
domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) first emerged possibly as early as 30,000 years
ago in Southeast Asia—and more certainly between 29,000 and 14,000 years ago in
Eurasia—as a result of selective breeding of wolves with companionable traits. Since
then, selection for fur colour and fur thickness and length, as well as for body type and
temperament, has resulted in more than 400 distinct breeds of dogs.

Scientific understanding of selective breeding expanded particularly in the 19th century,

when English naturalist Charles Darwin used his experience with selective breeding of
captive pigeons to form his insights about natural selection and evolution. Beginning in
the second half of the 20th century, advances in genetic technology enabled researchers
to modify traits across generations of organisms by introducing novel genetic variations,
rather than by breeding. True selective breeding, through the mating of individuals,
however, continues to be a valuable tool in research and agriculture. In particular, it has
provided critical insight into mechanisms of inheritance, genetic disease, and
genetic diversity. For example, selection has been so intense in some dog breeds as to
actually reduce genetic diversity in small breeding populations, which has manifested in
various ways, including increased risk of disease and decreased survival. These effects
are strikingly evident in French Bulldogs, which have been selected for compact
features, resulting in narrow nostrils and a flat face, causing the animals to experience
breathing problems that affect their quality of life and survival.
Heritability of traits
Heritable traits become more frequent in populations at varying rates. The ease with
which a trait becomes more frequent across generations is referred to as heritability.
Scientists can measure the heritability of distinct traits to help breeders estimate how
long it will take for a trait to increase in frequency within a population. In some
instances, traits are determined by a single gene. This occurs when the alleles (any of
one or more genes that can occur at the same site on a chromosome) have a
dominant/recessive relationship, wherein both alleles affect the
same inherited characteristic but one allele is expressed in an observable manner over
the other. Dominant traits are highly heritable, and their frequency in a population can
be changed over the course of a single generation. In other cases, multiple genes
contribute to the expression of a trait. Often, the trait is also partly influenced by the
environment. In such cases, selective breeding over many generations is required to
dramatically change the frequency of the trait in a population.
Karin Akre