General thoughts on breeding

[Elaine]

Someone inquired about a bitch of ours... who is about to finish. :p They've been following her for a while now, they like her... and they just want a Special they can take out from time to time to have fun with... not going for some new record in the Breed, but rather a dog they can love and have fun with in the Conformation ring They inquired about what our plans were. Got me to thinking about what we wanted to do with her.

My general feeling about breeding is this: If I were god and could control the Universe, :D I would want three litters from a bitch and all before they were 4 to 5 years old. I would want my litters to be small, 4-6 puppies. I would do a line breeding, and an out cross (back to back because that is the healthiest for the bitch) ... and then I would wait at least a year, to see what I liked of either litter... and at that point, I would either spay the bitch or do one more breeding that reflected what I learned from the first two breedings.

[Skyba]

I like your ideas in general.

However, IMHO, I don't breed until the bitch is at least 2 years and never back to back. I don't know why, this is always what I have been told. I have never line bred and I am thinking about breeding grandfather to granddaughter. Again I have nerver done this so I don't know.

I have been breeding Standard Poodles for 10 years with a few champions out there. I breed for pets mostly, poodles are not the easiest to show!

I'm slowly getting into weim's and line breeding is popular.

Please teach me!

[andyhilt27]

Hmmmm....So are you suggesting that I breed my Eva on her second heat instead of her third or possibly her fourth? This may change my plans as I want to do what is best for my bitch. Elaine, could you also enlighten us on your knowledge of line breeding? And since forums don't always show one's tone of conversation, I must make note that I am not being a smart ass.:D Not this time anyway.:cool:

[Elaine]

I like your ideas in general.

However, IMHO, I don't breed until the bitch is at least 2 years and never back to back. I don't know why, this is always what I have been told. I

I want to be very clear here... we do not claim to be experts on breeding. There are probably 1001 different approaches to breeding and within a range, most all of them work.

We have had some experience going back about 20 years (which may or may not be of value at a given point in time) and Arthur is a medical doctor. Offhand, I think we’ve had more extraordinary success in breeding the horses than the dogs. We have taken bigger risks with the mares, it is more difficult to get a mare in foal and keep a mare in foal than it is a dog. Also, everything in horse is more expensive, so you simply have to know a bit about what you’re doing or you’d be wasting a lot of money and a whole lit of time and effort. In the horses we use imported frozen semen. We’ve done embryo transfers; we have been very fortunate to get our mares in foal on one dose of frozen semen; we were even able to do a successful embryo transfer with one dose of frozen semen on a 24 year old mare... which I believe should be in the records books. Arthur became so interested in the process he is going to do an OBGYN residency so that he can do a sub specialty in reproductive endocrinology.

So, our background is that we approach things from a scientific / medical perspective. We are more interested in medical fact than anecdotal theory... though with breeding, I would say that hands on experience is T-H-E single most valuable asset a breeder can have.

About breeding back to back vs. waiting a season... speak with any credible veterinary reproductive specialist. They will tell you that is it healthier to breed a bitch back-to-back then to bred her, skip a season, and then breed her again. As an example, we bred Brentina back to back... she is as fit and healthy as any 4 year old bitch. She came back so beautifully from her second litter that there is no way anyone would know she’d ever had a litter except that her nipples are a bit long.

About line breeding, it is a way to set type... it offers predictability and uniformity.

[andyhilt27]

Informative response Elaine. Could you explain the line bred coefficient thingy to me. I believe I have looked it up in the past and may be more confused than before.

[andyhilt27]

Elaine or anyone else, do you agree with this weblink???? www.westwindgsps.com/linebreeding.htm

[andyhilt27]

I just read that link and now have a huge headache!!!!