Brings up a thought I have been mulling over for some time...(plenty of time to mull with deer season in full swing ya know
)...
I think the reasons you are breeding have a lot to do with what dogs you choose to cross up...
... For me, there will always be a high cull rate... no matter the quality of the litter, some will always stand out from the rest... I breed to create a better dog(maybe 2) for ME to hunt... and that's it.... SO... high percentages are great for those who are raising a litter to sell and maybe keep one or two out of but that is not as much concern to me...
Obviously, one would like to see consistency/uniformity, showing strong genetic prepotency...
..however... some people seem to just keep breeding the same junk over, and over, and over, and OVER again... hoping that somehow some gene will mutate and pop up somehow in a sea of the same...
... and then there are those that go through life with their eyes open... looking... STUDYING... every single animal that crosses their path... When this type of person sees a "freak"... they see the possibility to IMPROVE what it is that they're after... even if it means that it might take a LOT of culling to pull that trait out... SOME TRAITS ARE WORTH ALL THE TROUBLE... That is... if you're really trying to create something better...
