Most people who study pedigrees follow a certain breed. Whether it is coon dogs, bear dogs, bird dogs, whatever, they know what & who have the better dogs or champions in the breed & breed around them to suit their criteria. Also whether line breeding, inbreeding, or breeding unrelated dogs there have been great dogs that have been reproduced & also a bunch of culls. Papers will tell you which dogs are reproducing the better dogs in every breed & most people will breed around them.
I have always had a saying similar to Halfbreeds, a dog without a history, does not have much of a future.
Also, as bad as this sounds, papers are only as good as the man who is signing them. There have been a lot of falsified papers.
I agree...when I was breeding my own dogs I only bred dogs which I considered to be the very best...when one can only keep 6 or 7 grown dogs and 4 or 5 pups...then space becomes so limited that there is no room for error...all the dogs need to bring all they can offer to the table...the goal should be for all the dogs to look right...hunt right....act right...and they should fit perfectly in the pedigree for breeding purposes as well...
having said...there are too many different ideas as to what a good dog should be...but I reckon that is what makes the world go round...
a dog from a great pedigree (line of dogs) that hunts right is far more valuable than a great scatter bred dog if you are also thinking of breeding a few litters...
