PEI Animal Rescue & Information

   Choosing a sire for your litter is as important a decision as choosing
your bitch was originally. You need to spend some time and effort on
this decision. This is a good time to get some expert advice. If at
all possible, you should consult with your bitch’s breeder and ask
them to spend some time with you going over the various options so
that you understand why one dog would be better for your bitch than
another. If your breeder or another expert isn’t available to spend
some time with you, then you’ll need to do the research on your own so
you can make a knowledgeable decision.

The first thing you’ll want to do is take the information you’ve
gathered over the years about your bitch and analyze her strengths and
weaknesses. Does she have a weak top line but a nice front? How is her
rear angulation? What about her coat texture? Her temperament? You can
see know why getting your dog out and showing and/or working her can
be helpful in this process. If you don’t know what’s wrong with your
bitch, you don’t know what you want to fix in a future generation.
And, that’s really what you are trying to do — improve the breed by
improving on your bitch. So be brutally honest with yourself. You know
you love your bitch, that’s not in question here, but if you can’t be
honest about her flaws, then you can’t fix them in a future
generation. You’ll want to focus on one, maybe two, problems that
you’d like to see improved and look for a stud dog who is strong in
those areas without being too weak in some other area. It can become a
delicate balancing act — of course, with no guarantee of success.

There are two main theories in breeding that you’ll want to
understand. The first one is probably the simplest: breeding like to
like. This means that you take the overall look of the bitch and find
a stud dog that physically compliments her look. The theory is that if
you breed like to like, you’ll get like.

The second way to approach a breeding is more complicated. It’s called
line breeding. It involves analyzing the pedigrees of your bitch and
the potential stud dogs to choose a good match. There are several ways
to approach line breeding. First of all, you need to understand
several terms.

Line breeding is similar to breeding like to like only instead of
collecting physical similarities, you are collecting the genes of a
particular dog.

Inbreeding is an extremely close line breeding. When
you are starting out in breeding, you want to keep away from
inbreeding as it is risky unless you are very sure of the pedigrees
involved.

The last type of pedigree-breeding is an outcross. An
outcross breeding will have a pedigree where there are no, or at least
very few, dogs in common. This often happens when you are breeding
like to like. Most breeders practice some form of line breeding,
generally focusing on one of the important studs in their breed.

Of course, you want to make sure that the dog you are concentrating on
is worthy of the honor. If you line breed on a mediocre dog — or a
dog with a particular health problem — you’ll get what you asked for.
This type of breeding is particularly tricky and you want to make sure
that you have carefully researched the dogs in your bitch’s pedigree
so that you know where you’d want to go with the line breeding.

In practice, you’ll probably want to employ a combination of these two
techniques. You’ll want to find a pedigree that is complimentary to
your bitch and a dog that is physically compatible as well. Again,
this is a really good time to seek the advice of knowledgeable
breeders. Choosing a stud dog is also a really good reason to become
active in the breed’s activities while your bitch is young. This will
allow you to be familiar with various stud dogs before you bitch comes
in season.

Once you’ve narrowed your choices down to two or three likely
candidates, you’ll want to call the stud dog owners and interview them
about their dogs. Most stud dog owners will be honest with you about
what their dogs are producing, their strengths and weaknesses, and
what you can expect. If they aren’t forthcoming about the problems as
well as the benefits of their dogs, you should probably steer clear of
them.

At some point in the process, you’ll have to make a decision about
which dog will be best for your litter. No one can make this decision
for you but if you’ve done your homework and been honest with yourself
about your bitch, then you’ll probably find a compatible dog. Then you
are ready to enter the genetic crap shoot and see what you get.
Because we know so little about the complicated genetics behind our
dogs, you really are making a shot in the dark. Even the most
experienced breeder makes mistakes — this is why you want to be very
careful and thorough in your research.

Once your decision is made, you’ll want to notify the stud dog owner
about when you expect your bitch to come in season so that they can
make their own plans. You will probably want to get your bitch to the
stud dog within the first week of her season so that she has time to
adapt to her new surroundings before being bred.