Breeding dogs...???

DawsonBMC and HogDogMike both know what they are talking about. I am fairly new to hogdogs, but have bred performance dogs for 20 yrs. Best advice ever given to me was . . . "never breed pedigrees". Just because a certain dog was out of two outstanding parents, that doesn't make him a stud dog. There are Stud Dogs and there are PUP GETTERS. A Stud dog consistently throws his traits into his pups when bred to a variety of different females. A PUP GETTER will simply "get you some pups". The bad traits surfacing in dogs more often than the good traits is definitley true. Dogs do not receive the same proportion of good and bad genes distibuted equally to each pup in the litter. This is why you often see a litter where there will be a couple of dogs in the litter will be outstanding and the rest of the litter is culls. When looking for a stud dog to breed to, I want to know how did his brothers and sisters turn out. If he was the only dog in the litter that turned out to be good and the rest were junk, then I would not breed to that dog. I look for a dog thats parents and grandparents were good, and then the litter as a whole was good. This dog will have a much greater chance of producing a high percentage of good dogs. In other words, never breed to a FREAK. Performance dogs are one of the most difficult animals to consistently breed true. Their tendancy is to always revert back to the weakest links in the gene pool. Unless you are constantly testing them under fire and culling hard, you will end up going in reverse from what you are trying to achieve. The absolute best way to establish a line of dogs you can be proud of, is to find a female that you like everything about her. Then do the research and find out about her parents, grandparents and littermates. If they all check out to be above average and consistent, then breed this female to a stud that is producing consistently good offspring when bred to a variety of different females. Keep these pups and test them hard, culling for the traits you like and don't like. When the female comes in heat again, breed her to a different bloodline stud with the same qualifications. Keep those pups and continue to cull hard. Now you can breed dogs from these two different litters to each other and they will be double bred on the original female. Now you can breed half-brother and sister, uncle/niece, etc; and over time, you will have established dogs that will hunt the same, act the same, look the same, have the same mannerisms, etc. You will know your dogs better than anyone and more importantly you will know things like how quick they are supposed to start, which characteristics surface early in the pups that remind you of previous breedings that you like/didn't like. You will have a better idea of which pups will turn out, based on how they "ACT" at an earlier age. This will allow you to make culls earlier, because you are familiar with YOUR dogs and what characteristics surface that will tell you if they are more likley to turn out. I've seen this many times with established breeders who don't breed off their own yard. They can look at a litter of 6 month old pups in a pen and tell you which pups will make dogs and which ones won't, because they know THEIR dogs and know what to look for. It all starts with the female. Remember this . . . A good Stud will make you famous, but a good female will KEEP you famous.