Breeding decisions...good and bad

I "normally" only breed when I need pups for myself. But with limited space and time to hunt I can't keep 10 pups until they are a year old to see which ones I want. Last year I let the guys that wanted pups pick theirs first and I kept what was left, including the runt. Thats as fair as I can be, as its a roll of the dice when you get an 8 week old pup.

But I still don't buy into breeding non-hunting dogs or experimenting with breeding unhunted dogs. Yes, you may get lucky but you may breed a dog that won't hunt, has no nose, no bottom, or worse no desire. I want to see what a dog can do in the woods before I breed it. I have missed out on a few breeding opportunities that way, but I feel I have avoided a whole lot of mistakes too. A cull in the woods is a cull in the breeding program in my opinion.

No, not every dog that hunts will produce. If that were true we would all have great dogs. And I have known some really good hunting dogs that didn't produce pups worth feeding, but they seem to be the exception.

Do you think the race horse industry got to where it is by breeding culls off the race track or unproven young horses?? Just an example but they have been breeding running horses to running horses for years and breaking track records regularly, so somethings working.

As far as getting dogs killed, thats usually the way you hunt, not the dog, unless the dog is just suicidal. In that event, I don't want more like him anyway. You will lose some dogs to accidents or just bad luck but I see a lot of dogs posted as being killed or died on the boards that probably didn't have to die.

firemedic, I am glad there is at least ONE other person on here that feels the same as I do!! Seems you and Noah are about the only ones......