Why I breed

I was going to post something similar to this but Cindy McDonald beat me to the punch :)

I think its always important to check your own goals, long term and short term. And why we do it anyway.

While I agree with Cindy that I do not breed to: fill a market, for other people to have show dogs, or pets, it is important to understand that while I do breed for myself, and for the improvement of the breed I cannot keep an entire litter for their entire life. I do need to have homes for these pups that I personally cannot see myself moving forward with in the breed. That doesn't mean someone else wouldn't mind using them in their breeding program, and it doesn't make any of them less lovable. And if I had the same first three litters again now, I may have kept something different based on what else I have in my house currently. So my 'show pick' isn't necessarily someone else's pick, or would it be mine in the future.

I am honored that most of my pet homes that contact me are looking for something quite specific. Usually health wise. I believe in using health tested dogs for all tests possible. Some say I test too much. I feel that no matter what, I want to give these new puppy buyers the most information about the pups' parents and lineage as I can. I've had numerous people want dogs that will never be at risk for DM as they've lost dogs to DM. I've had people inquire about pups that would hopefully be free of hip dysplasia. I cannot guarantee that, but if we continue to breed passing hips together the rate at which HD pups would come out of those passing parents would diminish. Why do people ask about this stuff? Because they've seen it in their own dogs that have died or had to been put down. They don't want to have to deal with it again.

There are things that we cannot control, but we (at least ME), tries to use every test as a tool to better my dogs. And while perhaps in 10 years when more tests are available I will have to prioritize my testing and that is all I can do, my best.

So if puppy buyers and prospective owners contact me in regards to health, or herding instinct, or whatever it may be, I am honored that they find me, and happy to share a pup with them that will not have the same conditions as one of their past loved ones. Its something simple. And something that I can live with.

And so even though I breed for myself, and for the betterment of the breed.....by doing just that, I am able to have pet homes have their dogs around longer because I made it a priority of mine to health test. And in the end we all win. I have my show pup to to love and forward my breeding goals with, and they have their companion dog to love forever, as healthy as I could make them.

Decisions any breeder must make

The goal of any breeding program, whether with livestock, dogs, flowers or anything else is to improve upon the generation before. If you don't improve you try again, perhaps from a different angle. If something works, you have moved ahead. Then comes the task of deciding :Should I move forward with the offspring and that offspring in turn is replaced by its offspring? This would be the quickest way, in a perfect world, to move ahead with any goal or breeding program.

What if the dam is a real producer and you like the offspring, they are better than the dam, but want to take her a different route? Is it ok to do so? What if you don't get better offspring then? I think about this quite often now. All three litters I've had...the pups are better than their dams. Do I need to breed them again if I already have improvements on them? What if I want to go to a different line to bring in something different?

In my cattle I have one cow that I kept and bred for 9 calves. Each year I bred her to a different bull line, hoping to bring in VERY specific things from each line to blend with my cow genetics of this particular line. I had no problem repeating a breeding in the cow one year as you only get one calf per year, and I always want heifers as I can use frozen semen on bulls that are from all over the world.

In dogs I feel its a bit different. If I retain two puppies from a litter, I can go different directions with the pups, or I can go the same direction as each pup has different things I like about them. Do I move forward with the pups and hope I get something useful out the pups 'in a perfect world'? Or do I breed the dam again and breed her to a different line, bringing in something very specific that I didn't get in this breeding (or I want more of)?

Its just food for thought. I know everyone in the same situation would do it differently and that's ok. Just trying to think out loud. 4 is easier to manage than 6, but I'd hate to lose the opportunity to use the dams again if I was really pleased with the outcome.

This being on the mend stinks! Too much free time to think about other stuff! >:)