You guys are confusing me. I can't afford to breed every sibling of every good dog I come across. I do understand what you saying about others from the cross being better reproducers but how do you go about finding this out? I will ALWAYS start by breeding the best dog from a particular cross and likely won't consider a mediocre dog at all. How do ya'll figure out which dog is the reproducer?
I agree...hover rednose does make a good point...if the line is good but the dog does not reproduce...rather than destroy what has already been gained...breed to the second best and hopefully there will be some good to great pups...I wouldn't make that dog the hub of my breeding program...
at the beginning when I was going to breed my own dogs on account that there were so many culls out there...I had culls...but I also produced a once in a lifetime dog for what I perceived to be one...well...my logic told me he would not reproduce a high percentage of great dogs because he was 1/2 mt cur and 1/2 bmc...even though I was told that BMC was a good dog I hunted with him a few years later and I would have culled him...so knowing this I only bred that once in a lifetime dog once as a step towards purifying and improving the line I was starting...even though I did produce many dogs I could take by themselves and were as good as a dog can be...none had the brain power of my dog I called yeller...but those dogs were bred to hunt and reproduce...
I will stick my neck out and say all the pups I kept made keepers...the difference between those and the ones I bred was minimal...but I bred what I thought were the very best...
for me it is breeding the very best and keeping them related...just one grand parent that is scatter bred and not related can lower the percentages of good puppies produced...
somewhere towards the end I bred a good looking florida to one of my gyps and I culled them all..If I had liked several pups I would have bred the best to another one of my dogs and then a pup from that cross would have been a player in the program...but the plan did not work out...but breeding within the family all pups I kept up with made dogs...
testing for natural ability at a young age goes a long ways...and keeping the very best is of most importance...
