This is just some of my personal thoughts,
I like an early starter, first look at a pig at 4 months, trained untill a year old, and by then they better be freaking out to get to a pig. If not, cull.
With the broad range of genetics you have, breed them real tight at first, selecting for conformation and performance, keeping the whole litter untill they are a year old (that's the only way you know what you've got, look for consistency through the litter in all things) keep the best Male and female from each pairing at 18 months, cull the rest.
I always want to breed back up the line when I can, sire to daughter or grand sire to grand daughter. I like that better than a litter mate pairing.
Once you get pretty close to what you want, out cross every third cross, that way you can breed real tight twice then out cross, and repeat. If your blood is good and you have selected you could be close to what you want in 6-7 generations.
Don't settle for less than what you feel is perfect. I am line breeding two different lines right now and its a lot of work and a lot of dog food, but well worth the time.
here is good read
http://www.westwindgsps.com/linebreeding.htmFor me personally line breeding is done to set the traits you want so that your outcrosses will be very consistent and have the hybrid vigor we all want. So to me line breeding is not an end unto its self, but a way to produce out cross dogs as the final goal.
Thanks for posting the link for the linebreeding article on the GSP. It was very informative. It refreshed my memory because it has been a long time since I have done any reading on breeding better dogs.
Unless I misunderstood the article, it is totally against outcrossing because of what you lose in the process. Linebreeding is the way to go as long as we select properly. To me it is about picking the right pups and never comprimising like I stated in one of my previous posts.
IMO breeding for color would be easy because it is visual and anyone could probably do it.... But, when we breed for hunting ability, brains and conformation it becomes a different ball game. By the time we analyze and write down all the definitions for hunting ability so that we can breed toward those goals, the list would be getting long... Then you factor in the other traits and it becomes a bigger challenge.
Like I stated before, it is my opinion that outcrossing would have to be done with a dog that is somewhat related and looks and acts similar to your line. I would venture to say that it needs to carry at least 50% relations to your strain and then breed the best offspring back into the line and not breed the distant relative any more to your dogs (a one time deal).
