The consistency lies within the family. Families or strains of dogs will always produce more consistently than dogs thrown together from other families and strains. One dog from a particular line may show characteristics unconcistent but will "breed" more along the lines of the families characteristics. This is why I feel it's very important to research the strain of dog you dealing with and find what suits your style of hunting then stay within that family if it suits your needs. It's not "fool proof" buy it personally feel it's the best way to keep what traits you needo for your style. Have you ever noticed the good athletes you knew growing up in school had athletic families and the fat kids entire family was fat. (I know because I was the fat kid. Lol)
I agree with this, but there are some real important factors to this in my opinion. First you need to know how to line breed to preserve the family over time. Some people get told stay within a family and then breed way too tight and lose a lot of what made that family good after 4+ generations. Then they have to outcross to add back vigor and anytime you outcross its always a gamble. It may click, it may not. Regardless, knowing outcrosses that work is worth its weight in gold. So knowing how to linebreed is critical, and finding outcrosses that produce high percentages is also super valuable. Those two things can keep a family alive and producing for a long long time.
Some people start their own family based on 1-4 dogs and they breed looking for certain characteristic's and culling real hard. Called selective breeding. After 4+ generations of line breeding on those dogs you have your own family. The key to that is starting with a prepotent dog or dogs. So many people do not understand what a prepotent dog is or what prepotency is. A good example of that is thorough bred race horses. Some of the greatest sires in history had great mile type speed but were never great racehorses. But they could reproduce that speed in their offspring at high percentages and that's what made them great. Just some thoughts taught to me by old time bulldogs guys I have had the honor of speaking with over the years. Take it for what it is worth.
